Metroid retrospective: Part 3

Metroid retrospective: Part 3 - Metroid Prime

by Alexander Sliwinski { Aug 9th 2007 at 10:23PM }

Metroid goes 3D as GameTrailers' Metroid retrospective heads into the Prime years. Although Super Metroid is the darling of the series, if you skipped out on buying a Gamecube, the Metroid Prime games are definitely a reason to get yourself a Wavebird controller for your Wii. Plus, you can use the Wavebird when Brawl eventually comes out. Hopefully the Wii iteration of Metroid Prime will bring fans to the Prime series, as long as that control scheme works properly. Please let those controls work properly.

See also: Part 1, Part 2

Tags: metroid, metroidretrospective, retrospective

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

TWiNKiE @ Aug 9th 2007 10:39PM

I've been saving up for Metroid Prime 3 since Min-E3.

marc @ Aug 9th 2007 10:41PM

i feel like someone dropped the ball on using the word 'metrospective' in the title.

hvnlysoldr @ Aug 9th 2007 10:42PM

That's a horrible made-up word that is no way near cromulent!

Yoshi @ Aug 9th 2007 10:44PM

The stupid video keeps stopping 1 minute into it and I can't get it to play past that point >_

LAboy @ Aug 9th 2007 10:44PM

Awesome video.

Leonidas @ Aug 9th 2007 10:53PM

Metroid Prime 3 better have nightvision...

REUYL @ Aug 9th 2007 10:59PM

Will you have to wear the eyepatch visor?

Johnny Bloom @ Aug 9th 2007 11:08PM

Where does the whole "Pirate-Night Vision" meme originate from? As both a commodore in the Queen's navy, and a pirate, I should know these things.

Crono @ Aug 9th 2007 11:22PM

Johnnybloom:

Mythbusters

phattie @ Aug 9th 2007 10:56PM

The Metroid style of play doesnt really suit me anymore.. ie. the constant back-tracking and artificially extending the game. And, there are basically no story elements except at the beginning and end of the game (no, i dont want to scan and read everything).

Anyways, Super Metroid remains the best in the series. If they did a 2d sequel or remake of that, it would be great.

SkyCroc @ Aug 10th 2007 12:05AM

"If they did a 2d sequel or remake of that, it would be great."

Metroid Fusion.

vidGuy @ Aug 10th 2007 12:14AM

It really is a polarizing play style. Personally I loved Prime, especially the way the story was driven - after all, how else would the only character on a planet get to understand what's going on? - but I can understand being put off by it. Word is that MP3:C has gotten rid of a lot of the backtracking and has added more action. The puzzles are still there, too.

captainawesome @ Aug 10th 2007 1:39AM

Fusion was too linear, and nowhere near as atmospheric as Super.

Crono @ Aug 10th 2007 9:07AM

Zero Mission, though not a sequel, is a remake of the original metroid in Super Metroid style.

They'll never top super metroid, you know.

Nintendo better get my wii back to me by the time Super Metroid hits. Thats a must buy, for me.

Crono @ Aug 10th 2007 9:22AM

WOOT! Nintendo shipped my wii today!

hvnlysoldr @ Aug 9th 2007 11:02PM

Critics argued about dual analogs! What are they smoking! Metroid Prime is a First Person Adventure. ADVENTURE! RE4 also had a similar style and they applaud that. I'll have to buy MP2:E before MP3:C

Crono @ Aug 9th 2007 11:08PM

I get so damn tired of hearing "FPA". Half life was more of a FPA (plenty of puzzle solving and platforming), and it retained the classic shooter control style. Metroid Prime had the chance to revolutionize the control scheme on Gamecube. They gave that right up, to Halo.

MP would have been the exact same game with dual analogues. Scanning, jumping, visor switching, the whole shebang. Then we wouldn't have these rediculous conversations about what the difference between an FPS and FPA are.

Anononomous @ Aug 9th 2007 11:17PM

I agree. The controls for the game were perfect. I hate dual analogs and would not have gotten anywhere near as much enjoyment out of the games had they used dual analogs. In fact, I probably wouldn't have played them.

I never knew about the multiple endings, though. Now I want to play them again even more. But I have no time.

vidGuy @ Aug 10th 2007 12:16AM

I couldn't have played Prime with dual analogs.

Kael @ Aug 10th 2007 1:52AM

Yes, Crono! I feel the same way about that little marketing ploy Nintendo pulled with the "FPA" fiasco. I had also argued in the past that Half-Life was more "adventure-y", and other shooters like Riddick and, yes, Doom 3. Even Serious Sam had periodic, optional text dumps about the game's lore, enemies, their weaknesses, and histories just like the Scanning thing in Prime, but most people were snowed with Nintendo's "new genre" dogma. If you have managed to read this far into my rant, please be aware that I don't hate the Primes aside from the resentment of it being the favored child in the Metroid family, receiving all the parents' love to the exclusion of the eldest series that has gone so long without any attention and without any reasonable hope of a future. Yeah, I'm bitter. So...

Nintendo: Where's Metroid V?

shivr @ Aug 10th 2007 3:09AM

This retrospective is the first time I heard this "FPA" nomer... It doesn't make them any more or less good games >_> But yeah, I can't do dual analogs, so I probably wouldn't have completed these games if that was the only control scheme (which would have sucked 'cause as I've said before, Echos and Prime are my favorite metroid games). That said, they could have included both style to assauge the whiners :)

Sidepocket @ Aug 10th 2007 12:57PM

@ Crono

Did you ever fucking play FPS on Gamecube? Just so you would know, using the C-Stick to aim sucks ass fucktard. ;D

kip @ Aug 10th 2007 11:57AM

"I get so damn tired of hearing "FPA". Half life was more of a FPA (plenty of puzzle solving and platforming), and it retained the classic shooter control style."

What makes it an adventure game is that you have areas that are closed off to you until you acquire an item, then you can use that item to explore new areas. Just like a Zelda game. In fact my first opinion of MP was that it was the same control concept as Zelda, just in first person. I don't remember any of that kind of exploring in Half Life.

Crono @ Aug 9th 2007 11:03PM

I liked Prime 1. Alot. I beat it. It was hard.

Prime 2 was more of the same. More of the cool parts, even more of the annoying parts. In Super Metroid, you looked forward to backtracking and exploring new places you couldn't get to before. Not to mention that you could use multiple solutions to get through the puzzles. Metroid Prime 2 was too much of the annoying, not enough of the awesome.

Sounds like Prime 3 will be much better.

TWiNKiE @ Aug 9th 2007 11:04PM

Funny.... When I watched Part 2 and 3, it stopped a minute before it ended.

muppetmeth @ Aug 9th 2007 11:16PM

Prime has nothing on the 2D Metroids.

Moofree @ Aug 9th 2007 11:20PM

Except for lots of platforming, shooting, morph-balling, speed runs, lots of weaponry and powerups, similar game design, and the same protagonist... Yes.
No wait, you're wrong.

Moofree @ Aug 9th 2007 11:35PM

Oops, misread. See below.

I admit that Super Metroid is still the best metroid game, Metroid Prime is still quite an excellent game, and my favorite console game of the last generation.

Crono @ Aug 9th 2007 11:24PM

Moo, I don't think you know what you're talking about. Or him.

Moofree @ Aug 9th 2007 11:29PM

I misread it. Sorry.
Thought he said "prime has nothing to do with"

Though... you should use the reply button next time.

captainawesome @ Aug 9th 2007 11:44PM

Don't steal my avatar moo.

Moofree @ Aug 10th 2007 12:48AM

Or is it you who has stolen mine?
I was thinking of changing it though...

Ipodfanboy @ Aug 9th 2007 11:39PM

metriod prime 2 echoes did bad because it was not a bad game or becausing of the back trackin. MP2E did bad because other consoles had better notable over rated games. in 2004 halo2 was released for the xbox, scifan shoooters did not want to play metriod prime 2 but instead play halo2, millions of people bought an xbox just to play halo2. Other gamers were playing madden 05 MGS3 GTASA and Need for speed underground 2. Metriod prime 2 was probably the most over looked and underated metriod game in the series. I hope nintendo markets metriod prime 3 better then metriod prime 2. Metriod prime 3 will have superior FPS controls. I'd be surprise if this game can hold out against samus galactic rival master chief.

Wubbytoes @ Aug 10th 2007 12:17AM

Metroid Prime was the first game that I bought when I got my GC, and I played the hell out of it. That really is one of the best games of the last generation.

Raikage @ Aug 10th 2007 12:53AM

Hey same here! It is also my favorite last gen. Right next to Ninja Gaiden, Knights of the Old Republic, Metal Gear Solid 3, Burnout 3, and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory...

I think we should have a "Best of Last Gen" post, or even a poll.

fester @ Aug 10th 2007 12:30AM

I sure hope the new Metroid is similar to the first GC Prime-one of the best games ever created; the second one [Echoes] was a certified p.o.s. It was unecessarily complex and became rather sluggish and plain boring after a while and the same goes for that touchy-feely mess that was on the DS. If the new game even comes close to Prime it'll be a gem!

Louis S. @ Aug 10th 2007 1:11AM

The Metroid series is one of my favorites.

Ross @ Aug 10th 2007 3:11AM

After watching that I popped my copy of Prime back in and loaded my save game and I had completely forgotten I had a 100% save on there. Man, I was a scan visor whore back in college.

Silver R. Wolfe @ Aug 10th 2007 6:23AM

Not having dual analog controls was a big turn-off for me when it came to the Prime series. Not having it made the game feel very clunky and the amount of back-tracking was just insane.

Breserk @ Aug 10th 2007 7:24AM

Not scanning the Parasite Queen was a fucking bitch.

jeffx @ Aug 10th 2007 9:02AM

Embarassing photos??? What?

Matt @ Aug 10th 2007 10:53AM

I loved Prime 1, and I can see how people were turned off by Echoes. However, Echoes remains one of my favorite games ever (right up there with Crono Trigger and UT 2k1 goty).

Also, yeah, embarrassing photos?!?! Was that a joke, or did the original head of Retro studios actually get brought down in some kind of scandal?

Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Aug 10th 2007 2:19PM

That FPA things sounds like recipe for disappointment to me.

What about, quote, "mindless shooting" then? Would be any "serious" game where you go and shoot everything what moves??

Puzzles are OK. Boss fights in Zelda style are also OK. Ball morphing sometimes is fun but mostly is boring routine. Content locked on different weapon types - plainly sucks (see "backtracking" above).

Everything what was just said in other posts had reinforced my after DS' "Metroid Prime: Hunters" opinion that Metroid is just another boring worthless Nintendo franchise for kids. For I - adult - do not have time to be involved that much to play such games.

So. What about "mindless shooting"? And internet multi-player with more of it??

P.S. Seems that I should start petitioniong Id for Wii port of Doom3. Because that's the game I really want to play with WaggleMote. (Well, and Prey too.)

Mr Khan @ Aug 10th 2007 2:38PM

Put me in the "I hate dual analogue" boat too, my first FPS was Goldeneye, and i never really got the dual analogue system after that, even though i picked up keyboard/mouse fairly easily

I don't see what the whole "FPA" argument is either, its a game in the first person where you shoot things, just because its based less on action and more on exploration doesn't negate the fact that it fulfills the mandate of "First Person Shooter" But i loved the GC primes, definitely the shot in the arm the series needed after an 8 year hiatus, they brought the series back with a vengeance

Rob @ Aug 10th 2007 6:41PM

"I think we should have a "Best of Last Gen" post, or even a poll."

I agree! Let's see.....

Metroid Prime - Freakin' awesome. My favourite game of the last gen.

Halo - Blew me away when I first saw it. And the co-op.....

Wind Waker - I HATED Nintendo when they ditched the 'realistic' Zelda from the GC E3 demo about 6 years ago. But I picked it up on release, co, you know, it's Zelda. Turns out I really should have trusted them.

Shadow Of The Colossus - I haven't completed it (I don't actually own a PS2 - I know), but I've fought about half the 'bosses', and wow..... Beautiful, beautiful game.

Guitar Hero 1 & 2 - Cannot now imagine life without it! Admittedly, I only have the 360 version, but they're the same, right? Just waiting for them to release Franz Ferdinand and Bowie for d/l on Live.

RE4 - Loved it so much I'm seriously considering picking up the Wii version just to see what the controls are like. Edge and GamesTM both rated it 9, so I may do..... Anyhoo.....

There we are. What say you???......

Oh, and the photos - I didn't dig too hard, but read the third and fourth paragraphs:

http://uk.cube.ign.com/articles/574/574119p8.html

Sounds like he had himself a good time!