This is a difficult one to rate. Metroid Prime 3 is a game that I have very fond memories of, as this was my first foray into Metroid as a child. I fondly remember how awestruck I was by the opening hours of the game, filled with big action setpieces and flashy boss fights. Now, as an adult, I play through the first hours of the game and see a Metroid game that opens in distinctly "un-Metroid" fashion. The rest of the game admittedly puts the action on the backburner and leads you back to a focus on exploration, but ultimately Prime 3 has a penchant for a lot more action than Metroid is typically known for.
Prime 3 is a split game. On one hand, this is the most hand-holding in any Metroid game and definitely the least challenging and most linear entry in the series, and it's not that close. For that reason, it tends to come up short as a Metroid game. The emphasis on "shoot this bad guy to progress through the room" and a more action-shooter approach to combat is a tad disappointing, but I can't lie when I say that shredding helpless enemies away in Hypermode is really, really fun. Despite the lack of difficulty that Hypermode brings to combat situations, most of the bosses and other encounters are super fun and kept me on my toes enough to say that this game isn't a total cakewalk.
When it comes to the locales, I think that having three separate main areas really hurts the cohesion of the world and can hurt the flow of exploration, considering every time you want to go somewhere else you have to sit through multiple loading screens in your ship. At the same time though, the variance that they present is welcome, and the grand scope of a space adventure across several different planets is fitting for a game as lofty as this one is with its scale. Each area is distinct and beautiful, especially for a Wii game. This is probably the best looking game on the console.
I found that there was a lack of puzzles to unlock things like energy tanks or missile expansions for most of the game, but in the endgame in which you are required to find energy cells (nowhere near as annoying as the artifact or key hunts in 1 and 2), there are plenty of thought provoking and fun puzzles, but is a bit too little, too late, as the game is practically over by that point. Still, I had some fun nosing around in some of the puzzles for the last couple energy tanks.
The story is a fitting end for the Prime trilogy (quadrilogy? eventually) but the final confrontation with Dark Samus and the final boss are a bit underwhelming. Still, this game has a story of a scale that Metroid has been unable to replicate since, and I applaud it for having to gumption to try something as sweeping and epic as this.
So, is this a good game? Yes, without a doubt. This is an excellent game that marked a big step for the Metroid series and a big part of my own experience as a young gamer that formed my taste and who I am now. Is it a good Metroid game? Well, kinda? I mean, it's not like we're playing Halo here. We haven't gone all the way to action-shooter, but it is undeniable that this Prime 3 places a lot more emphasis on shooting stuff and blasting bad guys. Which isn't a bad thing. It's just not the most Metroid-esque that it could be.
And you know what the crazy part is? Despite some of the failings this game has as a Metroid game, it still manages to fuse the two genres that it represents into a weird, messed-up-yet-awesome exploration-action-shooter-metroidvania abomination. And it's really, really fun.
Prime 3 is a split game. On one hand, this is the most hand-holding in any Metroid game and definitely the least challenging and most linear entry in the series, and it's not that close. For that reason, it tends to come up short as a Metroid game. The emphasis on "shoot this bad guy to progress through the room" and a more action-shooter approach to combat is a tad disappointing, but I can't lie when I say that shredding helpless enemies away in Hypermode is really, really fun. Despite the lack of difficulty that Hypermode brings to combat situations, most of the bosses and other encounters are super fun and kept me on my toes enough to say that this game isn't a total cakewalk.
When it comes to the locales, I think that having three separate main areas really hurts the cohesion of the world and can hurt the flow of exploration, considering every time you want to go somewhere else you have to sit through multiple loading screens in your ship. At the same time though, the variance that they present is welcome, and the grand scope of a space adventure across several different planets is fitting for a game as lofty as this one is with its scale. Each area is distinct and beautiful, especially for a Wii game. This is probably the best looking game on the console.
I found that there was a lack of puzzles to unlock things like energy tanks or missile expansions for most of the game, but in the endgame in which you are required to find energy cells (nowhere near as annoying as the artifact or key hunts in 1 and 2), there are plenty of thought provoking and fun puzzles, but is a bit too little, too late, as the game is practically over by that point. Still, I had some fun nosing around in some of the puzzles for the last couple energy tanks.
The story is a fitting end for the Prime trilogy (quadrilogy? eventually) but the final confrontation with Dark Samus and the final boss are a bit underwhelming. Still, this game has a story of a scale that Metroid has been unable to replicate since, and I applaud it for having to gumption to try something as sweeping and epic as this.
So, is this a good game? Yes, without a doubt. This is an excellent game that marked a big step for the Metroid series and a big part of my own experience as a young gamer that formed my taste and who I am now. Is it a good Metroid game? Well, kinda? I mean, it's not like we're playing Halo here. We haven't gone all the way to action-shooter, but it is undeniable that this Prime 3 places a lot more emphasis on shooting stuff and blasting bad guys. Which isn't a bad thing. It's just not the most Metroid-esque that it could be.
And you know what the crazy part is? Despite some of the failings this game has as a Metroid game, it still manages to fuse the two genres that it represents into a weird, messed-up-yet-awesome exploration-action-shooter-metroidvania abomination. And it's really, really fun.