Hello, welcome to our retrospective on the old Metroid Prime games and so we can find features that will most likely be in the game. Bugs and other non user friendly gameplay mechanics will also be highlighted in hopes that Retro Studios will not implement them in Metroid Prime 4. Although some are nitpicks they should be mentioned anyway. I will be playing this series via the Prime Hack mod for the Metroid Prime Trilogy which allows the player to use mouse and keyboard instead of the nunchuck and wiimote.
Once the player passes the initial aim tutorial they are introduced to the visor mechanic by scanning the door to enter. While Samus can use this later to avoid fighting those turrets by shutting them down via a switch her arsenal can quickly deal with them without much to worry about. Speaking of enemies The player is introduced to a feigning death space pirate. It's a great way to immerse the player as a space bounty hunter and that being careless can get you killed without you realizing it.
After you clear a few floors getting a hang of the mechanics Samus walks in on a giant room holding the 'Parasite Queen.' And in Samus's view she finds lifeless space pirates which is a great way of world building for the player. The boss fight makes use of the basic mechanics and gives the player a chance to find the best weapon for the job by testing it out in the Parasite Queen's vulnerable state. After the Parasite Queen is destroyed the ship begins to blow itself up and creates a timer before the ship explodes creating a sense of tension for the player and sense of urgency to get to her ship.
After opening a door in a hallway that almost squishes the player we are introduced to the head honcho himself, Ridley except in a more mechanical form. He doesn't stay long but its enough to make Samus angry at his presence. After he leaves the player can scan medical files of Ridley's upgrades and get a feel of how serious of a problem he can be. It's in this room that the player gets a taste of the grapple beam mechanic. It's too bad that the majority of the game doesn't use much of the grapple beam unless it's for missile expansion rooms or a couple areas in the game.
While running to Samus's ship she hails an elevator but right before it activates there is an explosion behind her causing her to slam right into it causing her suit to malfunction and losing all her upgrades. If you played this game and was one of those players who scanned a lot of the lore that you found it would strike an 'o snap' moment and feel compelled to get her upgrades back and fight Ridley and his space pirate goons.
During Samus's final seconds on the space pirate frigate she rushes to her ship to pursue Ridley before the space pirate station she's on explodes. She finds herself heading to the nearby planet, Tallon Overworld. This concludes the tutorial level and sets the scene and environment for the player.
The Weapons and Combat
The weapons in Metroid Prime have a good feel with each of the weapons: Power Beam, Wave Beam, Ice Beam, and Plasma Beam. Once you get the super missile the combat is pretty easy because most enemies take one super missile to the face. Only issue is capacity which well talk about later in the 'Collectible' section. But if you prioritize the super missiles with the charge beam on strong enemies then it isn't much of an issue.
The wave beam is the beam that has a mechanic that powers switches when hit which is a cool mechanic that makes the player think when they're stuck in a room. The beam does slightly more damage than the plasma when all three connect and paralyzes enemies when hit with a charge beam. The charge beam can also be used on turrets to make them shoot crazily before they self destruct, a nice feature. It's charge combo, the wavebuster I find isn't worth the ammo consumption and would do more damage and save ammo with the super missile. Although the feature of sticking to an enemy is nice you'll lose like 50 missiles by the time they're defeated.
The ice beam does good damage per shot but its super variant is kind of pointless since when you're that late in the game your enemies are in the air most of the time and the effect creates ice on the ground freezing nearby enemies. Although it does look cool once you hit multiple enemies in a corridor.
The plasma beam is great. It can melt the three ice blocks that are in your way or to find a secret. The beam does 'big damage' to enemies and has a neat contrast to your other guns. The flamethrower light the enemy on fire and consumes lots of ammo like the wavebuster but it can spread which is nice when the situation arrives.
My gripe is that the enemies don't really allow much strategy unless its level hazards which is a great feature to use when you see it. Like the bomb in the vents that you can blow up to kill 2 space pirates or the stalactites in Magmoor Caverns that can be broken to prevent magmoors from spawning. But most of the time you're freezing enemies then shooting a missile to finish them off. But they force weapon switch otherwise your beams fly off because they are type associated enemies.
If they bring the four weapon slots I hope they add more strategic reward for using charge combos. One example would be like if you use the plasma beam the space pirate would roll on the floor uncontrollably and would spread the fire to nearby enemies. Or when you use the ice beam charge combo and explode it nearby enemies would turn to ice as well for a shorter amount of time. I enjoyed the scanning to disable the turret feature but if they had a way to use the heat from Samus's Plasma beam to distract the IR camera on the turrets instead of jumping in the line of fire to scan the panel. This effect can be achieved as well with the wave beam overloading the panel to short the turrets. Some sort of lite stealth mechanic to match her character.
The different visors are cool but if they were used for more than just location of switches and enemy signatures it would be super cool. Like if they merged the x-ray and thermal visor and made a new one that is used as a universal translator I think it would be a great feature. Either with highlighted text or voice lines the enemies could talk with one another and discuss where they left secret missile expansions or what boss lies ahead and their weakness. But I guess the narrative of her fighting off nameless / voiceless enemies fits the dark, dreary aesthetic a bit more.
The Lore / Cutscenes
The lore in Metroid Prime is well told through the aspect of Samus's eyes. There aren't really cutscenes of people speaking to her and it's mostly presented through log updates and visual cutscenes of events. If you're the type that prefers to absorb the information around you and piece together information as you collect it then this game / style is for you. Which is why I hope they implement this in Metroid Prime 4 to break away from the verybal storytelling trope that is common in games nowadays.
The Puzzles
Metroid Prime does a good job in making the player think on their first play through. Many areas use the morph ball to do complicated puzzles. Like if you're in the ventilation shaft in Phazon Mines the whole room fills up with gas. If you use your morph ball bomb to destroy a hidden tunnel that has a panel to activate the fans to clear the room you can save a lot of damage. I do like puzzles that have the option to solve. So that way when you play the game a second time there is more discovery and enjoyment. There is also another puzzle where Samus has to scan panels that shift platforms and they have to be made in a ladder shape to climb to the next area. I do enjoy the more logistical puzzles that Metroid Prime offers but the fun ones like exploding a tower to crash into the area you're in to find an item are great too. It gives the player the effect of 'I changed this area because I went off the beaten path and now I'm cool.' I'm hoping they add more puzzles that reward the player for absorbing the lore and scans in 'MP4.'
The artifact hunt was also good but the amount of backtracking made it a task to do and there was less fun out of getting some of them and more dread when I realized I had to go back another 15 - 20 minutes of walking. At that point I just skipped enemies just to get there as fast as possible.
The Collectibles
The items to collect in this game are fun to collect while you're in the path of story but when you have to hunt down every single missile expansion slot for that 100% it is a chore. Some are hidden in walls that break with morph ball bombs and can only be located using x-ray which is annoying to look with the visor constantly on. On the bright side you don't need that many to beat the final boss which is a plus. To get 100% on the scan logs is also a pain because in the tutorial everything must be scanned to get full completion. In the Metroid Prime Trilogy you can unlock Samus's Fusion suit for fully completing the game which is a nice bonus.
The Bosses / Bossfights
The bosses in Metroid Prime were good in story placement, lore, and gameplay. Most of the bosses you fight have a rhythm and pattern people can follow and aren't hard if you use the resources given. Some of them have a theme like getting the power suit after beating an enemy that lives from having powerful beams of light shone on it. Or dodging a small, fast enemy and hitting it in the back to obtain the morph ball. The Omega Pirate was designed as a weapon that Samus cannot beat as it absorbs Samus's beam attacks really emphasizes the amount of effort the space pirates are putting to get rid of her. But using context clues the player will learn to shoot the vulnerable parts of the Omega Pirate's body and switch visors and stop him from regenerating. It's a great boss fight as a whole because it makes the user create a strategy on the fly. The final fight, Metroid Prime is what makes having all weapons worth it. Instead of spamming super missiles the player has to swap out beams because Metroid Prime constantly changes types. The whole boss fight uses pretty much every weapon, visor, and mechanic including the morph ball bomb. While not for the boss, the bomb serves as an explosive shield to detonate nearby metroids while you shoot Metroid Prime down. The second phase of the fight adds a new mechanic and it allows Samus to fire phazon energy instead of beams. So the player gets used to this while switching visors to locate the final form of Metroid Prime Core Essence. A ghoulish looking squid with eyes that can change matter to avoid your visor. Only phazon can damage it and when the boss finally perishes the boss takes your new phazon suit with it.
The Story
After defeating Metroid Prime, the area begins to collapse so Samus is teleported out there supposedly by the Chozo elders and hails her ship and watches the explosion of the temple while revealing to the player the face behind the armor. She lives to fight the space pirates and unknown rivals another day. The feeling of accomplishment is great but knowing that there is more coming is what keeps the player excited for the next installment. Hopefully there is one after 'MP4' but we'll see.
Metroid Prime did a lot of things right, especially because of the hype train and press this game got before release. But in relation to now this game is great especially on PC. The Prime Hack mod for Metroid Prime makes the game feel a lot more modern and when you take the time to set up your controls you can get sucked in for hours at a time. But if you are more comfortable with a Gamecube controller in your hands then I understand because I too feel a sense of nostalgia and fun with aforementioned controller.
What did you think of my retrospective on the first Metroid Prime game? Do you share my opinions on the features Retro needs to implement and others that need work? Let me know, I will take criticism and improve on my next part in the series, Metroid Prime 2 Echoes, Series Retrospective.
