Post by Brian-RN on Jul 13, 2005 20:16:30 GMT -5
Metroid Prime
Since its NES days, the Metroid series has ceased to amaze. The idea of Samus, a woman-bounty hunter, traveling the planets destroying aliens is not only somewhat cliché, but different at the same time. Every single one of the game in the Metroid series is simply amazing, and this includes Prime.
The first thing noticeable in Prime are its graphics. To sum them up in one word, Prime’s graphics are astounding. Everything in the game is in amazing detail and no stone has been left un-rendered. What’s even more amazing is that there’s no load time. When the game is turned on, the menu appears then the file select, which then bring up the game almost instantly.
But what’s really amazing about the graphics is the sense of detail. Every single item in the game was made with realism in mind. When Samus shoots out of her blaster, smoke will come out for a few seconds and then cool down and stop. Samus can also walk into steam and her visor will fog up. The details are amazing and these are only a few of the many details that are included.
Of course, the graphics themselves are amazing. Not a single texture, enemy, item, or anything else for that matter has been horribly rendered like so many games today. Every single item in the game looks exactly the same as everything else; beautiful. There are few, if no jagged edges in the game and all of the animations flow perfectly. Prime has got to be one of, if not the best looking game on the Gamecube.
Next thing one will notice are the controls. To put it simply, they feel great. Although locking on can make one’s finger numb, but that’s more the players fault than the games. The controls are as follows;
A Button – Fire
B Button – Jump/Activate Boost Ball/Strafe
X Button – Morph Ball
Y Button – Missiles/Power Bombs
L Button – Lock On/Scan/Grapple Beam
R Button – Look Around/Aim/Spider Ball
Z Button – Map
Start – Pause
Control Stick – Move Samus/Look/Aim
+ Control Pad – Switch Visor
C-Stick – Switch Beam
The controls flow nicely, and aren’t hard to use at all, which is nice when the player is surrounded by Chozo Ghosts, frantically shooting and jumping around to avoid death.
Avoiding death is something the player will be doing a lot in Prime, because this game is long, not to mention thought-provoking. Not thought-provoking story-wise, but the puzzles will get you thinking, along with the game altogether. To get to the next section of the game, the player will have to make Samus do something unexpected. The puzzles are generally the same as those found in other games, but others are entirely different and difficult. Generally, the game is fairly average, but some instances will result in broken controllers and extra hours (that’s right, hours) that could have been minutes.
Yes, Prime can get very frustrating at times, which can result in either two things 1. a loss of fans, as they give up too easily or 2. they will to keep going, as the gamer must get past a certain section. Prime is not a game for those people who give up easily. Prime requires not only a lot of time, but a lot of patience. Or, the guide works too.
Part of the frustration is caused by the amount of back-tracking involved in Prime. There’s enough backtracking in Prime that it might make the gamer sick of looking at Prime’s beautiful graphics. Constantly the player must go back so that they can go to another level of Talon IV. Unlocking new items can unlock entirely new area’s, which means even more back-tracking. Prime’s gameplay is not linear, except when the player has to go a certain room, but that requires a lot of back-tracking and doing the same thing over again.
Speaking of items, Prime has a lot of them. While most of them are simple Energy Tanks or Missile Expansions, there are plenty to collect. Besides those, there are three extra beams and three extra visors, as well as two other suits. Each one of the items unlocks an entirely new portion of the game which gamers have seen before, but have been unable to access. This brings a feeling of accomplishment to the game, as players can finally find out what’s behind that door, whether it be important or not.
Sticking to the Metroid series name, there can be certain amounts of the game accomplished. Simply playing through the game and sticking to the main game won’t unlock much percentage. Scanning, gathering certain percentages will unlock galleries and different endings. This requires quite a lot of work, as to gain 100%, everything has to be collected and everything in the game must be scanned. Most people will play this game twice if they want to complete the game entirely.
Prime is long, straight out. Even the main plot can take a while to finish, especially when there’s a lot of confusion and backtracking to deal with. Overall, Prime can take a total of 12+ hours easily to complete and many more if 100% completion is the goal at hand. Besides going back to complete the game 100%, there’s not much replay value to Prime. Sure, exploring the world of Talon IV and destroying enemies can be fun, but it’s not worth coming back to.
The whole concept of Metroid as an adventure/first-person shooter came as a shock to many fans. Surprisingly, it works just fine. When Samus shoots, it feels just right, powerful. A charged up shot will send Samus’s arm rearing back, as a regular shot will keep her arm relatively still. The rumble works well with the shots, rumbling at the right times with the right force, not overpowering the player with too much rumbling.
The physics work fairly well in this game as well. Jumping is smooth, and although the player can’t always see where they’re jumping, but they’ll have a pretty good idea and generally land where they want. Don’t worry about falling, because Samus takes no damage when she falls, no matter the height. When Samus walks, she moves up and around realistically.
A large part of the greatness that is Prime, is the atmospheric feeling. Prime can make the player feel rushed, exhilarated and even scared. This is mainly due to Prime’s amazing lighting and particle effects. When the room suddenly goes dark and the sound of breaking glass fills the room, fear is a definite feeling. The Heat Visor helps, but everything is black except heated objects, but once the X-Ray is obtained, players will know what to do by then, thus rendering it pretty much useless in that situation. Prime is one of the most atmospheric games in the Gamecubes library and it’s one of the best aspects of the game.
Part of the atmospheric feeling lies in the sound and music of Prime, which, although outstanding, is one of the lower points of Prime. The only reason it’s a low point, is because the music doesn’t always fit. While storming a crashed Space Pirate ship, constantly looking around for enemies under and above water, the music suddenly changes to a slower, almost sympathetic track and leaves the player wondering whether to kill the remaining Space Pirates or help and console them. This is just one example. Besides the music, the sound effects in Prime are pretty amazing. Every beam has a different sound as well as every enemy sound different from the next. None of the sounds seem off, and they’re all very crisp and clear.
Another slight complaint about Prime is the lack of story. Sure, it has one, but it doesn’t concentrate on it at all. “Players control a bounty hunter named Samus Aran who must unravel a mystery behind the ruined walls scattered across Tallon IV.” – Nintendo. This summary pretty much explains it. There’s not much to the story, and for the majority of the game, players create somewhat of their own story and goals that they would like to accomplish.
Although, these complaints are little ones. Now, back to the positives of Prime. Many of the puzzles and pathways in Prime will require the player to shrink Samus down to the size of a basketball and roll around in her ‘Morph Ball’ Along with this comes many upgrades. Samus can speed up and roll around in half-pipes to reach area’s she couldn’t by jumping with her ‘Boost Ball’ and even climb up special tracks with the ‘Spider Ball’. The ‘Morph Ball’ can also be a faster form of transportation, which many players will enjoy. Of course, the ‘Morph Ball’ has been around since the beginning, but its transition to 3D is flawless and is an enjoyable experience.
Navigation itself would be a mess without the help of the map, which is very user-friendly. Although, oddly enough, the map is associated with the Z Button instead of the traditional Start. This takes a little getting used to, but is no big problem. All the player has to do is scroll around with the C-Stick which moves the map from room to room, ultimately finding a path to the next objective.
Staying on the topic of shoulder-buttons, the lock-on feature. This is truly the players’ best friend. Instead of randomly shooting, the player is able to lock on to the enemy and fire away, making the hunting that much easier. This is all displayed very nicely in Samus’s HUD, which also displays the amount of missiles, health she has, as well as her visors and beams.
One of the things the players will find themselves fighting are the bosses, which are huge. A general complaint about games is that there are too many or too little boss fights, but Prime seems to fit right in the middle. Each boss has a different strategy, and will utilize what the players have learned and gained throughout the passing-time of the last boss (although Thardus and the Omega Pirate have similar strategies.) Some of the bosses may kill a player a few times, while others are simply a breeze. Boss fights, simply put, are fun and somewhat frustrating at the same time.
Each boss brilliantly encompasses the land in which it’s located. Each world is huge, which is really an understatement. There’s no distance-loading, and each is very important to the game. Each world has a plethora of rooms and almost every room has a puzzle or objective you must complete. Also, each world is entirely different than the next, which gives them all a personality. For example, Phendrana Drifts is an icy level, which consists of ice-based enemy and snowy surfaces. Magmoor Caverns in a volcano type level, where instead of water, lava fills the lakes. Each of the worlds are equally impressive, and interesting in their own ways, but, as mentioned before, the most surprising part is there’s no load time.
Overall, Prime, straight out, is one of the best Gamecube titles. Beautiful graphics, amazing gameplay, immersive worlds, crisp sound, and a lengthy plot make Prime not only one of the best Cube titles, but one of the best titles to come out in years.
Overall: 9.9
Since its NES days, the Metroid series has ceased to amaze. The idea of Samus, a woman-bounty hunter, traveling the planets destroying aliens is not only somewhat cliché, but different at the same time. Every single one of the game in the Metroid series is simply amazing, and this includes Prime.
The first thing noticeable in Prime are its graphics. To sum them up in one word, Prime’s graphics are astounding. Everything in the game is in amazing detail and no stone has been left un-rendered. What’s even more amazing is that there’s no load time. When the game is turned on, the menu appears then the file select, which then bring up the game almost instantly.
But what’s really amazing about the graphics is the sense of detail. Every single item in the game was made with realism in mind. When Samus shoots out of her blaster, smoke will come out for a few seconds and then cool down and stop. Samus can also walk into steam and her visor will fog up. The details are amazing and these are only a few of the many details that are included.
Of course, the graphics themselves are amazing. Not a single texture, enemy, item, or anything else for that matter has been horribly rendered like so many games today. Every single item in the game looks exactly the same as everything else; beautiful. There are few, if no jagged edges in the game and all of the animations flow perfectly. Prime has got to be one of, if not the best looking game on the Gamecube.
Next thing one will notice are the controls. To put it simply, they feel great. Although locking on can make one’s finger numb, but that’s more the players fault than the games. The controls are as follows;
A Button – Fire
B Button – Jump/Activate Boost Ball/Strafe
X Button – Morph Ball
Y Button – Missiles/Power Bombs
L Button – Lock On/Scan/Grapple Beam
R Button – Look Around/Aim/Spider Ball
Z Button – Map
Start – Pause
Control Stick – Move Samus/Look/Aim
+ Control Pad – Switch Visor
C-Stick – Switch Beam
The controls flow nicely, and aren’t hard to use at all, which is nice when the player is surrounded by Chozo Ghosts, frantically shooting and jumping around to avoid death.
Avoiding death is something the player will be doing a lot in Prime, because this game is long, not to mention thought-provoking. Not thought-provoking story-wise, but the puzzles will get you thinking, along with the game altogether. To get to the next section of the game, the player will have to make Samus do something unexpected. The puzzles are generally the same as those found in other games, but others are entirely different and difficult. Generally, the game is fairly average, but some instances will result in broken controllers and extra hours (that’s right, hours) that could have been minutes.
Yes, Prime can get very frustrating at times, which can result in either two things 1. a loss of fans, as they give up too easily or 2. they will to keep going, as the gamer must get past a certain section. Prime is not a game for those people who give up easily. Prime requires not only a lot of time, but a lot of patience. Or, the guide works too.
Part of the frustration is caused by the amount of back-tracking involved in Prime. There’s enough backtracking in Prime that it might make the gamer sick of looking at Prime’s beautiful graphics. Constantly the player must go back so that they can go to another level of Talon IV. Unlocking new items can unlock entirely new area’s, which means even more back-tracking. Prime’s gameplay is not linear, except when the player has to go a certain room, but that requires a lot of back-tracking and doing the same thing over again.
Speaking of items, Prime has a lot of them. While most of them are simple Energy Tanks or Missile Expansions, there are plenty to collect. Besides those, there are three extra beams and three extra visors, as well as two other suits. Each one of the items unlocks an entirely new portion of the game which gamers have seen before, but have been unable to access. This brings a feeling of accomplishment to the game, as players can finally find out what’s behind that door, whether it be important or not.
Sticking to the Metroid series name, there can be certain amounts of the game accomplished. Simply playing through the game and sticking to the main game won’t unlock much percentage. Scanning, gathering certain percentages will unlock galleries and different endings. This requires quite a lot of work, as to gain 100%, everything has to be collected and everything in the game must be scanned. Most people will play this game twice if they want to complete the game entirely.
Prime is long, straight out. Even the main plot can take a while to finish, especially when there’s a lot of confusion and backtracking to deal with. Overall, Prime can take a total of 12+ hours easily to complete and many more if 100% completion is the goal at hand. Besides going back to complete the game 100%, there’s not much replay value to Prime. Sure, exploring the world of Talon IV and destroying enemies can be fun, but it’s not worth coming back to.
The whole concept of Metroid as an adventure/first-person shooter came as a shock to many fans. Surprisingly, it works just fine. When Samus shoots, it feels just right, powerful. A charged up shot will send Samus’s arm rearing back, as a regular shot will keep her arm relatively still. The rumble works well with the shots, rumbling at the right times with the right force, not overpowering the player with too much rumbling.
The physics work fairly well in this game as well. Jumping is smooth, and although the player can’t always see where they’re jumping, but they’ll have a pretty good idea and generally land where they want. Don’t worry about falling, because Samus takes no damage when she falls, no matter the height. When Samus walks, she moves up and around realistically.
A large part of the greatness that is Prime, is the atmospheric feeling. Prime can make the player feel rushed, exhilarated and even scared. This is mainly due to Prime’s amazing lighting and particle effects. When the room suddenly goes dark and the sound of breaking glass fills the room, fear is a definite feeling. The Heat Visor helps, but everything is black except heated objects, but once the X-Ray is obtained, players will know what to do by then, thus rendering it pretty much useless in that situation. Prime is one of the most atmospheric games in the Gamecubes library and it’s one of the best aspects of the game.
Part of the atmospheric feeling lies in the sound and music of Prime, which, although outstanding, is one of the lower points of Prime. The only reason it’s a low point, is because the music doesn’t always fit. While storming a crashed Space Pirate ship, constantly looking around for enemies under and above water, the music suddenly changes to a slower, almost sympathetic track and leaves the player wondering whether to kill the remaining Space Pirates or help and console them. This is just one example. Besides the music, the sound effects in Prime are pretty amazing. Every beam has a different sound as well as every enemy sound different from the next. None of the sounds seem off, and they’re all very crisp and clear.
Another slight complaint about Prime is the lack of story. Sure, it has one, but it doesn’t concentrate on it at all. “Players control a bounty hunter named Samus Aran who must unravel a mystery behind the ruined walls scattered across Tallon IV.” – Nintendo. This summary pretty much explains it. There’s not much to the story, and for the majority of the game, players create somewhat of their own story and goals that they would like to accomplish.
Although, these complaints are little ones. Now, back to the positives of Prime. Many of the puzzles and pathways in Prime will require the player to shrink Samus down to the size of a basketball and roll around in her ‘Morph Ball’ Along with this comes many upgrades. Samus can speed up and roll around in half-pipes to reach area’s she couldn’t by jumping with her ‘Boost Ball’ and even climb up special tracks with the ‘Spider Ball’. The ‘Morph Ball’ can also be a faster form of transportation, which many players will enjoy. Of course, the ‘Morph Ball’ has been around since the beginning, but its transition to 3D is flawless and is an enjoyable experience.
Navigation itself would be a mess without the help of the map, which is very user-friendly. Although, oddly enough, the map is associated with the Z Button instead of the traditional Start. This takes a little getting used to, but is no big problem. All the player has to do is scroll around with the C-Stick which moves the map from room to room, ultimately finding a path to the next objective.
Staying on the topic of shoulder-buttons, the lock-on feature. This is truly the players’ best friend. Instead of randomly shooting, the player is able to lock on to the enemy and fire away, making the hunting that much easier. This is all displayed very nicely in Samus’s HUD, which also displays the amount of missiles, health she has, as well as her visors and beams.
One of the things the players will find themselves fighting are the bosses, which are huge. A general complaint about games is that there are too many or too little boss fights, but Prime seems to fit right in the middle. Each boss has a different strategy, and will utilize what the players have learned and gained throughout the passing-time of the last boss (although Thardus and the Omega Pirate have similar strategies.) Some of the bosses may kill a player a few times, while others are simply a breeze. Boss fights, simply put, are fun and somewhat frustrating at the same time.
Each boss brilliantly encompasses the land in which it’s located. Each world is huge, which is really an understatement. There’s no distance-loading, and each is very important to the game. Each world has a plethora of rooms and almost every room has a puzzle or objective you must complete. Also, each world is entirely different than the next, which gives them all a personality. For example, Phendrana Drifts is an icy level, which consists of ice-based enemy and snowy surfaces. Magmoor Caverns in a volcano type level, where instead of water, lava fills the lakes. Each of the worlds are equally impressive, and interesting in their own ways, but, as mentioned before, the most surprising part is there’s no load time.
Overall, Prime, straight out, is one of the best Gamecube titles. Beautiful graphics, amazing gameplay, immersive worlds, crisp sound, and a lengthy plot make Prime not only one of the best Cube titles, but one of the best titles to come out in years.
Overall: 9.9