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Video Game Chat / Metroid Prime Trilogy in Retrospect
« on: January 28, 2010, 01:39:54 PM »
Pun fully intended.
As I'm sure everyone who frequents #tmk or the ANGST thread is aware, I've been playing through Metroid Prime Trilogy lately. Now, I figured I'd post a long-winded review based on my experiences with the three Prime games, because I like to annoy people using text-tumors and no chemotherapy in the form of tl;drs - that's just how I roll.
The format for each of the titles will follow a structure of --> overview --> stuff I didn't like --> stuff I liked. Doubtless, I've posted a lot of this stuff before in the aforementioned locations, so it may or may not be new, depending on whether anyone reading this payed attention then/remembers now.
Regarding the series as a whole:
I wasn't playing Metroid Prime for ten minutes before I was completely engrossed. The transition to 3D was very smooth; the graphics were gorgeous, the physics and movement mechanics (with some slight exceptions; I'll get to those later) were flawless, and the feeling of immersion was pretty much unrivaled at the time, and perhaps still is. Those same impressions stayed with me from the Frigate Orpheon all the way to the depths of Phaaze. The gameplay is a mixture of old concepts and new execution, and borrows mechanics and elements from all the 2D Metroid titles (I particularly liked the Spider Ball's inclusion; it just hasn't seen enough action outside the Prime games).
Stuff I didn't like about the series:
-All three games had the annoying mentality of "Scan anything that moves; scan everything that doesn't move; and scan it right now, because you may only get one chance!" By far, the most frustrating element in all three titles was the prospect of missing a one-time (or "limited-edition") scan constantly looming over me. Thankfully, I got pretty lucky, and only missed a total of three scans out of the entire trilogy (and they were all in Prime 3). Now, the scan mechanic in and of itself was a pretty good idea, but the tendency to include limited-opportunity scans was not. The least they could have done was have a Paper Mario 2-esque system giving the player the ability to recover boss/one time-only scans if he missed them. And I know there's a New Game Plus mechanic, but I'd rather not have to play through the whole game again just to pick up a few enemy bios.
-Moving on: the map system got pretty confusing when you were in an area with multiple levels (Phazon Mines in Prime 1 and Sanctuary in Prime 2 are the worst offenders). That's really more of a technical shortcoming than a deliberate design choice, but it did sort of bug me. Thankfully, you can move the map around and avoid the worst of the confusion, so it wasn't a huge deal.
-The amount of backtracking one had to do for expansions. Prime 1 mostly avoided this problem by including alternate paths for every visit to an area, but the latter two got a little lazier with it.
Stuff I liked about the series:
-The worlds were well-designed and graphically impressive. The puzzles were clever, and the expansions well-hidden (sometimes frustratingly well-hidden).
-Samus and her arsenal of futuristic weapons were in rare form. I found myself firing off Beams, Missiles, and Power Bombs periodically to admire the effects. Speaking of the Beams, they went back to the original Metroid's and Metroid 2's system of only allowing one beam to be equipped at a time. At first, this seems like a bad idea (stacking the different beams certainly makes for better gameplay in the 2D Metroid games), but it allows for a lot of added depth to the combat system (unfortunately, Prime 3 dropped this mechanic). All the power ups, though, got their respective times to shine, and all are a blast to use (sometimes in a literal sense).
-The controls are good and easy to learn, allowing the player to get into the action right away. This goes double for the Wii version; the free aiming system was quite effective and felt very natural.
-Going back to the combat system, every fire-fight had creative enemies and strategies. From the classic "Freeze the Metroid then shatter it with missiles" approach to the Grapple Lasso in Prime 3, the combat was well-implemented, but never confusing, and often gave the player more than one way to emerge the victor.
-The areas were just... fun to explore. The sense of exploration is in its Prime here (again, pun intended).
-Each of the games had great music, with at least one from each title standing out (there were also throwbacks to previous Metroid tunes; because everybody loves the classics).
Regarding Prime 1:
Ah, the first 3D Metroid title. This one is far and away the best of the bunch, folks. It took concepts first used in the side-scrolling games and ran with them. It seemed like a gamble at the time, and it certainly paid off. You knew you were in for a heck of a gaming experience the very minute Samus made that jump onto the hull of the Pirate Frigate. The experience goes on to include all (well most of) the classic Metroid power ups, along with new and awesome boss fights and areas.
Stuff I didn't like about Metroid Prime:
-The Fission Metroids.
Yup, that's it, the Fission Metroids were the only negative element I can think of that I haven't already mentioned above. They just take an inordinate amount of time and effort to kill compared to any other enemy. Naturally, it follows that they spawn infinitely in the final area of the game, and the Final Boss can and will summon them. If it weren't for Power Bombs...
Stuff I liked about Metroid Prime:
-The presence of the story. It was subtle, but it was there, and you knew exactly what to expect if you payed attention to the Chozo lore and Pirate data (slightly less so in the Trilogy edition, which erased the Pirate data file concerning the titular creature).
-The transition to 3D. More so than the two titles that came later, Prime 1 really is exactly what it says on the tin: a 3D Metroid game. It deviated minimally from the side-scrolling games' formula as far as power ups and progression went, which is most definitely a good thing in this case.
-The Fusion Suit, which is unlockable. And in the Trilogy edition, it's actually accessible to the average player, which sadly can't be said for the Gamecube release.
-The comedic elements that you're treated to when reading about the Space Pirates' exploits. No, seriously, some of their data is very entertaining to read.
-The Beams and Beam combos were awesome in this game. Prime 2's beam combos were cool, too, but just not the same (and not as versatile); and Prime 3 dropped Beam combos altogether. Come on, don't tell me you never went to town on a group of Pirates with the Flamethrower or Wave-Buster.
Regarding Echoes:
The gamble paid off, and now Nintendo wanted to try something a little different. They took the basic concepts and gameplay mechanics of Prime 1 and added an expansive Light/Dark gimmick. While I liked many of the embellishments and touches they added in Echoes, Prime 1 was a better game overall. However, Prime 2 is still excellent.
Stuff I didn't like about Echoes:
-Call me crazy, but the beginning of the game seemed a little slower, or weaker, or whatever, than the beginning of the first game. Maybe it has something to do with the lack of an escape sequence in the first twenty minutes.
-I'm not sure why they bothered adding Pirate or GF Trooper logs when they were all more or less grouped in the same place. Just one visit to their respective bases on Aether saw their respective sections in Samus' logbook completely filled.
-The beam ammo. Yeah, it was an honest attempt at innovation, and I didn't hate the mechanic, per se, but I'd just as soon take the game without it. I suppose it added an extra element of challenge, but it was really more of an element of annoyance.
-The Screw Attack, awesome as it was to see it again, had an annoying tendency to send Samus bouncing off surfaces like a rubber ball at the slightest touch. It made a couple of expansions more annoying to obtain than they should've been.
-No Ridley battle? For shame. Where was it that I heard that, at one point, there was going to be a fight with Ing-Possessed Ridley?
Stuff I liked about Echoes:
-The whole Light/Dark gimmick. In any other situation, I tend to think it's cliche, but Echoes didn't make it obnoxious, and the concept of Light and Dark dimensions was pretty well-executed.
-This is just a minor detail, but it made a big difference in my mind: the classic Elevator Room/Chozo Statue Room/Boss Aftermath music played whenever Samus beat a boss. It was just a nice touch that did a lot for the atmosphere.
-Echoes, in particular, had the best morph ball puzzles, especially the ones involving the Spider Ball.
-The Dark Samus battles were crazy-fun to play.
Regarding Corruption:
Um, well... to be honest, this one just didn't feel like a Metroid game. I'm not saying it wasn't a good game, because that's what it was, in the end. It just had a decidedly un-Metroid feel to it.
Stuff I didn't like about Corruption:
-Hyper Mode (the gimmick, not the difficulty). The concept was much better-sounding than the execution. For one thing, the game practically required you to whip out Hyper Mode to fight even normal enemies, whether it was because the enemies entered Hyper Mode as well, or because there were just too many of them for your regular weapons to handle. For another, the method that they used to implement Hyper Mode was questionable. Instead of injecting a whole energy tank, why not just have the Phazon Beam and other Phazon-based attacks drain energy as you use them? That would seem more streamlined, in my opinion.
-Hyper Mode (the difficulty, not the gimmick). If you want all the bonus material (and therefore, all the credits), you get to go through the game again in Hyper Mode difficulty. Personally, I would've had just one gold credit available per boss, and/or let the player choose Hyper Mode difficulty from the start (I don't like it when games in general make you unlock higher difficulties; I like to start on the hardest mode so I don't ever know any different - it's psychological, I guess).
-The atmosphere. Between the all the friendly NPCs; the wide-open, sunlit areas; and the cutscenes with huge amounts of explosions and drama, the game stank of "Make it more epic!" Unfortunately, this seems to have come at the cost of actually feeling like a Metroid title.
-Probably as a result of breaking the game up into several different planets, instead of having the game take place on one planet with several massive regions and environments, Corruption seemed short compared to the first two. This one could just be my imagination.
-They had a chance here to insert a full-fledged achievements system, but I got the impression that they started with that in mind, then forgot about it for the next two-thirds of the game. The placement of "hidden" credits seemed rather arbitrary and/or sparse.
-No more Power Bombs. Instead, they were replaced by the cooler-looking but relatively useless Ship Missiles.
-No more beam-switching system, due to the inclusion of Hyper Mode.
Stuff I liked about Corruption:
-The game throws you right into the action, and the scenes taking place in space were pretty neat-looking.
-Let's face it, the Grapple Lasso was just awesome. Something about ripping shields and appendages off of enemies was very satisfying.
-Christopher Sabat.
-The return of the Plasma Beam! I can't tell you how much I missed its high-temp, melty goodness in Echoes.
-Operating computers and terminals was the most fun in this game; using motion controls to flip switches and the like was a nice touch.
-Fighting Ridley in free-fall was awesome. Probably the best-looking fight of the game, if not the series. If I may slip into the internet vernacular, it was full of epic win.
-The PED suit looks cooler and cooler as Samus' corruption grows. I'm a real sucker for that neon-blue color scheme.
-The battle with AU 313 was a nice bit of retroactive foreshadowing of the Mother Brain battle in Super Metroid.
-Maybe it's just me, but Corruption had the best lore and back story to it; that is, they seemed to have the most effort and thought put into them.
Last words:
There it is. I hope that loooooong post wasn't too incoherent. The tense was probably woefully inconsistent, and the points rather incoherent, so my apologies for that. I suppose if I were to give each game a rating out of ten, they'd get a nine, eight, and seven, respectively. And if you actually did read all that, more power to ya.
As I'm sure everyone who frequents #tmk or the ANGST thread is aware, I've been playing through Metroid Prime Trilogy lately. Now, I figured I'd post a long-winded review based on my experiences with the three Prime games, because I like to annoy people using text-tumors and no chemotherapy in the form of tl;drs - that's just how I roll.
The format for each of the titles will follow a structure of --> overview --> stuff I didn't like --> stuff I liked. Doubtless, I've posted a lot of this stuff before in the aforementioned locations, so it may or may not be new, depending on whether anyone reading this payed attention then/remembers now.
Regarding the series as a whole:
I wasn't playing Metroid Prime for ten minutes before I was completely engrossed. The transition to 3D was very smooth; the graphics were gorgeous, the physics and movement mechanics (with some slight exceptions; I'll get to those later) were flawless, and the feeling of immersion was pretty much unrivaled at the time, and perhaps still is. Those same impressions stayed with me from the Frigate Orpheon all the way to the depths of Phaaze. The gameplay is a mixture of old concepts and new execution, and borrows mechanics and elements from all the 2D Metroid titles (I particularly liked the Spider Ball's inclusion; it just hasn't seen enough action outside the Prime games).
Stuff I didn't like about the series:
-All three games had the annoying mentality of "Scan anything that moves; scan everything that doesn't move; and scan it right now, because you may only get one chance!" By far, the most frustrating element in all three titles was the prospect of missing a one-time (or "limited-edition") scan constantly looming over me. Thankfully, I got pretty lucky, and only missed a total of three scans out of the entire trilogy (and they were all in Prime 3). Now, the scan mechanic in and of itself was a pretty good idea, but the tendency to include limited-opportunity scans was not. The least they could have done was have a Paper Mario 2-esque system giving the player the ability to recover boss/one time-only scans if he missed them. And I know there's a New Game Plus mechanic, but I'd rather not have to play through the whole game again just to pick up a few enemy bios.
-Moving on: the map system got pretty confusing when you were in an area with multiple levels (Phazon Mines in Prime 1 and Sanctuary in Prime 2 are the worst offenders). That's really more of a technical shortcoming than a deliberate design choice, but it did sort of bug me. Thankfully, you can move the map around and avoid the worst of the confusion, so it wasn't a huge deal.
-The amount of backtracking one had to do for expansions. Prime 1 mostly avoided this problem by including alternate paths for every visit to an area, but the latter two got a little lazier with it.
Stuff I liked about the series:
-The worlds were well-designed and graphically impressive. The puzzles were clever, and the expansions well-hidden (sometimes frustratingly well-hidden).
-Samus and her arsenal of futuristic weapons were in rare form. I found myself firing off Beams, Missiles, and Power Bombs periodically to admire the effects. Speaking of the Beams, they went back to the original Metroid's and Metroid 2's system of only allowing one beam to be equipped at a time. At first, this seems like a bad idea (stacking the different beams certainly makes for better gameplay in the 2D Metroid games), but it allows for a lot of added depth to the combat system (unfortunately, Prime 3 dropped this mechanic). All the power ups, though, got their respective times to shine, and all are a blast to use (sometimes in a literal sense).
-The controls are good and easy to learn, allowing the player to get into the action right away. This goes double for the Wii version; the free aiming system was quite effective and felt very natural.
-Going back to the combat system, every fire-fight had creative enemies and strategies. From the classic "Freeze the Metroid then shatter it with missiles" approach to the Grapple Lasso in Prime 3, the combat was well-implemented, but never confusing, and often gave the player more than one way to emerge the victor.
-The areas were just... fun to explore. The sense of exploration is in its Prime here (again, pun intended).
-Each of the games had great music, with at least one from each title standing out (there were also throwbacks to previous Metroid tunes; because everybody loves the classics).
Regarding Prime 1:
Ah, the first 3D Metroid title. This one is far and away the best of the bunch, folks. It took concepts first used in the side-scrolling games and ran with them. It seemed like a gamble at the time, and it certainly paid off. You knew you were in for a heck of a gaming experience the very minute Samus made that jump onto the hull of the Pirate Frigate. The experience goes on to include all (well most of) the classic Metroid power ups, along with new and awesome boss fights and areas.
Stuff I didn't like about Metroid Prime:
-The Fission Metroids.
Yup, that's it, the Fission Metroids were the only negative element I can think of that I haven't already mentioned above. They just take an inordinate amount of time and effort to kill compared to any other enemy. Naturally, it follows that they spawn infinitely in the final area of the game, and the Final Boss can and will summon them. If it weren't for Power Bombs...
Stuff I liked about Metroid Prime:
-The presence of the story. It was subtle, but it was there, and you knew exactly what to expect if you payed attention to the Chozo lore and Pirate data (slightly less so in the Trilogy edition, which erased the Pirate data file concerning the titular creature).
-The transition to 3D. More so than the two titles that came later, Prime 1 really is exactly what it says on the tin: a 3D Metroid game. It deviated minimally from the side-scrolling games' formula as far as power ups and progression went, which is most definitely a good thing in this case.
-The Fusion Suit, which is unlockable. And in the Trilogy edition, it's actually accessible to the average player, which sadly can't be said for the Gamecube release.
-The comedic elements that you're treated to when reading about the Space Pirates' exploits. No, seriously, some of their data is very entertaining to read.
-The Beams and Beam combos were awesome in this game. Prime 2's beam combos were cool, too, but just not the same (and not as versatile); and Prime 3 dropped Beam combos altogether. Come on, don't tell me you never went to town on a group of Pirates with the Flamethrower or Wave-Buster.
Regarding Echoes:
The gamble paid off, and now Nintendo wanted to try something a little different. They took the basic concepts and gameplay mechanics of Prime 1 and added an expansive Light/Dark gimmick. While I liked many of the embellishments and touches they added in Echoes, Prime 1 was a better game overall. However, Prime 2 is still excellent.
Stuff I didn't like about Echoes:
-Call me crazy, but the beginning of the game seemed a little slower, or weaker, or whatever, than the beginning of the first game. Maybe it has something to do with the lack of an escape sequence in the first twenty minutes.
-I'm not sure why they bothered adding Pirate or GF Trooper logs when they were all more or less grouped in the same place. Just one visit to their respective bases on Aether saw their respective sections in Samus' logbook completely filled.
-The beam ammo. Yeah, it was an honest attempt at innovation, and I didn't hate the mechanic, per se, but I'd just as soon take the game without it. I suppose it added an extra element of challenge, but it was really more of an element of annoyance.
-The Screw Attack, awesome as it was to see it again, had an annoying tendency to send Samus bouncing off surfaces like a rubber ball at the slightest touch. It made a couple of expansions more annoying to obtain than they should've been.
-No Ridley battle? For shame. Where was it that I heard that, at one point, there was going to be a fight with Ing-Possessed Ridley?
Stuff I liked about Echoes:
-The whole Light/Dark gimmick. In any other situation, I tend to think it's cliche, but Echoes didn't make it obnoxious, and the concept of Light and Dark dimensions was pretty well-executed.
-This is just a minor detail, but it made a big difference in my mind: the classic Elevator Room/Chozo Statue Room/Boss Aftermath music played whenever Samus beat a boss. It was just a nice touch that did a lot for the atmosphere.
-Echoes, in particular, had the best morph ball puzzles, especially the ones involving the Spider Ball.
-The Dark Samus battles were crazy-fun to play.
Regarding Corruption:
Um, well... to be honest, this one just didn't feel like a Metroid game. I'm not saying it wasn't a good game, because that's what it was, in the end. It just had a decidedly un-Metroid feel to it.
Stuff I didn't like about Corruption:
-Hyper Mode (the gimmick, not the difficulty). The concept was much better-sounding than the execution. For one thing, the game practically required you to whip out Hyper Mode to fight even normal enemies, whether it was because the enemies entered Hyper Mode as well, or because there were just too many of them for your regular weapons to handle. For another, the method that they used to implement Hyper Mode was questionable. Instead of injecting a whole energy tank, why not just have the Phazon Beam and other Phazon-based attacks drain energy as you use them? That would seem more streamlined, in my opinion.
-Hyper Mode (the difficulty, not the gimmick). If you want all the bonus material (and therefore, all the credits), you get to go through the game again in Hyper Mode difficulty. Personally, I would've had just one gold credit available per boss, and/or let the player choose Hyper Mode difficulty from the start (I don't like it when games in general make you unlock higher difficulties; I like to start on the hardest mode so I don't ever know any different - it's psychological, I guess).
-The atmosphere. Between the all the friendly NPCs; the wide-open, sunlit areas; and the cutscenes with huge amounts of explosions and drama, the game stank of "Make it more epic!" Unfortunately, this seems to have come at the cost of actually feeling like a Metroid title.
-Probably as a result of breaking the game up into several different planets, instead of having the game take place on one planet with several massive regions and environments, Corruption seemed short compared to the first two. This one could just be my imagination.
-They had a chance here to insert a full-fledged achievements system, but I got the impression that they started with that in mind, then forgot about it for the next two-thirds of the game. The placement of "hidden" credits seemed rather arbitrary and/or sparse.
-No more Power Bombs. Instead, they were replaced by the cooler-looking but relatively useless Ship Missiles.
-No more beam-switching system, due to the inclusion of Hyper Mode.
Stuff I liked about Corruption:
-The game throws you right into the action, and the scenes taking place in space were pretty neat-looking.
-Let's face it, the Grapple Lasso was just awesome. Something about ripping shields and appendages off of enemies was very satisfying.
-Christopher Sabat.
-The return of the Plasma Beam! I can't tell you how much I missed its high-temp, melty goodness in Echoes.
-Operating computers and terminals was the most fun in this game; using motion controls to flip switches and the like was a nice touch.
-Fighting Ridley in free-fall was awesome. Probably the best-looking fight of the game, if not the series. If I may slip into the internet vernacular, it was full of epic win.
-The PED suit looks cooler and cooler as Samus' corruption grows. I'm a real sucker for that neon-blue color scheme.
-The battle with AU 313 was a nice bit of retroactive foreshadowing of the Mother Brain battle in Super Metroid.
-Maybe it's just me, but Corruption had the best lore and back story to it; that is, they seemed to have the most effort and thought put into them.
Last words:
There it is. I hope that loooooong post wasn't too incoherent. The tense was probably woefully inconsistent, and the points rather incoherent, so my apologies for that. I suppose if I were to give each game a rating out of ten, they'd get a nine, eight, and seven, respectively. And if you actually did read all that, more power to ya.
