Metroid Prime

System: Gamecube
Release Date: 2002
Published By: Nintendo
Reviewed by: Darien
Rating:

"METROID CANNOT BE AN FPS!" Stephen declared confidently in my direction in the winter of 2002. He was convinced, and not alone in his conviction, that there was no way that tampering with the Metroid formula in such a way could yield good results. And yet, somehow, it worked out.

Metroid Prime is as unconventional an FPS as I've played in many a day. For one thing, it's the only first-person platformer I've ever played that isn't an abomination. The jumping is fluid and intuitive, which says forgiving collision detection to me, but, hey, whatever works. Even the grapping beam manages not to offend every heathen god in the gaming pantheon.

Weapon-wise, there's nothing new under the sun. Charge, wave, ice, and plasma beams. Missiles. Super missiles. Bombs and power bombs. There are a few gimmicky "special" weapons that eat up your missiles like a sonuvabitch, but they're basically useless. The only real surprise here is the abject lack of screw attack, probably so they wouldn't have to spin the damn camera around every time you jump. Which is a fair trade. The non-weapon items are also bog-standard Metroid fare, with the exception of the visors; one-touch access to all sorts of trippy alternate screen modes!

The bosses in Metroid Prime are generally pretty good, and many of them (especially on hard difficulty) will go right down to the wire before they're beaten; I personally had exactly 1 energy left the first time I beat the Omega Pirate on hard. The boss battles are the only time you'll really feel the interface is a bit unwieldy, what with Samus not turning as quickly as you'd like and it being somewhat difficult to figure out what direction an attack is coming from.

Graphically, the game is excellent. The colours are perhaps a touch muted, but everything is crisp and clear and easy to see. The sound is not as strong, but gets the job done. Story? Err... you see the stuff? The stuff that's moving around? Shoot it. There's some silliness about genetic engineering and saving the environment and all that, but it's really pretty thin. The game's about shooting monsters, plain and simple. If you like jumping and shooting, you can't go wrong here.

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