Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

By Liam O'Connor

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Samus Aran has really become the poster girl for Nintendo. After only 3 games, Samus originally took an 8-year hiatus. Since her return, she’s starred in six Metroid games – that’s right, twice as many – in about 3 years. That’s averaging two a year. But with the games continuing to remain of high quality, there is no fear of overexposure. Not yet, anyway. And so it should come of no surprise that Nintendo’s poster girl is going to be one of the main attractions for the Nintendo Wii launch.

Metroid Prime 3 for Wii makes a lot of sense. Take the most immersive first-person experience ever, give it an immersive controller, add salt, and voila! Fortunately, Retro Studios is not content with simply recycling the Metroid Prime experience. Indeed, they’re hard at work introducing new elements to the franchise that take advantage of the unique controller, while also finding ways to bring the franchise back to its roots.

Retro Studios promises that Metroid Prime 3 will not follow in Metroid Prime: Hunters’ footsteps, regardless of the Wii controller. It will remain a first-person adventure game. The new controller will allow for some accurate aiming when Samus does have to bust out her arm cannon, but the focus will not be on shooting alone. In addition to aiming, the Wii controller will also allow players to engage in a range of activities that Retro Studios hopes will increase player immersion. For example, players will have to make twisting motions to turn levers, and will have to make a pulling motion in order to rip doors from their hinges via the grapple beam. It’s certainly an interesting feature, but it remains to be seen whether it will fall into the trap of being an annoying gimmick.

Retro Studies are also attempting to bring Metroid back to its roots. One example of this is the weapon selection. In Metroid Prime, players would alternate between weapons, picking the right one for the job. Metroid Prime 3, however, will use the Super Metroid weapon selection, meaning that weapons will now stack onto each other to form one super weapon. By paying homage to the original games, Retro Studios looks set to create what could be the pinnacle of the series.

Hopefully, the delays that plagued Metroid Prime: Hunters will not haunt Metroid Prime 3. With everything looking to be on track for now, American players look set to get their greasy mitts on Metroid Prime 3 in November. However, there is no news on a New Zealand release date for Wii yet, so it remains to be seen how long the torturous wait will be. Keep your eyes glued to NZGamer for further updates about Wii and Metroid Prime 3.

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