Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

[Dogg Thang]

This arrived for me today only, when I put it on, instead of a Metroid game I got some linear combat game with sassy hunters. Weird. There's something about the look that makes my eyes hurt. Reminds me of the old N64 days. It's the blur.

Control works well though. Haven't even found advanced controls so just on default now and they seem mostly fine except sometimes the lock seems random. The first boss I did find myself fighting with the lock more than the actual boss.

I've now moved to a new planet and it seems much more Metroidy so hoping it all goes uphill from here.

[briareos_kerensky]

Ah, probably it's just me not reading the manual or the logbook but...

->Open Spoiler<-

what are ship missile expansions for

?
Haven't found any use of them unless needed to proceed with the game.
BTW, almost at its end, I'm backtracking to find the last two items in the game.

It's the blur.

Which blur? Graphics are razor sharp (with component cable). There are certain areas with some blooming effect, but the first part has none of it, as far as I remember.

[Charlie]

@ Dogg Thang, Metroid games always kick off with a pretty linear pre-act to help set the scene. As for the lock, it's not that bad really, just remember it disengages whenever you get hit.

[Dogg Thang]

Which blur? Graphics are razor sharp (with component cable). There are certain areas with some blooming effect, but the first part has none of it, as far as I remember.

I'm on crappy composite and an SD telly. That must have added bloom effects all over the first sections. Actually, this new planet already seems to have less bloom and is much easier on the eyes.

Thanks for the tip on the lock, Charlie.

[Rossco]

Ah yes, the lock was a bit weird for me on the first boss too, but now realising it released when you get hit will make a difference to me!

[AllYourBase]

I managed to clock up another 1/2 hr on Metroid tonight -

->Open Spoiler<-

That bloody silver surfer boss kept pwning me man! I figured out the tactics straight away but I kept messing up right at the last part cos I was too lazy too shoot the snowballs to refuel! lol

4th time lucky and I beat him, bloody bast!

That's enough for tonight! At this rate I will finish it by xmas!

Oh yeah, I switched to advanced sensitivity mode, the game plays much better with this setting. Get it changed!

[Charlie]

That's exactly where I'm up to and am also taking it very slow and only playing it for an hour or two each day, in part because I want the experience to last and to savour it as, who knows, we might not see another triple A game on the Wii for another 8 months (that was a joke by the way, to all you Wii zealots ). No, but seriously, the game's gotten really good. Some of the puzzles are really clever, the environments drip with detail and it's fast becoming my second favourite game this year after Zelda TP. If it continues in the same vein it could prove Prime's equal, maybe even surpass it. We'll see.

[Synthesthesia]

If it continues in the same vein it could prove Prime's equal, maybe even surpass it. We'll see.

I got this yesterday, and tbh, for me it's already gotten better than prime.

Everything just feels better, the combat, the level design, the map system, the way you can travel to different planets, it all just FEELS right. (I loved prime too btw )

I love it

[figflair]

I'm playing this on veteran and loving it. The difficulty level feels just right. There seems to be a lot less backtracking than in the previous games. I hope this continues as that was the one thing I never liked about the previous two. Some great bosses so far. I'm glad it hasn't panned out to be anything like Hunters on the DS as that game was weak.

[briareos_kerensky]

Completed the game...well, two minutes ago.
16:14 in normal setting, 100% pick-ups; the game saves on the slot you used to begin the a new game with an harder mode and keeps track of the times you've finished it, so I guess there's a special surprise for those who finish the games three times in all three difficulties. The game also sends a message to the message board with a screenshot attached.
Astonishing game, with a lot of highs and a few lows.
First, the game is a constant crescendo until the final half an hour,

->Open Spoiler<-

which is not bad per-se, but seems a bit hurried; it has a couple of surprises, but both graphically and level design -wise is sub par to the rest of the game. The two final bosses, too, aren't as fun as the others, the first two Prime final bosses where more engaging and fun to beat.

Music is incredibly engaging, much more than the other Prime games, probably even more than all other Metroid games: they are not just subtle BGMs that are there to fill the silence between shoots, each stage won't be as suggestive without its music. I'm usually unimpressed by vg music, if not by cutscenes, but Corruption makes the music part of the gameplay, really.
And you cannot stop to praise the game graphics. The first part is a bit dull, all that technological stuff that has been seen in all sci-fi games since the advent of texturized polygons (and even before), but everything else is just...wow. Each planet has its own style and their different locations have subtle differencies that takes them apart, but it's always clear that you are on a single planet, inhabitated by a specific race with its own architecture, way of thinking and history. My favourite?

->Open Spoiler<-

I'd say Skytown, it's basically Tallon IV Chozo ruins melded with art nouveax, but the Pirate Homeworld, with its reddish hue, alien architecture and acid rain is just as striking. Bryyo, too, is fantastic, especially in Bryyo fire...and their huge golems...

simply beatiful. In fact, I'd have wished less enemies and a wider field of view to admire the wonderful structures.

The game is littered with interactive spots which requires some Wiimote actions...some are good, some are not. I've found that almost any motion that requires to pull the Wiimote away from the screen is not as receptive as others, but that's something I've found in all games, I guess its the technology itself being at fault rather than the game. Pulling shield and other things with the nunchuk is fun, and more than one time I've found myself screaming while doing so...yes, it's fun killing enemies not only on screen but also with true movements (or shouldn't have I wrote this )

The game structure is somewhat more linear than other Metroid titles, and reminiscent of Fusion: objectives are clear and marked on the map, there's no wandering around aimlessy, sometime the game is even boring in reminding you what you are supposed to do: later in the game, you'll want to backtrack to find all pickups, something that can be long and every time you turn on the console to play, you are reminded where you have to go...which can be frustrating; yes, frustrating, as you have to enter the map, see the zoom in/zoom out animation and the finally go back to the game...or live with a "press 1 to go to the map screen" forever.
Maps are also smaller than any other Prime. This helps *a lot* to understand places (especially if you have to gaze at the map at every room to see if you took the right road, like me), but compared to the other Primes...well, the part of the galaxy you visit feels small; due to this, backtracking is also easier and more enjoyable, thanks also to some small changes some rooms enjoy between your visits.
It must be said that gone are useless rooms connecting important rooms, there are still a few corridors, but almost any of the rooms in the game has something do, being it

->Open Spoiler<-

jumping with the screw attack

or rolling into a ball to pass. It's a strange feeling: you get a much more detailed, alive (also more linear) world with no useless rooms, but you'll feel that the game is small.

An other point that makes the world small is that

->Open Spoiler<-

you can pinpoint location of 95% of pickups thanks to...well, it's already spoilered, so let's just say that you can. With such an help it's very easy to get all upgrades (and the final ending), though having all missiles or energy tanks is not that important if you're playing normal. And I still need to understand why there are ship missile expansions...

And this brings us to my biggest letdown: the game is easy. I can understand that normal is done for all those players that bought a Wii for Wii Sport, but I think that at least the final boss should give more headaches. If you played the other Prime titles (or any other FPS), you'll might want to start Veteran from the beginning, it can get as difficult as the first Prime (standard setting), but at least it's far more rewarding.

If you think that 16 hours aren't that much, let me say that Echoes, for example,

->Open Spoiler<-

had the 9 Sky Temple Keys quest that was extremely boring

, and in Prime you had to search for all suit upgrades...you don't lose anything in Corruption and you start with a good number of upgrades (Varia Suit, Space Jump, Morph Ball) that gives much more freedom in the beginning and free the game from something that all other Metroid games had...no more wandering around to gain something you already had, you gain extra powers in a very natural way that don't bog down the game.

The idea of giving credits to unlock extras is good, though friend tokens...uhmm, dunno. You don't need much of them to open everything, but relying on someone else with the poor Nintendo online service isn't exactly the best thing.

Advanced controls are excellent. Locking is no longer required, except if you want to have homing missiles, but with the precision and quickness of point somewhere at the screen just to hit enemies, locking has become useless, if not to center the enemy in your field of view, but you can run and gun as much as you want without locking, or performing 180? jump while aiming at something with ease...this game has set the standard for Wii controls (and graphics), no matter how you speak about it. It's so good that makes the whole game more alive and helps to break that invisible wall between player and game, something that was present, for example, in Red Steel.

Judging the game, for me, it's very difficult: on one hand you have a more linear structure, less difficult game with the structure of two previous titles, with some additions pioneered by other games and basically it's nothing really new. The other hand holds an excellent technical side and razor-sharp controls that are genre-defining; a really good experience, evolutionary but not revolutionary. IMO it's not a 9, but a good, full 8.

(A piece of my mind: I hate giving numbers to games and I'm pretty strict when it comes to it, but by writing this I'd wanted to let anyone know that when a game gets an 8, it's a frigging good game, 9 is an excellent game, a revolutionary experience for the whole industry and just not one genre while 10 is perfection. To date no game IMO fulfills the requirements for a 10...Mario 64, however, is very near it. So, yes, most games orbiting around 90-99% in all magazines and websites are usually 8 to me.)

[Valken]

Quick question regarding the morphball and item collecting. Do you get a means of jumping in ball mode or should I get practicing the bomb jump technique?

[Charlie]

Nice impressions, briareos, from what I've seen of the game so far I agree with most of what you say. Surprised and a little worried you managed to complete it first time round with a 100&#37; collection rate in just over 16 hours though. I'm sure Prime and Echoes took me much longer than that.

[briareos_kerensky]

Quick question regarding the morphball and item collecting. Do you get a means of jumping in ball mode or should I get practicing the bomb jump technique?

Double bomb jumping is strickly required just once, IIRC, especially because you can jump, lay a mine at the zenith of the jump and then jump again when the bomb is exploding: double bomb jumping made easy. Jumping by flicking the Wiimote up is much more used, not just to speed things up instead of laying a bomb.

Surprised and a little worried you managed to complete it first time round with a 100&#37; collection rate in just over 16 hours though.

It's written into a spoiler tag why I was able to locate all 100 pickups...I would have never been able to, if not for that "trick". I don't have much patience in retracing my steps back to pick everything up (I never did it with the two previous Prime, for example), I did so with Corruption becasue
a) most upgrades can be collected when you first see them (*most*)
b) the aforementioned trick.
BTW, 16 hours with little or no backtracking, IMO it's a lot better than 30 hours with 10 hours of backtracking for some stupid plot device.

[Charlie]

Ahh, okay. I didn't read the trick in spoiler tags. Always enjoyed backtracking in the Metroid games myself so hopefully by not using the trick' it will be called for, but I understand it's bone of a contention amongst many players.

[Dogg Thang]

I would have thought that the backtracking was a key ingredient in Metroid. The re-exploration of covered ground with new tools is what most of the games have been based on, including Prime 1. If anything, the linearity of Fusion was a major criticism among people and even the signposting in Zero Mission, designed to cut out aimless wandering, didn't seem all that welcome.