Metroid Prime

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This article is about the game. For the creature, see Metroid Prime (creature).
Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime box art
Developer(s)Retro Studios
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Platform(s)Nintendo GameCube
Release


Genre(s)First-person action-adventure
Mode(s)Single player

Metroid Prime (メトロイドプライム, Metoroido Puraimu) is a video game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube, released in North America on November 15, 2002. It is the first 3D game in the Metroid series, and is officially classified by Nintendo as a first-person adventure, rather than a first-person shooter, due to the large exploration component of the game. In North America, it was also the first Metroid installment to be released since Super Metroid in 1994 (in all other markets, it was released after Metroid Fusion).[1]

Metroid Prime is the first of the three-part Prime storyline, which takes place between the original Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus.[2][3] Like in previous games in the series, Metroid Prime has a science fiction setting, in which players control the bounty hunter Samus Aran. The story follows Samus battling the Space Pirates and their biological experiments on planet Tallon IV.

Despite initial backlash from fans due to the first-person perspective,[4] the game was released to both critical and commercial success, with extremely positive professional reviews[5] and selling over one million units in North America alone.[6]

Gameplay

Samus facing a Flying Pirate, surrounded by a crosshair; also shown are radar (top left), mini-map (top right), current beam (lower right), and current visor (lower left)

As in previous Metroid games, Prime takes place in a large, open-ended world with different regions connected by elevators. Each region has an entire set of rooms separated by doors, that can be opened with a shot from the correct beam. The gameplay revolves around solving puzzles to uncover secrets, platform jumping, and shooting foes, with the addition of a "lock-on" mechanism that allows circlestrafing while keeping focus on the enemy. The game is the first in the series to use a first-person view as opposed to side-scrolling, except in Morph Ball mode when it uses a third-person camera.[7]

The protagonist, Samus, must travel through the world searching for power-ups that enable reaching previously inaccessible areas—such as the Varia Suit, that takes away damage caused by heat—and twelve Chozo Artifacts that will open the path to the Phazon meteor impact crater. A few of the artifacts were found before the start of the game's events by the Space Pirates, who have taken up residence on most of the planet. It is the first Metroid game to address why Samus doesn't start with any power-ups. The player begins the game with some upgrades, but during an explosion in the Space Pirate's ship they are all lost.[8]

The head-up display simulates the inside of Samus' helmet, featuring a radar, a map, ammunition and health meters, and a health bar for bosses. The display can be altered by exchanging visors, with one using thermal imaging, another with x-ray vision and one with a scanner that searches for enemy weaknesses and interfers with some mechanisms, such as force fields and elevators.[9] Prime also introduces a Hint system that provides the player with a general idea of where to go, such as indicating "seismic activity" in a certain room.[9]

Items

Samus' Morph Ball form, changing the view to a third-person camera

Throughout the game, Samus must find and collect many different items, ranging from weapons, to upgrades of her Power Suit and items that grant additional abilities. Among them are the Morph Ball, which allows her to roll into narrow passages and drop energy bombs, and the Grapple Beam, which latches onto special hooks.[9] Most of the items from previous Metroid games make appearances here; however, the functions of many of them have been altered. The percentage of collected items and Scan Visor logs unlock art galleries and different endings. Manipulation of the game's physics can allow knowledgeable players to receive items much earlier than intended, or to bypass collecting them altogether, a challenge known as sequence breaking.

Bonuses

With the use of a Nintendo GameCube Game Boy Advance Cable, players of the game can gain two additional features. If Metroid Fusion is completed, the original Metroid game can be unlocked. If Prime is completed, the Fusion Suit which Samus wears in Fusion will become available for display while playing Prime.[9] The connection need only be performed once in order to gain the extra features.[10]

Plot

Prime was considered different from previous Metroid games for its extensive use of storyline.[11] Short cutscenes appear before important battles, and the Scan Visor can be used to read text related to the Chozo and Space Pirates.

The game starts as Samus receives a distress signal from the Space Pirate Frigate Orpheon, whose crew has been decimated by the Pirates' own genetically modified aliens. Upon arriving at the ship's core, she battles with the Parasite Queen, a giant mutated version of the tiny parasite enemies occasionally seen in the ship. After the battle, the Parasite Queen falls into the frigate's reactor, causing it to explode. While making her escape, an electrical surge destroys all of Samus' Power Suit's upgrades. After watching Ridley fly towards Tallon IV, Samus gives chase in her gunship.

Samus initially makes planetfall on the Tallon Overworld, a rainforest-like area. She discovers the Chozo Ruins, the remains of the Chozo civilization on Tallon IV that was destroyed with the crash of the Phazon meteor. After defeating that area's boss, a giant, mantis-like plant called Flaaghra, she obtains the Varia Suit upgrade and is able to enter Magmoor Caverns, a series of magma-filled underground tunnels that connects all other areas together. The Space Pirates use the caverns as a source of geothermal power, and Magmoor is the only area in the game without a boss or mini-boss to fight. Samus then journeys to the Phendrana Drifts, a cold, mountainous location divided into an ancient Chozo ruin, Space Pirate research labs that feature the first Metroids in the game, and ice caves and valleys that are home to many electrical and ice based creatures. Finally, Samus infiltrates the Phazon Mines, a mining and research complex that is the center of the Space Pirates' Tallon IV operations, where she obtains the Phazon Suit and the last of the Chozo Artifacts. Those allow her to enter the Impact Crater, where the Chozo have sealed off Metroid Prime.[9] During the final cutscene, a dying Metroid Prime steals Samus's Phazon Suit, which then downgrades her back to the gravity suit, and, unbeknownst to her, becomes Dark Samus.

Sources such as Gradiente, Brazil's former distributor of Nintendo, and the Nintendo Power comics adaptation of Metroid Prime,[12] set the game's as occuring after Super Metroid. The Brazilian publicity even states that the Phazon meteor is a piece of Zebes,[13] destroyed after Super Metroid.

Development

Style guide sketches of the Impact Crater

After Super Metroid, many Metroid fans were eagerly awaiting a sequel. It was supposedly slated for the Nintendo 64 or its ill-fated accessory, the 64DD, but while the game was referenced several times,[14] it never entered production, because "they couldn't come out with any concrete ideas".[15]

The game was developed as a collaboration between Retro Studios and important Nintendo EAD and R&D1 members. Retro Studios was created in 1998, by an alliance between Nintendo and former Iguana Entertainment founder, Jeff Spangenberg. After establishing their offices in Austin, Texas in 1999, Retro received five game ideas for the future GameCube, among them a new Metroid.[16] Nintendo members, such as Shigeru Miyamoto, Kensuke Tanabe and Kenji Miki, as well as Metroid designer Yoshio Sakamoto, communicated with the Texas-based studio through emails, monthly phone conferences and several personal gatherings. Originally envisioned as having third-person perspective gameplay, this was changed to a first-person perspective after Miyamoto intervened, causing almost everything already developed to be scrapped.[15]

In 2000, three games were canceled in order to establish focus on Prime, and in 2001, the last project (an RPG called Raven Blade) was canceled, so that Prime would be the only game in development.[17] The first public appearance of the game was a 10-second video at SpaceWorld 2000. In November of the same year, Retro Studios confirmed in the "job application" part of its website its involvement with the game, and at E3 2001, Prime was officially announced by Nintendo, receiving mixed reactions due to the change from 2D side-scrolling to 3D first-person.[18]

Kenji Yamamoto, assisted by Kouichi Kyuma, composed the music for Prime. The soundtrack contains some remixes of tracks from previous games in the series:[19] the initial Tallon Overworld theme is a remix of Metroid's Brinstar theme, the music in Magmoor Caverns is a remix of Super Metroid's Lower Norfair area, and the music during the fight with Meta Ridley is a remix of the Ridley boss music first featured in Super Metroid; it has been remixed and featured in most Metroid games since. Tommy Tallarico Studios also helped with the sound effects.[20]

Kraid, a boss from Metroid and Super Metroid, was intended to make an appearance in Prime, and designer Gene Kohler modeled and skinned him for that purposed. However, time constraints prevented it from being included in the final version of the game. Though the beta model displays him inside Phazon Mines, Kohler says he was not replaced by the Omega Pirate..[21]

Versions

Three versions of Prime were released: the original North American version, a second version, released in North America and Japan, with resolved technical issues (such as a freezing glitch causing occasionally by using elevators connecting to Chozo Ruins), and the European version, with resolved glitches and certain altered elements of the gameplay to prevent sequence breaking.

During the European translation, some of the logs were removed or changed, resulting in a different storyline and log book.[22][23] For instance, a narrator was added in the opening and closing scenes. Some of the changes were in the NTSC region's Player's Choice re-release.[24]

Before the release of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes in 2004, Nintendo released a platinum-colored GameCube bundled with a copy of Prime containing a special second disc, featuring both a preview trailer and a demo for Echoes, a timeline of Metroid games and an art gallery.[25]

Reception

Reviews and awards
Publication Score Comment
Famitsu
33 of 40[26]
IGN
9.8 of 10[11]
Editor's Choice,
2002 Game of the Year runner-up[27]
GameSpot
9.7 of 10[7]
Editor's Choice,

2002 Game of the Year[28]

GameSpy
96 out of 100[8]
2002 Game of the Year[29]
EGM
10 of 10
Platinum Award,
Game of the Year (2002)
Nintendo Power
5 of 5
Game of the Year (2002)
Edge
9 of 10[30]
Editor's Choice,

2002 Game of the Year

Compilations of multiple reviews
Game Rankings
96 of 100 (based on 96 reviews)[31]
Metacritic
97 of 100 (based on 69 reviews)[32]
Awards
6th Annual Interactive
Achievement Awards
Console First-Person Action
2003 Game Developers
Conference
Game of the Year,
Excellence in Level Design

Prime was met with positive reception, gaining favorable reviews and sales. The game became one of the best-selling games on the GameCube, with about 1.49 million copies sold in the United States alone.[6] It is also the 8th best-selling GameCube game in Australia,[33] sold over 78,000 copies in Japan[34] and over 250,000 copies in Europe, thus entering the Player's Choice line in the PAL region.[35]

Critical response

Prime received much critical acclaim, including a perfect review score from Electronic Gaming Monthly.[36] It was praised for its detailed graphics, with many special effects and varied environments,[37] moody soundtrack and sound effects, [11] level design, [38] immersive atmosphere, [7] and innovative gameplay, centered on exploring as opposed to the action of games such as Halo [39] while staying faithful to the Metroid formula.[40] Criticisms were also made, mostly for the unusual control scheme, which Game Informer considered awkward;[41] lack of focus on the story, making Entertainment Weekly compare the game to an "1990s arcade game, filled with over-the-top battle sequences, spectacular visual effects -- and a pretty weak plot"; [42] and backtracking, stated by GamePro that unexperienced players "might find it exhausting to keep revisiting the same old places over and over and over". [43]

On Game Rankings, Prime stands as the third-highest-rated game of all time and the highest-rated game of the 21st century, with an average score of 96.3% (as of September 2007).[44] The video game countdown show Filter named Prime as having the Best Graphics of all time. It also won many 2002 Game of the Year awards from major publications and gaming sites.

Prime was also included in several lists of best games: 24th in IGN's Top 100,[45] 29th in a 100-game list chosen by GameFAQs users,[46] and 10th in Nintendo Power's "Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever".[47] GameSpy chose it as the third best GameCube title of all time, behind The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Resident Evil 4,[48] while IGN put it at first in a similar list.[49] Metroid Prime also became popular among hardcore gamers for speedrunning, with specialized communities being formed to share these speedruns.

Legacy

Further information: [[:Metroid series chronology]]
Tallon Overworld as a pinball table in Metroid Prime Pinball.

Three other Metroid games in the same first-person style were released after Prime, as well as a pinball spin-off. The first was the sequel Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, for the GameCube, released in November 2004, in which Samus travels to planet Aether and discovers that a Phazon meteor crash in the planet created an alternate reality, while being pursued by a mysterious enemy called Dark Samus. It was then followed by Metroid Prime Pinball, a spin-off game developed by Fuse Games and released in 2005 for the Nintendo DS.[50] It is a virtual pinball game that features some of the locations and bosses of Prime.

The next game was Metroid Prime Hunters, for the Nintendo DS, with a storyline that takes place between the events of Prime and Echoes; a demo of the game was released with purchase of a Nintendo DS titled Metroid Prime Hunters - First Hunt, and the full game was released on March 20, 2006 in North America, and May 5, 2006 in Europe. The storyline follows Samus trying to discover an "ultimate power", while facing six rival bounty hunters. Hunters was not developed by Retro Studios, but by Redmond-based subsidiary Nintendo Software Technology.

The second sequel is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, revealed to close the Prime series,[51] and released on August 27, 2007 for Nintendo's Wii. In Corruption's story, Samus is corrupted by Phazon after being attacked by Dark Samus, who became leader of a Space Pirate group and is sending Phazon asteroids to infect planets.

Some later first-person shooters were also compared to Metroid Prime's style of gameplay and HUDs, such as Geist [52] and Star Wars: Republic Commando.[53]

References

  1. ^ "Metroid Fusion release dates". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-02-23.
  2. ^ "History". Metroid Zero Mission Official Site (Japanese version). Accessed on October 1 2007.
  3. ^ Ice27. "Metroid Prime 2 Echoes Bonus Disc FAQ/Walkthrough." GameFAQs. Accessed on October 1, 2007.
  4. ^ "No Metroid For You". N-sider. February 19, 2001. Retrieved 2007-09-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "Metroid Prime reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
  6. ^ a b "US Platinum Videogame Chart". The Magic Box. Retrieved August 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); External link in |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ a b c Kasavin, Greg (2002-11-15). "Metroid Prime review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2006-01-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ a b Williams, Bryan (2002-11-19). "Metroid Prime review". GameSpy. Retrieved 2007-01-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ a b c d e Nintendo (2002). Metroid Prime Instruction Booklet. Nintendo of America, Inc.
  10. ^ "Metroid Prime, Fusion connection revealed". GameSpot. 2002-10-25. Retrieved 2007-04-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ a b c Mirabella, Fran (2002-11-11). "Metroid Prime review". IGN. Retrieved 2006-09-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Dreamwave Productions (January-March 2003), "Metroid Prime", Nintendo Power (164–167), ISSN 1041-9551 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "Metroid Prime on a large Brazilian e-shop" (in Portuguese). Submarino. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
  14. ^ "News Archives: 1996–1999". Metroid Database. Retrieved 2006-02-21.
  15. ^ a b "Developer info for Metroid Prime". Nintendo.com. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
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  18. ^ "Metroid Prime development". N-sider.
  19. ^ "Metroid Prime & Fusion Original Soundtracks". Soundtrack Central. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
  20. ^ Tallarico, Tommy. "www.tallarico.com - Metroid Prime". Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  21. ^ "Did You Know? Classic Metroid enemy Kraid was planned to be in Metroid Prime". Generation N. Retrieved 2007-09-16.
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  23. ^ Luke Scutt (BlitzBoy). "Log Book FAQ (PAL version)". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2007-09-16.
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  25. ^ "New Metroid Prime Bundle Announced for GameCube". GamePro. 2004-04-08. Retrieved 2007-03-27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ "Metroid Prime articles and reviews". GameStats. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  27. ^ IGN staff (2003-01-23). "2002 Overall Game of the Year". IGN. Retrieved 2007-03-27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ "GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2002: Game of the Year". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
  29. ^ "Game of the Year 2002". GameSpy. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
  30. ^ "Metroid Prime review". Edge magazine (115). 2002-11-15. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. ^ "Metroid Prime Reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2006-09-08.
  32. ^ "Metroid Prime reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2006-09-08.
  33. ^ "Australia's Choice". 2006-10-16. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. ^ "GameCube Best Selling Ranking". Shrine of Data Sales Database. 1997-11-05. Archived from the original on 2004-11-22. Retrieved 2007-09-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |work= (help)
  35. ^ "New Player's Choice titles!". n-europe. 2003-10-03. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  36. ^ "Metroid Prime Reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2007-08-05.
  37. ^ Castro, Juan (2005-04-29). "The Top Ten Best-Looking GameCube Games". IGN. Retrieved 2007-09-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  38. ^ "Metroid Prime review". Eurogamer. 2003-03-21. Retrieved 2007-10-03.
  39. ^ "Game Rankings review". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2007-03-27.
  40. ^ "Entertainment Gaming Monthly reviews". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2007-02-24.
  41. ^ "Metroid Prime review". Game Informer. Retrieved 2007-03-27.
  42. ^ "Space Craft". Entertainment Weekly. 2002-11-22. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
  43. ^ "Review: Metroid Prime". GamePro. 2002-11-15. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
  44. ^ "Game Rankings' top games". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
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  46. ^ "GameFAQs: 10-Year Anniversary Contest - The 10 Best Games Ever". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  47. ^ "Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever". Nintendo Power (200). 2006. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  48. ^ "Top 25 GameCube Games of All-Time - #3: Metroid Prime". GameSpy. 2005-08-12. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  49. ^ "The Top 25 GameCube Games of All Time". IGN. 2007-03-16. Retrieved 2007-09-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |work= (help)
  50. ^ "Metroid Prime Pinball". Nintendo. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
  51. ^ "Metroid Prime 3 Details Emerge". IGN. 2005-08-03. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  52. ^ "Gamespy Geist interview". Gamespy. 2005-08-15. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
  53. ^ "Star Wars: Republic Commando review". GameSpot. 2005-02-25. Retrieved 2007-10-21.

External links

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