Video Game Review: Metroid Prime

Metroid Prime

Graphics:	10	Original Metroid Prime screenshot unavailable.
Sound:	10
Story:	10
Fun:	10
Controls:	10
Overall:	10

Perfect? It is impossible to say a game is perfect, since we all have our standards, but this game comes close. This game rocks! Many doubted this game, thinking that Retro Studios wouldn't be successfull, and that bringing Samus into a 3-D first person shooter was a big mistake. I haven't played many of the Metroid games, but this is a great game by any standards. This is not a classic first person shooter. Shooting is at a minimal, and it is based more on exploration and puzzles. Even though the shooting is brought down a notch campared to other first person shooters like Goldeneye, it still manages to be fun. In Metroid Prime you walk around, using your scanner to unlock a door and solve puzzles, shooting a spit slinging alien here and there, collect items, and then fight some bosses. Bosses are faily easy, and are easy to figure out how to kill. You have to have a quick trigger finger and running skills just to beat the normal alien. My favorite aliens are the blue, eyeless, snow spitting beasts. Just watching the creatures snarling and listening to them howl is fun, as well as shooting harmless birds in the sky into nothingness on the second level, but that is not improtant. To simpify it, it can be fun for anyone. The graphics are incredible, not by raw power, but by visual effects and level mapping. The game is full of ingeneous level mapping and it is noticeable even to the blindest of all of you. Visual effects like Samus getting electrocuted, your visor misting up after walking through exhaust, and rain drops splashing on your visor. The creature design is awesome and all of them have realistic movements. The game seems to lose its smooth in some unnoticable spots, but the overall is excellent. These are some of the best graphics I have seen. The sounds in Metroid Prime are film worthy. The music is the real strong point here. The music is excellent. Danny hates video game music, but if he played this game he would change his mind, and many other people will as well. The boss music sometimes is really suspensefull, but in many cases it falls short to give you that state of panic while fighting a fifty foot metalic dragon. The controls are well done. The game is so complex that I am surprised they found a way to fit it all on the controller. They are fine, and rarely get annoying once you get used to their complexity. Is it good for anyone? I would find it hard not to like, by anyone. This is one of Nintendo's finest. It is better than Mario Sunshine, it is better than Star Fox, it is better than nearly anything for Nintendo or any other system at this point. "One of Nintendo's finest." -Niloc

Archive note: The original Metroid Prime screenshot has not been recovered.

Archive note: The original publication day is unknown; this review existed by March 30, 2003.