Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

I was impressed by this game from the first few minutes. With a world so large in scale and scope and so much to explore and find, the worlds themselves are really well crafted and detailed with puzzles to solve and things to find. Also tells a really good story of Samus and her corruption. A brilliantly designed game and a great game to close the trilogy with

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the final game in the superb Metroid Prime series, except this time it's on the Wii. The first thing to note is that the controls are amazing and are the definite highlight of the game. After playing a first person shooter with these controls I don't ever want to go back to a normal 360 controller. There is a slight awkwardness at first with the controls, but it doesn't take long for the effect to wear off. Then the next thing to note is this is the first time Metroid has ever had voice acting, and it is actually good, as well this delivers in my opinion the best story in the Prime series thus far. Once again Metroid is a simply beautiful game, some amazing graphics and art direction, every shot of space just makes me stare at it in awe. Overall this is a superb game and is really, really fun my only minor gripe is the choice to not include multi-player, I mean this game has some of the greatest FPS controls I've ever seen and the Wii has Wi-Fi, it just doesn't make sense why the game didn't include multi-player. Still this gripe doesn't affect this amazing game. This might possibly be the best game on the Wii so far.

Score: A perfect 10 out of 10!!!

I would welcome some feedback on this issue of mine; everyone seems to hold this game in the same regards as that of the original Prime - some saying it surpasses it, however I cannot see how from any angle.

My initial gripe (this may be just a personal thing) is that the game is on the wii and, for me, is far too unresponsive. Often I found myself twisting, turning, thrusting and throwing my wii-mote at the screen as it indicates, yet nothing happens. And although many favour the ability to point and shoot with the motion controls, as a devoted fan to the previous two Primes I had mastered the gamecube controls, and so stepping into a new control scheme that was less responsive felt like I was playing with my hands in buckets of cement. Motion controls take away a great deal of immersion from a game because your brain has to concentrate more on telling your body to perform greater movements, splitting your attention thus inhibiting your immersion when playing the game. The reason a classic controller is so effective at drawing you in is because it requires the minimal possible movement in translating thoughts to the screen, heightening immersion. Overall, playing on the wii marred the experience for me - as it would if I played the previous Primes on it.

Secondly, Corruption feels more like a transplanted action-shooter than an adventure shooter like all previous metroid games. The appeal to metroid games is the eerie and disturbing atmosphere of wandering alone through hostile territory, free to explore; stumbling upon weapons, lore, interesting creatures and enemies. But Corruption begins in a military base with one dimensional, army stereotypes accompanied by a rag-tag team of fellow bounty hunters. I could appreciate their presence if it was meaningful or emotionally provoking but they're just there to fight later on, with no greater purpose. If it was going for a more Mass Effect-type space opera, I would understand, but every single character we meet is shallow, boring and poorly fleshed-out. This compounds the fact that by having lots of allies (which the infamous solitary bounty hunter would not have)it robs us of that coveted atmosphere - if Samus could call in the troops at any time, where's the danger? Also, while Corruption attempts to expand the scale of the action by having greater involvement with Samus' ship and other planets, it ironically only serves to shrink it in comparison to the original Prime. Each planet is shallow and one-note, offering one thing of interest with its own enemies and back story that just ends up being thinly spread. This kicks the depth and exploration aspects that I loved in Prime in the head, as on Tallon IV we saw the remnants of the Chozo and the attempts of the space pirates to salvage the mysterious meteor and its power - and the variety of climates upon the same planet that you could freely visit gave it a rich flavour, that this huge space was just one tiny planet in an enormous universe, and it offered a great sense of enormity. In Corruption, each planet feels small and monotonous, like what we see is all it has to offer. The little details are gone - the creatures that are native cousins to similar ones on the same planet, the subtle mystery rewarded by exploration and the great connectivity have been extracted in favour of a more 'marketable' product. An exciting shooter with aliens, space marines and explosions. Like Halo. And Gears of War. And Doom. And Quake. And Killzone. And Turok. And Alien vs Predator. And Jericho. And Mass Effect. And all of the subsequent sequels to all the titles I just mentioned. The list goes on.

Combined with inferior creature designs, the omission of beam-swapping (what made the previous two games great was that by the end you had 4 different beams, missiles and combos to kill things with), the lack of story and low difficulty level, for me, make it unfathomable how anyone could liken it to Prime and Echoes.

Despite that don't get me wrong, this is still a good game - it's more innovative than Echoes and tries to stretch the series in different ways, albeit unsuccessfully. The power-ups are all original and entertaining, the graphic are splendid, the gameplay is good once you get used to it and there are some moments that really capture the spirit of metroid, if only in isolation.

In conclusion a good game that I'd recommend buying if you have a wii, but don't expect it to rock your socks.

We have all been waiting for it and it is finally here. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for the Wii is a fitting conclusion to a very epic trilogy.

The game starts out with Samus waking up from her cryogenic sleep inside her ship. You then automatically begin the tutorial sequence by messing with the ships gadgets. Once you get onto the GFS Olympus, you start going through a few more tutorials leading up to a visit with the Commander. You learn about the Aurora Units, the virus planted to them, and the pirate attack on the Valhalla where they stole an AU. This is when the action starts and doesn't stop until after your very well done boss fight with Ridley.

I'm not going to give away anything else, but the story in this game is deep, dark, and compelling. (story 9/10)

Now for the graphics, if you think the Wii is not a powerful system, think again. This game pulls out some amazing effects like bloom lighting, which gives everything a vibrant glow. Character models in the game are second to none, you can easily tell Retro Studios put a lot of effort into this game and I commend them for it. (graphics 10/10)

Gameplay is unlike anything I have ever played before. The first person controls are perfect. This game is the closest thing to a mouse and keyboard control on a console. Once you get used to the controls, you will never want to play with dual analog ever again, that's how good it is. There are also some neat things that use the Wii remote in some pretty cool ways. Like, for example, using the Grapple Lasso, it's so satisfying to use on shielded enemies, all you do is lock on with Z and flick the nunchuck to extend the lasso and pull back to get rid of the shield. This is just one of the many ways of play that was specifically built for the Wii. (gameplay 10/10) In conclusion, if you love the Prime series or are even just beginning, you will want to play this 20+ hour game more than once. The story, gameplay, and graphics are all very well done and I give Retro Studios a standing ovation for this work of art. It's one of those games that you will remember playing for years to come which is why I give Metroid Prime 3:Corruption a 10 out of 10.

Andrew Fleig

One of the downsides of being a Nintendo fan is that you miss out on several gaming franchises that are exclusive to other systems, such as the Halo and Gears of War series. But the obvious upside is that Nintendo has its own unique franchises, like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, that more than make up for that.

By the early 2000s, Mario and Zelda were already quite a gaming powerhouse; Mario since the 1990s, and Ocarina of Time having recently cemented the Zelda series into gaming lore. As for Samus Aran, the Metroid series seemed to face oblivion after three 2D-platform games, until a 3D-shooter by a third party was announced. Naturally there was a lot of scepsis, but the gaming world was quite shook when Metroid Prime not only featured solid graphics and gameplay, but was also able to retain the typical Metroid atmosphere and sense of exploration. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was a worthy successor that, although generally not considered better than its predecessor, added the concept of a hostile alternate dimension to the series. But the third game proved to be the worthy closer of the trilogy, and is my personal favorite in the series.

The first two games were fairly light on the narrative side, containing few cut-scenes and focusing more on subtle in-game directions to guide Samus' mission of exploration. Corruption radically breaks with this tradition by guiding the player through one of the most immersive prologues in gaming history. Immediately thrusting the gamer into the action of a Space Pirate invasion not only kicks off the story in spectacular fashion, it also introduces us to the gameplay and the supporting characters, like admiral Dane, the Aurora Unit, Ghor, Rhundas and Gandrayda, who play major roles later on. The interaction with these characters gives the game opportunities for more scripted events, side missions and twists than ever, but the game also still relies heavily on scanning written sources in order to unravel the backstory at your own leisure.

Especially rewarding is that the script builds on previously established story elements. Dark Samus, Space Pirates and Phazon make a return, and the latter is even integrated into the gameplay. New discoveries provide a strong context for the events of the previous two games, revealing what links their backstories together. All this creates a pretty solid story arch and direction, but still leaves ample room for free roaming and exploring.

The previous games took place on one planet with widely varying scenery, which required frequent traveling in between areas and back-tracking in order to unlock suit upgrades, which in turn opened up new areas. This gameplay feature is still in effect, but it is nice how it now comes with a twist. The makers have greatly increased the scope of the playable area by featuring several unique planets that Samus can visit with her ship. The planet Bryyo with its seamless blend of nature, structures and technology is pleasantly reminiscent of Tallon IV from Metroid Prime, and the Space Pirate homeworld is dark and gloomy planet, poisoned by decades of over-industrialization. But the design trophy goes to Elysia, which is a floating city of unparalleled technical beauty that has no comparison within the series (or any other game for that matter). And it is the site of some of the most intense battles and relevations of the game

As said, the gameplay is largely unchanged from the previous games, with Samus' trusted power suit giving us a first-person view of an alien world where the player must battle Space Pirate forces and other creatures, as well as search for important items. But the development of this game for the Wii gives it an edge over its predecessors. The ability to move and aim independently from one another by using the Wii-mote is an important asset to dispatch Space Pirates, one that was understandably carried over to the Metroid Prime 1 and 2 ports for the Wii. The Nunchuk control is used with great effect for several context-sensitive actions, such as opening doors and using the Grapple Beam, which makes it especially rewarding, and differentiates the game even further from most shooters, especially the boss fights. Lastly, a nice variation in gameplay is found in the obligatory search for nine hidden items necessary to unlock the final boss; in the previous two games, this opened up a special staging area, but here, it provides access to a certain mystery that needs to be solved before confronting the ultimate boss and finishing the story once and for all.

As said, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption does one hell of a job tying the trilogy together, but is also a masterpiece of gameplay, storytelling and graphics in its own right. It is hard to see the upcoming Metroid Prime 4 for the Switch surpassing this level of brilliance, but they may try as far as I am concerned.