Metroid Prime 3 was supposed to be one of the high titles on the Wii, nintards were in a frenzy, clamoring that this would be the best game in the series.
Obviously, they were wrong. But, they were also right. Sort of.
I finished Corruption last night, and after a good think, I have come up with what
should be is the definitive Prime lineup:
Prime > Corruption > Echoes
Here is my reasoning for this.
Echoes by default gets third place for making an entire game around the dark world / light world mechanic. No, you never never never never EVER do that. It is bad enough I have to switch visors and weapons around, but to have me hunt down portals to switch worlds? Third place, you lose, go away.
Metroid Prime, while archaic as it is today, was a pretty good Metroid game. Emphasis on that, Metroid Game. I've got an expansive world, plenty of exploration, mysteries (Chozo, Phazon), and an assortment of weapons and upgrades to be found.
Moving on from where Echoes left off (third place), Corruption quickly fixes this shame and tries to scramble back up, but slips and stumbles by lots of smaller things. Let's start off from the top:
1. An emphasis on story. We know Echoes and Prime had a story, but it was more behind the scenes. Corruption pretty much holds you by the hand with a story. Samus reports for duty with her friends, the ship is attacked by Dark Samus, and now she is Corrupted by Phazon, along with her shitty friends (more on this). From there, you have to explore other planets (also more on this) and see why your shitty friends have lost contact. I'm sure you can guess why. You're constantly going from point A to B, doing the Federation's willing, rather than be an actual Bounty Hunter.
2. Her shitty friends. This is just distinguished mentally-challenged, and serves nothing but remind us why the DS is a fucking atrocity and ruins games almost as much as the Wii does. They serve absolutely NO purpose, not even as a plot point that I can think of. All you do is find out they are now evil, and you fight them, and you earn a new power. Big whoop. That's it. Why are they here in the first place again? Oh right, to move that "story" forward.
3. Lack of exploration. Rather than give us this expansive world that opens itself up as you unlock new powers, you are given the option to fly to several "smaller" worlds to explore, and are often having to trek back to the ship, do the stupid scene (more on this) where you hit the big red button that lifts off. Over, and over, and over. Also, the game didn't really have an emphasis on the many different doors and such you will unlock to cover new ground. When you find the Nova Gun, the final upgrade, you'll immediately fire up your maps to see what Green doors you may have come across, only to find that there are maybe 5 in the entire game. Big whoop.
4. The ship. When you enter the ship, you are given the chance to look around Samus cramped space and look at all the buttons you can push, each of which serve absolutely no purpose. It also looks fucking distinguished mentally-challenged.
5. Wiimote functions. These were just stupid, and served no purpose only to tack on wiimote controls to make them seem special. I'm not referring to the actual gameplay, but rather the smaller things, like moving Samus' hand to push a button, or twisting the remote to pull a switch, and so on. However, the actual gameplay is not as "accurate" and "best FPS method" as one might think. I was constantly losing lock of my target, and my wiimote would randomly freak out and I wouldn't have any control over my gun. I'm fairly certain I sit far enough back, and directly in front of the sensor for this to not be an issue, or it could be my TV's problem.
6. Valhalla. Valhalla is the inevitable collectathon that's prevalent in the Prime series, but this time they introduce it at the half-way point. You are directed to investigate a missing ship that suddenly appeared and see why they lost contact. Inside, you realise you have to trek around the entire game searching for Energy Cells to power up the now-dead ship, using the various logs that tell where the cells are located.
7. Phaaze. Here's a design tip: If you need to make a "final" planet that appears when everything is said and done, try to come up with something more unique than Phaaze, a planet made up of nothing but Phazon.
8. Phaaze (pt. 2). When you first enter Phaaze, Samus completely tweaks, having been at pretty much maximum corruption, so she toys with her suit and exhausts all of your Energy Tanks, those precious health packs that you scour the entire game for, and leaves you in Hyperdrive Mode. Now, what is the point of having me do alllllllllllll that work, only to find out they're completely fucking useless on the final stretch? Instead, Phaaze becomes a race against time, as your Phazon Corruption is constantly increasing, and only grows each time you get hit, not to mention the health bits enemies drop do jack shit for help.
9. The final boss(es). A race through the planet is bad enough, but imagine having to fight three bosses back-to-back while your bar is still increasing. Yep, Corruption pulls this on you, and it's only aggrivating and distinguished mentally-challenged. Don't ever ever ever do this again.
10. My previous comment about dark and light mechanic? Not an issue here, as there is nothing. But, Retro decided to litter Corruption with many other annoying fucking gaming moments. During the course of the game, you will find yourself:
--- * Defending a Spire from an enemy attack, before they can destroy it
--- * Escorting Federation Soldiers, ensureing that at least 4 survive so you can destroy the gate ahead
--- * Collecting Energy Cells throughout the game for a bit the game introduces in the middle of the game, only to have the entire fucking thing be useful at the very end of the game
That sounds like a lot, and probably enough to drive you off, but Corruption is still a pretty good title, and definitely a Wii one worth playing at that. I found that the environments seemed to be lacking, like they didn't put much into it. Just go back and look at Echoes, or even Prime, and you will see a whole leap in design. Everything in Corruption was either mechanical, or just dried up and decayed. There wasn't much variety to be had in this romp. The music was especially weak, as the only thing I remember is the sound when you come off your ship, you remember that sound? Now imagine them playing that at the most inopportune moments. Samus walks off an escape pod? There's that sound.
And finally, if you have read this far, there are some things I happened to like about Corruption. Corruption feels more streamlined, in the way weapons and visors work, and maybe even layout. This list is smaller, but here are some things I liked about Corruption:
1. Weapons, and the lack of swapping. There's only like 2 upgradeable weapons, but they add on to your current weapon. However, the fact that there are only like 2 gun upgrades is severely lacking. Also, there's only like 3 missle upgrades as well. I barely used missles as well, I felt they were extremely useless, and even as a door opener they were really lacking (there's maybe 10 missle-only doors in the game). This reads like a bad point, but I only really liked the fact that I didn't have to swap anything. Also, having me reaaaaach over to the down button to fire a missle is extremely awkward and not good.
2. Visor swapping. The one thing people nag about in Prime, and it's actually done really well here. Rather than constantly tapping the button to change visors, all you do is hold the - (minus) button, then move the pointer to the quadrant you want to change to. From there, you can simply press B, and it will revert back to normal. It's not an issue, and can be done quickly even in the heat of battle.
3. Using wiimote to make your ball jump. This is small, but I liked that I didn't have to constantly lay down bombs just to jump up a ledge. It also makes doing those annoying double bomb jumps wayyyy easier.
