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I finally finished the last part of Metroid Prime Trilogy today... the universally acclaimed MP3: Corruption. Even though it was released two years ago as standalone title, the game held up very well as part of compilation pack with two other games despite its attention being taken away with motion control being implement in those two games. Is it the best Prime game as many gaming journalist been clamoring about?



GRAPHIC

The graphic in this game rivaled the very best elements from both Prime 1 and 2. The environment design that suit heavily to exploration lend to this game greatly from Prime 1 with insanely realistic alien design returning from Prime 2 to fullest effects. Prime 3 might have the best kind of art direction because of sheer amount of variety that really suit extremely well to each of locations and worlds. Not only those graphics fit the settings, they shockingly fit the atmosphere and emotion of the game better than what Prime 1 could do, though it gave Prime 2 its run for money regarding to the themes of global corruption and decay.

Even with addictive art direction, this game repeated the same mistake that Prime 1 made: common rooms. This is especially true in GFS ships, Elysia, and Pirate Homeworld because some of their rooms at each of locations looks almost too similar that it would sure to cause confused sense of direction (and it happened to me occasionally, which I didn't enjoyed). Also, many of the worlds and location have lot of warm color in red, orange, and yellow. One could argue that the choices of colors are meant to show contras to Phazon's unnatural blue color, but personally, I think Corruption should have lean toward to more broad use of colors on most of worlds, especially on Pirate Homeworld, Bryyo, and Elysia.

The biggest graphical upgrade from Prime 1 and 2 is heavy use of bloom effects. They're not just for eye-candy like many other games do, they lend only to highlight and heighten the atmosphere of locations and it paid off perfectly. The game is eerily beautiful to look at, even at gorgeous organic landscape and darkly bleak barren location. Machines, landscape, air, enemies, and more all glows with dazzling colorful blooms and they sure don't disappoint.

As for animation, they're still tight and fluid almost all of time, though there are few of occurrences where the enemies, allies, and even Samus seems to move bit stiffly and ridged and sometime even lack energy to even pose as greater threats. It such a shame because this game screams for perfect animation that could rival best of Prime 1 and 2's animation.

For now, Prime 2 holds the best animation and best art direction titles.

9.6/10



SOUND

For soundtracks, they're surely EPIC, but... they're very disappointly tame and non-energetic comparing to Prime 1 and 2. I had high high hope for this game to have impressive and memorable soundtracks, but found nothing worthwhile to remember. If it were up to me in Metroid standards, I would rank this game very low next to Metroid Fusion for one of worst soundtracks.

LAME.

As for sound effects, they're just as powerfully addictive and memorable like Prime 1 and 2 before. New to the series is voice-acting, a very first in long line of Nintendo's Big Three franchises! The lines are high quality in delivery and tone and they very memorable too. The voiceworks fit the scenes very well, except for Admiral Dane who can be bit cheesy sometime in good and funny ways that didn't detract from the experience. I was hoping for someone to steal the show, but to my surprise, there's no true standout because all of lines are equally impressive and professionally made. That's nice cash-in for the game's disappointing soundtracks.

9.0/10



PLOT

Just like Prime 1 and 2, the plot is both simple and complex and it is totally depending on how the player experiences the game. Unlike the past two games... Prime 3 required the player to be immersed in the plot because of dangerous events and epic battles that will eventually lead to the finalization of Pirates and Phazon threats to Galactic Federation. Not only that, the plot heavily follows Samus as series' first true mission setups for her bounty hunter status. It may sounds great on paper, but it actually better than what you would even read on paper!

Spoilers:
Space battle, defending against Pirates' ambush, one-on-one with Ridley while falling down into bottomless shaft, gunning down massive ship, call in bombing run, blowing up turrets, disabling shield, ship towing huge machinery, detonating NUKE, infiltrate Pirates' base, exposing Pirates' base to Federation's invasion, Halo-esque gunfights and advances, Pirates' last stand, investigation of missing ship, Samus' descend into darkness, and final battle!

Phew... There's lot of epic moments to be found in Prime 3 and with end results, this game felt like interactive movie experience with beautiful exploration that make you feel like you're actually doing those epic movie moments. INSANE! Though there's one aspect of plot that I felt should have better benefit the theme of Corruption. Galactic Federation army and navy left the story largely unscratched. I want to see what would happen to the progression of story and atmosphere of situation if Samus were to be left all alone to fend off the Phazon threats if GF were to be slowly affected by Phazon and betray her. It would be a major game changing moment, but there's none to be found here. Don't get me wrong, I love the plot but I was left to wonder if the game would benefits better with this direction...

And if you want to learn more about the backstory, do not fret! There's still lot of lores, enemies' data, pirates logs, and more, all waiting to be scanned and read by you... if you so wish. If not, the game will never punish you for it and that's the great thing. Prime 3 have the BEST lores and backstory and they all add to emotional aspect of the plot. That's huge step up from mysterious Prime 1's lores/logs and Prime 2's bleak accounts of origin and war. Prime 3's have it all. The biggest show stealer of lores/logs is Bryyo's heartbreaking tale of planet's beautiful harmony of the past before slowly descending into schism that tore the planet and its people apart. It is truly emotional tale that will strung your nerves and serves as great reminder of danger that could happen to us.

Also, there's very very few of revision to plot, mostly in logs and voiceworks. There's added subtitles and subtracted subtitles, especially the awesome "Damn!" from Dane being sorely missing. Even more impressive is that after each of Seeds are destroyed, there are newly added explosion to highlight the emotional impact of successes. Those minor additions make Prime 3 of Prime Trilogy package better than its standalone version. The way Prime 3 presented the game is almost almost perfect!

9.9/10



GAMEPLAY

So... this game retained everything you wanted from standalone version of Prime 3. YAY!

But no missile combo from Prime 1 and 2 as well as Power Bomb. AAWWW...

Yet the Metroid Prime 3 were never meant to have those kind of weapons since Prime 3 introduced some of newer ones. YAY!

Read my lips: Hypermode and Grapple Lasso kick so many asses that many of other games should follow suit. Grasping and pulling with Grapple Lasso is the MOST impressive action of any games in long long long long time and Prime 3 provide more than enough of moments that required its uses. Also, the game make full use of motion control from Wiimote since the entire game of MP3 are designed around it. Inserting and pulling power cell, turning locks, pumping, shooting down multiple targets in few seconds, and more. The game does not disappoint in those areas.

Though the game does quite suffers in area of level design, exploration, and boss battles. The level designs feel extremely linear since the whole game is based on pin-point precision of Wiimote and that it is made for broader audience. In that end, the exploration took a hit since the areas are easier to navigate and objectives are reachable without much of challenge. True, there are still moments of great and addictive backtracking, but unlike Prime 1 and 2 that rely entirely on backtracking, Prime 3 split between plot progression that require player to go where they need to go with some sense of guidance and exploration that define and retain sense and atmosphere of Metroid franchise. Also, some of battles against Pirates are mix of meh and awesome, with Norion's defense, the stand in Elysia toward the Seed, Phazon Mining Deposit room with sucking machine, and Halo-esque battle in Pirates Homeworld's shuttle line all take the cake, rivaling the best of Prime 2's pirate battles.

Also, there are many of boss battles that I felt were lacking energetic moments and sense of threats. Many of them are quite easy to defeat, though they still command some challenge for Samus to overcome. Despite many of them being pushover, there are still few of bosses that are insanely memorable as expected in Metroid standard. The standouts are Samus's one-on-one with Meta Ridley while falling down in bottomless shaft ala Lord of the Ring, battle against Helios that greatly remind me of Thardus of Prime 1, and each of fellow Hunters that really push the emotional plot progression. The biggest offender is the final final battle after the duel with Dark Samus is arguably one the WEAKEST of Metroid franchise, next to Fusion's final battle.

Seem like all of Prime games have weak final battle... sigh.

still Prime 3 does not disappoint since being the most EPIC Metroid game is great with lot of incredible moments highlighting over the few of glaring weaknesses.

9.4/10



FINAL THOUGHT

After the completion of Prime 2 in 2004 and watching its very end of scenes, I patiently wait for any signs of Prime 3 development. Then I heard in January of 2005 that Retro Studio is indeed creating Prime 3 with goal of setting the plot on backdrop of Federation and Samus' epic struggle. Then when we all got the first look at Prime 3, I became worried that Retro Studio might be trying too much to impress many of us the same way I was worried about their attempt on Prime 1. My fears were put to rest when I read lot of previews and reviews that the game still retain what made Prime 1 and 2 huge successes with lot of new features added in to improve gaming experience. I waited for almost year after Prime 3 came out until I could get a Wii and I never read any spoilers unlike I did for Prime 2. I made a right choice because the game blew me away with unparalleled art direction, multiple worlds, tight wiimote control, huge variety, and epic tale of battles.

Despite the flaws I listed, I can say that Metroid Prime 3, again, does not disappoint biggrin



Final Score
9.5/10



so finally, that's the end of fabled Metroid Prime Trilogy. Retro Studio made all of right choices to package all three games with MP3 controls and ship them in awesome metallic case that would surely cause any fanboys drool. Now that I got mine in fresh condition and played all of three games almost to death, I walked away more impressed than I expected to be thanks largely to seamless connections between all three games that complete the Trilogy as whole while offering unrivaled experiences that not even Halo Trilogy could hope to match in single-player affairs.

Hands down, one of greatest video game trilogies ever made. Period.



Metroid Prime Trilogy score: 9.8/10



sadly, I don't have Metroid 2: Return of Samus to play and continue to plot of canonical Metroid series... so... Super Metroid, anyone? biggrin uh oh, no proper controller for it crying some other times... Okami, then? biggrin



peace, Avek