I love the heck out of Metroidvanias, but the Metroid Prime games have never been something that interested me terribly much. I've never been comfortable with first person games on console, so I just always wrote the series off as something I'd never be able to enjoy. After enjoying Retro Studios's Recore so much last year, I definitely knew it'd be worth my while to eventually check out the Prime series, and August's theme of GameCube games finally pushed me into checking it out. I ended up being a lot more comfortable with it than I thought I ever would. It ended up taking me about 12.5 hours to finish the Japanese version of the game.

Taking place between Metroid 1 and 2, when there were still many Metroids to fight, Metroid Prime has more of a story in it than many prior Metroid games had, but still a fairly light story ultimately. Samus comes across a space pirate station in distress from the biological experiments they've been conducting, and after confronting the monsters hidden there (and losing all her upgrades due to a huge hit to her suit), she goes down to the planet it crashed on to investigate further. The story is mostly told through scanning logs of both the Chozo ruins as well as the space pirates' logs, and these logs were apparently changed significantly from the American release for the Japanese release. Regardless of the changes, the story is generally a very hands-off and atmosphere-heavy experience without a ton of focus on direct storytelling. It makes for a great, isolated atmosphere as you explore Tallon IV.

The gameplay is not so much a first-person shooter so much as a first-person Metroidvania. You explore around one large 3D environment, finding new powerups, fighting enemies, defeating bosses, and solving puzzles to progress. This isn't a more normal first-person game, however, as it uses only the analog stick to move. This works surprisingly well as a control method due to the way you can lock onto enemies with the shoulder buttons. The C-stick and D-pad are used for changing your beam type and visor type respectively, so they couldn't be used for camera controls.

The world and boss design is generally really solid, but there's a few bumps here and there. The first part of the game is really well signposted and put together, but then once you hit around the halfway point, the game suddenly expects you to know to go halfway across the world just to unlock one upgrade just to go back to where you were to keep progressing just slightly further. Given the hellish development cycle this game had, it's nothing short of incredible that it's even as good as it is, but even then, the marks of that troubled development cycle through that bad signposting. There are some other polish issues, such as certain areas (especially the mines) being weirdly devoid of save points despite how long and difficult they are, but the game is more often given a good difficulty curve.

The presentation is really excellent, as one would expect from one of Nintendo's big franchises. You have music that sets the isolated atmosphere really well, and graphics that really impress. The field of view is a bit too narrow at times, and sometimes the lighting strays towards being so dark that it's really difficult to see (in a way that isn't intentional), but it all makes up a really solid package.

The Japanese version of the game tightens some things up compared to the original American release aside from the previously mentioned somewhat altered story. The biggest things are rebalances to make the game just a bit harder. You die a lot faster in poison water (my first and one of my only deaths), and they also made the final boss fight significantly harder. It's nothing that makes this version better or worse than other versions, so far as I can tell, but they're interesting tweaks worth mentioning nonetheless.


Verdict: Highly Recommended. Metroid Prime shows some marks of its troubled development, no question, but it still manages to be a really excellent game regardless. It holds up great all these years later, and is definitely worth checking out for any Metroid or Metroidvania fan. A special shoutout to my friend Fii, who loves this game and did a lot to help me love it too~.