I absolutely loved this adventure with Samus. I am glad they added some characters and hope to see more of that in Prime 4. This is one of the few times the Wii remote felt good and not like a stupid gimmick. Although it admittedly takes getting use to. I still think Metroid Prime is the best of the Prime games but I think I may have liked this one more and had more fun playing through Corruption. A lot of people seemed to be turned off by the different planets instead of one big map but it didn’t bother me at all. The gameplay was easily the most smooth, satisfying, and fun in the Prime Trilogy. The only reason this isn’t a 5 star for me is simply the game was to easy. I found this to be the least challenging Metroid outside of Zero Mission. This is due to Hyper Mode which is suppose to be a risk reward but really it’s just a lose an E tank of health and destroy anything in front of you reward. I feel like an idiot for waiting this long to play this game. The Metroid series is my favorite Nintendo series and Corruption can stand firmly toe to toe with almost every Metroid.

If Metroid Prime 2 wanted to be a harder, more story-driven game than its predecessor, while maintaining an identity of its own, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption's goal is a lot clearer. It wants to be a big, bombastic finale to the Prime series, and it probably also wants to be Halo. This is pretty clear since moment one- where every other Prime game and most games in the franchise at the time had little on-screen story and dialogue, Corruption starts with a long tutorial delivered by friendly NPCs, and then follows that up with an action intro where you meet three fellow Bounty Hunters you'll be working with. It takes little time for things to go wrong, and while the four of you manage to avoid disaster, you are all knocked out for a month by the villain of the previous game, Dark Samus. When you wake up, you find out your suit has been modified to house Phazon, the all-consuming evil matter that the trilogy revolves around, and with Samus tasked to save two different planets from destruction at the hands of Phazon, the game finally starts proper.

Except, does it really? As I said, Corruption's goals are pretty different from the other games: it's clearly trying to be a more linear and narratively focused game first, and a metroidvania second. Action with a side of exploration, not exploration with a side of action, while still keeping the Metroid spirit. This is... fine, frankly. Fusion does something similar, and I quite it like that game. And Corruption's combat is... alright! It's the same basis as the rest of the series, with the removal of beams to switch between (not such a bad thing, in my personal opinion, but the loss of hidden weapons kinda sucks, especially in a game that has you do more shooting) and the addition of Hyper Mode, which a lot of the combat relies around- you sacrifice 99 hp, and get to briefly do a whole lot more damage. Even with what I'm about to say, this is definitely the Metroid Prime game I had the most fun fighting in, though mostly because of the bosses. The problem with the core combat is that Hyper Mode quickly goes from an emergency tool that you only use when needed to the strongest weapon in your arsenal, and eventually becomes the only thing you'll ever be doing. 99 HP quickly becomes a smaller and smaller portion of your overall health as you get more E-Tanks, and when enemies get strong enough to do more damage than that in half a second, you'll be popping it on every fight, multiple times. It's just too strong of a tool- you can hammer down on a Space Pirate for 20 seconds before taking them out, all the while their friends pelt you with bullets, or you can go Hyper Mode and wipe the entire squad in half that time. Luckily bosses need to be made vulnerable before you can deal damage to them and are balanced around Hypermode, so that isn't a problem there. In fact, I must once again commend the overall design of some of these fights- they've got the puzzle element you'd expect from the series, requiring you to figure out the right combination of actions to make the boss vulnerable, but they don't let up on a mechanical level either, asking you to execute your strategy efficiently and quickly, all the while demanding some good aiming and dodging. Great stuff.

Something worth noting is that I played on Hard and at the beginning, I thought this game was going to be a real challenge- several fights in the end of the first area got me to struggle quite a lot, which I welcomed, but the difficulty loosened up pretty quickly, with the exception of the occasional boss encounter. Something else to note is I played this game on Dolphin, using PC FPS controls. It was a great experience, but it does prevent me from commenting on the game's use of motion controls, which are a very important element of it. Perhaps I'd have enjoyed combat more if I had to physically yank enemies' items and weapons away, rather than just pressing a button to do so. A thing that I can comment on, though, is Samus' Gunship, which is very weird- a whole Visor slot is sacrificed to being able to command it, and the first upgrade it gets is the ability to bomb enemies. This is really cool in theory, but completely pointless in practice. Even among the wide open areas where you'd expect this ability to be usable (which given this is still a Metroid game, are few and far between), the ship can only be used in a few of them, to the point that I don't think I actually ever remembered to use it on an enemy once. There's even ammo expansions for the missiles as pickups but I couldn't fathom ever using them often enough for those to matter. Feels like they had the idea but then never figured out how to implement it.

Where I think Corruption really falters, though, is the level design. Again, it's not a problem to make a game less open, but this is taking the worst of both worlds. First off, progression is not only 100% linear, but spelled out to you by some NPC over comms- there's an option to turn off hints, but bafflingly that only removes the marker over the area they tell you to go to, not the actual dialogue and cutscene that points you to that area. In Prime 1/2 you could choose to go in entirely unassisted, here you'll be babied no matter what. But that might be for the best, because frankly backtracking in this game sucks. A game like Super Metroid handles its world by having side rooms spin off a central, shorter path- you may want to explore every branch of this tall room in Brinstar once you first reach it, but when you're done with that you can just go through the center room any time you pass by. It's smart- it focuses a lot of content in side areas so backtracking is quicker. Corruption does the exact opposite to an infuriating degree. I mean look at this shit, it's literally a straight line from the beginning to the end, and you'll have to go through that a few times, especially if you backtrack for collectibles. Even just on the first time through, you'll need to go back through these levels on your way out, a lot of the time. And those collectibles are worthless, a lot of the time. Ship Ammo upgrades mean basically nothing, and missiles are nearly vestigial in this game- I think just mashing attack does more damage than them, by the endgame. MP1 and 2 made the missiles more valuable thanks to the super missile attack, and encouraged you to look for upgrades for your beam weapons, E-Tanks and ammo expansions, which were all either pretty cool or pretty vital- 3 has very little of that.

It just feels bad, especially with the long load times between rooms, and the game straight-up enjoys making backtracking miserable. When you've beaten a boss, areas will be repopulated by a very annoying enemy that requires Hyper Mode to kill, and demands your attention with long-ranged, fast attacks. The second and biggest area in the game, SkyTown, also makes you go through these railways which force you into quick aiming minigames and make you restart from the beginning if you get hit- they're extremely obnoxious. The map gets pretty hard to read too, oftentimes, and that sucks because rooms are somewhat hard to distinguish at times. Going through these levels the first time is great, they're gorgeous and full of interesting stuff, but backtracking is a thankless chore, and the game still requires it at time and encourages it at others. Something it deserves praise for though is how it handles the series' traditional endgame fetch quest- previous Metroid Prime games essentially locked most of its collecting until it told you to do so, but Corruption makes the area where you'll use these collectibles available early, and gives you goodies and directions for the macguffins, encouraging the hunt to happen a lot more gradually. It's great fun and definitely the best way they've done it. Something I don't like is how many power-ups are just given to you, I think about half the E-Tanks in the game are literally or nearly literally just put in the main path for you to bump into with zero effort- bit of a shame, after Echoes' elaborate puzzles (which this game does admittedly have a few of).

The last thing to touch upon is the story, so expect spoilers for the first act of the game, and maybe vague allusions to things that happen after. That said... come on, did anyone think the hunters were going to stick around? The intro takes such effort to introduce them all as quickly and as much as it can that it's basically spelled out to you that they'll all meet grisly ends, and indeed, by the time you're knocked out and wake up, they've all been corrupted by Dark Samus, and serve as antagonists, one per area. They're all pretty cool in concept but it all just happens so quickly that I can't help but not care. I'd have loved to see more of Gangrayda's envy of Samus, or Rundas' friendly rivalry with her, but they're all three gone so quickly, and when they're back they're just very very evil and die in the span of one scene. Even if you didn't figure out that something like this would happen, by the time you fight Rundas, the first of the three, it's pretty clear the other two are gone too, and the game never plays with this knowledge in any interesting way. It'd be great if one of the three managed to survive and help you, only to maybe fall to Phazon later, or if one overcame the Phazon corruption, or died but left you a message, I dunno. It'd be cool even if you could learn more of their pre-corruption exploits, but as it is, they're just mid-bosses with a lot of preamble, and that's kind of a shame, especially because Nintendo's previous attempt to introduce rival bounty hunters also flopped pretty hard.

The rest of the story is... fine? I think it straddles a good line, making Samus still very professional but giving us some insight on her feelings, unlike the previous two games where she was frankly just a player avatar most of the time. But, I dunno, it's just Samus fighting a big alien evil guy, no real interesting developments. I like the lore of the various planets, probably my favorite of the three games, despite Echoes' tough competition. I dunno. I'd like to say that Corruption is, in its own way, a worthy sequel to the previous two Metroid Prime games, but I don't really believe that it is. It has some good ideas, some bad ideas, and sort of fails to fall together into a product that's as cohesive and effective as them. It's not committed enough to being an action game to succeed in that regard, and it's not a good metroidvania, so it's sort of nothing at all. But hey, at least it's not Other M.

(I played with Primehack because the Wiimote controls made my wrist sore; an extra half-⭐ if you're using that, bumping it up to "may be worth playing if you're a big Metroid fan." The carpal tunnel isn't worth it otherwise.)

Man, this feels like Halo 2 dropped and made Retro quake in their boots. We've got more characters! Cutscenes! Military! Setpieces! A guy saying "damn!" As the Wii's flagship shooter, it's got to stand up to the competition, right?

...Alright, that's probably uncharitable - but this game really feels like it's straining against the series it comes from. Metroid games, in my mind, are defined by three things: exploration, atmosphere, and recontextualization. Corruption's atmosphere is fine - the art direction is as good as ever, and there's clearly been a lot of thought into how to construct the various worlds to give them independent identities. (Stumbling across the Xenoresearch Labs was a real highlight!) However, the other the other two areas are really weak.

IIRC, the first eight-ish hours are spent keeping you on a leash, chugging ahead without any interesting decision-making on where or how to proceed. When it finally lets you figure out your own way forward, it's a breath of fresh air, but it never goes especially far with it. Out of the trilogy, this game inspires the least curiosity and wonder. It spends so much time shuttling you from place to place, ensuring you don't get too distracted or lost, that so little room is left for asking "I wonder how you get there?" or "I wonder what that's there for?"

And the recontextualization - the Metroid series, at its best, does a great job making you look at an old location in a new way thanks to the items & knowledge you've gained. This very rarely happens in this game. Most of the things worth backtracking to are simply different-colored doors; something that, at this point in the trilogy, should not inspire any surprise. When it does happen, it rarely goes anywhere significant. It's just disappointing, frankly.

There are good additions. This game's equivalent of a Chozo Artifact/Sky Temple Key hunt is easy to start early, and it doesn't require collecting all of them to progress. (I enjoy 100%ing Metroid games, so you know I did anyway, but point being that this helps ease the lategame slog that Prime games can slip into.) Its fast travel system is also the best in the trilogy, making the endgame cleanup even faster. And many of the new items are genuinely cool - the grapple upgrades are a clever way to improve a previously underutilized item.

However, I do not think this game works well as an ending to the trilogy. The ending is so focused on tying the narrative up in a neat bow that it devolves into abrupt hand-waving, hoping to dazzle you with a flashy (but unfortunately uninteresting) final boss so that you won't think about how nonsensical its attempt at closure is. It smacks of tight deadlines and cut content, and I'm disappointed it had to end this way.

Metroid Prime 3 Corruption is a very complicated game for me. It was the first Metroid game I received, around its launch window, yet here it is, the last one that I'm completing. Feels weird.

This game is pretty good, but it does so many extremly weird decisions that it can't help but feel well below it's 2 gamecube predecessors, especially Echoes.

The main issue is, obviously Hypermode. So much of the game relies on this absolutely broken mechanic that removes pretty much all the challenge. Corruption decides to take a much heavier focus on combat than Prime and Echoes, yet somehow strips down the Beam system back to what it was in the 2D games, and doubling this, make missiles feel extremly weak. So what does it do to compensate? Hypermode. Hypermode is far from a bad idea within itself, it's kind of like Devil Trigger in Devil May Cry, and the use of health as ammo is pretty interesting. Except enemies pretty much die on impact the second you pull it out.

Oh but you use health as ammo, so it's a risk reward system that gives you even more of an incentive to search far and wide the game world to find energy tanks? Right? Wrong, the game gives you every energy tank on a silver platter. Exploring and secrets are basically only relegated to find missile packs, which again, feel much less useful in this game than previously, so the whole Metroidvania aspect is severly damaged.

All this gives is a game where you're braindead just shooting at stuff. Metroid was never survival horror per se, but exploring the world felt extremly tense sometimes, Echoes was so good at this, making you carefully plot your next step, making you save ammo if you could, now that's just gone, with save points even fully healing you and remplishing your ammo now. Maybe it was a way to hope to get on the Halo trend, which was at its peak at the time, but if that's the case, I'm sorry, this dosent even come close. The simple gunplay of Metroid Prime is fine in a game that puts first and foremost exploration, but it will not stand up to games with a focus on gunplay.

So what saves the game? The World design is simply put, brilliant. Bryyo, Elysia and the Pirate Homeworld are all top tier locations with excellent music, I think this might be the strongest selection of worlds to explore in the entire Metroid series, and I am not kidding, traversing these is amazing. This coupled with great presentation and a strong sense of finality to this trilogy does make Corruption stand out, but all and all, it just can't help but feel lesser. It's "just a good game" in a series that has excellence as its standard.

Corruption may be the weakest of the Prime trilogy, but it's still a great game regardless. I will admit, the extended opening(s) had me a little nervous. The initial focus on shooting was off-putting, considering that the game's not much of a shooter, and the talking and in-engine cutscenes were jarring as hell, with some surprisingly bad sound design and mixing. However, once we're past that, oh boy is this a great time.

Corruption's levels are far more segmented than in prior games, separated by planets that Samus must travel to in her ship. While this segmenting has its downsides, namely breaking the feel of a single cohesive location, its upside is that Corruption manages to have environments as varied as the original Prime but without the suspension of disbelief required to believe that distinct biomes are but a short elevator ride away. The ability to land the ship at multiple points in a level allows for an ease of traversal that was appreciated.

I think Corruption might have the best implementation of an Artifact-hunt-variant, with its Energy Cells gradually opening up progression through a pretty tough area. Using these, you can achieve the main objective without collecting them all, or go there way before you need to for some collectables.

Presentational elements are generally outstanding across the board, with brilliant art design and the same immersive touches that made prior games great. The music is back too with the same cheesy-sci-fi-synths-meet-distorted-chants grandness, and I still love it, though perhaps not as much as in Prime and Echoes.

Where does the game fall short? Honestly, the federation stuff is a bit of a mixed bag, with the devs taking a pretty uncritical eye towards them. They do something really fucked up and irresponsible during a time lapse, but the game doesn't seem to notice that the fault lies with them. Their presence also serves to undercut the atmosphere somewhat, though the game manages to be immersive despite this. And, yes, the game is more restrictive and accessible than prior titles. This is not intrinsically a problem, but with a series that has Samus fighting eldritch horrors on strange alien planets the straightforwardness of the game feels a tad mismatched.

Overall, I loved this. I was especially excited for it too, as this was the first of three major titles in the Metroid series which I had not played until now. Up next is Other M, which I'm hoping to at least enjoy as a curio.

Yet another great Metroid game. I feel that this refines the Prime formula even more than the previous entries, even if it is a little too linear for my taste. I really liked the idea of going to multiple different planets and the music for each area is fantastic. Most of the upgrades were pretty underwhelming this time around however, as most of them are just brought back from the previous Prime games. I do appreciate that the beams were just straight upgrades this time around instead of separate options like in Prime 1/2. I didn't really like how the atmosphere is changed now that there is a huge group of people that Samus interacts with, especially since they keep contacting her and tell her where to go. This ends up being rather annoying at points. In the end, this might end up being my favorite of the Prime games so far, but I can't wait to see if Prime 4 changes that.

Definitely the weakest of the Prime Trilogy, but still a very good game. It ends up streamlining and simplifying the 3D Metroid format into something a bit more digestible for newcomers to the franchise. This has its benefits, but it has some pretty big flaws as well.

There's a bigger focus on plot this time; characters actually have voices! Some of the added characters are interesting and add more to the universe, though I wish we had more time to flesh them out. The three other bounty hunters are all really cool, though they really just serve as eventual boss fights. The story itself is pretty basic as well, but it at least ties the Phazon arc to a satisfying close. (for now)

Gameplay is a mixed bag. It's a lot more linear thanks to the greater emphasis on plot, which does cut down on some confusion the previous two games had, but it also removes some of the charm. The idea of actually flying to different planets is really cool, but the amount of loading screens and transitions makes Prime 2 look like a smooth bullet train ride. There's also some pretty interesting upgrades this time. No Super Missles or Power Bombs and we're back to a single beam that gets upgraded over time, but we also have some really cool additions like the Ice Missiles and ship upgrades. I also greatly appreciate the versatility given to the Grapple Beam as an avid Grapple Mechanic Enjoyer™. We've got a few interesting puzzles too thanks to the Wii's motion controls that briefly add some flavor.

Combat is where things feel like a step down in particular, however, and it's all because of Prime 3's biggest mechanic: Hypermode. There was a reason why it was saved for the final boss in previous games; it's a busted mechanic. And it ends up being something you rely on frequently if you want to get rid of the sometimes spongy enemies. The damage it does is just unmatched and nearly makes regular combat obsolete if it wasn't for it requiring health to use. The Hyper Ball and Hyper Grapple upgrades are also woefully underutilized.

Man, I have a lot to say about this one, but I'll just cut it off here. Game's still good, I like some of the risks it takes, but it's still a step down from the previous two entries in the Prime Trilogy.

Metroid Prime 3 is such a great way to finish off a great trilogy. its a little more linear than the other Metroids, but its still super fun. you have ziplines you can ride on, ancient ruins to explore, acid rain to avoid, abandoned and creepy spaceships to traverse. every location is interesting and unique, more so than previous Metroids, as every level takes place on a different planet

the game also has more quality of life improvements than the previous Metroid Primes, and it takes advantage of the Wiis controls more than the previous ones as well. its such a fantastic game that i cant recommend enough

Honestly, I can't say this game is really that much worse than Echoes or even Prime 1. The motion control gimmicks really aren't that bad - hell, the aiming is a lot better than the gamecube entries - and it feels similar in a lot of ways. But that's the real problem, it's over familiar. You spend most of your fifteen hours collecting the same powerups you've collected twice already and there's even less variety in the collectible pickups.

Corruption is overwhelmingly easy too. Where Echoes pushed its luck with some infuriating battles, the followup is laughably simple. The game floods you with extra energy tanks. The majority aren't hidden at all, nor do they come at the points you'd expect. You'll trundle along a quiet tunnel and oop, there's an energy tank! Right on your path, here you go! And given that each energy tank is more valuable thank ever, thanks to Samus' new ability to press a button and turn invincible and gain a one hit kill death cannon for thirty seconds, the combat is completely dull. All other complexities from Prime 1 and 2 have been stripped away, with no swappable beams, no dark/light mechanics, and most of the enemies having the most brain dead, repetitive AI. What replaces all these nuances is a mechanic with the potential to bring an interesting risk/reward sell your soul mechanic to the fights, but instead just being an easy mode that's always a button press away.

But maybe that's not so bad, sure the Prime games have placed a greater emphasis on combat than the 2D Metroid games have, but exploration has always the big draw. How is it here? More bad news, friends. It's pretty meh. Previous entries have had you exploring a labyrinthine map that gradually unfolds outwards and inwards over a single world, with a fantastic zig zag pace that has you excitedly doubling back to a dead end every time you receive a new ability. Prime 3 bucks this trend by instead breaking its world up into distinct levels across three planets. Now while these levels do often cross into each other, each is a fairly linear, isolated corridor between launch pads. Very little here feels like you're unravelling a dense navigational puzzle over the course of your playthrough, but instead you have your hand held by a nagging computer telling you exactly where to go at all times.

Well, okay, perhaps it's more linear than other Metroids, but Fusion was a lot more straightforward than Super and people seem to like that one. Sure, linear levels aren't so bad, but they have to be good and interesting. The move to a structure that centres smaller, discreet levels offers the opportunity to explore a greater variety of locales and level theming. Especially after Echoes which was fairly repetitive in its environmental aesthetic, perhaps this will be a welcome reprieve? I'm grieved to say once again: "Nope"

While the first proper planet Bryyo (Norion comes first, but functions as an ancillary prologue and tutorial really) is quite varied, featuring an area reminiscent of Tallon from Prime 1, then a jungle and fire level, it quickly gives up all efforts to vary itself. The second planet Elysia is bloody horrendous. It's initially pretty, an interesting combo of Sanctuary Fortress from 2 and Star Wars' Cloud City. Unfortunately it is an absolute nightmare to navigate, owing in part to its endless visual repetition. There is no variety whatsoever to the look or design of its corridors and rails. Many feel completely copy-pasted and I found myself having to check my map every other room, whereas I could navigate much of Prime 1 from memory alone. This is the planet you'll be leaving and returning to most often too, as you'll see most of Bryyo in one big go, but you're frequently ordered to piss off from Elysia and come back after going through endless loading screens flying back to Bryyo for a boring power up. The pace is lethargic at best, never picking up decent momentum for longer than a few minutes at a time.

Now seems as good a place to move on to the more superficial elements. And boy, what an ugly, ugly game. Constantly overbright with the bloom and saturation turned up to a thousand, with the pirate homeworld being a particularly bad offender. Each planet seems to give itself into a single colour in an attempt to differentiate themselves, but outside of that, it honestly looks worse than Prime 1. The model work is exceptionally poor, which,combined with the greater move towards story cutscenes with human models and actual faces being animated this time around, just leaves the whole thing looking and feeling about five years older than it is. The sound too is lacking, with no tracks really standing out and the enemy sound effects as generic as their designs.

I'll round things out by talking about the story then, and there's little positive to be said here either. I struggle to think of much to say other than that the whole thing feels like naff Halo. The runup to the final level sees you babysitting a group of AMERICAN™, I mean, "Galactic Federation" marines through a long gunfight in a corridor. The first prologue (that's right, first, there are two for some unknown reason) is almost word for word the Pillar of Autumn from Halo but worse in every way. All of this greater buildup and story emphasis eventually leads to a twist that's so obvious I feel dirty calling it a twist as Dark Samus is shrugged away in the final minutes for a naff mastermind villain that makes no sense.

Deep breaths, deep breaths. Maybe I've been too harsh, certainly the game is playable enough. But it's wholly unneccessary, bringing nothing new of note to the table and taking away so much of what made the Prime games - and the Metroid series as a whole - so interesting. I recommend playing with a podcast on, well no, I recommend you don't play at all, but if you must, bring a distraction to this mediocre snoozefest.

the intro being a watered down halo CE knockoff put a bad taste in my mouth and made me think this was gonna suck, but honestly I loved this game. I think I like it more than fusion, although I think I like fusion's tone more (this one kind of felt like an action movie, especially whenever the federation was on screen) but this game felt more free and explorable. It did at least something with having other characters, the other hunters had pretty cool designs and it was cool to see why samus is the best. I think another reason of why this one felt more free was because of the length. It's about 9 ish hours compared to fusion's 4, and if there was 30 minutes of dialogue in fusion and 30 minutes of dialogue in corruption, it feels less suffocating in corruption. Think of it like this. You get a 20 on a test. But the test is out of 20. That's 100%. but if the test is out of 100, that's a 20%. which is a failing grade in most countries.

This one's gonna be a bit of a shorter review cause I gotta step out for a smoke and mentally prepare for Other M. Few last things I wanna quickly touch on. One, I liked the hypermode in this. It makes this one a bit harder than echoes (thank god) because the enemies have to do damage balanced around your potential immortality. But it also helps you choose when you wanna clear the room of bulletsponge enemies. It was a cool addition. I just wish less upgrades were focused on it. I'm not gonna be in it all the time, and upgrades like the electric wave when ur in hyper boost ball feels gimmicky and designed only to add another puzzle type. Goes onto my next point. Something I love about the other prime games is how once you get a hold of the controls that's all there basically is. Every action you get is an extension of your base movement. There's no buttons to press because you scan with your lock on or jump into it with your morph ball. The grapple hook is also an extension of your lock on, your super missiles are an extension of your charge beam, etc etc. This game has button prompts to get awkward fallout 3 conversation cams with npc's, levers where you gotta pull the wiimote to pull the lever (i played on primehack kbm so all of those puzzles were replaced with the button W) or something. It just kind of breaks immersion when you try to open a door and you see a huge text popup saying MOVE THE WII REMOTE TO THE RIGHT TO OPEN THIS DOOR. Speaking of wii remote, the grapple hook in this game is front and center. You grapple to pull shielded enemies' shields off, you grapple random debris, you grapple everything. It unfortunately also feels kind of tacked on and not like the rest of sammy's natural movement. You see something glow yellow or an enemy pop up with a shield and think "oh yeah." Okay, last point is the scavenger hunt. There is one in the game. But I think they finally got it right? By the time I was ready to head into the endgame, I had all of the keys but three. And this game is pretty linear, one planet to the next, so I hadn't been to these places in a while. The whole point of the scavenger hunts in these games is to encourage the player to do one last sweep/victory lap around the world picking up spare e tanks and missile expanders before they can face the final boss. But in prime 1, it was kind of redundant because I'd been to all these areas over and over before and gotten all the shit and I was only there for the keys and in prime 2 it was annoying because the game sucked and I didn't wanna play anymore (im just playing. but the prime 2 one was a SLOG I legit almost abandoned right there.)

Anyways, yeah that's about all. Thanks for reading. Sorry I was so serious this time. I've been having a lot of problems with the wife. I'll be writing serious reviews with no jokes for the time being.

EDIT: i played metroid other m for 12 minutes and got to a part where it told me to turn my wiimote sideways. there is no way to play it with keyboard sooo i guess ill have to skip that one and move onto dread oh noooo oh nooo thats awful

I used to look at Metroid Prime 3 as an extensive display of the Wii's potential with the motion controls, especially for First-Person shooters. After revisiting it in past years, I've found it to be an amazing closure to the series, expands upon the Metroid universe well, with the beautiful presentation as the cherry on top.

The story picks up right after Echoes, with Dark Samus once again returning to wreak havoc upon the universe, and is up to Samus to stop her. The scale is much larger, with multiple planets being compromised with the dangerous, sentient-like energy known as "Phazon". To add onto the much tighter focus of Phazon, Samus and three other bounty hunters, Rhundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda all gain the ability to self generate Phazon within their own bodies. This mechanic ties into a lot of the events in the game, and they do a great job at showcasing just how dangerous making use of this new power is. We see throughout the entire story, the consequences of using, spreading, and being consumed by Phazon in a lot of creative ways, such as weaponizing it.. It reminds me a lot of the X parasites from Fusion, but I appreciated the higher stakes, and the fact Samus herself is not immune to the dangers of Phazon. The rest of the story is pretty point A to point B, it's pretty formulaic in structure, but has a lot of cool concepts and overall is very cinematic, which I enjoyed a lot. Gives me some hopes Metroid Prime 4 might have a similar style to this.

I enjoy Corruption's gameplay, it's the easiest Metroid game I've ever played, but that doesn't mean it's bad. A lot of the combat sections I feel last too long though, although the other two games also tend to have this issue of forced encounters lasting a long time, so that's not specific to this game, but much more prevalent. Structure itself is actually decent, some worlds are pretty linear, other worlds have a lot of backtracking that can certainly be a slog to go through, but they're all different and feel very unique to each other. Combat is fine, hypermode makes everything trivial, and just wasn't very engaging. I opted to only use Hypermode when required, since you're invincible during it, you deal insane damage to everything, and all of your abilities are supercharged to the point it doesn't matter what sort of variety you have as everything just one-shots anything anyway. Boss fights were a highlight for sure, lot of cool gimmicks and once again going for a much more cinematic approach in both circumstance, and thematic, which was really gripping and engaging to me. Motion controls are fine, I had major issues with it back when I had a normal Wii remote and nunchuck, Wii Motion Plus makes it so much more tolerable, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't destroy the pacing sometimes. It's really not that bad, just not ideal, certainly manageable.

Level design itself is breathtaking. Every world has such a unique atmosphere about it, a lot of excellent lore and environmental storytelling as well. You'll be visiting a lot of diverse landscapes in Corruption, and all of them are beautiful and never short on small details. The tone in each world you visit is also astounding, each world to this day sticks out in my mind, and that's very worth commending. Also a strong amount of horror in this entry, which I adored. Metroid doesn't need horror to build a profound atmosphere, but Corruption showcases a lot of potential with what Metroid could do with horror, and I'm all for it.

Graphics are stunning. Not a tremendous jump from Echoes, but enough to notice a difference. A lot of particle effects, colors pop out more, much higher quality textures. I was honestly impressed with the presentation overall with Corruption, especially for the Wii, granted we also had Mario Galaxy which is breathtaking as well. Corruption also just does a great job showcasing the environments, from gross alien-like biotech, to old machinery, Phazon mutations, the list goes on and on, and was the largest highlight for me. The worlds, environments, and design kept me playing this game to the end.

I love the music in Corruption as well. Every world, excluding one, has an accompanying theme that fits the design and tone so well, it amplifies it even further. Corruption actually doesn't have as much of the iconic Metroid Prime sound, with the electronic whistles, and atmospheric ambience baked into the tracks. Corruption has more traditional compositions for the music, which I liked, but also missed the old style as I was playing. Not to say it wasn't present at all, just a lot less than the previous titles.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a great game. I agree with everyone on a lot of the snags this game hits, along with some of my own personal issues, but I genuinely enjoyed the experience a lot. It was unique, had a cool story, great variety, and excellent visuals and world design. I can't recommend this game over the original Prime, but I still highly recommend you check this game out if you're into Metroid and want something a bit more cinematic. You can get Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii, or through the Metroid Prime Trilogy collection. You can also get Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii U eshop for cheap, as well as the Prime Trilogy on Wii U eshop for an amazing price I believe. Just be sure to purchase it before March 2023, as that is when Wii U and 3DS eshop are shutting down I believe.

"I've found you, faker!"

F̴̰̟̰̬̥̜͇͔̀̂͝ ̶̘̞̹̋̒A̷̡̰̹̍́͆ͅ ̴̬͈͍̒K̸̩͓͙͓̝̱͔͋̂͑́͑̇́̚ ̴͖̟̂̈Ḛ̵̽ ̸̟̜̰͖͔̭̤̓̊R̴̲̪̤̜̙̘̒̓̈́̄͐ ̵̨̡̦̳̼͔̊̐̏͋͋͗͠I̷̗̹̜̣̳͔̩͛͗̽̚̚͜ ̷̢̩̥͖̬̾̀̾͛͒̋T̵̥̉̋́̄̏̍̕ ̶̧̍̐̆̽̈́̈͝H̶̞̹̖̗̭̾̍̽ ̵̖̳̬̞͍͙̥̺̿̿̑͗̈́̾I̸̡̯̖̼͍̮̓ ̷̧̧̖͔̘̲͙́́̈́̑̀̍̅͜Ṋ̸͍̫̝̣͙͛ ̸̩̲̥̗̟̞̐̀̂̅ͅĶ̶̡̺̬̜̫͔̹̿͂̄́̔̎̕̕ ̶͓̊̏͊̒̋̄̕͠Ẏ̴̰͔͓̻̩̥̼͙̈̆̀̚ ̷͍̌̃͆̎Ǫ̸̼̘͖̗̖̺̩̓̎̀̕͘ ̸̬̦͕̙͚͕͂́͗̚U̷͔̙͓͚͓͆͜͝ ̷̛̙̭̙̈́̓̾̿R̶͈͕͉̜̹̅̈́́͜ ̵̧̝̜̀͜ͅË̷͇́̃̌̈́̏̎ ̶͎̦́̃́̾̔͘͘T̸̯̙̈̑͜ ̸̡͇̼͓̖̱̼͑Ȟ̶̹͑̽̋̍̉͑̍ ̷̢̗͌͑̇̎̄̃̎Ĕ̶͉̦͇̻͒͌̂͋͝͠ ̴̞̮̝͓͓̹͚̈̀̎͊̕ͅF̶͕̠̀̔̓̿ ̸̨̹̔Ą̶̨̰͕͍̩̬̐̔ ̵̟͈͈̣͖̮̙̎́͊͜K̷̮̩͓̲͎͕̓̈́̔͆͑ ̴̹̫̼̻̟̰̐̊̇͂̀̉͌̕Ė̴̛̱̫͖̯̻͚̏̉̍̎ ̴̧̢̢͈̱̼͌͠H̵̭͛̀̀͑ ̵̰͈̝̭̙͎̐͑͆͝ͅU̶̻͆̊̌͋ ̶̫̙͔̫̩̇͌͋̄̂Ņ̵̮̲͖͚̰̫̿́͋̌̀̓͝ͅ ̶͕̠̫̟͇̻̇̉͐̾͜T̶̬͓͚͖͍̗͙̀̐͋̋́͝ ̸̹͒̎̋̅̆̽È̸̱͇͖̲̖̳̱̹̀̾̕ ̶̧͖̝̖̙̅͐͗̑̀͜͝͝R̴͈͓̟̱̬͙̀̊̋͘͜ ̶̨̭͌̽̀̀A̴̢͚̮̫̻͊̋̈́̋͆̊ͅ ̷̝̘͖̙̘̊R̴̟̤̩͎̹̀͊̀̆̐̏̂͘ ̴̧̨̛͓̯̒̉̅̒̀̚̚O̸̫͗̃̍̔̋̕͘͝ ̶̳̞̞̺͓̅͐̄̉̇̏̇̓U̸̠̺͓͇̫̙͊͜ ̴̳̀́̀̄̈́N̴̮̑̾͗ ̶̧̧͍̮͚͍̿D̴͕͉̰̞̏ ̷̛̳̻͓̩̪͋́͛̂̏̀Ĥ̸̢̳̞̗͓̉͋͌ ̸͙͂̑͂̀E̷̠͉̼͍̒̏͝ ̷̢̼͙̖͎̐̓̂̑̓̉̓̐Ȓ̶̭͓̲̠̗̀͂͒̍̌ ̷̲͌̂̀͊̓͜È̴̳̪̖͉̯̪̀́̎̈͜͝ ̵̪̿̉̽̉Ÿ̷͇́ ̷̧̡̮̲̰̪̬̀̋͆͠Ǫ̴͚̞͍̯̟̐͛̌͋̚ ̸̦͕̳̰̗̟͙̂͜Ư̶̙̲̙̖͗̈́̒̈́̉͠ ̷͔͔̬͊́R̴͕̜͍̼͔͚͖̈́̑̑̎̇͂͌͘ ̸̧̻̳̝̣̹̥̟̍͌̽̃̐́̅Ë̶̺̙́̂͑ ̵̣̺̙̮͆͛͊̕ͅŃ̴̢̿ ̶̨͕̖̮̈́͐̒̐Ö̸͈͇̻̖̥͚́̇̌̿̀̊ ̶̣̠͙̣͊͠T̸͉̰̖̣͆̋̂̉͛̌̾̔ ̷̨̛̭͍̟͍̤͚͎̃͌̄͝Ę̵̖͙̭͎͖̩̒̀̀̂̊̎̈́ ̸̭̃̃͊͌͌̇̿V̶̧̄̄̅̋̅͑͘͝ ̸̦̪̬͕̙͋̿͑̎͝͝E̵͎̱̖̤̹̫̽̋̑͘ ̸̲̦̺̹̟̹̗̟͒̇̅̌̇͐̂N̷̨̹̖̪̑̀ ̵̧͓̯͖̖̗̥͚̀G̷̗̫͈̪̹͋̍̈̐͗̉̕͜ ̴̠͓͔̩̝̈́͝Ò̵̘͚ ̴͈̳̈́͂̆͛͜O̷̹͈̗̿͆̔͝ ̵̨̼̀̃̽́̈́̀D̸̞̅ ̸̛͖̣̹͇͛̇E̸͈͈̦̪̾͆̒̃͌̾́͠ ̵̘̮̳̥̒̉̃͘N̸̛͎̫͕̬̝̈́̊͂̂ͅ ̵̟̺̹́̂̀̆̕ͅÓ̴͔̲̩́̅̀̈́͝ ̷̹̫͒̔̾̄̈́͒U̴̜͉̯͑ ̶̭̀̄̀́̋̋͋̑G̷̛̘̙̪̗̯̙͛̇͑̚ͅ ̸͉̠͈̒̓̈́H̵̡̡̭̤̭͍́͊̒̿̅͑͘ ̶̞̩͙̠̺͓̘̿̐̑̈́ͅT̶̲̝͖͇̃̓̈́͑̆̐͆͜ ̷̮̹̳̭̫̈̍̍Ŏ̷̧̰̰̥̝̅͆͝͝ ̸̡̢̗͓̤͙́͊͂ͅB̷̛̼̫̦̼̉ ̷̭̠̻̍͝Ḙ̸̻̳͂̄̄̽̔̓͝ ̷̢̣̫͈̗͙͋̅͗̀͒̕M̶̟̟̼̠̻͇͖͓͋̄́̏̌̚ ̵̡͓̼͚͈͕̯͎͂̒͝Y̶̻̗̖̦̐̈́̿̑́̾͋͗ ̸͓̪̮̦̰̤͕͈́̀̽̈́̔̄̍̽F̸̮͇̈ ̶̨̪̄͛̃A̶̰͊̓̏ ̶̰̣́͒́K̸̮̑̀̑͊͛͛ ̵̡̤̈̿Ȩ̶͉̏̈́́̈́̓͝

"I'll make you eat those words!"

After many years, I finally played the last part of the Metroid Prime Trilogy. I don't know why I waited so long considering that I loved the first two games. But I do regret it, because I did love this game too! Metroid has always been about enviromental storytelling and atmosphere a lot, and I love how Metroid Prime took that idea and immersed you more than most first person shooters had done at this point in history. In the third game in this series, the game feels a lot bigger because of all the different planets you go to. I find the planets to be a really good thing, because it makes it easier to find your way around the world. In the earlier games, you had to usually traverse huge distances to get to some areas. In most cases this was not a big problem, but it is nice to see a different approach. I was also a big fan of the lore from the races who used to live on the planets, and I did go out of my way to find all of the lore entries. The game felt a lot more streamlined than the other two games, but that wasn't something that I considered bad, just different. It made the pacing really smooth, and I don't think I ever got stuck, which definitely happened in the earlier games. Because this was released on Wii, motion controls were a big factor, and I think it was a resounding success. The controls feel amazing, and I also really liked the way it used the nunchuk. It felt a bit awkward to shake it in the beginning, but that was something I got used to, and it was definitely super satisfying to rip off armor from bosses with the flick of my wrist. The music was also good, although not really as memorable as the first two games. Even though this was a really good game, I do have to favor the two earlier games, mainly because of the atmosphere, music and setting. Still a damn good finale to this trilogy though!

If Metroid Prime 1 and 2 were on the line of FPS and Metroidvania. Metroid Prime 3 is just FPS. Too linear to be a Metroidvania, the story is very Halo feeling, constantly told where to go, and much more focus on combat.
I hate this game, it's Metroids worst entry.

I don't like linearity or hand holding in games in the series that defined metroidvanias, a genre about non linearity and freedom. Of all metroid games there are only 2 linear entries I've given high reviews fusion because the linearity a loss of control is what makes it terrifying. In a series where up until this point (outside of metroid 2) you've been free and unbound you're suddenly trapped, you're given no alternative paths, no sequence breaks, and all of your moves are less powerful. This makes the horror of fusion much more up there. The other one Dread is a very sadly linear game, absolutely worse than Fusion, but it has some sequence breaks and is the best controlling metroid game to date. These games are games with many upsides.

Prime 3 doesn't have this. It doesn't have an reasoning for the linearity they just wanted to copy Halo. I don't find anything Prime 3 does good, the combat is a slog and boring, and you'll be exploring a level having a grand ol time and then you get spammed with like 50 notifications that exploring isn't what you're supposed to be doing in this game.

So yes the linear, cinematic, halo clone, metroid game, to me is my least favorite entry in the series, yes I'd rather finish other M than this game (not to say that game is good).

Samus returns is the only game that comes close to beating this one in how much I hate it, but this one takes the cake because genuinely I despise FPS games especially when they have nothing going for them, the other prime games had non linearity and exploration. This game has nothing for me.

I gave this game a 1/10 because I genuinely hate it.

Actually think the combat is pretty great on replaying, refreshing in that the free-aim of Wiimote controls felt stifled when stapled onto the first two games that never required it by virtue of their original GameCube-controller-based design.

Elysia is peak, and continue to love the detailed eerie environmental design Retro kicks butt at. Centering the game around the idea of your ship being movable/upgrade able is a fun way of making this one distinct, though the heavy militaristic “federation” presence throughout really takes away from the sense of isolation and… Samus being a subversive element in a cutthroat world that I love about the other games. SPOILERS I kept waiting for the federation to be corrupt or to double cross her or something as a crux of the plot but it never got very interesting like that.

Also am not sure the push and pull of “hyper mode” works as well as they want. Feels a bit more confusing whether I’m making a good call to sacrifice the health to use it or not instead of being something where I feel like I’m making smart decisions.

Worst of the Prime trilogy imo but still a blast. Retro rocks.

This might be my new favorite Metroid game. I didn't want to get my hopes up going in, especially since I disliked Prime 2 to the point of abandoning it, but wow did this game deliver for me. Having a real narrative with characters besides Samus is something that's really cool to see and sets this apart from other Metroid games a lot. Some people might not prefer for Metroid games to be linear, but I don't really mind at all. In fact, I can get pretty annoyed if I spend too long wandering around not knowing where to go, so I actually appreciated how frequent this game was with hints. Even if it is linear, the exploration is still really fun and evokes that Metroid feel all the same. I honestly thoroughly enjoyed this game from start to finish. I also wasn't even planning to 100% it at first, but later in the game you unlock the ability to see where all the collectibles are on the map, which made it pretty easy to backtrack and find everything. I'm blown away. Absolutely amazing game, and a wonderful end to the trilogy. If you haven't played the Metroid Prime games yet, I can now gladly recommend them, especially with Prime 4 on the way any day now.

Sadly, Metroid Prime 3 is a little bit of a disappointment. Because Metroid Prime 2 was so good, I had high hopes. Sadly because this is a Wii game, a lot of the game was designed for the Wii's audience, the casuals. Everything pretty simple and easy and doesn't leave much of an impact.

The game is still great however with a lot of cool aspects. The control method is odd at first but very immersive when you get the hang of it. Environments are visually interesting. The boss fight range from meh to that's impressive.

I sound like i'm shitting on the game but i'm really not. It's a very solid title. It's just a shame it doesn't reach the heights of Metroid Prime 2.