Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Review

The Final Showdown! -- Charge into the prime outer space battle of your life !!

Facts:

• Three difficulties
  
• "Medallion-Feature" via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
  
• Cinematic Synchronization
• High interactivity with the surroundings
• 480p mode with 60 fps
• 16:9 mode

Space - eternal widths! Six months have past since Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. A dark threat is once again agitating the universe. Dark Samus and the Space Pirates are infecting several planets with the highly toxic Phazon. The planet Norion, headquarters of the Galactic Federation, is also being attacked. Dark Samus and the Space Pirates were defeated once, but there is only one Headhunter that the whole universe can trust: Our Samus Aran, one of the biggest heroines of all time. She is ready for her hardest Prime mission. Will she defeat her foes ? Or will she be crushed by her evil doppelganger ? Last Round, last chance, last hope, last fight. Metroid Prime goes in its final round: Corruption.



Metroid Prime 3 has a new twist to it, but it still keeps its charm and has a Metroid typical atmosphere to it. You still move Samus through mazes and mostly still alone. You can say that it is a polished version of Metroid Prime 1, if not better. It has better graphics, visuals, music, sound, and controls. Now to the story: The attack of the Space Pirates comes when you at least expect it. In a short cut-scene, a monumental laser-beam rips a ship of the Galactic Federation into a bunch of pieces. The G.F.S. Olympus from Admiral Dane is also under attack. Immediately the pirates board the ship. A good chance to try the brilliant "pointer" controls. You can set up the wished sensibility in the options menu and there you go. The rumble may begin. The "Advanced"-mode guaranties a fast movement of the field of vision and optimizes your reaction speed. Without long fuss, you can easily control the innovative Wii-Mote in no time. Even in the most paced battles you will not lose the overview. Just that makes the game to what it is: A masterpiece.

Similair to Metroid Prime Hunters for the Nintendo Dual Screen, you cruise with your spaceship from planet to planet. This so called "planet-hopping" was one of the main critical points of the NDS version. In MP3:C you are underway to three different planets: As previously mentioned, you first defend the headquarters of the Galactic Federation located in Norion. A giant phazon-like meteoroid abruptly appears in the orbit of the planet, straightly heading for Norion. You move through the station and meet three other Bounty-Hunter. Together you try to reactivate a gigantic cannon, pulverize the meteor and contracept the impaction on Norion.
Bryyo is your second destination, which already is infected with Phazon. You follow the hunter Rundas, and find the origin of the phazon infestion. At the end of the level, a suprising story-twist happens. The third "attraction" is Skytown, Elysia. It doesn`t matter if Norion, Bryyo, or Elsia: The story (and gameplay) was perfectly cut into the surroundings of the planets. On each planet; you solve tons of mysteries and complete very different missions.



The classic beams from the Metroid-series are called ice- and wavebeam. In Metroid Prime 3, the two classic beams were not included, but you can find the brand new Ice-Missiles. Narrow places can be mastered (like already familiarized) with the morphball.

Positive:
- Gigantic Bossfights
- Nearly perfect First-Person-Shooter controls
- High percentage on riddles and puzzles
- Really genial level design
- Constant 60 frames pro second
- Good mix of a First-Person Shooter and adventure
- Hyper-mode turned out suprisingly well
- Epic music
- Loading times were cleverly solved: Some doors open later. A lot of video game magazines critisized this, but most core-gamers say this solution is the best. Would you like to wait three seconds more at a door and prepare for the next battle, and eavesdrop to the wonderfully made music or wait at a classicaly boring loading bar ? I would prefer first mentioned
- a long game


Negative points:

- It takes long to find a save-point.
- no Multiplayer or Co-Op mode
- Some passages are really frustrating


Metroid Prime 3 is one of the MUST-HAVE games for the Wii. If the above mentioned negative points don`t bother you, then buy it !!!

Gamesfurks E3 2008: THE BUMMER SHOW?

Where was Mario? Where was Link? Disappointed faces after the Nintendo press conference. But: There is still hope for core-gamers.


What? It`s already over? As Cammie Dunaway, Vice President for Sales and Marketing at Nintendo of America, said farewell to the E3 conference participants, the fans in the international communities were completely broken ´: No Mario, no Zelda, no Star-Fox, no F-Zero. Only Pikmin 3. What the hell happened ?

It was kind of predicted that there will be no Hardcore-games. But hey: There is still hope. Hope that we core-gamers are going to be noticed. Hope, we can believe in......sorry. That catch-phrase was awful. But I`m still happy. Nintendo said that they will prefer to show casual games like Wii Play, Wii Fit, Mario Kart DS or Dr. Kawashima.The good thing: Nintendo didn`t forget us. Stuff like Wii MotionPlus is also interesting for the producers of core-games.

Imagine a Zelda game with 1:1 sword movements. How awesome would that be?! Do you still remember the times, were you thought Red Steel would transfer your movements 1:1? Technically, it wasn`t possible back then. Back then. Sounds like Red Steel is 3..4 years old. Back then is too harsh. To be exact, it wasn`t possible until now.

Somehow weird, but smart: The Wii MotionPlus thing was announced two hours before the start of the Xbox360-E3-conference. I think it was a strategy against the motion Controller of Microsoft, which was and hopefully is just a rumor. If not, Nintendo has a problem. MotionPlus is available with Wii Sports Resort, which will cost estimated 50$. Europeans will have a similar price.

One more question : Why didn`t the Wii offer that since the launch? A 1:1 movement would be awesome and Nintendo would be richer. But I think this is better like this, because they would have rushed it if it would available at the launch. Smart wise-cracks observed something: The accessory is too big for the safety jacket. I expect a new jacket included in Wii Sports Resort. Another negative aspect: The batteries will live shorter with this.

It`s nice to here that not every publisher forgot us hardcore-gamers. Interesting: The product portfolio of Electronic Arts. The giant continues successful and profitable game names like Need for Speed and creates new series like Boogie ( a second installment was already announced earlier this year). Example: The 2009 versions of FIFA, Madden NFL,Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and NBA Live will have a addition in there titles: All-Play.

"WTF does that mean?", you might ask yourself. Well, let us say that Core-gamer get the used action-packed game, but casual-gamers can just play without pressing through oh so long menus and options. Will it effect the market ? I don`t know. But it is not a bad start.

Otherwise, games like MySims or Boogies now have their own games: Boogie SuperStar, and MySims Kingdom. Ubisoft does the same with Prince of Persia and Nintendo with Toon Link : They don`t experiment on new games and possible game series, but instead work on spin-offs of successful game and on the game itself. What is the meaning of this strategy ?The answer,my friend is MONEY

But there are also developers that hate casual-games just like us. For example, High Voltage Games. They`re busy with the programming of the shooter The Conduit-but because of exclusive deals, nobody can show the pictures before High Voltage Games finds a publisher. Even I can`t :(

The Conduit will be playable online with 16-players, will use the VoiceChat "WiiSpeak" (Available with the new Animal Crossing, probably also available by its self too) and have awesome graphics. The developers are really crazy with the details: They work fastidious, fussy, persnickety,squeamish and precise. But not every publisher likeser this: A publish (no name included in the news article) asked the High Voltage Games team: Who will buy this? Which audience likes this?


I will claim the boycott of that anonymous publisher. What were they thinking ?! Hello ?! There are real gamers out there, that are sick of Barbies trying to catch wild ponies,rip-offs, quizzes, bad mini-games, music simulations and other crap that I can buy in supermarket discounters (not kidding) fpr 20-30$ !! OK, just because a game is cheap doesn`t mean it`s bad. For example Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition or Sam & Max: Season One (I will do a preview). Brain Age was interesting, I must admit, but every other casual game that even an elder can finish in 2 hours just is stupid.

"Yes, we`re making it!", said Shigeru Miyamoto. He meant the game Pikmin 3. To be true, I never played Pikmin 1 or 2...but it has a huge fan community. Let`s see if the new audience will like Captain Olimar. He did suck in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Another thing that Nintendo profits from: casual-gamers could like core-games and buy them. The Nintendo Wii would be a magnet of potential future gamers, because it brings the Wii closer to non-gamers. Enough said. That is only a speculation.

Well, I`m optimistic. Nintendo needs us hardcore fans because we will buy their games in good and weak times. This biz is wacky, but Nintendo did make it. There still good, and I am somehow proud of being a Nintendo fan.

Wii Salute !