Background | Year of Release | Media | Mini-Reivew | The Result

System: GameCube Developer: Retro Studios Publisher: Nintendo Players: 1 Save: Card Genre: First Person Adventure

Taking place, between the original Metroid and Metroid II, in Metroid Prime, you travel to the planet of Tallon IV to battle the last remaining space pirates that have regrouped there. This game marks the transition of the Metroid franchise into 3D gaming. It was developed by upstart firm Retro Studios, which is wholly owned by Nintendo, and was published by Nintendo.

North America: 11/17/2002
Japan: 02/28/2003
Europe: 03/21/2003

Screenshots: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7

Metroid Prime is the best game available on the GameCube and one of the greatest games ever released on a Nintendo platform. Many people were sceptical on the ability of a rather unproven development house, in Retro Studios, to accurately translate the 2D game play of previous Metroid games into a 3D game. Retro Studios proved many wrong and developed a truly innovate game engine that allows for 3D first-person shooting and exploration.

Metroid Prime is not a traditional first person shooter. There is a great deal of shooting in the game, but the primary game focus is exploration. Exploration basically involves finding weapons and bodysuit upgrades that allow you to access more areas and progress through the game.

Combat is done via a lock-on system. Enemies and certain objects can be locked onto via the L button. Once an enemy us targeted, Samus can strafe around the enemy using the control stick. If there are multiple enemies on screen, pressing L will toggle the lock-on to the various enemies on screen.

Just like in previous Metroid games, Samus can go into her morph-ball. Morph-ball mode is done in third-person. At various times in the game, Samus will encounter small areas in which she can only enter with her morph ball. There are several morph-ball puzzles in the game that are interesting and often vary challenging.

The visuals and audio are nothing short of exceptional and the game runs at a constant sixty frames per second. This game is a true technical achievement on the GameCube.

Score - 9.9

It's a classic!

Page by Player Guy Forever

11/14/2004