Back in 2002, Retro Studios accomplished the daunting mission of reviving one of Nintendo's most successful properties, Metroid, and transitioning its iconic 2D gameplay into the realm of 3D. With that out of the way, it's a pretty fine line between breaking and improving the solid foundation and it's on that line that "Metroid Prime 3: Corruption" tries its balancing act. How does it fare?
***The Story***
The protagonist of the Metroid series is Samus Aran, a Bounty Hunter gifted with an incredible Power Suit designed by a phenomenally advanced and mysteriously extinct race known as the Chozo. Its fantastic powers and her oftentimes remarkable cunning is what keeps her alive throughout the extremely perilous adventures she finds herself in, all of which end up involving the titular Metroids, energy-sucking, parasitic bio-forms that always seem to be on the brink of infesting the whole galaxy.
They also involve a race of interstellar nomads, the "Space Pirates" which were a threat even before uncovering and experimenting on the dangerous Metroids. Now led by Dark Samus, Samus' evil counterpart that spawned after the original Metroid Prime's ultimate battle and was uncovered in "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes", the Space Pirates' latest plan for galactic domination involves, like most great plans do, giant semi-sentient spaceships. Those "Leviathans" crush onto planets and drill their way to their cores, forever corrupting them with the extremely radioactive Phazon element.
Norion is one of the planets the Space Pirates have marked for such treatment and the Federation dispatches its best Hunters to repel the invasion. "Its best", of course, includes Samus and true to form she manages to complete her mission with a couple of seconds to spare despite becoming, herself, corrupted. When she comes to, she then has to visit the planets that couldn't fend off similar attacks, rid them off Space Pirates and cleanse them of their corruption, all the while accelerating her own...
With a race called "Space Pirates", evil counterparts and flying jellyfish the whole thing might seem rather silly; quite par for the course of a 1986 NES videogame. But those are just remnants of "Metroid"'s origins and, today, the background lore is simply staggering. The plot has to be action-oriented but there is some meticulously written fiction for those who look for it. "Corruption" is really quite akin to a summer blockbuster with History Channel's most extensive documentary built-in.
***The Presentation***
"Corruption" is the first Metroid to hit the Wii and, in presentation as much as in every other area, the difference isn't as big as the generation leap might suggest. Things have improved in every way, but nothing of a noticeably bigger magnitude than that of the changes between the original Prime and Prime 2, changes that came courtesy of the passage of time.
As such, we have crisper visuals, faster loading times, and a larger landmass to explore spread over multiple plantes, things that certainly don't reinvent the series, but they do effectively refine it.
But I do feel that a refinement was all that was actually needed, a fine-tuning of shorts to their already excellent method. The Prime series play out in first person, with most of the story unfolding in front of Samus' very eyes, through live action or perusing the "scans" the player can call on just about everything on-screen. There are a few camera switches for dramatic effect and/or easiness of usability, such as scoping a room full of enemies before a big fight and highlighting their entry point and 3rd person camera views for when Samus uses her Morph Ball and Screw Attack power-ups. There are also the reminiscent moments, when Samus first gets a power up, like the Seeker Missile, and shows off her new move.
The main accomplishment is that this style manges to work well with the gameplay, but the added bonuses are aplenty: The graphics are great, with gorgeous art direction that make the various planets' architecture a joy to watch in motion. So long, at least, as you don't overthink why exactly transportation methods so often involve morphing to a ball and smashing through walls. Much like the enemies flashing red to cue they're taking damage, it's a necessary convention to make the game more fun too play, rather than more realistic. The music is phenomenal, in the vain of previous instalments going back to the original Metroid, but much more expanded. With the solitary nature of the game, it takes center stage to the sound effects and the, newly appearing, voice acting, both of which are pretty good but not quite up to that level.***The Gameplay***
There are two things that always have and probably always will define Metroid gameplay. The "back and forth" exploration mechanic and the gigantic Boss fights.
The basic gist of the exploration part is, as Samus explores a planet, she'll noticed alternate routes that can't be accessed just yet. Moving ahead, she'll eventually find power-ups that allow her to bypass previous obstacles, then backtracking to the aforementioned routes and finally getting through that giant gap/high-frequency door/acid rain. Rinse and repeat until you get all the suit upgrades and are finally able to traverse throughout the entirety of the levels.
This can be a lot more fun that it sounds, not only thanks to the innovation factor it had when the original Metroid came out two decades ago, as evidenced by the huge success of contemporary Castlevania games, which pretty much imitate that formula. Another popular trick of the NES era, when games had to be *hard* in order to take more than a couple of hours to finish, was bombing an inconspicuous corner inside a random room, or going through a lava pit to open up hidden rooms. This was not only especially difficult in Metroid, coupled with it's non-linear progression, but crazy stunts like that didn't lead to extra, secret, power-ups but were actually obligatory to push the story forward.
Adding a whole new dimension to that "hidden room" technique borders on insane, but it's pretty much what Retro Studios did in Metroid Prime, leading to a game that might have delighted hardcore Metroid fans, but was objectively frustrating at times and effectively ostracised newcomers.
Thankfully, "Metroid Prime 3" eases up on that a great deal: It's much easier to pick out suspicious parts of a room when scanning, the "2" button is dedicated to hinting what you should be looking for when you're stuck, never giving out too much help, and the really off-the-wall "puzzles" are reserved for entirely optional things, like increasing your missile capacity.
Of course, being a Metroid game, it can't help but send you on a galaxy wide hunt for Energy Cells late on. Despite it's frightening premise, we're actually talking about finding at least 6 out of 9 Energy Cells total, with scanning information available that pin-points the planet each one is located in and hints at their exact location. Much like the rest of the game, this "quest" isn't easy; it's enjoyably challenging for the average gamer, even if it's a cakewalk by previous "Metroid Prime" standards. By comparison, this took me an afternoon to do, while the "Artifact Hunt" of the original Prime more than a week; not because it was *that* much more difficult, but because I couldn't muster the patience to search for more than a couple of the 12 artifacts each day.As far as Boss Fights go, few games can rival the thrill of "Metroid Prime 3"'s numerous showdowns. Typically pitting Samus against monsters exponentially larger than her, the fights are as much a visual spectacle as a physical one. Scanning is paramount to uncovering the enemy's weak points and adjusting your strategy. One minute you are rolling around your foe, trying to hit its back and stun him, then you are prying its armour open with the grapple beam, then you are launching ice missiles at its exposed core. It's really genius stuff, with many different techniques needed in each fight and still managing to remain fresh throughout the game. It's also pretty demanding in terms of player skill, so bring your hand/eye coordination to the party.
Wii controls feel excellent and it's very nice to see how they converted the pretty great but remarkably button-heavy Gamecube controls for the Wiimote and Nunchuck. "Refinement" is afoot here as well: instead of juggling around a handful of different beams to open a door, for example, each of the beam power-ups also retains the powers of its predecessors. So the Nova Beam, a high-frequency wave of energy, also retains the metal-melting powers of the Plasma Beam, in a fuss-free all-in-one-deal. Another example of remarkable usability is the ease of changing the different visors, by holding the minus button and a flick on the screen. Pretty much everything works spectacularly, with the grapple beam interactions being the pinnacle. Shaking the nunchuck to grapple a target then wrestling it back feels perfect and it's a real shame that such a melee attack wasn't available to use against all opponents.
Samus' most prominent new ability in "Metroid Prime 3" is "Hypermode". By expending one energy tank, Samus enters Hypermode and her attacks drip with the dangerous Phazon energy. This allows you to make quick work of the "random encounters" and using it is effectively the only way to damage certain bosses.
Besides the added firepower, it's interestingly tied into the story and has plenty strategic implications, as staying into hypermode for too long, taking damage but unable to dish it out, might result in overexerting the suit and ending the game.
Aiming takes a little getting-used-to, as pointing the Wii Remote at the edges of the screen when not locked-on turns Samus around. In most games, this is done with the nunchuck's control stick, used here for strafing instead, so you'll probably be disoriented at first, especially since the locking system is a little iffy. Rest assured however that the whole thing "clicks" after a while and it all adds to the great gameplay experience that is "Metroid Prime 3".
***OVERALL***
Despite not straying off the path of the previous two Primes, "Corruption" refines their every aspect, practically eliminating the exploration complaints without compromising the formula and ends the trilogy nicely. If you've played a previous Prime and found yourself getting wary of drifting around huge levels looking for minuscule cracks, "Corruption", tries to make the experience as effortless as Metroidly possible. If you've loved the Prime 1 & 2, number 3 still is a great ride, even if it'll probably take you half as long to finish with an 100% completion percentage. And if you are new to the series, Prime 3 is not as frustratingly difficult, and as such more likely to grow on you; a better place to start, even if the story will make less sense. If you are good with action games, enjoy exploring vast alien worlds and have a reasonable deal of patience for good measure, I say suit-up!
As Prime as ever 
