Wii Used Games

After a five-year hiatus, Bounty Hunter Samus Aran is back in this third and final installment of the Metroid Prime Series. If you are already a hard-core MP fan, then you are going to love this continuation that combines the intensity of a first person shooter with the mental stimulation of complex puzzle solving. If you are new to the whole Metroid Prime thing, you will still enjoy this game that has rich, detailed environments to explore and exciting bosses to face.

The story, if you want to call it that, is straight forward enough. Samus and her bounty hunter compatriots are on a mission to repair an organic computer that has been corrupted (hence the title) by a virus. This mission takes them through a plethora of richly detailed alien worlds full of creatures just looking to be blown away by a plasma cannon. The worlds themselves are complex environmental puzzles in which you will need both wits and continual use of your scanning visor to solve. Those of you who have played the other Metroid Prime games will find the plot a bit familiar, but will still enjoy the various little tweaks added to the game play.

The biggest change in the series is how the controls work. MP3’s maker, Retro, has managed to integrate the Wii’s unique control setup into the game in a way that makes for intuitive maneuvering capabilities that far surpass the methodical Game Cube version. You aim and turn with the remote as you move and strafe with the nunchuck. The motion sense capabilities are fully realized with the inclusion of a grappling hook. Flick the remote and use the grappling hook to grab a nearby object. Then, pull the nunchuck back to rip the object away. Switching it to advanced mode causes your POV to turn as you hit the edge of the screen, making for a much more fluid game experience. Also, if you do not feel like free aiming, the Z button locks onto a target for you.

Metroid Prime’s innovative control scheme makes it one of the best shooters yet to come out on the Wii system. This accolade, however, also takes something away from a series that has gained more renown for its complex environmental puzzles than its first person shooter play. While the worlds are rich and complex, with plenty of stuff to scan and figure out, this game can end up feeling more like a shooter than a puzzle. Still, this same control scheme also makes blowing away the baddies a great time.

Metro Prime’s weaponry is pretty straightforward. You start out with a plasma cannon and then get some homing missiles to complement them. These are then upgraded to more powerful cannon and missiles as you move through the game. Besides the standard cannon and missile arsenal, Samus also comes equipped with a Phazon Enhancement Device (PED) which allows you to enter hypermode by pressing the plus button on the remote. In hypermode you are capable of doing mucho damage to stuff, but you have a limited supply of phazon, so you need to be smart in using the PED. Also, you need to be wary of overloading on the Phazon, which will force you to release it all to keep from blowing up.