Tag Archives: Metroid Prime

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Review

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Metroid Prime fans have been waiting a very long time for this game. We got the first trailer back in 2017 after all and even then it ended up taking another 8 years to come out. After all that waiting you would certainly be expecting an absolutely top tier experience. Well, ultimately I thought it was pretty good but I suppose it would be a bit underwhelming considering all the time that has gone by. It’s a good game but an ordinary one at the same time. You’ll be able to blast through the content and so in the end I would recommend it but definitely keep your expectations at the baseline.

The story starts with a big battle between the Federation and Sylux’s goons. Samus is able to easily overpower him but then gets stranded on a planet along with a few other soldiers. Samus will have to find several teleporter keys as well as a mythical fruit in order to get off this place. Unfortunately it is loaded with powerful monsters everywhere and Sylux is still on the loose. This may finally be a job that Samus cannot complete on her own. Will she be able to trust these other soldiers to help her out or will she be forced to tackle all of the responsibility on her own?

The game puts a lot of stock into Samus being the chosen one, a hero beyond all measure. Honestly I wouldn’t even say that’s a bad thing. She is clearly a cut above the rest and as the various games have shown she is able to incorporate a ton of different dna and special abilities without side effects. In essence she is the ultimate battle soldier and this game does a good job of showing how powerful she is. This can be a double edged sword though. For example, Sylux is never portrayed as being a real threat to her.

Likewise for the rest of the villains. This is clearly an easier battle for her than the last 3 Prime games and the only reason the situation is tough is because getting off the planet will require more than super strength. Her allies help out quite a bit and so that ties the whole adventure together. It just makes this an uphill battle for the villains since they are the ones on the back foot the whole time. They are never even close to making a play.

That being said, I still like Sylux. He gets some good dialogue at the end and has a good design. His boss fights are also fun except the final boss which gets a bit rough. This ties into the gameplay itself. You have to use both joysticks to aim which makes it hard to also shoot. I had to hold the controller in a bit of a weird way in order to land all 3 and it didn’t really feel natural. I think there should have only been one control stick to move and then the rest goes as normal. It felt like they had to nerf the lock on feature here in order to make the final boss more of a challenge.

To be clear, they definitely succeeded. It was a really tough final boss and one that absolutely kept me at the edge of my seat. I died several times there before I was finally able to win. Ironically the first phase is the toughest one while the next two go by very quickly and easily. In general the game is easier than the first 3 Primes but not insultingly so. I would say the difficulty is reasonable enough so long time fans will have a good time.

The main gameplay is still the classic first person style where you can shoot your energy blasts or missiles at the opponents until they go down. You will unlock different elemental attacks as you go forward and will get other kinds of power ups. It’s all pretty familiar if you have played the previous titles. In a lot of ways this one is trying hard to be a total formula game without trying to go beyond that. Fortunately the gameplay is fun enough where you won’t mid the repetition too much but there are some areas where the game isa bit dated.

The biggest example is not having any fast travel. There is a lot of backtracking here and it feels completely unnecessary. You should be able to cover larger chunks of ground without taking so long. Then you also have the green crystal grind at the end. I made sure to hit all the green crystals I could as I went through the game but wouldn’t go out of my way for others either. So then at the end I would do the main grind. It won’t take you longer than 2 hours or so but it just feels like a pointless grind. Why even include it?

The Prime games always have a bit of a collectathon at the end so it felt like this game was just adding one to continue the trend instead of actually getting real hyped for it. Not the best way to go. The desert definitely could have been handled better and the bike would have been more fun if it was faster. It goes by slow enough where that just adds to the tedious nature of it. A rare mistake from Nintendo. So the game had its issues like this but on the whole it was fun.

The collectibles are pretty easy to find with how well the map is labeled. Additionally, the power ups do help to make you feel a lot stronger. The puzzles are much better than in previous games and so for the most part it did feel like Nintendo thought this one through. Just one or wo quick fixes would have done a lot to make the game reach the next stage.

The graphics are definitely real solid. Metroid has never looked sharper and that is something I can say with 0 reservations. I did appreciate that we got more voice acting here. The side characters were all rather weak though. I much preferred the aliens and metahumans from Prime 3. I don’t know why you would go back to normal humans. Still, we got more of a plot than I was expecting even if it would vanish for large portions of time.

The soundtrack is also solid although it doesn’t match the previous games. For example you won’t be hearing anything that launches you out of your seat the way the Dark Samus theme did in the second game. That one is just hard to beat. So it was good all around but like in other areas, Prime 4 was unable to pass the third game here.

Overall, Metroid Prime 4 is a pretty good game. I had a good time with it. The title is fairly short as you will definitely manage to beat it in under 10 hours. Getting all of the collectibles and such will likely take this to around 15 hours or so but even then it won’t be extending things a whole lot. There isn’t a ton of replay value here unless you really like the story. For that reason you may want to wait for a bit of a discount. I’m always glad to see Samus though so hopefully this time the wait for Prime 5 is a lot shorter.

Overall 7/10

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Review

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It’s time for the last of the big Metroid Prime titles before the new one comes out. I was pleasantly surprised that they added way more story to this one than to any of the previous installments. I finally felt like I was playing a true sci-fi epic here so that was a lot of fun. The Wii controls do hold the game back to an extent as that type of gameplay system never quite caught on. Still, I definitely had a real good time here and hopefully Prime 4 is able to keep up with this one.

The story has Samus returning to the Federation to catch up when they are all attacked by an army of Ridley’s men. Oddly they seem to be infected by some kind of dark energy and then Dark Samus herself shows up. She easily conquers the team and then proceeds with her invasion of the whole universe. The only way to stop her will be for Samus to liberate a few key planets and then open a wormhole to stop Dark Samus at the source. This won’t be easy, but Samus will do whatever she has to in order to win.

Like I said before, the plot doesn’t just vanish after the first few cutscenes like in the other games. Here we have actual dialogue and story for the whole adventure. It’s such a novel concept to actually see the federation in action this time and all of the players making their moves. Samus actually having some reliable allies is pretty cool even if you have a good feeling on how the story is about to play out.

The soundtrack is really ominous the whole time with some new tunes for Dark Samus and general tension themes throughout the game. I really enjoyed hearing Ridley’s theme as well. The Metroid saga has definitely done an absolutely incredible job with this and so you will not be surprised at how good it sounds. Additionally the graphics are really solid. Nintendo never cuts any corners here and that definitely shows.

The gameplay may be a bit rough with the motion sensors but the core gameplay itself is still solid. You will have a good time blasting away at enemies. One area where it is far superior to the previous two is that you actually level up your main blaster as you play through the game. So you can easily destroy older enemies as you backtrack through the worlds. The only catch is that the missiles have never been weaker. They are utterly useless in this game since they are weaker than your normal gun so you probably are not going to want to use them for very long. Except for puzzles, I completely stopped using mine.

This game also completely bypasses the end of game collectathon that the first two games had. In this case you would have already gotten most of the batteries just by playing the game naturally. It makes the whole thing feel much more organic and the quick travel here is also much better than in the first two games. So that helps a great deal as well.

It feels like they prioritized having fun this time much more than in the first two games and I appreciated that. After all, you are playing these games in order to have fun right? Having to go back and forth too many times takes away from that and so this area has been greatly improved. I even got over 80% of all collectables while playing through the game which is easily my highest score. The quality of life improvements were off the charts here. It’s why I am hopeful that Prime 4 will keep this up. Additionally I’d love another great story like this but I suppose I shouldn’t get my hopes that high.

In terms of replay value, you can naturally try to go for 100% in order to get the true ending. You can also try beating the game on the new hard mode that you unlock upon completing the game the first time. I can definitely see that being a real challenge with how the gameplay works. FPS titles like this were absolutely made for high difficulties. Hopefully it’s not just that the A.I. become damage sponges and they just get a lot smarter. Part of what made this game a lot easier is that they heavily nerfed how much damage you take from attacks. So I’ll be curious to see what hard mode does to that one.

The length of the base game is long enough to be satisfying though. Even without playing through it a second time, you’ll have gotten your money’s worth. Unless you’re buying an out of print copy, then you may want to hold ff on that. The prices online can get tricky but I got a good price on this one. Guess my main advice while playing the game is to try and just follow the map directions as often as you can and only backtrack when you need to. The longer you wait, the more power ups you will have so it minimizes the amount of times you have to go back and forth. Makes the whole thing far less tedious, especially since this game easily has the longest loading times for opening doors. Villains got a whole lot of cheap shots on me that way.

Overall, Metroid Prime 3 is definitely a pretty good game. On almost any other console it probably would have been a great game since the only thing holding it back are those motion controls. Without those things would be a whole lot easier right out of the gate. Ah well, that’s just how it goes. I would still recommend picking this one up when you have the chance. Get those batteries out of the closet and power up a wii remote. While this isn’t an ideal gameplay setup, the game is much easier than either of the first two Metroid Primes so you should still be just fine.

Overall 7/10

Metroid Prime: Hunters Review

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It’s time for a portable Metroid Prime. This definitely changes things up since the DS is a very different console than the Gamecube or Wii. In some ways the most tragic thing is that this would have been amazing for the home consoles but alas the DS does begin to show the cracks in its armor here. The main drawback is absolutely the fact that the game is extremely painful. You can feel it breaking your wrists as you try to move the screen and fight the enemies. By the end you will have had a true workout but not one that was really intentional from the game design.

The Federation calls on Samus to stop yet another alien infection across the universe but this time there will be competition. A bunch of other hunters have decided to step in for a grand prize that is said to be present on one of these planets. Samus must crush all of these guys but they are professionals as well so it won’t be so easy. She will have to really focus up and may have to use new abilities that she never had before.

At this point it is a running gag that Samus absorbs just about every kind of creature and energy that she can over the course of the series. She has had the powers of darkness, the dread, and other mysterious energies in each game. They just never stop and yet she is still around so Samu is made of sterner stuff. This game decides to leverage that in a different way but letting her have elemental abilities. Yes, in this game you have around 6 different powers like ice, electricity, fire, and other attacks.

It makes for some really fun variety as you keep on blasting away at all the opponents. The vania aspect is naturally still around but the worlds are much smaller and bite sized so you won’t get lost as much. To counteract that, the game doesn’t actually display the map so you have to pause every time you want to look at it. A most regrettable game design choice if you ask me. You want to be able to see where you’re going even in a smaller world.

Still, the main issue here is the gameplay itself. You have to use your stylus in order to move the screen and attack the monsters. This results in a whole lot of moving but it’s clearly geared towards someone who is right handed. As a leftie myself, this was really tough. You have to tilt your hand in an unnatural way in order to get to the enemies. There is a whole lot of combat here like the constant mandatory minibosses so your hand will be sweating it out during that.

Additionally, these minibosses will re spawn every time you enter their room so if you get lost or just have to backtrack because of a mandatory power up, you will have to face them again. This makes for a pretty rough amount of tedious gameplay because you aren’t getting anything from these battles. At least if it was an RPG you would be getting stronger and stronger but that’s not the case here.

The graphics are pretty good. We have actual cutscenes here which is nice and of course the gameplay is sharp. The soundtrack is also good even if it isn’t nearly at the level of the main primes. It’s just hard to make it through without the big Ridley or Dark Samus themes. It still gets the job done and as a whole it’s clear that they put a lot of effort into this one. It’s quite advanced for a portable game and plays like the real home console versions.

As always Prime just needs to tone down some of the weaker gameplay design elements and then this would be a more fun adventure. The stylus controls were naturally a terrible decision right from the start but also the forced mini bosses doesn’t make sense. I’d also argue for more quick travel points in general but it seems like the Prime games just tend to avoid that for all of the titles. This is still a third person shooter though so at the end of the day it will be satisfying to shoot down the opponents. The large variety of weapons is fun after all and some of them are super broken like the electricity. That one is definitely a lot of fun to spam at enemies.

You do have to use the stylus to switch abilities so that can get a bit tedious but on the whole it works out well enough. Just slow down when you need to and that can make a world of difference. Pure difficulty-wise it is definitely tougher than Prime 3 but not quite as hard as Prime 2 so it’s somewhere in the middle there. Not exactly a walk in the park but you’ll get enough power ups through the course of the game to claim victory in the end. If you die, there are restart points so you don’t have to run to the boss. You just restart the fight which is a great quality of life update.

Overall, Metroid Prime: Hunters is a good game. It would have been a very good one but unfortunately the pain is just too much for me to put it any higher. I suppose if you are right handed then you can add an extra star to this game and have a blast. Otherwise I can’t say that I would fully recommend it though. You’re better off skipping ahead and getting Prime 3 or going back and playing Metroid Fusion. In either case you are getting a much stronger experience there. Prime Hunters does add some fun characters to the mix like actually getting other opponent hunters but that just isn’t enough to overcome that gameplay.

Overall 6/10

Metroid Prime Pinball Review

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It’s been a while since I played a Metroid game so what better way than to go back and finally check out Metroid Pinball? I’ve had the game for a long time, but the cartridge never worked. Well, it finally did so I wasted no time in scoping it out before it decided to break again. It’s a pretty solid Pinball game that fans of the genre will enjoy, but it’s not as if the title does a whole lot with the genre. Effectively it’s just the same old Pinball with a new paint job.

There’s not really a plot here although there could have been the first time around. See, I got this game used so it was already completed. For the sake of the review I just went through the level select and tried them out. It’s not as if there are a lot of levels so it was pretty easy. There are only 4-5 levels if I’m remembering correctly. There are actual bosses so that’s pretty neat. It means that there is certainly some kind of story here. I’ll assume that Samus has been charged with destroying all of the Metroids in her way.

If you don’t know how Pinball works, effectively you have a ball inside of a field and you have to keep it there as long as possible. You control two flippers that you use to block the ball from exiting the field. The longer you survive, the more points you get. There’s also a layer of strategy as you try to hit the ball at certain angles to get your points as quickly as possible. That’s how all of the normal levels play out, but with the Metroid background. This means that the levels are very tech based and there are even Metroids running around. You even get to turn into your robot mode to blast away at them once in a while if you hit the right switch. I think that could have made for a good game to be honest since those segments were always a lot of fun.

The graphics look pretty good. I feel like the company actually put quite a bit of effort into this one since the character designs are on point. You really feel like this is a Metroid Prime game and not some pinball game leaning on its legacy. The soundtrack is also quite good as a result. This game definitely benefited from the fact that it is from the Metroid Prime series as opposed to simply being a Metroid title. Since Pinball is fairly passive the matches can take a long time. While waiting for the ball there isn’t much you can actually do so it’s nice to at least be able to listen to good music in the meanwhile.

Back to the bosses, the gameplay for those is still like normal Pinball except you want to hit them with it. They’re not all that difficult but you’ll still have to get used to the ball and knowing where you’ll hit it before you can claim victory. At least there really isn’t much luck involved here as it’s all in the angles. In a rare occasion the ball will land perfectly in the middle so you can’t block it but that is extremely rare.

There’s not a lot of replay value depending on how you look at it. I mean, it’s Pinball so technically you can play it forever, but there aren’t a lot of game specific reasons to keep on playing. You can beat the “story” in 40 minutes and even if the levels take you a while it won’t be longer than a few hours. You can keep on trying to beat your high scores, but there just isn’t a lot of content in this one. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t own many Pinball games. It’s one of those games that’s a little more fun in real life than in a game.

Overall, There’s not much more to say about this title since in general there’s not too much for me to talk about Pinball. Pinball fans will get a kick out of this one. It’s certainly a lot better than the Pokemon Pinball game. Mario Pinball is still the definitive title, but Metroid is likely the second best portable Pinball title. I can’t imagine getting this for the full price back in the day, but it’s only a dollar or two nowadays so you can’t go wrong with that price. Once you purchase it, prepare for the nostalgia as you hear the classic Prime tunes again. We do have Metroid Prime 4 coming out at some point so the series isn’t dead yet! I’m not the biggest Pinball fan but don’t get me wrong, playing the game is fun. It’s one of those titles that you can easily pop into the console whenever you want and play a few rounds. It’s always nice to have an easy option like that one at the ready for whenever you need it. I’d love a Super Smash Bros pinball game someday. now that would be a lot of fun.

Overall 6/10