Dear Metroid Prime

Just as I expected, you were quite good. I had played all the other games in the Metroid Prime series, but never the original. The second and third ones, and even the spin off for the DS, were all really good. I think this first person shooter style is a good direction for the series, now that everything is three dimensional these days. So anyways, when I saw my roommate playing you I figured it was about time I sat down and actually played the first Metroid Prime.

You were definitely good, not quite as good as your sequels, but still good. You laid a very good base for the series, and I noticed some things missing that I had become used to in the later games, which in a way is actually a good thing. I could see some ways in which you had actually been improved upon as the series progressed, unlike a lot of things (in both games and movies) where everyone agrees the first one was best and the sequels were just quickly made to make more money or something.

Anyways, on to actually talking about you instead of just making comparisons. The gameplay was fun, with a variety of enemies to fight, and some interesting boss fights. The variety of weapons you provided me with was nice, and most of them were well balanced so they all stayed useful in different scenarios (except the last one, which was just plain better than everything else). And you included some interesting puzzles and challenges, and provided just enough direction to prevent wandering aimlessly through the decently sized world not sure where to go next. For the most part, the controls work well. Keeping the view stuck perfect horizontal, using one joystick to move, and having a button to "lock on" to enemies is a little different than most first-person shooters and takes some getting used to, but for this game it works. It does occasionally lead to some awkward bits where it was hard to get aimed in the right direction, but overall good. I like that I get to constantly feel like I'm getting more and more powerful as I collect things throughout the game, though it was a little weird that most of the game was just wandering around collecting power-ups. This brings me to my only real negative point, that you had basically no plot. I landed on this planet following a bad guy, and then spent the entire game just wandering around collecting things so that I could finally at the end actually find and fight that enemy, with very little else actually happening. This is a particular area where your sequels drastically improved though, which is good.

A really great game, which started a really great series. I'll give you a 9.

-SF