So, I have had a big time gaming backlog. For my birthday last year (October) I got Metroid Prime 3 for my Wii. There it sat while I played through Bioshock, Halo 3 then Super Mario Galaxy. Ive been making my way through the backlog and decided to play Prime 3. Then decided that I should experience the trilogy in order, so ordered the first two games off of eBay, and went through the entire trilogy over the last 3 weeks or so. The series was of course very well received last gen, but I missed it not owning a gamecube, so I decided to experience the awesome.
What a mess of a series. The boss battles are generally fun but a little easy, the exploring and backtracking is pretty good stuff (but fatally flawed), the puzzle solving is pretty hit or miss (physical puzzles good, making me find and scan 4 random things hidden in a room = bad).
Then the controls. Metroid Prime 3 luckily really fixed this problem for the most part, but this lock on system is horrid. It worked for platforming and for killing the stupid enemies that just walk around in place. Where it got bad was space pirates. Im supposed to kill things that are jumping and flying all over the place with very little precision and aiming on top of that the gamecube controller had me either pulling up the map when I meant to go into the ball mode or visa versa. That could just be my inexperience with the gamecube controller though, so I wont hold that against the game.
The real problem for me though is the handholding. Im used to the Metroid series making you search for the next place to go, and it feeling like a real reward once you get there. Things like remembering oh yeah there was a place that had a ledge I couldnt reach before, lets head over there and see where that goes. This game instead of letting you figure out where to go and actually solving puzzles decides to have a blinking warning that says hey, press this button and go to this part of the map. Ugg. Whats the point?
So what I am left with is a series of games that have some fun boss battles, some pretty good platforming (except for that stupid underwater section of the first game, UGGG), pretty bad controls, isnt much of a shooter and has hit or miss puzzles. On top of all that, the thing the series is known for, exploration is pretty much stripped of it completely. The only thing that is really left for you to explore for is missile expansions and life bars.
Im not saying its a bad series of games, its pretty solid, but it feels like they kinda missing the point.
What a mess of a series. The boss battles are generally fun but a little easy, the exploring and backtracking is pretty good stuff (but fatally flawed), the puzzle solving is pretty hit or miss (physical puzzles good, making me find and scan 4 random things hidden in a room = bad).
Then the controls. Metroid Prime 3 luckily really fixed this problem for the most part, but this lock on system is horrid. It worked for platforming and for killing the stupid enemies that just walk around in place. Where it got bad was space pirates. Im supposed to kill things that are jumping and flying all over the place with very little precision and aiming on top of that the gamecube controller had me either pulling up the map when I meant to go into the ball mode or visa versa. That could just be my inexperience with the gamecube controller though, so I wont hold that against the game.
The real problem for me though is the handholding. Im used to the Metroid series making you search for the next place to go, and it feeling like a real reward once you get there. Things like remembering oh yeah there was a place that had a ledge I couldnt reach before, lets head over there and see where that goes. This game instead of letting you figure out where to go and actually solving puzzles decides to have a blinking warning that says hey, press this button and go to this part of the map. Ugg. Whats the point?
So what I am left with is a series of games that have some fun boss battles, some pretty good platforming (except for that stupid underwater section of the first game, UGGG), pretty bad controls, isnt much of a shooter and has hit or miss puzzles. On top of all that, the thing the series is known for, exploration is pretty much stripped of it completely. The only thing that is really left for you to explore for is missile expansions and life bars.
Im not saying its a bad series of games, its pretty solid, but it feels like they kinda missing the point.