Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) - Impressions
A friend got it for me in London on release date and he brought it over on Saturday. Right now i have completed about 16% of the game so i have a lot more to do and see. For those who have not played the series before, Metroid Prime is a platform adventure with a lot of exploration to do with some shooting you have to do along the way. Your main character is Samus, a female bounty hunter.
The series was never supposed to be nor pretended to be a shooter. However with Corruption the Metroid series has moved closer to the FPS genre as probably Retro Studios (the developers) want to showcase the Wii’s controls. The game itself is solid but adds nothing new to the previous iterations on the Gamecube. However, i have read that the game does improve considerably after the first quarter. You will move from planet to planet as you get satellite uplinks on your objectives. As you progress through the game you get armour and weaponry upgrades which give you access to locations you could not previously visit. One cool new feature is the use of your spaceship. You use it to move from location to location and also you give it coordinates to perform bombing runs in open air locations while you are on the ground. It is like your spaceship is your sidekick. Nice touch. The musical score is one of the things i love about the game while on the other hand the boss battles do get on my nerves but bosses are part of the Metroid history.
Now to the main issue. Controls. The controls are mosty great. I have the advanced settings enabled where you move Samus using the nunchuck with the wiimote controlling your gun. Moving and aiming becomes intuitive after while. I have some issues getting a lock on enemies and then for some reason losing it which is really annoying especially as you lose the enemies from the screen. Furthermore the - and + buttons are very inconvenient to use due to their position on the Wiimote when you want to enter hypermode or quickly scan a boss and find out its weakness. There are other uses of the motion controls such as using the nunchuck for the grappling device for taking enemies’ shields for example.
Aside from a couple of issues however i have to admit this is the best control set-up i have experienced on a console for a FPS game. Going back to thumbsticks on my 360 and PS3 makes me feel i am going back in time, the dark ages. After putting the PSP into good use it seems it is the Wii’s turn now with Metroid Prime: Corruption. It was about time!
November 1st, 2007 at 12:28
Glad you are enjoying the game dude. I also picked it up yesterday and I have to agree with you that, so far, it has been great.
The controls are very fluid. I switched my fire button and jump buttons around so the trigger is now used to shot and it feels good pointing at the screen and blasting away. It would have been even better if my hands didn’t frigging shake so much and the lock on work the way I would have liked but it sure beats two analogue sticks for sure.
I am pleased we are playing it at the same time so we can talk and compare our views.
November 1st, 2007 at 13:22
Yeah i agree about the shaking. I also get confused into thinking that since i have locked the target i am also aiming at it too which is not the case. I found myself thinking that i am shooting the target whereas i was looking at the locked target instead of my crosshair which was aimed somewhere else.