I never played a Metroid game other than the Metroidvanias but this was a solid introduction to the nitty gritty of this franchise. From the incredible exploration layered with interestingly weaved world-building, all packed by imperfect but still easy to grasp shooting and combat.

However, while I had a great time with the start of Metroid Prime (and overall I still do), the problems start to pile up later on. My biggest gripes with the game would come down to some of the level design and pacing.

I think the Phazon Mines captured my issues the most as this was when the exploration and combat of Prime started to wear out its welcome for me. Venturing into an almost awfully unfun territory with tired, repeated enemies, uneasy platforming due to the very closed in Gamecube FOV, and bosses that while on paper are very interesting obstacles just end up as glorified puzzles to shoot at carefully.

Also doing one giant lap all around the unfolded map and backtracking to sections to collect all the artifacts was unnecessarily tedious to do after just reassembling your weaponry and armor. Especially when some of these artifacts can only be founded through very cryptic riddles and weirdly specific ways to reveal where they are. If you've been artifact hunting through the Phendrana Drifts you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Really won't bother touching Prime 2 or 3 because of that.