Metroid Prime 3
Not perfect, but a quality game that was definitely worth the purchase.
Stuff I liked:
- The controls. I was actually quite impressed with how little I had to struggle with them. I don't know if I'm in the majority here or not, but aside from the occasional brain fart of pressing 1 when I wanted to switch visors they didn't take long to get used to.
- The Meta-Ridley battle, and not just because of the music.
- All three Corrupted Hunter battles were a blast.
- The lack of a required "wander everywhere for secret hidden objects needed to enter the final area" quest. A lot of the fuel cells were easy to find along the way (hell, some of them are forced pickups) and you didn't need all of them to get the Pirate Code.
- The X-Ray Visor/Nova Beam combo. That thing is just unfair.
- The energy-drained husks (a nod to Super Metroid). Except for the two that were leaning up against doors. Fuck those two. I nearly had a heart attack both times.
- The Pirate Homeworld theme, another nod to Super Metroid (though Zero Mission used it as well).
- The role the ship plays. Finally, it does more than sit there waiting for you to jump on top of it.
- Grapplable enemies. The ripping motion is very satisfying.
- The expansions-appearing-on-the-map modules.
- Samus vomiting Phazon after the Mogenar battle was pretty cool.
- Only having to scan bosses once, instead of four or five times like with Prime 2.
- The Metroid Prime husks on Phaaze were a nice touch. Suppose Tallon IV's Impact Crater was caused by a Leviathan?
Stuff I disliked:
- The final boss stretch (starting with the Pirate Seed), while full of great ideas, was far too easy. I don't care that you're using the Hyper Beam, Dark Samus and AU313 don't have nearly enough energy and the battles are too short as a result. The three Corrupted Hunter battles and the Pirate Commander battle were all harder than Omega Ridley and ev'rythin' after.
- Speaking of AU313, I'm not terribly happy with that being the way they end the Phazon trilogy. The Federation was nonexistent in the first game and completely useless in the second, so ending the third by battling a unique creature that's one of their creations didn't make much sense to me. It would've been better if they made it more of a Mother Brain-style battle, even if only for the first half.
- In that light, Metroids are starting to feel less and less an integral part of the series and more and more like they're just sort of there.
- The sense of panic the game tries to instill in you the entire time you're on Norion isn't really conducive to feeling out the controls. Sure, you had the Olympus for that, but the game did pretty much everything for you while you were on it.
- Speaking of the controls, the game seemed be constantly assuming the player was struggling with them. I can understand having enemy attack damage toned down at the beginning of the game (OH NOEZ GIANT MISSILE that only does 15 damage), but there should have been a point in the game where the designers said "Okay they're used to the controls let's amp up the difficulty now" or a gradual difficulty rise or something. Honestly, if you disregard the Corrupted Hunters, Mogenar is the last truly challenging boss battle as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I need to play the game on Hyper Mode difficulty.
- The Hunter heel turns were too obvious. I actually also called an Aurora Unit heel turn the instant I saw 242, though I didn't think they'd go about it the way they did.
- The infinite spawning enemies sections.
- The 100% pickups special ending (I cheated a bit and used CyricZ's FAQ to grab a few things I missed) is nothing but an advertisement for MP Hunters if you recognize the green ship and nothing but confusing if you don't.
Things I found odd:
- Voice acting lol wut (It actually was pretty good, but it seemed way out of place)
- Except for a few choice locations, the Pirate Homeworld ground defense was pitiful. Then again, the same could be said for the Ing Hive.
- How is the Federation this powerful? Samus has had to hold their hand for the entire fucking franchise timeline. Where has Admiral Dane been in every single instance of GF incompetence? On vacation?
- With Phazon wiped out and the Space Pirates all but annihilated, where does the franchise go from here? The X parasites from Metroid Fusion could have worked - they even have their own home-grown Dark Samus - but they were obliterated as quickly as they appeared.
- If that was "Omega" Ridley, where did the Ridley in Sub-Zero Containment in Fusion come from?
Anyway, I can't wait to see what Nintendo has to offer next for this franchise.
Stuff I liked:
- The controls. I was actually quite impressed with how little I had to struggle with them. I don't know if I'm in the majority here or not, but aside from the occasional brain fart of pressing 1 when I wanted to switch visors they didn't take long to get used to.
- The Meta-Ridley battle, and not just because of the music.
- All three Corrupted Hunter battles were a blast.
- The lack of a required "wander everywhere for secret hidden objects needed to enter the final area" quest. A lot of the fuel cells were easy to find along the way (hell, some of them are forced pickups) and you didn't need all of them to get the Pirate Code.
- The X-Ray Visor/Nova Beam combo. That thing is just unfair.
- The energy-drained husks (a nod to Super Metroid). Except for the two that were leaning up against doors. Fuck those two. I nearly had a heart attack both times.
- The Pirate Homeworld theme, another nod to Super Metroid (though Zero Mission used it as well).
- The role the ship plays. Finally, it does more than sit there waiting for you to jump on top of it.
- Grapplable enemies. The ripping motion is very satisfying.
- The expansions-appearing-on-the-map modules.
- Samus vomiting Phazon after the Mogenar battle was pretty cool.
- Only having to scan bosses once, instead of four or five times like with Prime 2.
- The Metroid Prime husks on Phaaze were a nice touch. Suppose Tallon IV's Impact Crater was caused by a Leviathan?
Stuff I disliked:
- The final boss stretch (starting with the Pirate Seed), while full of great ideas, was far too easy. I don't care that you're using the Hyper Beam, Dark Samus and AU313 don't have nearly enough energy and the battles are too short as a result. The three Corrupted Hunter battles and the Pirate Commander battle were all harder than Omega Ridley and ev'rythin' after.
- Speaking of AU313, I'm not terribly happy with that being the way they end the Phazon trilogy. The Federation was nonexistent in the first game and completely useless in the second, so ending the third by battling a unique creature that's one of their creations didn't make much sense to me. It would've been better if they made it more of a Mother Brain-style battle, even if only for the first half.
- In that light, Metroids are starting to feel less and less an integral part of the series and more and more like they're just sort of there.
- The sense of panic the game tries to instill in you the entire time you're on Norion isn't really conducive to feeling out the controls. Sure, you had the Olympus for that, but the game did pretty much everything for you while you were on it.
- Speaking of the controls, the game seemed be constantly assuming the player was struggling with them. I can understand having enemy attack damage toned down at the beginning of the game (OH NOEZ GIANT MISSILE that only does 15 damage), but there should have been a point in the game where the designers said "Okay they're used to the controls let's amp up the difficulty now" or a gradual difficulty rise or something. Honestly, if you disregard the Corrupted Hunters, Mogenar is the last truly challenging boss battle as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I need to play the game on Hyper Mode difficulty.
- The Hunter heel turns were too obvious. I actually also called an Aurora Unit heel turn the instant I saw 242, though I didn't think they'd go about it the way they did.
- The infinite spawning enemies sections.
- The 100% pickups special ending (I cheated a bit and used CyricZ's FAQ to grab a few things I missed) is nothing but an advertisement for MP Hunters if you recognize the green ship and nothing but confusing if you don't.
Things I found odd:
- Voice acting lol wut (It actually was pretty good, but it seemed way out of place)
- Except for a few choice locations, the Pirate Homeworld ground defense was pitiful. Then again, the same could be said for the Ing Hive.
- How is the Federation this powerful? Samus has had to hold their hand for the entire fucking franchise timeline. Where has Admiral Dane been in every single instance of GF incompetence? On vacation?
- With Phazon wiped out and the Space Pirates all but annihilated, where does the franchise go from here? The X parasites from Metroid Fusion could have worked - they even have their own home-grown Dark Samus - but they were obliterated as quickly as they appeared.
- If that was "Omega" Ridley, where did the Ridley in Sub-Zero Containment in Fusion come from?
Anyway, I can't wait to see what Nintendo has to offer next for this franchise.