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THE OPENING
The story of Metroid prime is not too impressive. Basically you crash land on a foreign planet and you try to gather information about the planet and to explore it. During your journey you get in a few problems and confusions. The concept of this game would be great, but personally I think they ruined the Metroid series with this single game. Most people think that this game was a great success, but I really didn't enjoy it too much. I bought it a day after it was released, play a little under half of the game in a week�haven't touched it since.
This game is incredibly fun at first, but after some time you will realize you are doing the exact same thing but only in different scenery.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay has a pretty nice concept, there is a large world to explore. Along with 4 different visors (Scan, Heat, X-ray, and Battle) and power beams (Charge, Ice, Plasma, Wave). You explore around fighting a variety of enemies ranging from little parasites to large Space Pirates to huge Plants.
The Battle visor is the main one, it's the typical one you use to explore the planet. It is also the one you start with. The Heat visor is a vision visor which helps you navigate yourself in dark areas and also locate enemies that blend in with the surrounding or darkness. The X-Ray visor is a visor that you use to locate enemies that are invisible, you can also see through walls with this visor. The Scan visor is probably the most unique, it allows you to scan enemies and get information about them, for example background information and their weaknesses. The more enemies/objects you scan you can unlock image galleries.
The main power beam is the charge beams, a basic weapon that shoots charges at your enemies. The Ice beam allows you to shoot freezing blocks of ice at your opponents, this usually freezes them and allows you to get a head start on attack your target. The wave beam shoots waves of electrical charges which is somewhat like the charge beam, but more powerful. The plasma beam allows you to shoot intense heat at your prey. Every one of these beams get a power-up which allows you to do much more damage, a lot like an alternate fire.
Over time you will find power-ups such as the morph ball, or space jump boots. These impact the games direction dramatically. So if you ever see a cliff too high to climb or a hole too tight to squeeze through, just wait�you will eventually be able through. The main part of the game that made me lose interest is all of the backtracking you have to do, it really repeats itself during the game.
GRAPHICS
Despite the dull repetitive gameplay, the graphics in this game are pretty impressive. But I do not think that the graphics are "the best Gamecube games", there are plenty of games with better graphics on the Nintendo Gamecube. The details on some walls and floors are pretty impressive, as the others are not too great�but not too shabby. The background scenery is probably my favorite part of the graphics in this game. They look pretty realistic (if that kind of stuff existed). The enemy designs are both good and bad. Some are incredibly detailed and realistic, while others a simple and lame. Overall the graphics are really good, and probably the best part of the game.
SOUND
The sound in this game is really REALLY dull. 95% of the time it is just ambient sounds, basically environmental sounds throughout the WHOLE game. Most of the time I was listening to my stereo or CD player because of the sound in this game. The only reason sound got a 2.5 is because they brought back the classic Metroid tunes. Once again, in my opinion this game ruined the Metroid Series.
CONTROLS
The controls do take a lot of time to get used to (for most people). Unlike the other first person games you walk with the control stick and you look with the C stick, in this game the really messed up the controls. You walk with the control stick, but the C stick changes visors/beams, to look around you must hold the L button and look with the control stick. In my opinion that is just a big screwup in the controls, the other controls are not too bad though. Definitely not the best in the world either. The controls could have been modified, or even better�giving you the ability to FULLY customize your controls. It took me about 2 hours to get a hang of it and maybe 2 days to fully get a hang of the controls. If you are used to common First Person Shooting controls, then you might have a few problems getting used to the controls.
GAMEPLAY- 8.0
GRAPHICS- 9.2
SOUND- 2.5
CONTROLS- 6.0
REPLAY- 0.5
CHALLENGE- 8.5
FUN FACTOR- 4.0
OVERALL- 6.0