Beautiful Puzzles: Metroid Prime Corruption (Wii) Review
Posted on
Friday, January 18, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
Having never played the Metroid Prime series on the GameCube, or any Metroid games at all, I came into Metroid Prime Corruption for the Nintendo Wii with a completely blank slate. The only preconceived notions I had going in were that the game was a pretty, neon-infested first-person shooter sequel which had garnered rave reviews in previous incarnations. Those notions were somewhat incorrect. While the game appears on the surface to be a first-person shooter, it is really much more.
At heart, Corruption is a puzzle game, masquerading as an action-adventure shooter. The game does look and play like a shooter, but the shooting is secondary to the real fun in the game, the various puzzles embedded into the landscape surrounding the main character. Dressed up by a story involving an alien race called space pirates and their attacks on the Galactic Federation, the story is a thin context for the conflict that drives the player forward. While the story is good, it's certainly not deep, reminiscent of many anime movies. There are parts of the story that do not resolve to any coherent conclusion such as the origin of Dark Samus, the player's evil counterpart, but overall the story is satisfactory. The voice acting is solid throughout, and the visual effects and cutscenes are well-done. The game itself is gorgeous, with a distinctive style that leans heavily on the neon. It is easily on par with the best-looking games on the system, like Zelda: Twilight Princess.
The gameplay itself is spectacular. As I mentioned above, the shooting is secondary to the main gameplay element. Using the Wii Remote as an aiming device, the aiming is precise and can be augmented with a target lock (though the player must still aim at the enemies). Beyond the aiming, there isn't a lot of "waggle" gameplay. The only other use of the motion controls is the use of the electro-grapple, which uses the nunchuk to control an electromagnetic whip, but it's used well. The game's puzzles are fantastic. Most are decipherable with the visual context given, but there were a number of puzzles that caused me to go to Gamefaqs to solve. The puzzles are fun, though I wonder about a world that builds structures that require a person to roll themselves into an armored spheroid in order to power gigantic machines. In the context of the game, it all makes a weird sort of sense, and the armorball gameplay is an interesting mechanic, though I certainly prefer the upright gameplay over the marble madness.
The exclusion of an online multiplayer function, which had been rumored as a feature months before release, is a damn shame. The dynamics of the electro-grapple and armor ball would likely make for some incredibly interesting multiplayer combinations, both in team-based and deathmatch-style games. Hopefully the design team will consider that and come back with a less expensive online-only Metroid game in the future (but I won't hold my breath for that). As it is, the game has between 15-20 hours of gameplay and a low replay value. Finishing the main story opens up a "Hypermode" difficulty, giving those who enjoy replaying the same game on a higher difficulty some replay value.
Overall, the game serves as a great reason to own a Wii. While certainly not a perfect game, Corruption proves that the system can combine gorgeous graphics with solid gameplay and subtle yet appropriate uses of the motion controls. I would rate the game an 8.5 out of 10, certainly worth a purchase or a very long rental.
At heart, Corruption is a puzzle game, masquerading as an action-adventure shooter. The game does look and play like a shooter, but the shooting is secondary to the real fun in the game, the various puzzles embedded into the landscape surrounding the main character. Dressed up by a story involving an alien race called space pirates and their attacks on the Galactic Federation, the story is a thin context for the conflict that drives the player forward. While the story is good, it's certainly not deep, reminiscent of many anime movies. There are parts of the story that do not resolve to any coherent conclusion such as the origin of Dark Samus, the player's evil counterpart, but overall the story is satisfactory. The voice acting is solid throughout, and the visual effects and cutscenes are well-done. The game itself is gorgeous, with a distinctive style that leans heavily on the neon. It is easily on par with the best-looking games on the system, like Zelda: Twilight Princess.
The gameplay itself is spectacular. As I mentioned above, the shooting is secondary to the main gameplay element. Using the Wii Remote as an aiming device, the aiming is precise and can be augmented with a target lock (though the player must still aim at the enemies). Beyond the aiming, there isn't a lot of "waggle" gameplay. The only other use of the motion controls is the use of the electro-grapple, which uses the nunchuk to control an electromagnetic whip, but it's used well. The game's puzzles are fantastic. Most are decipherable with the visual context given, but there were a number of puzzles that caused me to go to Gamefaqs to solve. The puzzles are fun, though I wonder about a world that builds structures that require a person to roll themselves into an armored spheroid in order to power gigantic machines. In the context of the game, it all makes a weird sort of sense, and the armorball gameplay is an interesting mechanic, though I certainly prefer the upright gameplay over the marble madness.
The exclusion of an online multiplayer function, which had been rumored as a feature months before release, is a damn shame. The dynamics of the electro-grapple and armor ball would likely make for some incredibly interesting multiplayer combinations, both in team-based and deathmatch-style games. Hopefully the design team will consider that and come back with a less expensive online-only Metroid game in the future (but I won't hold my breath for that). As it is, the game has between 15-20 hours of gameplay and a low replay value. Finishing the main story opens up a "Hypermode" difficulty, giving those who enjoy replaying the same game on a higher difficulty some replay value.
Overall, the game serves as a great reason to own a Wii. While certainly not a perfect game, Corruption proves that the system can combine gorgeous graphics with solid gameplay and subtle yet appropriate uses of the motion controls. I would rate the game an 8.5 out of 10, certainly worth a purchase or a very long rental.
Labels: Nintendo, Video Games, Wii
posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 8:51 AM
0 Comments
|
|
Save This Page
| 
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home