GoNintendo "End of day" thoughts - Metroid Prime 3: Corruption impressions

I don’t know that I am ready for things to go back to “normal”. It’s hard to get your head out of the E3 rush! Last week brought a ton of news, who knows what this week will bring. I’ll be doing more impressions as the week continues. Once I get my laptop back we will have some other goodies for you too. I hope everyone has a great Monday morning…and I’ll catch you in a few hours!

E3 was an absolutely insane couple of days. There was a pretty big divide when it came to opinions on the show. One group said that the new show worked very well, and the other said it was a nightmare. The bigger outlets were the ones without any issues. If you had a big staff, you could delegate members of your team to each hotel or event location for the day. If you were short staffed, you had to run from building to building all day long. While standing in line for the Activision press conference, I overheard a group of guys from various outlets talking about the show. They all said that back in the days of the “traditional” E3, you could fit 20 appointments into a day. The new E3 allowed for about 5 at most, and that’s if schedules worked out. Unfortunately, the outlets with less staff were forced to choose what they would attend. In our case, we only had two people attending…myself and Lube. To make things worse, Lube wasn’t invited to all the things that I was. It made piecing together a schedule nigh impossible. The one shining gem of the show wouldn’t happen until the last hour of the last day. I was set up for an hour of play time with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. I had been looking forward to the event leading up to E3. I’m very happy to say that while I didn’t get to experience many games at the show, Metroid more than made up for that.

It was extremely nice to sit down with Metroid and get some real hands-on time. The last time I had a chance to play was back at Nintendo’s Wii price point announcement. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was entirely different back then. We were still living in the days of Metroid possibly making it to store shelves soon after the Wii launched. Here we are about 7 months later, and now we finally have a release date that is creeping up on us. The very first thing I focused on was the visual presentation. We had heard that MP3:C had gotten a very considerable bump in graphics since last shown. Some early leaked magazine scans gave us a fair glimpse at this change. Still though, seeing a game in person, and in motion is a completely different thing.

MP3:C does indeed stand up to various outlet claims. We’ve heard from a few publications that the graphics stand up to what gamers saw in Halo 2, and in some cases it even outshined that game. It took all of 5 minutes for me to be impressed with what I saw. Everything from character models to locations looked fantastic. Whereas the earlier demo of MP3:C looked like a Cube game, this latest build sports many additions and changes that are easy to notice. I was particularly impressed with the attention to detail with character skins. Faces looked fantastic, no matter if they were aliens or human. It’s hard to compare graphics to Halo 2 since these games have very different art directions. Having said that, I would have to give the nod to Metroid. The design of the game appeals more to me than that of the Halo universe. On top of that, environments are much larger and more detailed. Texture work has gotten a lift from the Cube version, and the level spaces are indeed a lot bigger. This is the type of visual work we want to see on the Wii. It shows us what the Wii is capable of over the Cube. There’s a lot to be said for a Wii game that can impress visually when we are living in the days of the 360/PS3.

Obviously, the most important part of the playtest was getting some time with the controls. After reading so much on the game, and having had a handful of months to see how first person games on the Wii have worked so far, I had a pretty good idea of how Metroid would handle. I was eager to see the changes made since the last time I played. While 7 months ago the controls showed potential, now they work like a dream. I was up and running through corridors no problem. Each demo session had a Nintendo rep working with you along the way. That rep was running a station all day long. After about 10 minutes of my session, my rep said that I had picked up the controls very easily. He had been dealing with some older members of the media earlier, and they just weren’t “cut out” for Metroid. I had no trouble at all getting right into the game.

Everything worked just as I expected it to. First off, you can pick your button layout for jumping and shooting. It’s up to you if you want to fire with the B trigger or jump with it, and the same goes for the A button. I opted for B trigger as fire. The minus button is used to switch between visors. You hold minus, and a line comes up that divides your visor. You put your cursor into one of the visor sections and then let go of minus. That’s how you select between the different visors you have. The down direction on the D-Pad was used for firing missiles. No switching guns, just press down and a missile is fired. Moving over to the Nunchuck, the Z button was used for locking on, while the C button is for moving into the morph ball.

While Samus movement is controlled by the joystick, you turn left and right, as well as look up and down by pointing with the Wiimote. The invisible bounding box felt nice and tight. I never felt like I was trying to turn only to find Samus not doing anything. Turning and looking was precise, smooth, and quick to respond. Controlling Samus like this really makes you feel as if you have a lot more control over the game. I can see how this control setup really opens up the game to a lot of interesting enemy situations. It just felt that much more interesting actually pointing and firing at enemies. Included with that is the ability to lock onto enemies. Now you can hold the Z trigger to lock on, but while locked on you also have free aim. This way you can lock onto one enemy and strafe around them. If you are doing this and another enemy is coming at you from the side, you can stay locked onto the other enemy and use your free aim to take out the enemy on the side. I’ve always hated being locked onto an enemy while three others come out of nowhere to attack. This lock on/free aim feature eliminates any of these issues. The only real complaint I have is the lack of a quick turn. I’d love to be able to hit Z and down to do a quick turn, or some other button combination just so I can make a quick jump to look behind me. When I asked if that feature would be in the final game, I was met with a “no comment” response.

There was something else that really stood out while during my play session. I don’t know if it was the nature of the intro level, but MP3:C seemed a lot more action-packed than its predecessors. From a few minutes into the first level all the way to the first parts of the second planet, there were space pirates all over the place. I’m not talking about one or two annoying you from time to time, I am talking about hallways filled with up to 6 pirates all gunning for you. As I mentioned earlier, the new controls scheme really opens things up for much more intense battles. At one point in the game you are taking on a couple airships that are dropping in pirates from both sides. Not only do you have to take the pirates out, but you have to blow up the ships as well. You’ll be doing all this while running around a platform suspended high above a cliff. If you are wondering, you can fall off! The new action is fantastic, and really gives this Metroid a pretty intense feeling. On the other hand, I am hoping that there is just as much adventure/puzzling as there was in the previous games. I don’t doubt that that’s the case. I was so early in the game that I really didn’t get the chance to explore anything but the initial base.

From what I played, MP3:C feels much more epic than the previous installments. There are just so many upgrades to the gameplay from before, as well as all new mechanics. On top of that, there are little touches that add to the game as well. The voice acting (from what I could hear) was top notch. The game had a much more cinematic feel, and there was a lot more in the way of cut scene presentation. Little things like opening locks via the Wiimote, and using the Grapple Beam with the Nunchuck draw you into the experience moreso then ever. The entire package just had a different feel…a more complete feel. I couldn’t help but think that Corruption is reaching the goals that Metroid Prime 1 and 2 set out to accomplish. My demo time has done nothing more then make my wait for the final game that much harder. Samus fans rest easy. If what I played is any indication of the pace and fun of the rest of the game, we are all in for quite a treat.