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Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Iun steps behind Samus' visor for our comprehensive review of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Spoiler-free: N-Europe is confident that although small pieces of gameplay information are contained within, there are no major plot or character spoilers that will spoil your enjoyment of the game.

From the very first Metroid on the NES, the series has been one of the benchmarks of gameplay for hardcore gamers. By turns amazing, by others fiendishly difficult, the series has proved itself to be a worthy legacy left by its creator, Gunpei Yokoi.

Building on the foundations of the previously critically lauded games, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption is a prime (excuse the pun) example of the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The game follows the same formula as before, but this time it’s bigger, bolder and a heck of a lot better. Not fixed certainly, but it has some pretty cool new features that really set this apart from the previous iterations. The much-vaunted control system is just one in a near endless list of upgrades that turns this into the greatest Metroid game ever and a fitting swansong for Retro Studios' involvement with the series.

But the game is not perfect, so before I start to gush about how wonderful everything is, let me set you straight on a few things:

The biggest noticeable issue for this game is the scattered effectiveness of the weapons at your disposal. In particular, the lock-on system is intensely frustrating. To have the Wiimote cursor automatically shift dead centre on the target would be impractical with the fluid controls. But the irritating fact that your shots do not track your target makes the inclusion of the lock-on function somewhat redundant. Even the missiles – which boast the ability to seek out your locked on enemies miss far more often than they hit either due to the counter measures used by the enemies or the fact that it’s just a sloppily executed feature.

Freezing missiles only immobilise extremely weak targets on the occasions that they do hit and the fact that you have to fire a single shot to begin charging your cannon or deplete a missile round to set up a multi-target assault still often robs you of the element of surprise.

But these are only niggles in the grand scheme of things and really do not prove to be deal-breakers in the long run. However, while we are on the subject of criticisms we have to say a word on the graphics, which are in all honesty, disappointing. We are frequently reminded by detractors, critics, members of opposing factions and indeed anyone with a pair of eyes that the Wii is physically less powerful than its competitors. Even so, I cannot help but feel that a little more effort could have been made on the part of the developers. The graphics are just too inconsistent to be noteworthy. For every super-skilfully beautiful arm-cannon shot you fire, there will be something to remind you that the Wii is not strong on graphics.

Textures are often blocky, smudged and downright dirty looking. Standard effects are generally no better than those on the previous games and sometimes even appear to be worse.

Fortunately those are the major criticisms out of the way, and there is much to be praised in this game. The boss battles in particular are to be savoured and have always been an outstanding feature in the Metroid Prime series, and this game will not disappoint you. These guardians range from gargantuan screen-filling leviathans to the small and annoyingly agile variety that require tactical changes every few seconds to effectively defeat. Sub-bosses are just as nigglesome and well-protected as their larger counterparts and demand total concentration and a perfect mastery of the controls to keep you moving.

It is indeed the controls that make this game truly exceptional. The combination of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk working together not only produces a credible alternative but –dare I say it, an actual improvement on the mouse and keyboard setup that has for so long been the ace in the hole of the PC gamer. The Wii remote acts as the arm cannon and directional control within an invisible bounding box to allow the player to turn. Accuracy can be adjusted to a frightening degree allowing you to target enemies and objects with a precision hitherto unseen on a console game.

The nunchuk provides forward motion with the analogue stick and through this you also control the morphball in some surprisingly fun moments. In the previous games the morphball sections elicited an unrestrained groan of frustrated boredom from myself and a multitude of gamers. But these sections are now actually not just fun but interesting too. The death defying physics involved are exciting and there is now a tangible sense of pleasure in negotiating the various traps and twists of the complicated puzzles.