As I posted before, I bought a Gamecube since it was only $30. Metroid Prime was the ONLY Gamecube game that ever interested me, so I finally had a chance to check it out. Now that the Gamecube and the game together was only $35 + tax, it ended up being the same price I'd pay for a current game anyway.
Not to mention that I'm a HUGE Metroid fan. While Metroid II and Metroid Fusion disappointed me, overall I've loved the whole series. In fact, I make it a point to beat each game about once a year.
Needless to say I was excited to finally get a chance to play Metroid Prime. I haven't played it previously due to how silly it would be to buy a Gamecube back when they were full price just for one game. Not only that, Prime is a huge departure from previous Metroid games and I didn't want to risk buying a system for just one game that I may not even like.
(Note: I don't mark spoilers for games over four years old, so if you are anal about spoilers, go away).
The first few hours of Metroid Prime were amazing. The opening was more or less a 3D version of Super Metroid, where you are on a space station, you encounter Ridley, and you must evacuate. I was amazed at how well they pulled this off with the new interface.
In fact, the first half of the game was also amazing. Although I still stand behind my original opinion that Metroid was never meant to be a first person shooter, and if I scored this game it would lose a ton of points for this, the developers really put their best foot forward.
The feeling of being alone on a distant planet, with nothing but your wits, desperately trying to recover your lost abilities and fighting for your survival and to figure out what the hell is going on, was pulled of very well with the new first person interface.
Then, terror strikes. Enter the second half of the game, where Metroid Prime completely goes to hell. During the second half of the game, there are hundreds of space pirates around every corner that take a zillion hits to defeat, and then there are troopers that need a special beam to defeat.
With the troopers, the screen flashes constantly as they pelt you with bullets. With the screen flashing as your health drops quickly, you desperately try to see what color they are to try to figure out what beam to use. Then, you squint your eyes to try to look at your beam icons in the bottom right corner, that are less than a half centimeter big, to figure out what button you need to press to get to that particular beam. Before you can figure that out, you die.
Bosses become nightmares. I'm all for hard games, don't get me wrong, but when a boss forces you into a corner and hits you constantly, I have a problem with that. It takes roughly 6 or 7 seconds for Samus to regain her composure after being blasted, and a boss can easily keep resetting Samus' recovery time over and over until you are presented with probably the most annoying game over screen in Metroid history.
And if you thought it couldn't get anymore annoying, near the end of the game, you must get yourself up several stories of platforms while Metroids that split into two keep coming. You can't kill them off completely, either. You could be there for hours and they'd keep respawning, knocking you back down where you started. They also split into two, and must be killed with a particular beam, so again you must match the colors while you are being destroyed from behind. Or, you can just run like hell and hope to god a Metroid isn't behind you to knock you back down to the start.
I'm not sure what made me go all the way and beat this game. I think it was probably because if I had the satisfaction of beating this game, I would never need to play it again and I could finally be rid of it.
I'm extremely disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the first half of the game was simply amazing and extremely fun. The developers were geniuses with how they pulled of a true Metroid experience in 3D. Then, when the second half of the game starts, the game goes to hell, and was a chore to complete for me. I loved the first half, but the second half was so terrible it ruined everything for me.
Random thoughts:
* The whole speedrun feature is completely gone. This was a staple of virtually every Metroid game so far.
* The morph ball effect was extremely awesome throughout the whole game.
* There are no stackable beam upgrades. Switching beams to match enemies/doors is a tedious chore.
* The Screw Attack is gone. Probably because the developers couldn't figure out how to implement it in 3D.
* The Space Jump becomes a double jump. WTF is up with that?
* I really loved the underwater area.
* The remixed music was a nice treat.
* When you beat the game, you are told you need to escape in under a certain amount of time (like EVERY Metroid game), but the game does that for you. WHAT THE HELL?!!!
* They should have used the Super Missile system from Super Metroid.
Now, I'm playing through Metroid Prime 2, hopefully it's not as bad as everyone says it is. I'm hoping that it makes up for the first Metroid Prime. So far, I'm loving Metroid Prime 2. However, I loved the first half of the first one so we'll see how good it is. I don't have high hopes though.
Not to mention that I'm a HUGE Metroid fan. While Metroid II and Metroid Fusion disappointed me, overall I've loved the whole series. In fact, I make it a point to beat each game about once a year.
Needless to say I was excited to finally get a chance to play Metroid Prime. I haven't played it previously due to how silly it would be to buy a Gamecube back when they were full price just for one game. Not only that, Prime is a huge departure from previous Metroid games and I didn't want to risk buying a system for just one game that I may not even like.
(Note: I don't mark spoilers for games over four years old, so if you are anal about spoilers, go away).
The first few hours of Metroid Prime were amazing. The opening was more or less a 3D version of Super Metroid, where you are on a space station, you encounter Ridley, and you must evacuate. I was amazed at how well they pulled this off with the new interface.
In fact, the first half of the game was also amazing. Although I still stand behind my original opinion that Metroid was never meant to be a first person shooter, and if I scored this game it would lose a ton of points for this, the developers really put their best foot forward.
The feeling of being alone on a distant planet, with nothing but your wits, desperately trying to recover your lost abilities and fighting for your survival and to figure out what the hell is going on, was pulled of very well with the new first person interface.
Then, terror strikes. Enter the second half of the game, where Metroid Prime completely goes to hell. During the second half of the game, there are hundreds of space pirates around every corner that take a zillion hits to defeat, and then there are troopers that need a special beam to defeat.
With the troopers, the screen flashes constantly as they pelt you with bullets. With the screen flashing as your health drops quickly, you desperately try to see what color they are to try to figure out what beam to use. Then, you squint your eyes to try to look at your beam icons in the bottom right corner, that are less than a half centimeter big, to figure out what button you need to press to get to that particular beam. Before you can figure that out, you die.
Bosses become nightmares. I'm all for hard games, don't get me wrong, but when a boss forces you into a corner and hits you constantly, I have a problem with that. It takes roughly 6 or 7 seconds for Samus to regain her composure after being blasted, and a boss can easily keep resetting Samus' recovery time over and over until you are presented with probably the most annoying game over screen in Metroid history.
And if you thought it couldn't get anymore annoying, near the end of the game, you must get yourself up several stories of platforms while Metroids that split into two keep coming. You can't kill them off completely, either. You could be there for hours and they'd keep respawning, knocking you back down where you started. They also split into two, and must be killed with a particular beam, so again you must match the colors while you are being destroyed from behind. Or, you can just run like hell and hope to god a Metroid isn't behind you to knock you back down to the start.
I'm not sure what made me go all the way and beat this game. I think it was probably because if I had the satisfaction of beating this game, I would never need to play it again and I could finally be rid of it.
I'm extremely disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the first half of the game was simply amazing and extremely fun. The developers were geniuses with how they pulled of a true Metroid experience in 3D. Then, when the second half of the game starts, the game goes to hell, and was a chore to complete for me. I loved the first half, but the second half was so terrible it ruined everything for me.
Random thoughts:
* The whole speedrun feature is completely gone. This was a staple of virtually every Metroid game so far.
* The morph ball effect was extremely awesome throughout the whole game.
* There are no stackable beam upgrades. Switching beams to match enemies/doors is a tedious chore.
* The Screw Attack is gone. Probably because the developers couldn't figure out how to implement it in 3D.
* The Space Jump becomes a double jump. WTF is up with that?
* I really loved the underwater area.
* The remixed music was a nice treat.
* When you beat the game, you are told you need to escape in under a certain amount of time (like EVERY Metroid game), but the game does that for you. WHAT THE HELL?!!!
* They should have used the Super Missile system from Super Metroid.
Now, I'm playing through Metroid Prime 2, hopefully it's not as bad as everyone says it is. I'm hoping that it makes up for the first Metroid Prime. So far, I'm loving Metroid Prime 2. However, I loved the first half of the first one so we'll see how good it is. I don't have high hopes though.
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