Review: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)

It's been about a year since my totally awesome mom waited in line at 5:30 AM in front of a Toys'r'us to get me a Wii for a birthday present. Before that, I had been behind the video game curve. My "reviews," such as they were, were for games that had already been played and reviewed to death everywhere else.

But a new era has dawned, and although I cannot claim to have played the many new games for PS3 and Xbox360, I have decided that new Wii games are a luxury I can afford.

Enter Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

I just finished this game yesterday. I would have finished much, much sooner, if not for three problems. The first problem is work. The second problem is that FPS-ish games tend to give me vertigo unless/until I immerse myself in one thoroughly for several days. See the first problem for why I could not do this.

My third and final problem was, Metroid Prime 3 just did not "wow" me.

The game's got a lot going for it. It's visually superior to the first and second entries. The sound and music is, like before, fantastic - it matches the various stages very well, sets/reinforces the appropriate mood, and the various pieces stand by themselves as well-composed and arranged. The iconic space bounty hunter always gives an "intangible awesome" bump to any title in which she appears, and the voice acting (a first for the series) was done competently. Samus of course remains one of Nintendo's silent heroes.

The monster modelling was usually awesome;Samus's fellow bounty hunters especially were well-done, and the space pirates, as always, exuded (both sonically and visually) a dirty, brutal, nasty vibe. Bosses looked cool, especially Ripley redux and the final boss.

The control scheme is widely touted to be awesome, and it is awesome. Retro proved that Nintendo's gamble with the Wii will not only draw in non-gamers, but will also provide new opportunities for traditional "hardcore" genres. Yay Nintendo.

But still, no "wow" factor. The original Prime, even on the oft-mocked Gamecube, was truly revolutionary. Prime 3 looks, feels, and plays a lot like Prime 1. The "wow" factor is largely spent.

The storyline here suffered much the same fate as the storyline in Metroid Prime 2. Metroid Prime (the first) mined the everloving crap out of the whole "Chozo" angle, and was thusly awesome. Then Nintendo and Retro Studios kind of ran out of Chozo stuff, and started introducing new alien species, new architecture, and stories where mention of the Chozo (always necessary, it seems, to justify the powerups Samus finds everywhere) seemed tacked-on.

Prime 3 wrapped up the "new" elements of the Prime series, i.e. Phazon, and I personally feel that the progression of the Phazon storyline was middling at best. Metroid Prime, and to a lesser extend Prime 3, contained many cautionary historical tales about the rise and fall of civilizations, the perpetual struggles between tradition and technological progress, and painted a bittersweet, fatalistic view of mankind's place in the galaxy. While the Chozo may stand as a partial exception, the many now-extinct civilizations of the Metroid Prime universe seem to echo the words of Ozymandias from beyond the evolutionary grave: ""My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

The Galactic Federation begins utilizing Phazon in Prime 3, as does Samus, although she doesn't exactly volunteer. The story here could have been truly epic - Samus, the last remaining link to the wise Chozo, battles not only a tangible, recognizable enemy, but also the reckless abandon of her own people. The Galactic Federation, believing wholeheartedly that they must combat the Phazon-drunk Space Pirates with their own Phazon technology, find themselves hurtling towards a galactic apocalypse, and Samus must walk the tightrope between aiding the Federation against the Space Pirates and saving the Federation from itself, lest they become yet another broken statue in the desert of the universe.

The storyline was, how shall we say, not quite so epic. Without spoiling too much, I can say that the moral of the Prime series is, Phazon is dangerous stuff, but you gotta fight fire with fire, and hey, maybe if you're badass enough you'll destroy everything else and be okay. Go Go Galactic Federation.

I'll be totally honest - I got bored. Metroid Prime 2 wasn't exactly easy to get through either, for much the same set of reasons. Prime 1 was awesome, and amazing, and rocketed the franchise into the new age. The Wii control scheme here was almost flawlessly implemented, and Retro deserves props for that. The Prime architecture, however, has now officially been played out. New things need to happen. I for one (and as usual) vote for more storyline and character meat. But if someone comes along with another revolution and changes the way a Metroid game is played (for the better,) I won't exactly be complaining.