METROID PRIME TRILOGY: PART 2

After the events of Metroid Prime it would be a short 2 years before the success that was the first game would have a follow up; 'Metroid Prime 2: Echoes', now here's where the difference of opinions start. Now a lot of people say it's the weakest of the trilogy but I beg to differ, I mean why fix what's not broken. Retro Studios discovered that they had a goldmine on their hands and rather than faff about with altering the games core mechanics they left original gameplay style and started a new story with rich environments and cool characters. Maybe it's because I played MP2 first of the three that I find it's my favourite in the trilogy but to say one of the three is bad then I just don't think you're a Metroid fan. I'll shed more light on the matter further on but let's get stuck into these games.

Echoes takes place shortly after the events on Tallon IV, now without giving away too many spoilers I can safely say Samus survived the first game. Upon receiving a distress call from a Galactic Federation  vessel on the planet Aether, Samus heads deep into the electrical storms surrounding the mysterious planet. Unfortunately for her the ship is badly damaged upon entering the planets atmosphere and crash lands leaving her stranded until her ship can self repair. Samus soon discovers that the inhabitants of the planet, the Luminoth, are engaged in a war with the Ing, a mysterious race that emerged from the darkness when a meteor struck the planet long ago. Samus is also being pursued by a mysterious look-alike who would soon be dubbed Dark Samus. The premise of MP2 is the whole war between Light and Dark thing. Now getting back to disscusion earlier, I feel that this is what most people didn't like about the game. A lot of people thought that it was un-original and the transitions between a Light Aether and a Dark Aether was just extra padding in the game but think back to 2004, we hadn't seen anything like MP1, a Dark / Light reference hadn't been used before and it was a great gameplay mechanics to introduce. I feel that if you truly appreciate Metroid and the first game then you need to get off your high horse and stop bad mouthing the second. Sorry about that...but Echoes was brilliant and don't let anyone every say neither. Echoes had some cool weapons and gadgets and while the names might not be as original it was immensely satisfying blasting away Space Pirates with the Light Gun!

So to wrap things up let's jump ahead to 2007, the Wii had only recently be released and every Metroid fan was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the last in the trilogy; Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. When Prime jumped to the Wii I was so excited, being able to control Samus' gun with the Wii-mote and feel like you were actually there made me buy the Wii just for MP3. Now obviously it's not as immersive as you can get but still there's a certain appeal for games like this, especially on the Wii because there's not many fantastic FPS's. MP3 was unique in the sense that it introduced voiced characters via that of the Galactic Federation and the other bounty hunters Samus meets throughout the game. Before this we were used to a mute Samus and no voiced characters, it was good, it added that sense of being truly alone on a planet, but while Samus is still mute this time round it does add for effect. It was hard to get used to it at first but now I think it's good, the player can now experience the characters and not just the areas around the game. So this time round Samus is fighting along side the Galactic Federation in order to rid the galaxy of the Space Pirates and the Phazon corruption that is mysteriously appearing across several planets. The game again is fantastic and utilises the Wii-mote best out of any game I've ever seen, the controls are still smooth and fluent and the worlds and action is jam packed with awesome. The pay off for finally making it through the trilogy is worth it and I highly recommend checking them out. I dont want to get too much into the stories because I want you guys to discover everything for yourself but don't worry, they're good stories.

Something that I didn't mention before about all the games is the boss battles. Now we all love a good boss battle especially the epic ones that push our skills to the limits, you'll get plenty of that in the Metroid Prime Trilogy. It's the best kind of boss battles, hard but just do-able. I feel it's definitely worth giving them a mention as some of my most memorable moments are the battles themselves. So I hope you all enjoyed this two part special on one of the greatest trilogies of all time and I hope you check it out soon!

Metroid Prime
Genre: FPS Action / Adventure
Platforms: Gamecube
Score: 9.8 / 10

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Genre: FPS Action / Adventure
Platforms: Gamecube
Score: 10 / 10

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Genre: FPS Action / Adventure
Platforms: Wii
Score: 9.6 / 10