Gamertell

Title: Metroid Prime Trilogy Collector’s Edition
Price: $49.99
System: Wii
Release Date: August 24, 2009
Publisher (Developer): Nintendo (Retro Studios, Inc.)
ESRB Rating: “Teen” for animated blood and violence.
Pros: Quintessential use of Wii controls, outstanding visuals and level design, fantastic and unique boss battles, good balance of exploration and action. Three games for the price of one
Cons: Basically the same game three times with plenty of repetition in each
Overall Score: Two thumbs up; 97/100; A; ****1/2 out of 5

The first Metroid game I ever completed was Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on the Wii. I’d tried Metroid Prime on the Game Cube, and enjoyed it, but never enough to stick with it when something else came along. I wanted to go back and finish it up after completing Corruption but suddenly that Game Cube controller seemed so, primitive. It felt clunky. It wasn’t sleek and intuitive like, well, like Samus.

Now, that’s no longer a concern. The Game Cube games Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes have been updated for the Wii. They’ve been touched up here and there, they’ve been converted to widescreen and they’ve been blessed with the WiiMote-Nunchuck combo. To top it off, they’ve been bundled with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, placed on one dual-layer disc and given perhaps the best packaging yet seen in the US With all this, Nintendo and and Retro Studios have given us the best deal available on the Wii.

Even if you’ve played all these games before, it’s a package all Wii gamers should own.

Wait, This Robot’s a Girl!? Awesome!

Metroid is a first-person shooter set on distant, largely uninhabited planets and, in some cases, spaceships. You play as Samus, bounty hunter extraordinaire in her sleek robot suit with the illogically puffy shoulders. Samus’ suit can acquire various upgrades and will throughout the course of all three games. Why all three? Because at the beginning of each, she seems to lose them and has to spend the adventure getting them back. Samus really needs to see a mechanic. If I lost my brakes every morning on the way to work, I’d start taking the car to a different shop.

Samus’ suit does, in fact, have a personality of its own, especially considering its ability to turn into a into a ball to roll through various tunnels and puzzles. The ball mechanic is a lot of fun but is also very useful in many of the combat situations (it is easier to roll away from trouble than to run). In addition, she’s eventually equipped with four types of laser fire with specific weapons needed against certain enemies and doors (and you spend more time shooting doors than anything else). She also gets visor upgrades, which allow her to see in the dark, to see invisible objects, etc. And, finally, there are countless missile, bomb and energy upgrades to be found. The more you acquire, the more equipped you’ll be to tackle the numerous, complicated and awesome bosses.

It’s Three, Three, Three (Largely Similar) Games In One!

Yes, the description above does apply to all three games because all three are basically the exact same thing. That’s not a big deal when the games were released a couple years apart but, when you get all three at once, it becomes Metroid overload.

All three require plenty of backtracking, as accessing certain areas can’t be done until you’ve got the proper suit upgrade. You can run through certain areas more than a dozen times, fighting the same opponents each time (who’s repairing those security lasers?) and that gets tiresome. The Metroid worlds are huge, so you really will spend more time running back and forth than you will encountering new enemies and cracking open new puzzles.

But this is all worth it because the action is fast and furious when it has to be and the puzzles are fun. The balance between fighting and exploring is well handled and it doesn’t hurt that the locations are gorgeous. You’ve got lava flows deep underground, snowy cliffs, cities in the sky, derelict spaceships and more.

The core gameplay may remain the same throughout all three games but the locations keep things feeling fresh.

Play It Again For the First Time.

Want more detail? You don’t really need it. Any Nintendo owner who takes gaming at all seriously has played through at least one - and likely all three - of these games. If you’ve played all three, whether you go for this package depends upon how much you enjoyed them.

Are they worth playing again? Yes, if only for the ability to use the fantastic WiiMote and Nunchuck control system. It’s easily the best of any component system and the Metroid developers certainly know how to use it to its greatest potential. All developers of first-person shooters should be taking notes. In addition, the widescreen presentation is great and the various other tweaks certainly don’t hurt.

This is a fantastic package. As if getting three A-quality games for the price of one wasn’t enough, it’s packaged in a shiny tin with with great artwork. All three games come on one dual layer disc, so there’s no need to manage multiple discs (which would also add extra bulk to the packaging).

A trilogy worth trying

What we have here are three extraordinary games in one fantastic box at one amazing price. It’s perfect for gamers like me who started on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for Wii and just couldn’t go backwards in time or technology to play Metroids Prime 1 and 2 without widescreen and Wii controls. I’ve now been able to work up to Corruption and had a blast doing it. If time permits, I may even play Corruption again (after a break). This is a lot of Metroid to tackle at once, so make sure you get some other games to play between chapters.

When buying another game, though, don’t argue with the salespeople that $50 for only one game in a cheap plastic box sure seems like a rip-off. You don’t want to look like a spoiled Wii owner.

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