Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Wii, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007) game

'More of the same' isn't a bad deal when it comes to high quality titles like the 'Metroid Prime' series on GameCube, but at the same time this third and final instalment in the trilogy was on a new console so you can't help but feel it should have tried to break a little new ground, create greater immersion or do something that would surprise. In reality, while it does try to inject some unique gameplay elements in the control scheme, it boils down to gimmickry and was a game I'd much rather have been able to play through with a 'Cube controller rather than the awkward Wiimote and Nunchuk. I don't know whether it was the fact I was using a third party control handset and sensor bar, or whether this was the experience for other players at the time, but I had the same issues I experienced with other games on the Wii, most relevantly 'Red Steel.' It seems the setup simply wasn't suited to first person shooters, but then it also didn't seem suitable for 3D platformers as I found with 'Mario Galaxy' - perhaps the Wii wasn't suited to traditional gaming styles in general? Not that the controls take too much away from the experience, it's still got the typical lonely, empty, and creepy settings, the progression with areas and abilities slowly being shared out in the usual dungeoneering that shares more with the 'Zelda' series than FPS'.

At the same time there is no doubt that the occasionally imprecise control method and strain placed on wrists in long play is a detriment to an otherwise enjoyable game to the extent that I almost took off a star in the rating for it. The immersion of interacting with the environment was there, but it was also few and far between, almost an afterthought to justify it being on this particular console. There were times it could be a real pain, too. Again, I may put it down to third party accessories, I've not used an official control setup on the console, so I can't say, but there was one moment in particular that I needed to do several physical actions in tandem with an ally to be able to activate something: pull this out, twist it, push it back in. But I found that while the Wii would recognise the turning motion to great effect, pushing in and out of the screen was hit or miss, often miss, so that was incredibly frustrating, though I eventually muddled through. You're also given your ship in a much more hands-on way, where you use it to solve puzzles, sit in it to travel to destinations and generally have the feeling it is your ship. It would have been nice to be able to actually fly it to various planets, perform some space combat and use the various controls that seem to have no practical use. Maybe it would have taken too much away from the exploring desolate environments so I can see why it wasn't implemented, but it's the kind of greater immersion a new game on a new console could have done with.

The game is very much like a stripped down 'Zelda,' as with the previous 'Prime' games before it: there aren't any side quests, other than the collecting of the power cells (though it turns out this is essential to final progression), there are few characters to talk to, it's mostly you going about your business of shooting, scanning and puzzling: a dungeon here, then onto the next one, no over-worlds, no shops, just pure exploration. I must say it took me a while to get into, mainly for the controls, which are fiddly with the placement of buttons (you have to keep flipping between normal view and your other visors, mainly the scan visor, by pressing '1,' which is slightly awkward). But there's a good sense of story being told in log entries you find along the way, the impression of doom and desolation is strong, and like most games of this ilk, it's the moments when you've unlocked maps and locations, backtracking to use a new ability to get to collectables such as missile expansions, life extending energy tanks, or power cells, that enhance the experience.

Once you've been to the Chozo Observatory and been given the locations of all pickups on the maps it does take away something from the challenge in the sense that it's very easy to see where to go, and this is certainly the easiest game in the series - I never even got stuck once! It's good that you have reminders of what you need to do and where to go to do it whenever you fire up the game, or if you've been wandering around for a while, and the ability to mark rooms on the map for future reference was helpful, but it does all make everything so much easier. At the same time it was wise to remove the frustration of wandering around hoping to find something you're not even sure is there, to the extent that when you don't have that option in the last proper level, the Pirate Homeworld, it is disconcerting to have no guide, forced to rely entirely on your eyes. And even with the mapped collectables you still have to solve the puzzles in each area to get at the pickups, going there is only part of the work.

I stupidly failed to scan the first power suit upgrade I came across, walking into it and picking up before I realised, which meant I could never get 100%. I could have simply restarted as I was only a little way in, but I foolishly kept going, even though from then on I scanned at every opportunity, despite knowing I couldn't get full marks. In the end, however, the game didn't appear to acknowledge the scanning - it didn't grade me on how much I'd scanned. Because I knew I'd missed at least one thing it can't be included in the percentage of the game as a whole or I wouldn't have been awarded the 100% completion I achieved, so does that mean it didn't have any bearing? The scanning is a very big part of the series and shows that there's an element of skill in how you keep track of what may need scanning - going back to previous areas, always keeping the scan visor up if you can (I made it a habit to have it on before stepping through a door so as not to be caught out by anything fast moving - similarly, you have to take risks by scanning enemies and bosses at different stages of their defeat so as not to miss scans), showing that despite the relative ease of the game, if you miss something it's gone for good, as once you've operated on things they change and need to be scanned again in their new state. The downside is that you don't always get the full sense of the visual wonder they were trying to achieve because the scan visor dims your display to show up scannable items more clearly.

Otherwise, while not any jump up from the 'Cube's visuals, it's still good looking. The music is a touch generic, the puzzles aren't exactly taxing, and the enemies aren't too tough either, apart from some of the big bosses which can take time to deal with, though it can also be partly down to the controls making things harder than they need to be at times. The variable speeds of doors opening can be a source of frustration, but I think that's another oddity carried over from the previous games. I'm not quite sure why they do that, whether it's to inject a greater sense of unease when you need to exit a room quickly to escape something, or anticipation when you're about to enter a new location, I don't know. To me it can get annoying and I wasn't sure if it was affected by where you hit the door in accuracy or distance or if you had no effect on it either way and it was completely random. Other annoyances were I never won any of the green tokens you need to unlock certain parts of the bonus content of storyboards and the like, so how are you supposed to get those? (I subsequently learned they only come from Friend Codes online!). And also, it offered me the chance not to save after the final battle, which I did, meaning my file is now inaccessible and has to be overwritten! The option to go back into a file should always be there without sacrificing the 'complete' finality of completion - I would have backed up the save file on SD card if I'd thought about it...

I would say this is a game well worth playing, whether you'd completed the first two, as I had, or not, it stands alone, especially as it is a continuation in style. The highest tribute I can give it is to say it made me want to play the original 'Metroid Prime' again just to see how it all began, and enjoy more precise control, which is always a compliment to a new game in a series. I don't know if further games have continued Samus Aran's story on subsequent consoles (the story ends with a shot of Samus flying off into space, then a mysterious 'X'-shaped craft powers up stealthily to follow…), not having kept up with the Nintendo production line, but I would love to play a version on the Switch with the latest graphics, sound and immersion in the environment to see what they could achieve now. Saying that, it's really not the visuals that are the best thing about the games, it's the involvement of the player and sense of progression and achievement that stand out. On a negative note I do find the 'sci-fi' trappings occasionally irritating as it's very magical and 'videogamey' in the manner in which things don't really make physical or technological sense (and follows the typical gaming pattern of the final level being a weird alien land that's more difficult, linear, and ends with a big boss fight that goes on for a while), I'd prefer to see a much more 'realistic' approach as sometimes shown in the great puzzles of gears and mechanics rather than a magical fantasy style, but perhaps that would make it less accessible. As it is, this was a rewarding experience that I could imagine playing through again in future (a higher difficulty mode was unlocked on completion), and is one of the better games I've experienced on the Wii. I was thinking for much of the time it doesn't quite show the system could cope with all genres as well as its predecessors, but it won me over before the end when I realised I kept wanting to get back to it!

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