Metroid Prime
If you're a fan of Nintendo's classic Metroid franchise, you know you deserve this. You've waited much too long to be denied. Super Metroid was released in April of 1994, and since then there has been a nagging question in the back of your mind: When will Samus return?
We were all happy to see the return of Samus in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64, and with the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee for Nintendo GameCube we marveled once again at the bounty hunter's uncanny knack for chaos. The mastery of mayhem. The penchant to pummel.
There is no doubt that Samus has been devastating in these games, but we all know that Samus is destined for more. More adventure. More enemies. More mind-maddening puzzles. More of what makes Samus Samus.
At last, fans are getting what they deserve. They're getting Metroid Prime.
Metroid Prime calls only one place home, and it's not Tallon IV. It's Nintendo GameCube. You'll be feeding a shiny new Metroid Prime Game Disc to your Nintendo GameCube on November 18, 2002. That's when the most anticipated game of the year hits store shelves, and by no coincidence that's also when legions of mutated enemies will splatter, burst and explode into oblivion at the hands of one capable hero: Samus Aran.
At the 2002 E3Expo in Los Angeles, Nintendo unveiled Metroid Prime for the very first time. Fully playable, the Metroid Prime demo was received by salivating gamers with huge smiles, determined brows and gasps of glee. If you were lucky enough to attend the annual trade show, you had to be even more lucky to fight your way through the throngs of enthusiastic fans and actually wrap your hands around a Nintendo GameCube Controller.
Nintendo Power Magazine was able to do just that. The following Metroid Prime preview is based on the E3Expo version of the game which was displayed on the showroom floor. It is possible that many details and elements of the game may change before it is released.
Behind the Visor
Metroid Prime is a first-person adventure game. Players control a capable bounty hunter named Samus Aran who must blast through horribly mutated creatures populating a planet called Tallon IV.
The E3Expo demo opens just as Samus' spaceship docks on a larger vessel. Immediately, the beautiful graphics shake your hand and say hello. Trust us, it's a firm handshake. A silky-smooth framerate accommodates razor-sharp visuals of efficient machinery and foreign architecture. Meanwhile, a cinematic soundtrack sets the mood and eerie sound effects thicken the alien atmosphere.
By far, the most effective visual trick is that everything you see appears to be viewed through Samus' visor. The entire screen has a convex look, and a digital display provides information ranging from current energy levels to ammunition data. The most effective ideas are sometimes the most simple, and the visor view in Metroid Prime makes a huge leap forward in immersing players in the first-person perspective.
Samus uses a Power Beam to shoot a series of locked switches, and eventually enters a cylindrical corridor very similar to the passageways found in the original Metroid titles. When Samus strides by broken pipes spewing steam, the visor becomes smeared with condensation. Later in the demo, the visor is splattered with the internal juices of ruptured enemy carcasses. Yes, life within Samus' gravity suit is a beautiful thing.
Weapon effects are equally pleasing. Hold the A Button to juice up the Charge Beam, and you see the corridor glow and warp as the blast travels through space. Enemy animation is delightfully disgusting, whether it's a giant parasite queen squirming from the ceiling or a swarm of blood-thirsty critters gushing from a dark hole. Take note: the word "swarm" has been misused in video game reviews for years. With Metroid Prime, we can use the word "swarm" and feel perfectly justified. The screen fills -- FILLS -- with baddies, and the framerate doesn't even blink.
In the Gravity Suit
Of course, graphics are just the glossing on the gravity suit. No matter how good a game looks, it won't get fired up more than once without solid game design and user-friendly play control. In Metroid Prime, both are spot-on.
How do you know if play control is good? If you don't think about it, it's perfect. Once you get a feel for the Controller configuration in Metroid Prime, you spend 100% of your time worrying about blasting enemies -- not thinking about the play control.
The Control Stick moves Samus around, the A Button fires weapons and the B Button makes Samus jump. Press and hold the R Button to enter a stationary aiming mode which allows you to freely look around the environment. The L Button activates an automatic lock-on feature, which makes for easy strafing while firing at a targeted enemy.
Changing weapons is as easy as moving the C-Stick. By pressing different directions on the D-Pad, you can activate the different features of Samus' visor. In the demo, two types of visors were available: Combat and Scan. Combat is the normal view, and Scan produces a slightly magnified rectangular viewing strip in the middle of the visor. By pressing and holding the L Button, Samus can scan various items in the environment. Sometimes a scan simply provides additional information, and other times scanning an environmental element can activate a switch. Recently, we have learned that a Thermal visor will also be available.
Scanning a fallen enemy, for example, produced the following message: "Space Pirate. Death caused by severe flame damage to exoskeleton." Ominous tidings like this make Samus' world more realistic -- and more intimidating.
Press the Y Button to activate and fire Samus' missile weapon, and press the X Button to engage the Morph Ball. The game switches to a third-person perspective while Samus is in Morph Ball form. In the demo Samus used the Morph Ball to navigate through the tight tunnels of collapsed rubble, and also to unlock a switch which required a spherical key.
Anticipation Grows
The E3Expo demo of Metroid Prime only left us wanting more. We spent about a half hour meandering through the game, which climaxed in a grueling battle with a huge parasite queen. After slaughtering the beast, Samus had to evacuate the ship before a time limit ran out. While escaping, Samus even used a grappling beam to navigate a particularly vast chasm.
Metroid fans, know this: Metroid Prime is coming, and it will most certainly be worth the wait.
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