NerdyMrSimms
It's way, way easier than the previous entry as you no longer die after a single hit, and bomb jumping has been reworked for the way better, so much so that you can break the game utilizing it. Unfortunately, the puzzles in this game aren't that interesting until late in the game. Like its predecessor, its defining feature is its multiplayer.
It is absolutely not worth the always climbing used price the market is asking, and as far as I'm aware it runs fine on most emulators if you're so inclined to play it. I'm a bit biased since this game was brought to my life by my mom mistakingly buying this as my Christmas present when I wanted the original Bomberman 64. It worked out in the end since I ended up liking this game as a kid, too.
It is absolutely not worth the always climbing used price the market is asking, and as far as I'm aware it runs fine on most emulators if you're so inclined to play it. I'm a bit biased since this game was brought to my life by my mom mistakingly buying this as my Christmas present when I wanted the original Bomberman 64. It worked out in the end since I ended up liking this game as a kid, too.
1997
Multiplayer is a blast. Single player is fine unless you make the decision to collect all of the gold cards. Dousing yourself in gasoline and setting yourself onfire is a better decision. Late game gold cards require you to use the game's bomb jump mechanics which its physics are pretty much a dice roll.
2009
The game was sold on the basis that everything in this game was over-the-top offensive and it's on a family console. It's super violent. The dialogue is super vulgar. And the graphics had a ton of style. However, that's all the tricks it has up its sleeve when the gameplay is pretty much the same all the way through. The soundtrack is very kickass, though.
Two words: Triforce quest. Dear God, the Triforce quest in the original game. Otherwise a great game. Very easy though.
The Wii U version is preferable due to it adding hero mode which adds a much-needed challenge, and the Triforce quest being tweaked for the better. Originally, all pieces had to be found through sea charts that were indecipherable unless you paid tingle an absurd amount of money to have him translate them, and only then will you be able to locate them at sea and collect them.
The Wii U version fixes it so that 5 out of the 8 pieces are immediately found where their sea charts originally were. This version also adds a brand new item called the speed sail, which allows you to sail much faster in whichever direction you want without needing to manually change the direction using the song of winds.
It is an often overlooked 3D Zelda that gets the short end of the stick because of its cartoony style. The Wii U version ranks as one of my personal top 3 Zelda games.
The Wii U version is preferable due to it adding hero mode which adds a much-needed challenge, and the Triforce quest being tweaked for the better. Originally, all pieces had to be found through sea charts that were indecipherable unless you paid tingle an absurd amount of money to have him translate them, and only then will you be able to locate them at sea and collect them.
The Wii U version fixes it so that 5 out of the 8 pieces are immediately found where their sea charts originally were. This version also adds a brand new item called the speed sail, which allows you to sail much faster in whichever direction you want without needing to manually change the direction using the song of winds.
It is an often overlooked 3D Zelda that gets the short end of the stick because of its cartoony style. The Wii U version ranks as one of my personal top 3 Zelda games.
Metroid Prime 3 veers away from the formulas that make the previous entries fantastic and instead adopts a few Zelda elements along with more emphasis on cinematic storytelling over environmental storytelling. By no means Prime 3 is a bad game, but it is my least favorite compared to the two. It's more linear and smaller than the last two entries.
Like Primes 1 and 2, 3 still does tell its story through the logs you find and the environment you progress through, but the game places a bigger emphasis on the characters and cutscenes to progress its story. Through those means, the animations in the cutscenes are great, but the voice acting is a mixed bag.
From a gameplay standpoint, it places more emphasis on the shooting portion thanks to the added Wii pointer controls, which are super responsive and the best the Wii had to offer for FPS controls. Where in the previous games you can lock on to the enemies and have your way with them - placing the puzzle elements on mostly the type of beam and visor you're using - in this game, most fights require you to aim at certain weak spots of the enemies with the pointer controls. Gone from this game is the ability to switch beams, and in its place is the ability to go into a berserker mode that allows you to use your energy to deal massive damage to your enemies. If you're not playing the game's hardest difficulty, this mode will make mincemeat of every single non-boss enemy.
As stated, Prime 3 takes more of a Zelda approach with its world design. The planets are more like Zelda dungeons and are among the most linear and formulaic in the mainline Prime series. At the end of every dungeon, you'll fight a boss, which isn't like the previous entries where a boss can be fought almost midway to the near end of exploring the entire area. In rare instances, you'll be forced to hop to a different planet if the powerups you have are not sufficient to continue.
Large and long bossfights are a staple in the Prime series, and Prime 3 doesn't hold back from that. Unfortunately, this isn't the case with the game's final boss, which is among the most underwhelming bosses of the series and really diminishes an otherwise good climax of the game.
Overall, 3 is probably the most accessible game, but not the best in the series. With its simple controls and linearity, it's designed in that way so that you won't get lost in its world, but you won't get sucked into its lore. It's still very much worth your weekend if you want to conclude your playthrough of the Metroid Prime series.
Like Primes 1 and 2, 3 still does tell its story through the logs you find and the environment you progress through, but the game places a bigger emphasis on the characters and cutscenes to progress its story. Through those means, the animations in the cutscenes are great, but the voice acting is a mixed bag.
From a gameplay standpoint, it places more emphasis on the shooting portion thanks to the added Wii pointer controls, which are super responsive and the best the Wii had to offer for FPS controls. Where in the previous games you can lock on to the enemies and have your way with them - placing the puzzle elements on mostly the type of beam and visor you're using - in this game, most fights require you to aim at certain weak spots of the enemies with the pointer controls. Gone from this game is the ability to switch beams, and in its place is the ability to go into a berserker mode that allows you to use your energy to deal massive damage to your enemies. If you're not playing the game's hardest difficulty, this mode will make mincemeat of every single non-boss enemy.
As stated, Prime 3 takes more of a Zelda approach with its world design. The planets are more like Zelda dungeons and are among the most linear and formulaic in the mainline Prime series. At the end of every dungeon, you'll fight a boss, which isn't like the previous entries where a boss can be fought almost midway to the near end of exploring the entire area. In rare instances, you'll be forced to hop to a different planet if the powerups you have are not sufficient to continue.
Large and long bossfights are a staple in the Prime series, and Prime 3 doesn't hold back from that. Unfortunately, this isn't the case with the game's final boss, which is among the most underwhelming bosses of the series and really diminishes an otherwise good climax of the game.
Overall, 3 is probably the most accessible game, but not the best in the series. With its simple controls and linearity, it's designed in that way so that you won't get lost in its world, but you won't get sucked into its lore. It's still very much worth your weekend if you want to conclude your playthrough of the Metroid Prime series.
You can easily beat all of the cups in under an hour, there's not much variety in the tracks, and it's super silly.
And I love it for it. Unironically the best thing about it is its soundtrack; a mix of twangy rockabilly, acid house, and metal.
N64: better looking, sound effects are higher quality, fewer announcer voice cues, and the music is compressed and loops for 20 seconds. It is also missing two tracks from the ps1 version
Ps1: CD quality music, worse looking than the n64, sound effects are muffled, but there are more announcer voice over cues. Also has two more tracks than the N64 version. Analog controls are a crapshoot as you have to use the right analog stick to accelerate and brake and you cannot change them in settings.
And I love it for it. Unironically the best thing about it is its soundtrack; a mix of twangy rockabilly, acid house, and metal.
N64: better looking, sound effects are higher quality, fewer announcer voice cues, and the music is compressed and loops for 20 seconds. It is also missing two tracks from the ps1 version
Ps1: CD quality music, worse looking than the n64, sound effects are muffled, but there are more announcer voice over cues. Also has two more tracks than the N64 version. Analog controls are a crapshoot as you have to use the right analog stick to accelerate and brake and you cannot change them in settings.
2017
I'm aware of the controversy of its name. This game is not a sequel to the 2006 game, but rather a brand new and more accessible System Shock game in a different universe. Prey requires some degree of persistence, clever thinking, and patience to make it through the early game. It is not a game where you can sit back after a long day at work or school and let loose of your trigger finger mindlessly. Doing that will get you killed. All of the enemies seem overpowered and unfair, but the game suggests you don't have to fight them all head-on.
Once you understand that always starting a firefight is not the way, and you begin to learn multiple ways to solve different problems (like using a toy crossbow to hit a button through a broken window to open a door that's locked by a keycard that you don't have,) Prey evolves into an amazingly immersive sci-fi first-person adventure game, kind of similar to Metroid Prime in some ways where shooting is not your only objective, and the story unfolds through its atmosphere, environment, and logs and emails you listen to and read. (Update in 2023: after playing the System Shock remake, I now know this game is essentially a finely crafted love letter to System Shock 1 right down to collecting junk to convert into something more useful.)
It also tackles some resource management style crafting systems, as the ammunition and health are finite on Talos I. You will find garbage to recycle to create enough material to fabricate new items, as well as multiple copies of the same weapons for you to dismantle for spare parts to fix machines on the station, or you can recycle the weapons to fabricate more ammunition.
If your fancies are Metroid Prime and System Shock, Prey tickles all of those fancies extremely well. Highly recommended, and one of my favorite games as of late.
Once you understand that always starting a firefight is not the way, and you begin to learn multiple ways to solve different problems (like using a toy crossbow to hit a button through a broken window to open a door that's locked by a keycard that you don't have,) Prey evolves into an amazingly immersive sci-fi first-person adventure game, kind of similar to Metroid Prime in some ways where shooting is not your only objective, and the story unfolds through its atmosphere, environment, and logs and emails you listen to and read. (Update in 2023: after playing the System Shock remake, I now know this game is essentially a finely crafted love letter to System Shock 1 right down to collecting junk to convert into something more useful.)
It also tackles some resource management style crafting systems, as the ammunition and health are finite on Talos I. You will find garbage to recycle to create enough material to fabricate new items, as well as multiple copies of the same weapons for you to dismantle for spare parts to fix machines on the station, or you can recycle the weapons to fabricate more ammunition.
If your fancies are Metroid Prime and System Shock, Prey tickles all of those fancies extremely well. Highly recommended, and one of my favorite games as of late.
Did not finish. The reliance on the touch screen controls and having to repeatedly go through the same floors in the temple of the ocean king after clearing each dungeon made me put the game down. Sorry if I'm not masochistic enough.
I may return to this one day when I make it a goal to beat every Zelda game.
I may return to this one day when I make it a goal to beat every Zelda game.
1986
It's super rough to play today. Very stiff controls and copy/pasted room layouts to fit within the memory constraints of an NES title really make this game hard to enjoy. Good to try out if you want to dive into the history of where Metroid began, but I wish you the best endurance to withstand the tedium and monotony of this game if you're trying to complete it.
"Because Wind Waker wasn't the ocarina of time lookalike I wanted, so let's bring in the stuff that was great in 1998 into 2006, and throw in unnecessarily long extra padding to the mix with BROWN and BLOOM."
Though age has not been kind to the graphics, as well as the music lacking much depth due to it being all midi, I dont think it's a bad game, per se. The music - while lacking the body and fullness of a well mixed orchestra recording - is among the best composed in the Zelda series. The dungeons and puzzles within them are fun, and the story is good - standard zelda flair- but long slouches provided by mandatory quests that only exist to artificially prolong the game's length doesnt make it that fun to replay.
Horseback riding is clumsy with how it controls and it will be an obstacle in certain instances that require you to fight on horseback, but otherwise, the majority of the game makes up for it. Midna is a pretty awesome partner, she is probably my favorite one out of the 3D Zelda games. Overall, it is not my favorite zelda game, but I think it's still worth playing on a good day.
If you can, seek Wii U version if you can find it, it tweaked its tear trials so you have less to collect, Link climbs up the vines faster, it fixes the blue rupee bug when you start the game up from boot, and link can carry more rupees, beneficial for when you obtain an item that'll drain your wallet.
Though age has not been kind to the graphics, as well as the music lacking much depth due to it being all midi, I dont think it's a bad game, per se. The music - while lacking the body and fullness of a well mixed orchestra recording - is among the best composed in the Zelda series. The dungeons and puzzles within them are fun, and the story is good - standard zelda flair- but long slouches provided by mandatory quests that only exist to artificially prolong the game's length doesnt make it that fun to replay.
Horseback riding is clumsy with how it controls and it will be an obstacle in certain instances that require you to fight on horseback, but otherwise, the majority of the game makes up for it. Midna is a pretty awesome partner, she is probably my favorite one out of the 3D Zelda games. Overall, it is not my favorite zelda game, but I think it's still worth playing on a good day.
If you can, seek Wii U version if you can find it, it tweaked its tear trials so you have less to collect, Link climbs up the vines faster, it fixes the blue rupee bug when you start the game up from boot, and link can carry more rupees, beneficial for when you obtain an item that'll drain your wallet.
I'm not gonna beat around the bush with this. Not counting the DS games, I believe Skyward Sword is the worst mainline Zelda game. It amplified what made Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess middling and threw in some motion gimmicks. Getting rid of the motion control would only remove a small part of what made Skyward Sword unreplayable.
Thought Navi was bad? Fi will insult your intelligence by telling you obvious info right after the camera has already shown you where you need to go after solving a puzzle. I can't for the life of me understand why people thought Fi was a well-rounded character by the end. She barely had any characteristics that weren't just letting you know what your mission objective was. She was basically a computer, a phone notification that you cannot turn off.
The imprisoned battles were tests of tedium and you have to fight him three times. Twilight Princess had the tear trials that slowed the progression of the game down a bit, but Skyward Sword made it worse by making you unable to defend yourself and you will have to start over if you get hit at least once. Twilight Princess' problem with its padding - which only exists to artificially inflate the game's length - is also worse in Skyward Sword. The game practically forces you to do very tedious quests that involve a lot of backtracking and fetch quests that really test your patience. It even has the gull to give you the option to do the trials again as if you're masochistic enough to want to do them again.
Overall, the ingredients of a very well produced product including a great artstyle, great soundtrack, and a good story are there, but the final ingredients of it being absolutely not fun to play between the dungeons, as well as Fi constantly reminding you about obvious information - making the game extremely hand holdy - ruin it completely.
At least Groose is a good character.
Thought Navi was bad? Fi will insult your intelligence by telling you obvious info right after the camera has already shown you where you need to go after solving a puzzle. I can't for the life of me understand why people thought Fi was a well-rounded character by the end. She barely had any characteristics that weren't just letting you know what your mission objective was. She was basically a computer, a phone notification that you cannot turn off.
The imprisoned battles were tests of tedium and you have to fight him three times. Twilight Princess had the tear trials that slowed the progression of the game down a bit, but Skyward Sword made it worse by making you unable to defend yourself and you will have to start over if you get hit at least once. Twilight Princess' problem with its padding - which only exists to artificially inflate the game's length - is also worse in Skyward Sword. The game practically forces you to do very tedious quests that involve a lot of backtracking and fetch quests that really test your patience. It even has the gull to give you the option to do the trials again as if you're masochistic enough to want to do them again.
Overall, the ingredients of a very well produced product including a great artstyle, great soundtrack, and a good story are there, but the final ingredients of it being absolutely not fun to play between the dungeons, as well as Fi constantly reminding you about obvious information - making the game extremely hand holdy - ruin it completely.
At least Groose is a good character.
It's not a good Metroid Prime game, but a good portable online shooter. Single player mode is very much a zero calorie Metroid Prime game where a lot of the level design is pretty much the same, and you fight only two bosses in the main campaign and then one more in the end.
Where the game really shined was its multiplayer component. Each player character has their own specific weapon and morph form that gives them a certain advantage over other players in the area. Unfortunately, multiplayer is not possible on the Wii U, and you'll have to go through hurdles to get the DS' online component working again after Nintendo shut it down.
It's worth playing if you can get the multiplayer working again. Without it, you can watch a youtube video of one level playthrough and that's pretty much its single-player component on rinse and repeat.
Where the game really shined was its multiplayer component. Each player character has their own specific weapon and morph form that gives them a certain advantage over other players in the area. Unfortunately, multiplayer is not possible on the Wii U, and you'll have to go through hurdles to get the DS' online component working again after Nintendo shut it down.
It's worth playing if you can get the multiplayer working again. Without it, you can watch a youtube video of one level playthrough and that's pretty much its single-player component on rinse and repeat.
2010
Graphically it pushed the Wii quite well despite its blurry textures. Unfortunately, it is void of the soul and attributes of what made Metroid fun to begin with. I couldn't even bring myself to finish the game through its epilogue where you fight a secret boss.
Though the game does have its moments of engagement through some of the bossfights, at the end of the day, they wanted to make Metroid a movie through a game. And in doing so, it is chockful of unnecessary melodrama, and a once badass lone bounty hunter is now constantly submitting to her former commander, going so far as to not use her heat resisting suit in a superheated area because he didn't give her the OK to do so. Again, Samus had the capability to use her varia suit to keep her shielded from the extreme heat, but she chose not to use it because she wanted to please daddy Adam.
This is the Netflix adaptation of a Metroid game. Shocking that it came from the minds that made the games to begin with.
Though the game does have its moments of engagement through some of the bossfights, at the end of the day, they wanted to make Metroid a movie through a game. And in doing so, it is chockful of unnecessary melodrama, and a once badass lone bounty hunter is now constantly submitting to her former commander, going so far as to not use her heat resisting suit in a superheated area because he didn't give her the OK to do so. Again, Samus had the capability to use her varia suit to keep her shielded from the extreme heat, but she chose not to use it because she wanted to please daddy Adam.
This is the Netflix adaptation of a Metroid game. Shocking that it came from the minds that made the games to begin with.