Written by: Michael K
If there was one good thing to come out of the last two years in quarantine, it was having more time to play games I hadn’t played for years, or hadn’t appreciated as much when I first played it. And in December 2020, I replayed a game which one of my brothers aid helped him through a hard time: That game is Metroid Prime on the gamecube. A game which, this fall, will turn twenty years old. I was only two when this game was declared Game of the Year, so this makes me feel old, and subsequently, like a kid again.
Metroid Prime is the first game in the Metroid series in 3D, in a first-person setting. But unlike most FPS games, it is an action-adventure game in a single, enormous world, where exploration is key to your survival. This isn’t the whole picture, of course. The game starts with an epic action sequence where the main character, Samus, (Who if you didn’t know, was the very first playable female character in video games in the original Metroid), breaks into a derelict frigate that has fallen apart due to alien parasites breaking free.
After fighting an enormous alien queen, you are forced onto the alien planet Tallon IV, where you have no one to help you except your own instincts to seek out adventure.
I didn’t appreciate this as much many years before 2020, but when I first stepped out of Samus’s spaceship, and explored the rain-soaked jungle that surrounded me, I felt something…a sense of feeling like I was there. Looking up at the rainstorm, walking under a waterfall, swimming in the bright blue water…it just felt right. Part of that has to deal with hardware, because even twenty years, Metroid Prime’s graphics look so good! The team at Retro Studios put amazing detail into every model, and the way that the weather interacts with Samus’s visor really puts you into the game’s world. Raindrops on the visor, breath that shows Samus’s face, it all really makes you feel like you are the one exploring.
Like I said in my post on Bioshock, very rarely can a game get me so invested into a world like this. But Metroid Prime’s focus on environmental storytelling really makes it an experience unlike any other.
As you explore the world, your only way of learning the story is to use the Scan Visor, which helps you learn about Tallon IV’s history, and how the alien race called the Chozo collapsed due to a mysterious calamity, which Samus’s enemies are trying to bring about again as a weapon to conquer the galaxy. I’m going to leave it there, because learning for yourself is much more satisfying.
(Okay, I say this when a video discussing Metroid Prime’s story is what convinced me to replay the game, so I guess I’m hypocritical, but I still felt it when I read all of the lore for myself from scanning. You’re welcome!)
The combat is also quite fun and challenging. The game often puts you in challenging situations with close-quarters fighting, which forces you to be quick on your feet. I will admit, the gamecube controls will take time getting used to, but thankfully, if you have a Wii U, you can download the Metroid Prime Trilogy, which gives the game the excellent motion controls of Metroid Prime 3 from the Wii!
Metroid Prime is a magical game. It truly is an example of how games can become a real life experience. The world, the environment, the combat, it’s all done so well. The gamecube controls do certainly take time getting used to, but the more you invest into the game, the more satisfying it becomes.
Happy 20th Anniversary to Metroid Prime!
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