Finally, with the unmistakable crash of missile meeting reinforced glass, the casing on the Mother Brain's tank shattered, leaving her cerebrospinal fluids to leak onto the floor of Tourian. Sensing that the mastermind behind the whole insidious scheme was not truly deceased, Samus fired volley after volley into the soft, fleshy frontal lobe of graymatter, hearing the desparate screams of the great and terrible leader of the Space Pirates echo over and over in her helmet long after the final shot had been fired. With her mission completed with the greatest success imaginable and the scheme to use the horrific metroids as a means of universal conquest thwarted, it seemed safe enough for Samus Aran to remove the helmet and show her face to the one who had guided her safely through it all. That's right, Samus Aran was a woman, and quite a beautiful one at that, a highly-qualified female bounty hunter just as she'd been the whole time, and gamers the world over had just witnessed the world's first true gaming heroine in action.

  Alright, first and foremost, let's be done with the debate over Metroid Prime's primarily domestic origins. While it's true that Metroid Prime, rather than being developed by Nintendo's world-renouned internal research and development divisions, was instead developed over the course of three and a half years here in North America, in Austin, Texas of all places, specifically by what was then considered a young upstart of a development house, an underfunded game making collective that was recently bought out by the big N for reasons that I hope will be more than apparent to you by the time I end this write-up. If you're one of those unfortunate people who don't really care enough to keep track of directors and development houses, I could only be talking about Retro Studios. Known for roughly the last two years as "the house that would ruin Metroid", Retro Studios took massive flak in the rear up until Metroid Prime's November 18th, 2002 release, some of which was specifically for being an American group who "foolishly" thought they could make an authentic Metroid title, but even more so for dropping the side-scrolling perspective of past installments in favor of a new first-person perspective, which would place players inside the foggy visor of Samus Aran's helmet for the first time.

  Metroid Prime seems to take place at some undisclosed time period between the original Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus on the Game Boy, as the Space Pirates are still recovering from the initial assault on their Zebesian headquarters and the Metroids themselves are far from erraticated. Dropping you off at a orbital space station near the planet Tallon IV, Metroid Prime slowly trains its players to its first-person control scheme by giving them about a quarter of the weapons and armor that they will pick up later in the game to start off with.

  Beckoning you even further inside, Prime's storyline is told in a way that is strikingly dissimilar to past installments, through a unique apparatus known as the Scan Visor. When used with discretion, the Scan Visor downloads information about points of interest and importance in the surrounding environment. For example, scanning an enemy before taking it head on may yield a useful clue on just how to confront it, informing you of its weaknesses, traits, and offensive and defensive techniques. Another example of how it aids you in your planet-wide quest for the truth is through translation of ancient script left by the bird-like alien race known as the Chozo and breaking the encryption on the Space Pirates' communications. It is also a prerequisite for finishing the game with top honors.

  The environments are well rendered, but not too terribly so overall. A large portion of the Gamecube's processing power is used for the enemies' tactical adaptation, but in all honesty, this was a wise choice on the developer's part, and makes for a much more challenging experience. Visuals are adequate enough at times, while staggeringly perfect at others, making for a somewhat mixed bag in the graphics department. That said, the animation is smooth and delivered at a steady rate of sixty frames-per-second, more than even Halo could offer players on the Xbox.

  Only when one is hours into Prime will one realize that this is, by far, the most difficult Metroid game to date. Enemy encounters may start off slow and methodical, but eventually escalate to downright ridiculous. The final boss, for one, is invulnerable to all but your rarest beam and fights tooth-and-nail for its survival. Thankfully, the frightening level of difficulty is backed by one of the best First-Person Shooter adaptations on console to date. Aiming in Prime is a matter of looking in the direction of your enemy and holding L to lock-on to their position with your arm-mounted beam cannon. Your FPS staple "mouse-look" is no longer a problem in Prime, as the levels are designed so that you don't really have to look and move at the same time. Locking-on to an enemy provides all the strafing you'll ever need to complete the game and the close, yet easily distinct placement of the Fire, Jump and Missile buttons proves to be unmistakable within an hour or so of in-depth play.

  Platform jumping, at long last, is finally handled with a refreshing amount of discretion and a staggering degree of dignity. While most first-person shooters simply leave your jumps as a matter of trial-and-error, Metroid Prime allows for lofty single- (and later on, double-) jumps, the landing of which can be easily stuck, thanks in no small part to the ingenious inclusion of a slight downward camera tilt when Samus reaches the apex of a jump. This makes many mountainous sections of the game quite enjoyable, instead of hair-pullingly aggitating.

  As the saying goes, God is in the details, and this has never been more true than in Retro Studio's deeply-held respect of the original Metroid license, evidenced by the brilliant nods to Gunpei Yokoi's original game concepts and character designs. An explosive burst of luminous light at close range will reveal Samus' beautifully determined facial expressions, while activating the X-Ray Scope will not only expose the secret things in her surroundings, but will also reveal the arm and hand that manipulates her beam cannon. These features, along with the always haunting Metroid musical score, make this installment give off an unmistakable Metroid vibe. All this being said, there is still room for improvement in the confirmed sequel, which is due out sometime in the next year or so. Make no mistake; Samus Aran has become a real woman, not to mention a force to be reckoned with, in her very first Gamecube foray. How unlikely that a virtually unknown North American developer would have made it possible for one of the greatest series in history to continue unabated, as if its creator hadn't passed away at all. If Gunpei Yokoi were still alive today, he would have been so proud.
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