Metroid Prime

Note: As to both celebrate and build up the hype of Mertroid Prime 4: Beyond later this year, I decided to put in the Metroid Prime game that started it all.

Metroid Prime
The very first 3D Metroid game that started it all.
Protagonist(s): Samus Aran Genre(s): Action-adventure First-Person Shooter Platform(s): Nintendo GameCube Nintendo Switch Release Date: 2002 Developer(s): Retro Nintendo Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Series: Metroid Predecessor: Metroid (chronologically) Metroid Fusion (by release date) Successor: Metroid Prime Hunters(chronologically) Metroid Prime 2: Echoes(by release date)

Metroid Prime is an action-adventure/FPS game developed by Retro Studios, published by Nintendo and was released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002. It serves as a midquel to the Metroid series, taken place between Metroid(as in the NES game) and Metroid II: Return of Samus/Metroid: Samus Returns, the first installment of the Metroid Prime series, a follow-up to Metroid Fusion, the second chronological installment of the Metroid Time-Line and is overall the fifth installment of the Metroid series.

It was later released for the Wii in February 19, 2009 as New Play Control! Metroid Prime, and four months later in May 22, 2009 in the Metroid Prime Trilogy along with Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. In 2023, it was later released as a remastered in the Nintendo Switch, titled Metroid Prime Remastered.

Plot

Samus intercepts a distress signal from the Space Pirate frigate Orpheon, whose crew have been slaughtered by the Pirates' own genetically modified, experimental subjects. At the ship's core, she battles with the Parasite Queen—a giant version of the tiny parasites aboard the ship. The Parasite Queen is defeated and falls into the ship's reactor core, initiating the destruction of the ship. During her escape, an electrical surge and explosion destroys her suit upgrades, forcing her to revert to her original Power Suit. Samus escapes the frigate and chases her nemesis in her gunship towards the nearby planet Tallon IV.

Why It Rocks

1. This is the very first 3D Metroid game to be created, and an absolute game changer on top of that. It's basically like the amazing Super Metroid on the SNES, but made into a 3D game.
2. Beautiful and jaw-dropping graphics and environments for the time, and they still look great today.
3. Epic, non-linear gameplay and exploration mechanics.
4. An awesome, moody, ambient soundtrack, even popularizing Lower Norfair's theme with Magmoor Caverns.
5. Revolutionary first-person shooter gameplay, a first in the Metroid series.
6. Fantastic power ups.
7. Lore scans are a cool concept that are great at building the lore of each location you go to. Each lore that can be scan in Metroid Prime is super engaging to read, from the Chozo's tragic backstory with Phazon, to the Space Pirates plan to use Phazon as a weapon, to the reveal that Samus is a hero that can defeat the new threat of Phazon.
8. Really tight controls for both the Gamecube and New! Play Control/Trilogy ports.
9. Like Super Metroid and other games in the franchise, there's a huge amount of hidden items and collectibles which give players a lot of replay value. And the expansions all require creative solutions or puzzle-solving to obtain.
10. While beams being separate (from Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus) returns, it gets fixed by the fact that all four of the beams have their own element to them.
    • The Power Beam is a basic normal beam that has no effects, but can be fired rapidly and has the highest rating fire.
    • The Wave Beam is an electric-theme beam that can home in on enemies when locked on and when charge can paralyze them.
    • The Ice Beam is (as its name applies) an ice-theme beam that has the slowest rating fire, but can freeze enemies in place, and has great damage.
    • The Plasma Beam is a heat-based beam that has the shortest range, but can set enemies on fire, continually damaging them, when charge up, it can one-shot them into black ashes. It is essentially the most powerful beam in general.
11. There are secondary weapons for all four of the beams that use missiles that are called Beam Combos.
    • The Power Beam gets the Super Missile, it can fire a large yellow blast that can one-shot almost every enemy in the game, while dealing heavy damage to bosses.
    • The Wave Beam gets the Wave Buster, it can shoot out an electric lighting-like tractor beam that will complete stun the enemies in place and do continues damage to them.
    • The Ice Beam gets the Ice Spreader, it can fire an icy blast that if hit on contact with a floor and/or wall, will cause that area to get covered in ice, it can be use agents multiple enemies.
    • The Plasma Beam gets the Flamethrower, as its name suggest, it can can launch out continues flames like a real flamethrower, its useful agents large swarm of enemies.
12. Over the top and epic boss battles, like Parasite Queen(the very first boss of both the game and the Mertroid Prime series), Thardus, Omega Pirate, Meta Ridley (who is essentially the most infamous boss of the Prime series) and the final boss/title antagonist: Metroid Prime.
13. Despite the game's overall dark tone, it still has a sense of humor, such example is the cutscene after the boss fight agents Thardus, were a piece of rock clunks off Samus' head.
14. Balanced difficulty, not too hard, but not too easy. It really varies depending on your view and the difficulty, however.
15. Incredible areas, such as Tallon IV and Phendrana Drifts.
16. Camera spans to third-person when switching to Morph Ball mode, making it feel fun to control, like you're playing a game like Marble Blast Ultra or something.
17. In March of 2023, the game got a remaster on Nintendo Switch and it's just as good as the original if not better.
18. If you’ve already finished Metroid Fusion on your Game Boy Advance, you can link it to your GameCube to unlock the original Metroid from the get-go, and if Metroid Prime has also been finished, you can replay the game with the Fusion Suit.
    • In the Metroid Prime Trilogy, however, it's a simple unlockable that can be switched on and off.
19. Multiple endings and secrets depending on the percentage of found items and power-ups.
    • The 75%-99% ending shows Samus taking off her helmet and looking at the environment, a staple in Metroid games.
    • The 100% ending, on the other hand, shows a post credits scene involving Dark Samus' horrifying and tense rebirth, teasing Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

Bad Qualities

1. The lighting effect can be a bit annoying.
2. Somewhat tedious backtracking, which the game unfortunately seems to have a big obsession with.
3. This is the only Metroid game where the iconic Screw Attack isn't a collectible item, although it returns in the sequel.
4. The Chozo Artifacts scavenger hunt near the end of the game is quite tedious.
5. Some areas are really dark, making it extremely difficult to navigate through and they often force you to adjust the brightness of the TV or when it's literally pitch black (this is present in some areas of the Phendrana Drifts), use the Thermal Visor just to see where you're going or what you're doing, which can interfere with navigating.
6. Some of the bosses are really weak and underwhelming, like the Incinerator Drone, the Cloaked Drone, and even the Metroid Prime's second phase.
7. If you're going for 100% Scans, that could easily go wrong with the fact that there are quite a handful of missable scans, like Flaagrah's thorny roots.

Tips

1. When you get a particular upgrade (such as the Wavebuster), you can backtrack to that area to get a Chozo Artifact.
2. There are really neat tricks to defeat the Omega Pirate.
   • You can destroy the Phazon armor with Power Bombs.
   • You can take out the Omega Pirate in three shots by using Super Missiles.
3. In the Gamecube version of this game, you can easily destroy an Ice Trooper by freezing it with your Ice Beam and using a missile. This isn't present in Trilogy, but you should manage them quite easily with just the Ice Beam in general.
4. When going for a full 100% run of Scans, just know that the ones that are need for 100% are the Health/Ammo Pickups, both the Map, Save and Ammo Stations, Research areas, Chozo Lore, Space Pirate Data and the Creatures.
   • Additionally, when going for every Space Pirate Data in the Space Pirate Labs areas of Phendrana Drifts and Phazon Mines, know that the scan-able ones are labeled in red.

Reception

Metroid Prime became one of the best-selling games on the GameCube, with about 1.49 million copies sold in the United States alone, earning more than $50 million in revenue. It is also the eighth best-selling GameCube game in Australia, and sold more than 78,000 copies in Japan and more than 250,000 copies in Europe, thus entering the Player's Choice line in the PAL region.

According to Nintendo's official data as of December 2006, Metroid Prime was the sixth best selling GameCube game, and the best selling Metroid game in the series with 2.78 million units sold to retailers. Metroid Dread surpassed it as the top-selling Metroid game in 2022. Critical response

After its release, the game received much critical acclaim, including a perfect review score from Electronic Gaming Monthly and Nintendo Power. IGN rated it high for its "very impressive graphics, amazing, innovative gameplay, how it stayed true to the classic Metroid formula, and its soundtrack." However, criticisms were also made, mostly for the unusual control scheme[38] and backtracking.

Currently on Game Rankings, Metroid Prime stands as the seventh greatest game of all time and also the greatest game of the sixth console generation, with an average score of 96.26%. The video game countdown show Filter named Metroid Prime as having the Best Graphics of all time. It also won many 2002 Game of the Year awards from major publications and gaming sites.

Metroid Prime was also included in several lists of best games: 24th in IGN's Top 100 and 1st in IGN's Top 25 Gamecube games of all time, 29th in a 100-game list chosen by GameFAQs users, and 10th in Nintendo Power's "Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever". Metroid Prime also became popular among hardcore gamers for speedrunning, with specialized communities being formed to share these speedruns.

Prime was nominated for 17 awards at the 2002 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers, becoming one of the organization's all-time most nominated games. It won two awards in the categories of Art Direction in a Game Cinema and Art Direction, Game Design. Todd Keller was the recipient of the former award.

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