Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the latest installment in a series of Sci-Fi First-Person Adventure/Shooter video games produced by Nintendo. The Metroid series is one of Nintendo’s most successful franchises. The first Metroid game was released back in 1986 on the Famicom Disk System (Japan) followed by various ports, sequels, and remakes on the NES, Game Boy, Super NES, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Nintendo DS and now on the Wii.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption takes place in a fictional universe.
Equipped with an extremely powerful and adaptable exoskeleton suit the player takes on the role of bounty hunter Samus Aran. The initial objective is to explore several different planets in order to investigate a malfunction in the Galactic Federation computer network. Along the way the player must solve environment puzzles, collect suit and armor upgrades and battle a variety of hostile creatures, known as Space Pirates.
The game is played in First-Person view, which means the game simulates the playable character’s (Samus Aran) perspective. Several different visors are used to display important information, including a map visor, scan visor and a command visor for remote operation of the player’s spaceship. Several locations can only be reached by changing Samus into a Morph ball. Activated by the press of a button (C on the Nunchuck), Samus curls up into a small ball. In this state she can access tight spaces and drop bombs. The most notable (and obvious) difference of Metroid Prime 3 Corruption compared to prior Metroid games is the use of motion sensing controls. We found the controls to be adequately precise, with some minor response issues during contextual actions. Fans of the Metroid series may feel that the new controls take away some of the game’s difficulty. However, for the rest of us this means that we actually have a chance of finishing the game. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is one of the better looking Wii games, but the consoles lack of computing horsepower becomes apparent when in-game doors don’t open only because the Wii has not finished loading the next area.
Metroid Prime received a “T” for Teen (12+) rating by the ESRB, which we found is an appropriate age mostly due to the games difficulty. Aside from the occasional shooting of aliens, Parents have not much to worry about.
Given that Metroid is geared toward the Hardcore gamer, we suggest a Strategy Guide for newcomers and inexperienced players.