Oh boy, this one
Look, if I were to be "objective," I would not be rating this game this high. As the first 3D game in the series, it of course has its fair share of issues, just like Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time do. Backtracking is tedious because traversal is much slower in this game. Phazon Mines is a huge difficulty spike and super stingy with save stations for some reason. The Chozo artifact hunt, while not a bad idea, overstays its welcome and a couple of them are obnoxious to find.
Here's the thing though, I don't care.
This game is so fun that these issues barely even bother me if I'm being honest. It's clear that Super Metroid had the biggest influence when making this because Prime's structure is quite literally Super Metroid in 3D. Each area is fun to explore, and combat keeps you on your toes. Upgrades are more satisfying to get here than in any other Metroid game I've played. Switching between different beams and visors sounds like a terrible idea but it really works, it makes fighting so much fun.
Just like Super, this game is great at telling its plot entirely through gameplay as there's no cutscenes outside of boss encounters and you discover what went down on Tallon IV as Samus does. While you can scan a lot of things for your logbook to get all the lore, you don't need that to understand what's going on, it's there if you wanna dive into it and I appreciate that.
And I don't think I even need to say anything about the soundtrack, wow...
The atmosphere in this game throughout the whole thing is so immersive, I love it.
So, while Prime isn't a perfect game, far from it, its good elements significantly outweigh the bad in my opinion.
Look, if I were to be "objective," I would not be rating this game this high. As the first 3D game in the series, it of course has its fair share of issues, just like Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time do. Backtracking is tedious because traversal is much slower in this game. Phazon Mines is a huge difficulty spike and super stingy with save stations for some reason. The Chozo artifact hunt, while not a bad idea, overstays its welcome and a couple of them are obnoxious to find.
Here's the thing though, I don't care.
This game is so fun that these issues barely even bother me if I'm being honest. It's clear that Super Metroid had the biggest influence when making this because Prime's structure is quite literally Super Metroid in 3D. Each area is fun to explore, and combat keeps you on your toes. Upgrades are more satisfying to get here than in any other Metroid game I've played. Switching between different beams and visors sounds like a terrible idea but it really works, it makes fighting so much fun.
Just like Super, this game is great at telling its plot entirely through gameplay as there's no cutscenes outside of boss encounters and you discover what went down on Tallon IV as Samus does. While you can scan a lot of things for your logbook to get all the lore, you don't need that to understand what's going on, it's there if you wanna dive into it and I appreciate that.
And I don't think I even need to say anything about the soundtrack, wow...
The atmosphere in this game throughout the whole thing is so immersive, I love it.
So, while Prime isn't a perfect game, far from it, its good elements significantly outweigh the bad in my opinion.