Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Nintendo Wii Nintendo Teen A

I'm four hours into the game and since I know that some of you are dying to find out, here's my impression so far: it's everything I hoped and possibly more.

The back story seems to have greatly expanded in this one, some of the hunters from the DS Hunters game are in this one as well, which makes Samus seem less like a lone champion for good and justice and more like a lonely champion who prefers to work alone. We've seen a bit of that in her GBA games, but in MP3:C we see her interact with more Federation troops and the other hunters who seem to know her reputation rather well.

Since I only finished about 98% of the last game, and was unable to successfully kill the next to last boss, I may be missing some important story elements because early in the game it would appear that Dark Samus (or Shadow Samus or whatever her name is) is still alive and quite active in the universe.

There are new worlds and new civilizations as well, and each is well thought out and fun to explore. Once again there is tremendous amounts of scanning to be done, which at times is frustrating. I know that they'll have something that unlocks once my knowledge reaches certain amounts, but constantly thinking of scanning things is bringing me out of the game and feels like a chore.

The new controls are nice. They ease you in so you can get used to them, which I'm still doing, but they work really well, and are giving the best 3rd person shooter interface I've yet to see on a console or a PC (I never could get that whole mouse+keyboard thing straight in my head). There are fun new weapons and gadgets as well, plus lots of old favorites.

It goes without saying that Metroid is a large part of Nintendo Fan Boy-ness and MP3:C does not disappoint. With a solid Zelda game, this outstanding Metroid, and the much heralded future Super Mario 3D platformer soon to arrive, I'm happy with my Wii even if they just stop making games at that point (though I'm not remotely suggesting that they should do that). If you've ever played a Metroid game and enjoyed it, you must pick up a copy of this one.

Update: Finished. This was the easiest of the 3 Metroid Prime games, and it seems to wrap up the trilogy. Hopefully Retro won't take too long a break before making another Metroid game, certainly the time and trouble they put into this game engine should be used, as it was a fully enjoyable first person shooter experience, especially since it was also heavy on platforming elements.