Metroid Prime (2002)

Fuck me this is aggravating. The constant backtracking is tedious, even by Metroidvania standards; the weapon/visor-switching is obnoxious; the platforming is consistently awful (yes it is shut up) and then the final stretch is something else entirely. The bosses all suck too.

I've frontloaded the negativity because there's a lot to like - read any of the thousands of positive reviews over the course of the past 24 years - and it kept me engaged almost the whole way through, but I simply can't agree with the ridiculous praise that Prime has received. I'm beginning to think there's a brainworm that burrows into people and disengages their critical thinking when it comes to Nintendo and the games they publish.

Part of the Millennium Challenge 2026 (2002).

The good thing about 2-D Metroidvanias is that backtracking isn't as big of a chore. Going back and forth through this map was exhausting and there's no fast travel. Most of the enemies aren't fun to fight either and are often quite spongy.

I don't want to say how long it took me to beat this game, but I'm incredibly jealous of those who finished it in 15.41 hours.

Metroid Prime has a special spot in my heart, as it was my introduction to the Metroid series. I had previously only known Samus as "that space robot from Super Smash Bros," having somehow missed the memo on Super Metroid's existence. That changed in 2002. By this point, the GameCube had a growing list of great games--Animal Crossing, Super Mario Sunshine, Pikmin and Smash Bros. Melee to name a few--but I have to tell you, nothing blew my mind quite as much as Metroid Prime. The game's visuals were jaw-dropping, and to date the visual design remains one of its strongest components.

More than two decades later, we're right back there again. Metroid Prime Remastered might be the most visually impressive game that I've seen on the Nintendo Switch. Retro Studios has bumped up the visuals to a level that I'm a little shocked to see on the Switch, all while keeping the intent of the original designs intact. It makes certain other Switch remasters look a bit lacking in comparison.

The remaster also includes some other much appreciated quality of life improvements. The new twin-stick control scheme is a game-changer, and it makes the game feel quite modern. I also really enjoyed the inclusion of pointer controls, and I played through bits of the game that way. Otherwise, the game is pretty much the same--the soundtrack is unchanged, and even the character animations are the same, which can stand out a little bit in comparison to the gorgeous new models and textures.

The core game design beneath it all remains pretty fresh. Metroid Prime is less of an FPS and more of an action-adventure and exploration game. You delve into the interconnected world of Talon IV, filled with puzzles, enemies and platforming challenges, while searching for suit upgrades that let you reach previously unreachable locations. Aiming is de-emphasized thanks to the lock-on mechanic, so positioning and weapon choice become key in combat. The world is like a giant puzzle, where you are tasked with closely observing your surroundings and remembering where you have to return to when you have the right power-up. The game relies on atmosphere and environments to communicate with the player, with minimal story.

Although it has aged well, it's clear that the game would have benefitted from a few tweaks. Save points are pretty plentiful, but I was still annoyed at the lack of a more modern autosave system. Additionally, the artifact hunt near the end of the game, which completely ruins the game's sense of momentum and pacing, is left untouched. Even something as simple as a rudimentary fast travel system would have helped a lot with this. I really, really dislike the final section of Metroid Prime, so much so that it took me weeks to muster the motivation to power through to the end once I reached it. At the same time, I can appreciate Retro Studios' desire to deliver a completely authentic version of Metroid Prime, even with some of its flaws.

Since playing Metroid Prime for the first time on the GameCube, I have checked out the other titles in the series, and I am now much more of a fan of the 2D games like Super Metroid and Metroid Dread. That said, seeing a 3D Metroid game with modern controls and visuals gets me super excited for what Metroid Prime 4 has in store.

What works

• It captures the main loop of a Metroid game really well, far better than I expected
• It feels like there’s more of an opportunity for Samus to become an absolute tank in this game, in a very satisfying way
• 3D allows for a far more convincing and outright weird alien world than I think the 2D games do

What doesn’t

• It felt like more of a pain crossing the map than the 2D entries. I’ve been thinking about why, and I reckon it’s because in 2D Metroids, once you’ve got the space jump you can basically fly
• (Related point: I think 3D hurts some of the more creative ways of getting about in this series)
• I found it dragged a bit in the back quarter. The different flavoured Space Pirates in the Phazon Mines can fuck off, mopping up the remaining artifacts felt a bit like padding, and the Impact Crater was just a chore (though an admittedly brief one)

Verdict

I really enjoyed this game overall, but I feel like there’s more they could have done to modernise it besides the updated controls and graphics. Small quality of life things like, once you’ve opened a door once, any beam should work. The whole juggling beams/visors feels very clunky when you have to do it a lot actually (though I’m ashamed to say it took me about 10 hours before I noticed the option to swap them over).

I think I’d have given this 5 stars if it was a bit tighter and if Impact Crater didn’t rub me the wrong way so much.

The header says it all. Metroid is my favourite series, period, and this is one of the best. I'd previously had it as my number two after Super, but the more I think about Dread, the more I realize it and Prime are basically neck and neck for me.

The changes made to this, for the most part, are stellar. The only real gripe I have is the lack of ability to fully customize my controls. That, and time and other games spoiling me have made me realize how much I would love a fast travel system for this game. Mostly for the item collection at the end (because of how much I hate travelling through the Phendrana Drifts and Phazon Mines—the elevators are sometimes a bit cumbersome in how far apart they are spread). That said, it's still an all-timer for me, and the new graphical sheen helps make it feel as if it could have been released for the first time in 2023. Beyond that, it's one of the top games ever for atmosphere.

They made Super Metroid in 3D. To this day, that feels like a minor miracle. Now if only they would remaster the other two in this series. Diminishing returns for both but still excellent.

It is remarkable just how consistently fun and interesting this game is. Almost every room in its large interconnected areas serves some valuable, memorable purpose, having a unique layout, building up atmosphere and tension, maybe housing a tantalizing secret you'll finally get hours later, or just providing an enjoyable puzzle, platforming challenge, or combat encounter. The action is exciting and varied, as are the different environments you visit, and it all flows together and loops back on itself in really satisfying ways. It's a fantastic translation of basically everything good about Metroid into 3D that holds up surprisingly well.

It's not without some flaws, of course. Some power-ups don't really add much fun factor, some enemies feel a bit overused or lacking in character (or sometimes annoying), and there are some cumbersome moments with the controls. Later on, the game loses a bit of its feeling of mystery and forward momentum as it has you revisit already-revisited areas on a hunt for 12 hidden key items. There are great moments of fresh content in those last few hours, but there's only so much that tougher (or sometimes annoying) enemies and newly-accessible upgrades can do to spice up the rest of it.

Luckily, most of the game doesn't have these problems. I was surprised at some of the finer things that it nails, coming just a few years after pioneering 3D console games like Ocarina of Time. 3D spaces here feel so organic and well-designed, with the world as a whole also having spot-on scale, density, and verticality. Samus's movement strikes a nice balance between mobility and weightiness, and those spaces and the encounters within them always felt well-designed around her abilities and limitations, her size, and the first-person perspective. Even the 3D map is very useful and easily readable.

The Remastered edition on the Switch updates the controls and visuals and adds a few accessibility options to make the game feel more at home alongside modern games, while not fundamentally reimagining it in any way as far as I can tell. If they had gone a bit further and added some options for additional fast travel or other little tweaks, I certainly wouldn't have complained, but I think the game is largely fine as-is. I'd call it one of the best games on the Switch (and GameCube) and definitely my favorite Metroid game. It still stands out in the action-adventure world as something refreshing and highly memorable.

In 2005, my sister and I spent the better part of summer break doing small jobs around the house in order to earn a little extra money from our parents. We were saving up for buying a brand new Gamecube from the local games store. When the time finally came to get the console, we already knew which games we were going to get: my sister was keen on playing Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and The Chronicles of Narnia, while I was dying to get Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 and Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, along with some others.

When we brought the console home, it already came with two games we didn't know but which we could use to check everything was working, and to pass the time while we waited to save up enough again for the games we actually wanted. The first of those games was The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker; the other was Metroid Prime. I remember listening to the music of both games. While one was cartoony and seemed mostly happy, which immediately caught the eye of me and my sister, Metroid Prime was dark and scary-looking. I remember trying it out a couple of times and never getting past the starting area of the game: a confusing, metallic and enemy-infested space frigate which felt like nothing I had ever seen before. It caused a great impression on me, and I realized that perhaps this game was more suited for older gamers. At that time, I was 10 years old.

Years later, when I was around 16 I would say, I tried booting up both games again. I was changing schools, I was really into music, and it was one of the most challenging years of my life. While this time I was able to really get into Zelda, and was even able to beat it after many attempts, I could still only get through the starting area of Metroid and finally reach the main part of the game which takes place in the planet Tallon IV. Getting through the first parts was simple enough. The mystery of the first areas was truly gripping, but eventually when I got to the Magmoor Caves I found the game still too difficult and confusing for me. The atmosphere was so oppressive, and I could only play for a few times before getting overwhelmed. My save game also showed that I was only 9% done through the game, and I really thought that this planet must be massive. I decided to put it off until a later time. While Zelda became my favorite game, and still is to this day; Metroid remained a mystery.

I eventually tried to get back to the game when I got into university. I must've been around 20 years old. I had finally played a few other Metroid games: Fusion and Super Metroid, and beat them even. My best friend lent me his old Gameboy Advance and Fusion became my favorite game on that console. It is still the best Metroid game that exists, in my opinion, and of course I was eager to try my copy of 3D Metroid again. I finally got through Magmoor Caverns, got to Phendrana Drifts and was hooked. I was really on the right track but as I got to the Phazon Mines, the challenge grew more and more and more, and eventually the game was making me so mad, that I had to stop once again. Being used to more traditional console shooters, I found the platforming controls just too infuriating at times, and having to switch visors and weapon types constantly while getting swarmed by Space Pirates was just what brought me over the tipping point. This game was driving me mad, and I just needed a break from it. After trying a few times again, I once again lost interest in it. That must've been around 2014. I moved to Germany in 2019, came back home to visit in 2020 right before the pandemic and booted up the game again.

In 2020 I got pretty far into the Phazon Mines but did not have time to finish the game before having to fly back home. Because of Covid, I spend over a year and a half away from home and now, in September 2021, I was finally able to came back. I was eager to finally finish this game. The game on my Gamecube I had never beat. Due to one thing or another, the length and scope of this game was still unknown to me and my save game still only said I had 21% of the game complete. I spent the last few days blasting through the remaining areas. I am much more familiar with the Metroid formula. Earlier this year I played through AM2R and coming back to the game was really impressed by just how well Retro games translated the 2D formula of the games I knew well by now into 3D space. I was able to appreciate the details of the level design, the environment art, the audio design, the soundtrack. All of them are amazing and really truly unique. I have honestly never ever played any other game that looks and feels like Metroid Prime. I was much more able to freely roam through the areas I had known as a teenager once more and get a much better grip of what the game was doing. Since last year I've also been learning game dev as a hobby and so I think my understanding of how a game does certain things lets me appreciate just what good a job Retro Studios did on this one.

There was only a problem. After I was done exploring the last of the Phazon mines, and beating what to me was the hardest boss in the game, the Omega Pirate, I had all the upgrades I needed to face the final boss and finally finish this absolute masterpiece of a game. Or so I thought. I remembered that there were some artifacts I was supposed to find earlier in the game, and I thought these were optional, so while making my way to the end of Phazon Mines, before facing the boss, I had gone around collecting some of the artifacts that were near along the way. I'd get the rest of them before getting the final boss, I thought. And indeed I did. Not because I wanted to, though, mind you; but because it turns out I had to... While the majority of the game you go around exploring the world and upgrading your suit, it turns out the true objective of the game was getting these random artifacts all along. I had to forcefully tread back through most of what I had already explored to check off this list in my menu, in what must be the most boring chore of any game I had ever played. Maybe it wasn't so bad, but the way this realization just completely wrecks the pace of the game was jarring... After some hours of going around through the world I already knew, I had already explored for the millionth time, and finally going all the way back to the bowels of Phazon Mines, getting the final artifact, and making all my way back to the very first area of the game; I was finally ready (tho mostly exasperated) to face the final boss and finally be done with this game. At least now I was making progress, and this was going to be a bombastic final fight...

Again, not quite. Although Meta Ridley is not really the final boss of the game, it is one of the most drab, uninteresting, monotonous parts of the entire experience. There is no puzzle to solve with him, it's just a shooting and patience exercise to get the monster down to a quarter of his life, at which point the difficulty of the fight is turned up by a hundred-fold and once you die you have to do everything once again. I don't really want to describe the frustration and disappointment I felt with what to me was a boring, arbitrary, but also highly unfair boss battle to finish the game. Once I finally beat it, though, that's not even the end of the game. The impact crater where you bring the Chozo artifacts you collected earlier collapses, and you enter the true ending of the game: the Red-Phazon-filled caves where you face off the final boss, the titular Metroid Prime. While the final boss battle is mercifully more clear in explaining how to beat the monster, and it actually has you using almost all the abilities you've collected throughout the game, making it quite fun; getting to its lair first is again a huge chore. The final area's main Phazon Core room is filled with an unending wave of Phazon Metroids which obnoxiously hinder your platforming path up to the hall that leads to the Metroid Prime over and over again, sucking a significant part of your hitpoints before meeting the final boss with no chance of recovering before. If the boss kills you, you have to go through the entire area again!

Once you get a hang of how the final battle in the game works, it actually picks the fun back up; but truth be told, the last few hours of the game before this take it from a wonderful mystery-packed exploration action game which progressively gets harder to a drudging unpolished mess with unfair, repetitive sections, before finally picking back up somewhat in the final phase of the final boss battle, where you at last clear Tallon IV of the Phazon corruption and go back to your ship while the Impact Crater collapses around Samus (unfortunately shown only through a cutscene, and not as a playable last-bit, which would've been amazing I think). You get the final grade of your playthrough and unlock Hard Mode... Hard Mode???? Why would I play through this game again now???

Honestly, this game is absolutely worth trying out and maybe even playing through if you don't mind using walkthoughs to make the final hours of the game a bit less drudgey. As I mentioned before, the level design at parts, and the overall environment and art design is so consistently good that just by feeling and exploring Tallon IV alone, this game becomes a must-see, and mostly actually superb. The first hours of the game are some of the medium's finest, and that alone would've had me giving this game five stars. But holy shit, be ready for a dip in gameplay quality once you get to the later parts of Phazon Mines. I think maybe the last few hours would deserve 1.5 stars, but overall this makes out to be a bit higher than 3 stars in my books. I know this is really a disappointment finishing the game after so long, but I'm glad I have this in my collection. If you have a Gamecube or Wii and come across a cheap copy some day, absolutely get this game. It is worthy of being in every GC/Wii owner's collection, but if you're not already into Metroid and are looking for somewhere to start, absolutely do NOT look to this. There's a lot of lessons that can be learned from this game, what to do right and what to do wrong, so take that as what you need to know to decide whether to finish this thing or not.

In any case, I'm glad to finally have this piece of personal and gaming history behind me, and I am excited to eventually get a copy of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Prime 3: Corruption, and hopefully Prime 4 when it comes out. But I'll take my time with it. I hope for the next titles Retro learns from its mistakes in this first entry and gives us the absolute masterpiece of a game I witnessed hiding under the surface of Tallon IV, somewhere in a dangerous place full of Phazon, Space Pirates, Metroids, awesome environment art, delightful soundtrack, and lots of LOTS of shooting.

I have never played a game so demanding with all you need to do at one time with the controller. During the final few bosses, you need to:

• constantly lock on with the left trigger,
• periodically aim with the right trigger,
• hold down the A button to charge your shot,
• while pressing B to jump and evade,
• and pressing Y to fire missles,
• all while constantly switching your visor with the D-pad,
• AND constantly using the C stick to switch weapons.

Whew. My hands are still aching after beating Metroid Prime earlier today. Some of this can be blamed on the unusual GameCube controller, but the fact is that this game is very complex and requires you to do all these things concurrently and quickly. Maybe it should have been a bit simpler.

Overall though, this game is a masterpiece in design. While I prefer the 2D games, they really nailed the Metroid atmosphere in 3D. The music is fantastic, the graphics still look amazing, and the gameplay is really fun. The desire for exploration makes this game super hard to put down.

My only complaints: The artifact hunt is just an artificial time waster. Also, the constant scanning of things started to get boring.

I last played this game on GameCube shortly after its release. Back then, I found the controls awkward (I'm terrible enough at shooters without worrying about jumping, too), but I really enjoyed the game... up to the final boss battles, which I wasn't able to beat (even after investing in a strategy guide... remember those?). Giving up on a game is always a bummer, and it somewhat soured my experience.

But recent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order coverage frequently cited Prime as an influence, which inspired me to give it another go. This time, I played it via the Metroid Prime Trilogy on my Wii U.

For me, the difference was night and day. Aiming with my wrist and elbow freed my fingers to focus on movement with minimal contortion. Turning off the "Lock-On: Free Aim" option let me seamlessly switch my aiming style with the press of a button. It made me feel far more confident in combat, which made the exploration and backtracking way more fun. And this time, I was able to beat the game! The end bosses were tough but doable.

I'll keep this short since others have already reviewed the game's finer points quite wonderfully. It's just tremendously satisfying to finally defeat a ghost of my gaming past, and to have so much fun doing it.

Metroid Prime is one of those games that are just an A+ no matter who you talk to. Metroid Prime is, in my opinion, the BEST entry in the Metroid franchise and is the first Metroid game in 3D and in a first person perspective to boot.

This one decision was a groundbreaking element to Prime's success. For starters, it immerses the player into the world like no game before it, the player IS Samus, you see through her eyes right out of the helmet, you can even see her eyes reflect in the visor- the detail is EXTRAORDINARY.

This immersion further emphasizes Metroid's main themes: Isolation and Exploration. People familiar with Metroid will remember all of Samus' essential upgrades and weapons, and they all mostly find themselves in this game. Missile expansions, energy tanks, charge beam, ice beam, bombs, plasma beam, the Varia suit, gravity suit they all come back.

The new gear REVOLUTIONIZES Metroid as a whole: Visor Upgrades. The game you begin with a scanner in which you can unlock doors and gather information from enemies and computers. This scanner adds a new collectible to the game: Scanner Entries. In order to 100% complete this game, you must scan every enemy and computer file, further adding layers to the exploration.

There is the infrared visor and x-ray visors can reveal enemies and other secrets, adding, even more, depth to the already deep exploration, but also another level to combat.

Combat in this game is SOLID. Borrowing a similar lock-on system from Zelda, Samus can now dodge and side step around enemies in addition to using her incredible arsenal of beam and missile types.

Did I also mention the game is gorgeous? The textures and models are incredibly detailed and refined, each location and environment is unique and feels alive, which is saying a lot coming from a game released in 2003.

The lore is also surprisingly deep and subtle. Reading each entry in the scanner, finding out about what happened on Tallon IV and the mysterious substance known as Phazon is genuinely interesting and by the time you end the game, you are excited to find out what happens next.

There is never a dull moment in this game, especially during boss fights, all of which are fun, challenging and intense.

If you like sci-fi games like Mass Effect or Halo, I'd say try Metroid Prime enjoy yourself. If you have any interest in games at all, I'd recommend Metroid Prime as it is one of the best games EVER MADE. You can buy it for $20 on the WiiU eshop along with the 2 sequels (which are also awesome games) in the Metroid Prime Trilogy (which is a steal because the disc alone is $90).

To find a game as perfect as Metroid Prime is honestly kind of surreal. It makes me emotional, it is SO GOOD. This game is a front runner for Greatest Adventure game of all time, and rightfully so. 100% recommend it, do yourself a favor and play it.