There's no better way to kick off a new gaming blog than to discuss my favorite game of all time: Metroid Prime. While not a popular choice for best game of all-time, the first-person adventure is certainly one of the most critically acclaimed titles in video game history. The original Gamecube title has an astonishing 97 metascore on metacritic.com, which would be tied for 2nd if metacritic included legacy platforms in their all-time rankings.
Metroid Prime released in 2002 from the relatively unknown Retro Studios. Many longtime Nintendo fans were just a tad enraged when they learned one of Nintendo's most beloved franchises had been given to an up-and-coming studio, not to mention the longtime 2d series would not only be going 3d, but also 1st person. Early screenshots and preview builds of the game did nothing to quell those fears. Sensing the game wasn't shaping up as they'd hoped, Nintendo and Retro started meeting more often. While we'll likely never know the exact details of what happened in those meetings, Nintendo cancelled Retro's other projects and everyone focused solely on Metroid.
When the game released, critics were blown away. Not only did the game play well as a 1st person shooter/adventure, Retro took Metroid from 2d to 3d flawlessly. The series retained its sense of exploration, isolation, and epic boss battles. I remember picking up the latest copy of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and flipping through until I found the Prime review. I had hoped for a silver award, maybe even a gold, but what I found was almost unthinkable: three 10's and EGM's prestigious platinum award.
From the moment you pop the mini-DVD into little purple cube, you'll realize the game sets itself apart in a big way. You're treated instantly to a sleek menu accompanied by a wonderful score; Metroid Prime exudes polish from the very first menu and until the final credits roll. At the time of its release, Metroid Prime was the best looking game on a console. Period. Yes, that includes the more powerful Xbox system, which of course featured Halo: Combat Evolved. Prime wasn't just good; it excelled on so many levels. I could go on for pages about what makes Prime great, but I'll try and highlight three reasons why it's my personal favorite game of all-time.
1.) The Boss Battles: Every gamer loves a good boss battle and Prime is chock-full of them. The best boss fights are those when you face seemingly insurmountable odds. A creature far more powerful than yourself, yet you have the ability to outsmart it by exploiting a particular weakness. I will never forget the sense of awe when battling Meta Ridley, Thardus, and even the Parasite Queen in the game's opening sequence. The music, the sequence of events leading up to it, and the fights themselves are just astounding.
2.) The Sense of Isolation: This is one area where many modern games fail. The original Dead Space did an excellent job of making you feel completely alone and isolated; however, other games like Resident Evil have slowly turned into more action-oriented games. While Prime has plenty of action, you play as a bounty hunter who is very much alone. This is made completely evident from the moment you investigate the Space Pirate frigate Orpheon. The other locations Samus visits throughout Tallon IV continue to illustrate the isolation and how alone you are. Even so, you're never bored or left wondering where to go next. From the ice-capped Phendrana Drifts to the underground Magmoor Caverns, you'll always want to push forward and explore even more of the beautiful planet.
3.) The Little Things: Part of what makes Prime so great are the tiny details. The way Samus can see her reflection in the visor when a large light flashes or the way it fogs up when she enters a room with disconnected pipes. My personal favorite is the heat that rises from her arm cannon after you fire off a few bursts in quick succession. Prime is loaded with these unique touches. And speaking of loading, it's almost non-existant, which is unheard of for a disc based title. Prime hides its loading in very subtle ways through the use of locked doors and moving elevators. In fact, you'll never see a single loading screen for the 10-15 hours you spend behind the visor.
If you've never played Metroid Prime, do yourself a favor and find a Gamecube (or a Wii) to play it. The first game can be had for fairly cheap on eBay and Amazon. Even better if you can find a copy of the collection with all three Prime titles; although finding a copy for a decent price may prove difficult. What's more surprising is the following sequels, Metroid Prime 2 Echoes and Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, are equally as good. Every Metroid fan has a preference, but the original Prime will always have a special place for me because it did something incredibly unique that had never been done before. Although it released more than a decade ago, Metroid Prime remains my favorite game of all-time.
Meta Ridley
I easily pick it above The Wind Waker as best Gamecube adventure. In fact I'd pick Paper Mario : The Thousand Year Door and Resident Evil above The Wind Waker whose main accomplishment is some nice cel shading and the odd piece of good music. Level design wise Metroid Prime eats it for breakfast.
I started playing Echoes though and didn't want to continue. It felt too sci-fi. That might seem like a silly objection for a game set in space but the original Metroid Prime appealed to me because it felt more like a classic adventure/platformer/survival horror game that just happened to be set in space.
It's hard to find a flaw in this game (apart from maybe too much backtracking). The atmosphere is perfect, the graphics and effects are amazing, soundtrack is amazing, and showed that FPS's don't have to be all about shooting as many bullets as possible for hours on end (First person adventure is the most accurate genre for it).
Imo it really transcends Video Games as a whole, was more art than entertainment. It did such a fantastic job of turning Metroid from 2D to 3D, much like what Mario 64 did in its day. Certainly one of the best conceived games of all time
Seeing the dark twisted Ing hordes version of the Luminoths home world is amazing and offers some tense experiences, IMO. The fact that not only are you battling Dark Aethers nightmarish inhabitants during your time there, but the planets atmosphere and echo system are trying to take you down also.
I would recommend playing it until you get your 1st new suit upgrade, if you still don't like the game after that then it probably isn't for you, but personally I absolutely loved echoes.
Not that Echoes was bad, just that Prime 1 is the 3D Metroid you could ever want, it's the definitive Metroid experience for 3D. You could make a lot of comparisons between Prime and Super, both amazing titles in their fields.
I've completed Echoes twice, once on normal and another on Hard (and believe me it was hard in every sense). The ending is almost too good to pass up, you go through so much hell you really feel like you accomplished something, and watching the Ing meet their fate just felt so good. I actually played it 95% through my first time, then stopped for a few years, but going back to it was worth it.
Actually, my next blog will be all about trophies and how I'm addicted to them, lol.
@Rupert
No, but someone who thinks that Metroid Prime is amongst the best games of all time has played a very limited segment of games.
Apparently SilentNegotiator thinks anyone who enjoys Nintendo games only play Nintendo games. He's full of words of wisdom, such as in his post above. He's full of something anyway.
Good blog btw, Metroid Prime's certainly in my top ten games of all time. The whole trilogy's great really.
Personally, I couldn't pick a favorite, but the series is among the best.
I can't wait to see Retro Studios next project as I felt 2 and 3 just couldn't quite reach the level of ambition that they were gunning for on their respective platforms.
Anyway, awesome blog.
What's crazy is with all the console playing, first person shooter fans that exist today (in comparison to when this was released) a Wii-U version SHOULD be in the works. It would bring in both the hardcore gamers and the fans and would undoubtedly sell millions as well as push hardware sales.
Just imagine the Wii-Us graphical capabilities on a new Metroid game
Great blog post!
Thing is, though, this in no way diminishes my love for the other Metroid games. The original, despite a few flaws in jumping, was a classic game that's stood the tests of time. Super is still one of the best games ever made, both GBA games have excellent cinematics, graphics, and a sense of doing what the rest of the series did on the smaller screen.
And even know I know I'll get massive hate for saying this, but Other M is also one of the best games on the Wii.The switch to more of a story driven game, though not perfect (hard to introduce new story line elements is terribly hard to do in an interquel and I think people would've been more accepting of it as a prequel), definitely helped give the game more of a gritty, MGS feel to it, had some awesome boss fights (the Phantoon fight, for one), clever places to hide upgrades, and pushed the Wii to what could've been its limits. I guess I understood more as being both a MGS and Metroid fan about how you need to set foundations for certain storylines in franchises to create buzz of where the story and characters will go from there, and I do hope Nintendo doesn't shy away from taking future Metroid games down that route because if they can fine tune some of the execution, they could have a really gripping story on their hands, and a main character that doesn't fit the mold of every other "tough guy/girl" main character.
But my opinions of how all that with MOM went down notwithstanding, you are correct: the GC got a huge gift in Prime, when many thought that the perspective couldn't work with such a game, and especially when we all thought that a new Metroid game would never come on that generation of systems (and moreso when you consider that Samus never graced the N64).