Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) Review

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the third and final game in the Metroid Prime series, developed by Retro Studios. The plot goes something like this (spoiler alert): In the first Metroid Prime, Samus (the main character of the Metroid series) was tasked with eliminating the Space Pirates on Tallon IV, as well as wiping out the phazon (it’s deadly, don’t touch it, unless you want to know the definition of the phrase “With great power comes great responsibility”) corruption on the planet. The source of the corruption is revealed to be a heavily mutated Metroid (creatures who feed off the life force of other species, also where the series gets its name from) known as Metroid Prime, living deep within the depths of the planet. So you need to collect these mysterious artifacts that open up the path to wear it lies. After finally defeating it, it’s presumed dead. However, it returns in the next two games as Dark Samus, Samus’ evil twin (exactly how this happens I’ll leave secret). So in the second game, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, basically you need to defeat Dark Samus before the amount of phazon she consumes reaches a critical mass or something along those lines. In other words, you just need to stop her, which you do, and then lo and behold she’s able to come back, which brings us to right now. In this game, you need to defeat her once again, only now you’re heading straight for the source of all phazon corruption in the universe, so you can wipe it out along with her. The plot sets the stage for the adventure ahead.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is actually the first Metroid Prime game I’ve played, unless you count the spin-off title Metroid Prime Hunters for the Nintendo DS, so I haven’t experienced the controls of the previous two (I’m currently trying to get my hands on them, so expect reviews on them once I get them and complete them). As such, I also can't tell you what has and hasn't changed about the series ever since the release of the first game. Retro Studios claimed that the control scheme they created for Metroid Prime 3 is the best first-person control scheme ever made (they say so right on the back of the case). I’m not sure I agree with that statement, but there’s no denying that it is good. The game is played using the Wiimote and Nunchuk attachment. You use the control stick to move forward, backward, diagonally and side to side. The Wiimote acts as your arm cannon. That being said, you use it to change the direction you aim in, as well as the direction you move in. You press the A button to shoot, the control pad down to fire missiles (hold it down to fire multiple missiles once the ability becomes available to you), the B button to jump, the B button twice to double jump, and three times to do the screwattack (Once you gain the ability. Also, the A and B button can be switched, you can have the A button be the jump button and the B button to be your fire button). The C button is used to change into your morph ball and the Z button’s used to lock onto enemies. While Z-targeting you can shake the nunchuk to employ use of the grappling hook, which can be used to pull you across gaps that can’t be crossed by any other means, or to rip stuff apart, like enemy shields or hunks of debris that block your path. The – button (that’s minus) is also really important. You can use that to switch between various visors in your possession. At the beginning, you’re equipped with a scan visor that allows you to scan enemies and stuff like that (I know you totally couldn’t have figured that out without me), but as you progress you gain a visor that allows you to control your ship remotely as well as one that gives you X-Ray vision (take it from me, it’s really useful) The 1 button pauses the game, the 2 button displays hints (can be toggled on or off, if you’re a Metroid purist, you’ll probably want this turned off), and you use the + button to enter your hypermode (once you get the ability), which allows you to fire extra-powerful blasts of that phazon stuff I mentioned earlier, albeit for a limited time (more on this later). The setup feels weird initially, but becomes second nature after a few minutes.

I’ll admit I wasn’t really paying attention to the graphics. So rather than trying to make up things to say about them, I will say that they must have been good, considering that I lost myself in the game anyway.

Guess what’s coming up next? What’s that you say? Voice acting? Well you’d be right. The voice acting in this game is excellent. That being said, voice acting is never perfect, as one who has hopes of getting into the business himself, I should probably commit that to memory. But the voices in this game are good. I know, it doesn’t matter if the voice actors are well known or not, but most of them are obscure, at least to me. There are a few that I’ve heard. For some examples, Jennifer Hale (who plays the main character, Samus Aran), Christopher Sabat (who plays the bounty hunter Rundas, and those who have watched Dragon Ball Z might recognize as the Saiyan prince Vegeta, and the Namekian Piccolo), and Troy Baker, whose voice, to this day, I still can’t pick out. That must speak volumes about his versatility.

The music for the game is being composed by Kenji Yamamoto, the one who composed the music for the previous two games in the Prime series, among others, such as newcomer Minako Hamano. The music sets the mood of every one of the planets (yes, Metroid fans, I said planets) you visit in the game. One example that stands out to me at the moment is a theme that plays in a xenoresearch laboratory found in SkyTown, Elysia. Once you first visit, everything is more or less normal. As you progress, you will go past several cells containing Phazon Metroids (Metroids enhanced with Phazon? How can this be?). Some will try to attack you, some won’t. As you progress further into the lab, which is seemingly empty except for you and the Metroids, it becomes evident that you’ll need to shut off the power to the entire lab. So you do, and, when you do, a rather unsettling theme starts playing. So you start backtracking, and sure enough, those cells with Metroids you saw earlier? The glass has been shattered. They’re destroyed. They’ve broken out, and judging by the amount of time it took for you to get back to that spot, they’re probably still somewhere in the laboratory. So now you’re trying to find a way out of here when BOOM! Out of frigging nowhere, a Metroid comes charging at you and unless you’re exceptionally prepared for the thing, you’re probably gonna get some life sucked out o’ ya. But that’s beside the point. The point is the music gives you a sense that you are not alone in this place. It really is amazing, the effect that music has on situations like this one. Would it have generated the same effect if the Jaws theme was playing? Well I guess it would’ve helped, if anything, you’d be better prepared for those Metroids at least. One other example is the abandoned federation ship G.F.S. Valhalla (see what they did there?), but I’ll leave that to you. The sound effects in the game were done by a company known as Okratron5000, ironically founded by Christopher Sabat.

If there’s one thing I enjoy about the gameplay, it’s the combat. This is really where the game gets most of its challenge. The enemies you face are mostly of the Space Pirate variety. The earlier enemies are easy enough, but as you progress, they’ll be sent into combat with flight capability or they’ll find themselves enabled with the same hypermode ability that you possess, or they’ll have really thick, near-impenetrable armor. Sometimes it may even be a combination of these things. In other words, the difficulty really ramps up later in the game, even on normal difficulty. I’d say about half the challenge comes from knowing when to use hypermode, because as I said above, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Seriously, this thing will kill you if you let it. The boss fights in the game take this even further. The boss fights will test your proficiency with your abilities like nothing else can. Alright, maybe I’m exaggerating that a little, like few other things in this game can. Whatever, the point is that the boss fights are challenging, and I like ‘em that way. I don’t think there has been a single boss fight where I wasn’t left with a low amount of energy. This is just in my experience, I’m not sure about you. Maybe you’ve had better luck.

The puzzles are another aspect of the game that deserves praise. They never had me guessing for more than a few minutes, but they were well done nevertheless. They are almost always galaxy-spanning, almost never limited to a single room/area/planet. Sometimes you need to backtrack to previous planets to find a solution to a problem you encounter on another planet. That being said, some puzzles are still done the old fashioned way. The solution is right there on the planet you’re on. For those Metroid purists out there, the guys over at Retro Studios haven’t forgotten you in this regard either.

As I haven’t played any other game in the series (except the original Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment System, which was stupid-hard), I have no clue how this game would stack up compared to previous instalments in the series. But for my money at least, you can’t go wrong here. The game and its story can easily be enjoyed without previous knowledge of the series (I looked up backstory after I beat the game just to see where it fit in the chronology), the difficulty ramps up at a steady pace, and higher difficulty modes provide incentive to play through the game again after beating it, not to mention the extra content you could unlock, such as decorations for your ship (bumper stickers, bobbleheads, etc.), based on what Wii games are also saved onto the console’s internal memory. You can also unlock background music, so you can sit there and listen to it without having to actually play the game just to listen to it (this or you could always just go on YouTube and search it up), pieces of artwork, and the like. Like I said above, you can’t go wrong with this game. If you’re a Metroid fan and you own a Wii, pick this game up. If you aren’t a Metroid fan but own a Wii, I’d also recommend you give it a go. It’s an excellent game to play to get a good first impression of the series. You’ll probably really enjoy it. I know that I did.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) Review

I am a Zelda fan. That being said, I wasn't around to see the original three Zeldas released (Zelda, Zelda II, Link to the Past), however, my fandom started with a Zelda game all of us know as Ocarina of Time. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was the first 3D Zelda, and it's also one of the best Zelda games in my opinion. The dungeons were great, the overworld was a bit too big, the graphics hold up well, the narrative was well done, etc. I haven't had the privilege of playing any Zelda game succeeding Ocarina of Time except one, which was Twilight Princess.

Twilight Princess took everything Ocarina of Time brought to the table and refined all of it. It was a more mature-looking Zelda title. It was pretty much a modern Ocarina of Time. You know the overworld? They made that bigger (They also put a lot more to do in it). You know the graphics? Yeah those were a lot more realistic. You know the dungeons? Bigger and better. And for the first time in the Zelda series, motion controls were added to the experience. I mean, sure all you ever really did in terms of motion control in that game was shake the wii remote to slash enemies with your sword and shake the nunchuk to use your shield, but they were still well implemented. And not only could you name your character, you could name your horse as well. Also, the game ran in widescreen (16:9) format on Wii as opposed to the Gamecube version of the game (the Wii game is also a mirrored version of the Gamecube game).

Last year, 2011, about 5 years after Twilight Princess was released, was Zelda's 25^th anniversary. And for that occasion, Eiji Aonuma and his development team set out to make a Zelda game unlike any other. And what better way to celebrate the Legend of Zelda’s 25^th anniversary than by creating a prequel to Ocarina of Time? That prequel Zelda game eventually came to be known as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Once again, this game refines conventions of the Zelda franchise, and also refines motion controls. In Twilight Princess, as said above, you were just shaking the remote and nunchuk to get results. In this game, swordplay has received a bigger emphasis than in previous games. In fact, it's impossible to play this game without a Wii MotionPlus accessory (or a Wii RemotePlus)! I opted for a MotionPlus 'cause it was cheaper (I also had to wait for two months before playing the game to get it, big mistake. If you’re going to get this game, play it with a Wii RemotePlus). The Wii MotionPlus allows for 1:1 accuracy when swinging your sword. Put in its simplest terms, it means that whatever direction you choose to swing the remote, Link (or whatever you choose to name your in-game avatar) will swing in that same direction in game. Some dungeon designs (the first one in particular) and pretty much all enemies and bosses are designed around this mechanic. And if this isn't the last Zelda game for the Wii as we know it (as the WiiU is upon us) then this is, apparently the way Zelda games for the Wii will control from now on, so get used to it.

The story of Skyward Sword delves into the origins of the Legend of Zelda series, and does a surprisingly excellent job of pulling all of the games in the series together chronologically. We have Link and we have Zelda, who for the first time ever, aren't in their traditional roles as Hero and Princess of Hyrule (remember that at the time of this game, Hyrule doesn't exist), but instead are childhood friends. Zelda takes a walk off the edge of Skyloft one day and falls below the clouds. Actually, she gets sucked into a tornado and then falls below the clouds. How very convenient. And just in case you’re wondering, Skyloft is the town above the clouds where these two protagonists grew up. Getting back to the plot, naturally, the knight in shining armor has to rescue the princess, doesn't he? Well that's exactly what Link does. As Link, the player scours three areas called provinces on the surface world (or the surface, as it’s called in-game) in search of his love interest, which is a lot more interesting than it sounds. Why is this? Because Nintendo, the developer of the game, continues to do things the way they’ve always done them with the Zelda series: spectacular game design and a well-written story.

The controls in this game are awesome. The motion controls work well, for the most part. They were a bit awkward at first, but I was able to get used to them fairly quickly. While I was playing through the third dungeon, I accidentally broke the accessory and ever since then it started behaving erratically. I suppose this is why Nintendo created a remote with the accessory’s technology built in. The Wii RemotePlus works much better. As said above, the motion you make with the remote is the motion that will be made with the sword in-game. This scheme is mostly used for battling enemies and bosses, hardly ever for puzzles inside the game’s dungeons. The only dungeon that ever really used the remote’s functionality was the first dungeon, the Skyview Temple. There are several places in the temple where there is an item crucial to progress in the dungeon behind bars. It’s a type of security system, guarded by these machines that look like eyes. These eyes follow the point of your sword, so you need to use this to your advantage in order to gain access to the item that this system guards. You can access various items that you have by pausing the game using the + button, pressing the – button (to access health potions, shield potions, shields, etc.), as well as the + button to access weapons that you have acquired throughout the game.

From the second temple on, the focus shifts off of using your sword to solve puzzles and onto using weapons you gain throughout the game. Previous games in the series have you entering a dungeon, then at some point in the dungeon finding a new weapon, and then using that weapon to help you progress in the temple. By that, I mean that until now, all the dungeons that Nintendo designed had puzzles inside that required only the one found inside. The item had a hand in defeating the boss character at the end as well. The only other item you would ever use inside a dungeon in Ocarina of Time was the bow (acquired in the Forest Temple), which would be used to shoot at switches in later temples. This game sort of breaks that mold. The item you find in the dungeon will still be the one most prominently used, however, there are, for the first time, some puzzles that you can’t solve by using that newly acquired weapon. They can only be solved by using a weapon you found in a previous dungeon, or sometimes you need to use multiple weapons in tandem, to solve that particular puzzle. Ever since I’ve played Ocarina of Time I’ve been a Zelda fan, and I’ve always praised Nintendo for their dungeon design in Zelda games. I do so again now, I love what they have done with the designs in this game.

The boss characters at the end of the seven dungeons in this game… well, some of them are good, others employ tactics that have been done to death, others you find yourself fighting three times throughout the entire game. My favorite boss fight in the game… well, there are actually three of them. I’m talking about all three of fights with the main villain in the game, Lady Gag – David Bowi – never mind. I guess it’s just because I enjoy using the sword controls to find an opening in his defenses, which makes it that much more satisfying when you land hits on your opponent. Another boss fight I enjoy is a giant “thousand-year” scorpion creature that you battle against at the end of the game’s third dungeon. In video games, especially in some of the more recent ones, it’s in my experience that a common weakpoint in bosses is always their eye(s). So it is with this boss. However, this works, because, in my opinion, it keeps you from feeling like you’ve done all this somewhere before. The boss’s eyes are on its pincers. It will open these pincers to grab you, thus revealing its eyes. You’ll have to strike with your sword parallel to its pincers if you hope to land a hit on it. Once you destroy its claws, it will reveal its final eye, which you have to stab at in order to defeat it (thrust the remote forward). There are two other boss fights in the game that involve eyes as the boss’s weakpoint; both feel as though you’ve done the same thing before (once again, in my opinion), however. I’m looking at the boss of the second dungeon and a boss that has possessed a flying sperm whale (yeah, I’m not kidding about that). The first mentioned has you chucking bombs at it to gradually expose his eye, the other has you hitting a giant ball of what looks like phlegm back at a giant ocular (get it?) parasite to reveal his. In both situations, once the eye is exposed, you slash the ever-living crap out of it until it dies. There is one more boss that you find yourself battling three times (actually, if you think about it, you fight it FOUR times) in this game, with each time getting progressively harder: the Imprisoned (a gargantuan beast with a mouth and feet... to begin with anyway). This guy actually serves as a major antagonist in the game as well. Each time you fight it, you have to try and stop it from reaching the top of the pit it was previously sealed in. In the first fight, that means chopping toes off, in the second fight that means using a cannon to fling bombs at it to jump on it from above and start slashing its weakspot, and in the third fight it means outright killing it by any means necessary. I absolutely hate this boss. It’s repetitive and annoying. Trust me, should you choose to play this game; you will see what I mean.

Once you reach a certain point in the game, you get the option to fight all previous bosses in the game again, allowing you to relive your favorite (and not so favorite) battles in the game. You aren’t allowed to bring any health restores into the challenge, just you, your shield, and your sword (Zelda purists will want to play through this at least to the eighth battle to obtain the Hylian shield, the greatest shield you could ever acquire in any Zelda game). You can also replay challenges you’ve cleared in a place known as the Silent Realm. In this realm, you need to collect 15 glowing orbs while avoiding getting hit by the guardians scattered all over the area. If you fail to get an orb within 90 seconds, get detected by a searchlight, or touch water, the guardians will awake and come for you. You need to do these challenges to access the rest of the dungeons (thus progress in the game) the first time; whereas the second time you do them you have the chance to win stuff (money, extremely rare items, etc.).

After you beat this game once, you unlock a “harder” version of the game. However, Zelda fans, this is no Skyward Sword Master Quest Edition. It is EXACTLY. THE. FLIPPING. SAME. As the normal mode. The only difference in this mode is that there are no hearts to be found whenever you cut bushes and stuff like that with your sword. And you know what? Yes, I am laughing while I'm writing this. But you know what else? The no hearts part of it can be solved by obtaining a heart medal later in the game, so that hearts appear, just not in the amount they do in the last mode. Therefore, the only reason you would want to play this mode is if you want enemies and bosses to do twice as much damage to your sorry arse, and if you want a triforce standing next to your file name once you complete it. A triforce symbol. Oh WOW that is so awesome. That TOTALLY makes me want to play through what might as well be the same thing all over again. I feel that this mode detracted from the game's overall quality. I really would have loved to see a Master Quest edition of the game on the same disc, just like Aonuma and his team did with the OTHER title they made for Zelda's 25^th, which was a rerelease of Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 3DS. They even mirrored it! Why didn't they do it with this game? As much as I admire Eiji Aonuma, it's as if he and his development team just threw their hands up and said “screw it all, we don't care anymore. Let's give 'em some half-baked excuse for a more challenging version of the original game. They're gonna absolutely LOOOOVE that.”

The music in this game was done by several composers who have worked on Zelda games in the past, for example, Hajime Wakai and Mahito Yokota are the ones who stand out most to me, I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s because they’ve done some of the music for previous Nintendo games that are in my favorites collection (in Yokota’s case, Super Mario Galaxy, in Wakai’s case, Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker). The music in Skyward Sword is done completely with an orchestra, so I’m told. The orchestra is a great fit for the Zelda series, some pieces in the game are really epic-sounding thanks to the choir. I’d love to see this style return for future Zelda titles.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, as the game that connects the entire Legend of Zelda series, does well in every category... save for that one. The hard mode. But that is the only weak link in a game that makes great strides in the evolution of the Zelda series. The controls are pulled off well and take little to no getting used to. The story is as good as they get when it comes to Zelda games, and the music really is top-notch. Instead of the hard mode, I would have loved to see a Master Quest version of the game, though. I'd like Nintendo to think about this for the Zelda titles they have planned for the 3DS. Other than this, you cannot go wrong with this game. I highly recommend you pick it up.

Updates

Hey all! Sorry I haven't been paying as much attention to this as I had planned, I just wanted to update you on what I have coming up in the future. I was going to write reviews for two games: Sonic Generations and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The Generations one is already in the works, so you can be expecting that before the Skyward Sword one.