Metroid Prime
Encyclopedia
Metroid Prime is a video game developed by Retro Studios
and Nintendo
for the Nintendo GameCube
, released in North America on November 17, 2002. It is the first 3D
game in the Metroid series
, the fifth main installment, and is classified by Nintendo as a first-person adventure
rather than a first-person shooter
, due to the large exploration component of the game and its precedence over combat. Metroid Prime, along with the Game Boy Advance
game Metroid Fusion
, that was released alongside it on the same day in North America, marked the return of the Metroid series after eight years – the last game in the franchise had been 1994's Super Metroid
.
Metroid Prime is the first of the three part Prime storyline, which takes place between the original Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus
. Like previous games in the series, Metroid Prime has a science fiction
setting, in which players control the bounty hunter
Samus Aran
. The story follows Samus as she battles the Space Pirates and their biological experiments on the planet Tallon IV.
The game was a collaborative effort between Retro's staff in Austin, Texas
and Japanese Nintendo employees, including producer Shigeru Miyamoto
, who was the one who suggested the project after visiting Retro's headquarters in 2000. Despite initial backlash from fans due to the first-person perspective
, the game was released to both universal acclaim and commercial success, selling more than a million units in North America alone. It not only won a number of Game of the Year awards, but it is also considered by many critics and gamers to be one of the greatest video games ever made and remains one of the highest-rated games on Metacritic
. In 2009, an enhanced version was released for Wii
as a standalone game in Japan and as part of Metroid Prime: Trilogy
internationally.
As in previous Metroid games, Prime takes place in a large, open-ended world with different regions connected by elevators. Each region has a set of rooms separated by doors that can be opened with a shot from the correct beam. The gameplay revolves around solving puzzle
s to reveal secrets, platform jumping
, and shooting foes with the help of a "lock-on" mechanism that allows circle strafing while staying aimed on the enemy. The game is the first in the Metroid series to use a first-person view as opposed to side scrolling, except in Morph Ball mode, when Samus's suit transforms into an armored ball and the game uses a third-person camera
.
The protagonist, Samus, must travel through the world of Tallon IV, searching for twelve Chozo Artifacts that will open the path to the Phazon meteor impact crater
, while collecting power-up
s that enable the player to reach previously inaccessible areas; the Varia Suit, for example, protects Samus' armor against dangerously high temperatures, allowing her to enter volcanic regions. Some of the items are obtained after boss
and mini-boss fights, encountered in all regions except Magmoor Caverns. The most important feature about the power-up system in Prime is the necessity to collect items in a specific order, so that the player may progress. For example, players cannot access certain areas until they find a certain Beam to open doors, or discover new ordnance to beat bosses with.
The heads-up display
simulates the inside of Samus's helmet, featuring a radar
, a map, ammunition for missiles, a health meter, a danger meter for hazardous landscape or materials, and a health bar for bosses
along with the boss name. The display can be altered by exchanging visors, including one using thermal imaging
, another with x-ray
vision, and a scanner that searches for enemy weaknesses, and interfaces with certain mechanisms such as force fields and elevators, allowing the player to operate them. Prime also introduces a hint system that provides the player with a general idea of where to go next.
Throughout the game, players must find and collect items that improve Samus's arsenal and suit, including weapons, armor upgrades for Samus's Power Suit and items that grant abilities. Among these are the Morph Ball, which allows Samus to roll into narrow passages and drop energy bombs, and the Grapple Beam, which works similarly to a grappling hook
by latching onto special hooks, called grapple points, and allowing Samus to swing from them across gaps. As a difference from the original games, the "Beam weapons" Samus collects no longer have the "stacking" ability, where the traits of each beam merge with each other. Instead the player has to cycle among the four, and there are "Charge combos" for each, with radically different effects.
Items from previous Metroid games appear, with altered functions. Art galleries and different endings
are unlockable if a player obtains a high percentage of collected items and Scan Visor logs. Prime is one of the first Metroid games to address the reason Samus does not start with power-ups attained in previous games; she begins the game with certain upgrades, but during an explosion on the Space Pirate Frigate
Orpheon, they are all lost. The producers stated that starting with some power-ups was a way to give the player "different things to do" before settling into the core gameplay.
Players of the game can gain two features by connecting Prime with Metroid Fusion using a Nintendo GameCube Game Boy Advance Cable: use of the Fusion Suit that Samus wears in Fusion and the ability to play the original Metroid.
s appear before important battles, and the Scan Visor can be used to read records from the Chozo and the Space Pirates. The Prime trilogy is set between Metroid and Metroid II, but sources such as Gradiente
, Brazil's former distributor of Nintendo, and the Nintendo Power
comics adaptation
of Metroid Prime, set the games as occurring after Super Metroid. The Brazilian publicity even states that the Phazon meteor is a piece of Zebes, destroyed after Super Metroid. However, in Prime 3 it was confirmed that the meteor was a Leviathan from the planet Phaaze.
The game begins as Samus receives a distress signal from the Space Pirate Frigate Orpheon, whose crew has been slaughtered by the Pirates' own genetically modified experimental subjects. Upon arriving at the ship's core, she battles with the Parasite Queen, a giant version of the tiny enemies occasionally seen in the ship. Having been defeated, the Parasite Queen falls into the ship's reactor core, setting off the destruction of the ship. While Samus is escaping from the doomed frigate, an electrical surge destroys all of her Power Suit upgrades, and she encounters Ridley
, now a cybernetic version of himself called Meta Ridley. She watches as her nemesis flies towards Tallon IV before giving chase in her gunship
.
Samus initially lands on the Tallon Overworld, a rainforest-like area. She discovers the Chozo Ruins, the remains of the Chozo civilization on Tallon IV that was destroyed with the crash of a meteor, which contained a corrupting substance called Phazon and a creature known to the Chozo as "The Worm". Samus locates a Chozo temple in Tallon Overworld, and discovers that the temple houses a seal to the meteor's impact crater, which the Space Pirates are trying to break. The containment field is powered by twelve Chozo artifacts, which must be found to open the path to the crater.
Samus finds her way to the Magmoor Caverns, a series of magma
filled underground tunnels. The Caverns are used by the Space Pirates as a source of geothermal power
, and connect all of the game's other areas together. Following the tunnels, Samus journeys to the Phendrana Drifts, a cold, mountainous location home to an ancient Chozo ruin, Space Pirate research labs used to contain Metroids, and ice caves and valleys home to electrical and ice-based creatures. After obtaining the Gravity Suit in Phendrana, Samus explores the interior of the crashed Orpheon, and then infiltrates the Phazon Mines, the mining and research complex which is the center of the Space Pirates' Tallon IV operations. Here she battles Phazon-enhanced Space Pirates and obtains the Phazon Suit after she defeats the monstrous Phazon-mutated Omega Pirate.
During her exploration of Tallon IV, Samus finds the twelve keys to the Artifact Temple, and lores recorded by both the Chozo and the Space Pirates, providing some more insight about the history of the planet and the two races' colonization of it and other activities. As she puts the last of the keys in place, Meta Ridley appears and attacks her, but is defeated by Samus with some aid from the temple's defensive artillery. The Chozo Artifacts and Phazon Suit allow Samus to enter the Impact Crater, where she finds a Phazon-mutated beast called Metroid Prime, the source of the Phazon on Tallon IV. After she defeats it, all the Phazon on Tallon IV disappears and Metroid Prime sucks out the Phazon in Samus's Phazon suit in a last ditch effort to survive, reverting Samus's armor to the Gravity Suit. Samus then escapes the collapsing Impact Crater and leaves Tallon IV in her ship. In a post-credits scene
only able to be seen if the player has collected 100 percent of the items, Metroid Prime uses the Phazon Suit to recreate its body, becoming the entity known as Dark Samus, the antagonist of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
.
After Super Metroid, Metroid fans eagerly awaited a sequel. It was supposedly slated for the Nintendo 64
or its ill-fated accessory, the 64DD
, but while the game was mentioned, it never entered production. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto
explained that it was because Nintendo "couldn't come out with any concrete ideas". Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto
declared that he considered creating a new installment for the Nintendo 64, but was uninterested in being part of its development, particularly because of the console's controller – "I just couldn’t imagine how it could be used to move Samus around". Sakamoto also said Nintendo approached another company to make an N64 Metroid, but the offer was declined as the developer felt they could not make a game that could be up to Super Metroids standards.
Metroid Prime was developed as a collaboration between Retro Studios and important Nintendo EAD
and R&D1
members. Retro Studios was created in 1998, by an alliance between Nintendo and former Iguana Entertainment
founder Jeff Spangenberg
. After establishing its offices in Austin, Texas
in 1999, Retro started working on four different GameCube projects. When producer Shigeru Miyamoto visited Retro in 2000, he did not like the games being produced, but suggested the development of a new Metroid game, considering the studio could deal well with the license after seeing the prototype of a first-person shooter engine
they created. In 2000 and early 2001, three games were cancelled at Retro, and in July 2001, an RPG called Raven Blade was terminated so that Prime would be the only game in development. During the last nine months of development Retro's staff worked 80 to 100-hour weeks to reach the deadline imposed by Nintendo.
The Japanese crew, which included producers Miyamoto, Kensuke Tanabe and Kenji Miki, as well as game designer and Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto, communicated with the Texas-based studio through emails, monthly phone conferences and personal gatherings. The game was originally envisioned as having third-person perspective gameplay, but this was changed to a first-person perspective after Miyamoto intervened, causing almost everything already developed to be scrapped. Among the reasons for leaving the third-person perspective were Rare's trouble with the camera in Jet Force Gemini
, shooting in third-person "not being very intuitive" and exploration being easier using first-person. Miyamoto has also professed a fondness for games to be in the first person perspective in an interview with Satoru Iwata
. He then said he even wanted The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
to take place in the first person perspective. Lead designer Mark Pacini said Retro tried to make the game so that the only difficult parts would be boss battles, so players would not be "afraid to explore", because "the challenge of the game was finding your way around". Senior designer Mike Wikan also declared that the focus on exploration led to development team spent much time making the platform jumping "approachable to the player", and that the resulting gameplay had "shooting [as] a very important, though secondary, consideration". Retro Studios developed the storyline of Metroid Prime under the supervision of Yoshio Sakamoto who verified the plot ideas to be consistent with the lore of the series' earlier entries. Kraid, a boss from Metroid and Super Metroid, was intended to make an appearance in Prime, and designer Gene Kohler modeled and skinned him for that purpose. However, time constraints prevented him from being included in the final version of the game. The development team also considered implementing the Speed Booster power-up from Super Metroid, but discarded as they considered it would not work well due to the first-person perspective and the "limitations imposed by the scale of our environment".
The first public appearance of the game was a ten second video at SpaceWorld
2000. In November of the same year, Retro Studios confirmed its involvement with the game in the "job application" part of its website. In February 2001, the game was confirmed by Nintendo, who also announced that despite the first-person perspective, it would be more of a first-person adventure than a first-person shooter
due to focus on exploration. On May, the game was showcased at E3 2001, with its name confirmed as Metroid Prime. The first news of the game had mixed reactions from fans, due to the change from 2D side scrolling to 3D first-person.
es of tracks from previous games in the series, because Yamamoto wanted "to satisfy old Metroid fans. It’s like a present for them". The initial Tallon Overworld theme is a remix of Metroid' s Brinstar theme, the music in Magmoor Caverns is a remix of Super Metroid' s Lower Norfair area, and the music during the fight with Meta Ridley is a remix of the Ridley boss music first featured in Super Metroid, which has been remixed and featured in most Metroid games since. Tommy Tallarico Studios
initially provided sound effects for the game, though Shigeru Miyamoto thought they were not good enough yet for an extended presentation at SpaceWorld 2001. The game supports Dolby Pro Logic II
setups, which allows it to be played in surround sound
. There was an official soundtrack released for the game called Metroid Prime and Fusion Original Soundtracks which was supervised by Yamamoto himself.
. The European translation had logs removed or changed, resulting in a different storyline and log book. For instance, a narrator was added in the opening and closing scenes. Some of the changes were in the NTSC region's Player's Choice
re-release, along with more changes not in other releases. Shortly before the release of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
in 2004, Nintendo released a GameCube bundle with a copy of Prime containing a special second disc, featuring both a preview trailer and a demo
for Echoes, a timeline of Metroid games and an art gallery.
Metroid Prime was re-released in Japan in 2009 for Wii
as part of the New Play Control!
series. It has revamped controls that use the Wii Remote
's pointing functionality, similar to those of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
. The credit system from Corruption is also included to unlock the original bonus content, as well as the ability to take snapshots of gameplay. Internationally, the Wii version was released in Metroid Prime: Trilogy
, a single-disk compilation featuring Prime, Echoes, and Corruption.
, and hit 250,000 units in just one week. The game has since sold more than 1.49 million copies in America alone, earning more than $50 million in revenue. It is also the eighth best-selling GameCube game in Australia, sold more than 78,000 copies in Japan, and entered the Player's Choice
line in the PAL region.
Prime was also critically acclaimed, including a perfect review score from Electronic Gaming Monthly
, and numerous Game of the Year
awards. It was praised for its detailed graphics, with special effects and varied environments, moody soundtrack and sound effects, level design
, immersive atmosphere, and innovative gameplay centered on exploring as opposed to the action of games such as Halo
while staying faithful to the Metroid formula. Criticisms included the unusual control scheme, which Game Informer
considered awkward; lack of focus on the story, making Entertainment Weekly
compare the game to a "1990s arcade game
, filled with over the top battle sequences, spectacular visual effects – and a pretty weak plot"; and backtracking, stated by GamePro
that inexperienced players "might find it exhausting to keep revisiting the same old places over and over and over".
On GameRankings, Prime is the 7th highest rated game ever reviewed, with an average score of 96.30% (as of August 2010), making it the 2nd highest reviewed game of the sixth generation
, just below Soul Calibur
for the Sega
Dreamcast. The video game countdown show Filter
named Prime as having the Best Graphics of all time.
Prime was also chosen for lists of best games: 24th in IGN's Top 100, 29th in a 100 game list chosen by GameFAQs
users, and 10th in Nintendo Power
s "Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever". GameSpy chose it as the third best GameCube title of all time, behind The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
and Resident Evil 4
, while IGN put it at first in a similar list. Nintendo Power also ranked it as the sixth best game of the 2000s. Wired
included the game in its list of "The 15 Most Influential Games of the Decade" at #10, for popularizing "exploration, puzzle-solving, platforming and story" among first-person shooter
s, concluding that "breaking the genre free from the clutches of Doom, this GameCube title took one massive stride forward for first-person games." Metroid Prime also became popular among players for speedrun
ning, with specialized communities being formed to share these speedruns.
. The first was the sequel Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
, released in November 2004 for the GameCube, in which Samus travels to planet Aether and discovers that a Phazon meteor crashed on the planet creating an alternate reality
, while fighting a mysterious enemy called Dark Samus. It was followed by Metroid Prime Pinball, a spin-off game developed by Fuse Games
and released in 2005 for the Nintendo DS. Prime Pinball is a virtual pinball game that features the locations and bosses of Prime.
The next game released was Metroid Prime Hunters
for the Nintendo DS
, with a storyline that takes place between the events of Prime and Echoes. A demo of the game, titled Metroid Prime Hunters — First Hunt, was released with purchase of a Nintendo DS, and the full game was released on March 20, 2006 in North America
, and May 5, 2006 in Europe
. The storyline follows Samus trying to discover an "ultimate power", while facing six rival bounty hunters. Hunters was not developed by Retro Studios, but by Nintendo's Redmond-based subsidiary Nintendo Software Technology
. The game is more centered on first-person shooter aspects than Prime and Echoes, with removal of assisted aiming, more action-oriented gameplay, and various multiplayer modes.
Primes second full sequel is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
, which closes the Prime series. It was released on August 27, 2007 for Nintendo's Wii
. In Corruptions story, Samus is corrupted by Phazon after being attacked by Dark Samus, who has become the leader of a Space Pirate group and is sending Phazon Seeds (called "Leviathans") to corrupt planets. Corruption makes changes in gameplay from Prime and Echoes, such as trading the assisted aiming for free aiming with the Wii Remote
, and changing the interchangeable beams for a stackable upgrade system.
Elements of Metroid Prime have appeared in other games, such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl
, where the Frigate Orpheon is a playable stage, featuring the Parasite Queen in the background and several tracks from the game for background music. Metroid Primes style of gameplay and HUDs also led to influence and comparison in later first-person shooters, such as Geist
and Star Wars: Republic Commando
.
Retro Studios
Retro Studios is an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The company was founded in October 1998 by the video game veteran Jeff Spangenberg after leaving Acclaim Entertainment, as an independent studio making games exclusively for Nintendo Company, Ltd.On May 2, 2002, Nintendo...
and Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
for the Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
, released in North America on November 17, 2002. It is the first 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
game in the Metroid series
Metroid
is an action-adventure video game, and the first entry in the Metroid series. It was co-developed by Nintendo's Research and Development 1 division and Intelligent Systems, and was released in Japan in August 1986, in North America in August 1987, and in Europe in January 1988...
, the fifth main installment, and is classified by Nintendo as a first-person adventure
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
rather than a first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
, due to the large exploration component of the game and its precedence over combat. Metroid Prime, along with the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
game Metroid Fusion
Metroid Fusion
, also known as Metroid 4, is an action-adventure video game published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It was released in North America, Europe, and Australia in November 2002, and in Japan in February 2003. The game is the fourth main installment in the Metroid series...
, that was released alongside it on the same day in North America, marked the return of the Metroid series after eight years – the last game in the franchise had been 1994's Super Metroid
Super Metroid
, also known as Metroid 3, is an action-adventure video game and the third game in the Metroid series. It was designed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, programmed by Intelligent Systems, and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console...
.
Metroid Prime is the first of the three part Prime storyline, which takes place between the original Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus
Metroid II: Return of Samus
is an action-adventure video game, the second game in the Metroid series, and the only one developed for the Nintendo Game Boy. The sixth installment in the overall series story, the game was developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1 , and published by Nintendo in North America in November...
. Like previous games in the series, Metroid Prime has a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
setting, in which players control the bounty hunter
Bounty hunter
A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...
Samus Aran
Samus Aran
is the protagonist of the Metroid video game series. Introduced in the 1986 video game Metroid, Samus is a female ex-army soldier bounty hunter usually fitted with a powered armor suit with weapons that include beams and missiles...
. The story follows Samus as she battles the Space Pirates and their biological experiments on the planet Tallon IV.
The game was a collaborative effort between Retro's staff in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
and Japanese Nintendo employees, including producer Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
, who was the one who suggested the project after visiting Retro's headquarters in 2000. Despite initial backlash from fans due to the first-person perspective
First person (video games)
In video games, first person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player character. In many cases, this may be the viewpoint from the cockpit of a vehicle. Many different genres have made use of first-person perspectives, ranging from adventure games to flight...
, the game was released to both universal acclaim and commercial success, selling more than a million units in North America alone. It not only won a number of Game of the Year awards, but it is also considered by many critics and gamers to be one of the greatest video games ever made and remains one of the highest-rated games on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. In 2009, an enhanced version was released for Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
as a standalone game in Japan and as part of Metroid Prime: Trilogy
Metroid Prime: Trilogy
Metroid Prime: Trilogy is an action-adventure video game compilation developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. The compilation features three games from the Metroid series: Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption...
internationally.
Gameplay
Puzzle
A puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution...
s to reveal secrets, platform jumping
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
, and shooting foes with the help of a "lock-on" mechanism that allows circle strafing while staying aimed on the enemy. The game is the first in the Metroid series to use a first-person view as opposed to side scrolling, except in Morph Ball mode, when Samus's suit transforms into an armored ball and the game uses a third-person camera
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
.
The protagonist, Samus, must travel through the world of Tallon IV, searching for twelve Chozo Artifacts that will open the path to the Phazon meteor impact crater
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
, while collecting power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
s that enable the player to reach previously inaccessible areas; the Varia Suit, for example, protects Samus' armor against dangerously high temperatures, allowing her to enter volcanic regions. Some of the items are obtained after boss
Boss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
and mini-boss fights, encountered in all regions except Magmoor Caverns. The most important feature about the power-up system in Prime is the necessity to collect items in a specific order, so that the player may progress. For example, players cannot access certain areas until they find a certain Beam to open doors, or discover new ordnance to beat bosses with.
The heads-up display
HUD (computer gaming)
In video gaming, the HUD is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface...
simulates the inside of Samus's helmet, featuring a radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
, a map, ammunition for missiles, a health meter, a danger meter for hazardous landscape or materials, and a health bar for bosses
Boss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
along with the boss name. The display can be altered by exchanging visors, including one using thermal imaging
Thermography
Infrared thermography, thermal imaging, and thermal video are examples of infrared imaging science. Thermal imaging cameras detect radiation in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum and produce images of that radiation, called thermograms...
, another with x-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
vision, and a scanner that searches for enemy weaknesses, and interfaces with certain mechanisms such as force fields and elevators, allowing the player to operate them. Prime also introduces a hint system that provides the player with a general idea of where to go next.
Items
Grappling hook
A grappling hook is an anchor with multiple hooks , attached to a rope; it is thrown, dropped, sunk, projected, or fastened directly by hand to where at least one hook may catch and hold. Generally, grappling hooks are used to temporarily secure one end of a rope. They may also be used to dredge...
by latching onto special hooks, called grapple points, and allowing Samus to swing from them across gaps. As a difference from the original games, the "Beam weapons" Samus collects no longer have the "stacking" ability, where the traits of each beam merge with each other. Instead the player has to cycle among the four, and there are "Charge combos" for each, with radically different effects.
Items from previous Metroid games appear, with altered functions. Art galleries and different endings
Multiple endings
Multiple endings refer to a case in entertainment where the story could end in different ways, described as an alternate ending.-Literature:...
are unlockable if a player obtains a high percentage of collected items and Scan Visor logs. Prime is one of the first Metroid games to address the reason Samus does not start with power-ups attained in previous games; she begins the game with certain upgrades, but during an explosion on the Space Pirate Frigate
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
Orpheon, they are all lost. The producers stated that starting with some power-ups was a way to give the player "different things to do" before settling into the core gameplay.
Players of the game can gain two features by connecting Prime with Metroid Fusion using a Nintendo GameCube Game Boy Advance Cable: use of the Fusion Suit that Samus wears in Fusion and the ability to play the original Metroid.
Plot
Chronologically, Metroid Prime takes place second in the fictional Metroid universe. Retro Studios wrote an extensive storyline for Metroid Prime, which was considered a major difference from previous Metroid games. Short cutsceneCutscene
A cutscene is a sequence in a video game over which the player has no or only limited control, breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot, strengthen the main character's development, introduces enemy characters, and provide background information, atmosphere, dialogue, and clues...
s appear before important battles, and the Scan Visor can be used to read records from the Chozo and the Space Pirates. The Prime trilogy is set between Metroid and Metroid II, but sources such as Gradiente
Gradiente
Gradiente is a Brazilian consumer electronics company based in São Paulo. The company designs and markets many product lines, including video , audio, home theater, high end acoustics, office and mobile stereo, and wireless. The company was founded in 1964...
, Brazil's former distributor of Nintendo, and the Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
comics adaptation
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
of Metroid Prime, set the games as occurring after Super Metroid. The Brazilian publicity even states that the Phazon meteor is a piece of Zebes, destroyed after Super Metroid. However, in Prime 3 it was confirmed that the meteor was a Leviathan from the planet Phaaze.
The game begins as Samus receives a distress signal from the Space Pirate Frigate Orpheon, whose crew has been slaughtered by the Pirates' own genetically modified experimental subjects. Upon arriving at the ship's core, she battles with the Parasite Queen, a giant version of the tiny enemies occasionally seen in the ship. Having been defeated, the Parasite Queen falls into the ship's reactor core, setting off the destruction of the ship. While Samus is escaping from the doomed frigate, an electrical surge destroys all of her Power Suit upgrades, and she encounters Ridley
Ridley (Metroid)
is a video game villain for the Metroid series. He is a dragon-like extraterrestrial that acts as Samus Aran's nemesis due to his attack on her homeworld; despite being killed multiple times by her, he is always revived by the Space Pirates using cloning or robotics...
, now a cybernetic version of himself called Meta Ridley. She watches as her nemesis flies towards Tallon IV before giving chase in her gunship
Gunship
The term "gunship" is used in several contexts, all sharing the general idea of a light craft armed with heavy guns.-In Navy:In the Navy, the term originally appeared in the mid-19th century as a less-common synonym for gunboat.-In military aviation:...
.
Samus initially lands on the Tallon Overworld, a rainforest-like area. She discovers the Chozo Ruins, the remains of the Chozo civilization on Tallon IV that was destroyed with the crash of a meteor, which contained a corrupting substance called Phazon and a creature known to the Chozo as "The Worm". Samus locates a Chozo temple in Tallon Overworld, and discovers that the temple houses a seal to the meteor's impact crater, which the Space Pirates are trying to break. The containment field is powered by twelve Chozo artifacts, which must be found to open the path to the crater.
Samus finds her way to the Magmoor Caverns, a series of magma
Magma
Magma is a mixture of molten rock, volatiles and solids that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and is expected to exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and dissolved gas and sometimes also gas bubbles. Magma often collects in...
filled underground tunnels. The Caverns are used by the Space Pirates as a source of geothermal power
Geothermal power
Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. Earth's geothermal energy originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of minerals...
, and connect all of the game's other areas together. Following the tunnels, Samus journeys to the Phendrana Drifts, a cold, mountainous location home to an ancient Chozo ruin, Space Pirate research labs used to contain Metroids, and ice caves and valleys home to electrical and ice-based creatures. After obtaining the Gravity Suit in Phendrana, Samus explores the interior of the crashed Orpheon, and then infiltrates the Phazon Mines, the mining and research complex which is the center of the Space Pirates' Tallon IV operations. Here she battles Phazon-enhanced Space Pirates and obtains the Phazon Suit after she defeats the monstrous Phazon-mutated Omega Pirate.
During her exploration of Tallon IV, Samus finds the twelve keys to the Artifact Temple, and lores recorded by both the Chozo and the Space Pirates, providing some more insight about the history of the planet and the two races' colonization of it and other activities. As she puts the last of the keys in place, Meta Ridley appears and attacks her, but is defeated by Samus with some aid from the temple's defensive artillery. The Chozo Artifacts and Phazon Suit allow Samus to enter the Impact Crater, where she finds a Phazon-mutated beast called Metroid Prime, the source of the Phazon on Tallon IV. After she defeats it, all the Phazon on Tallon IV disappears and Metroid Prime sucks out the Phazon in Samus's Phazon suit in a last ditch effort to survive, reverting Samus's armor to the Gravity Suit. Samus then escapes the collapsing Impact Crater and leaves Tallon IV in her ship. In a post-credits scene
Post-credits scene
A post-credits scene is a short clip that appears after some or all of the closing credits of a film have run...
only able to be seen if the player has collected 100 percent of the items, Metroid Prime uses the Phazon Suit to recreate its body, becoming the entity known as Dark Samus, the antagonist of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, known as in Japan, is a first-person, action-adventure video game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube video game console. It is the seventh game in the Metroid series, a direct sequel to Metroid Prime, and the first game in the series with...
and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a first-person action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. It is the tenth game in the Metroid series, and the final entry in the Metroid Prime trilogy—excluding two spin-off titles. It was released in...
.
Development
After Super Metroid, Metroid fans eagerly awaited a sequel. It was supposedly slated for the Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
or its ill-fated accessory, the 64DD
Nintendo 64DD
The is a peripheral for the Nintendo 64 game console. It plugged into the N64 through the EXTension Port on the Nintendo 64's underside, and allowed the N64 to use proprietary 64 MB magneto-optical discs for expanded data storage...
, but while the game was mentioned, it never entered production. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
explained that it was because Nintendo "couldn't come out with any concrete ideas". Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto
Yoshio Sakamoto
is a Japanese video game designer working for Nintendo. He is a key member in the development of the Metroid series, having worked as director, scenario designer, and script writer for many of the games. Sakamoto grew up with Nintendo toys, which he noted to be inventive and occasionally "strange"....
declared that he considered creating a new installment for the Nintendo 64, but was uninterested in being part of its development, particularly because of the console's controller – "I just couldn’t imagine how it could be used to move Samus around". Sakamoto also said Nintendo approached another company to make an N64 Metroid, but the offer was declined as the developer felt they could not make a game that could be up to Super Metroids standards.
Metroid Prime was developed as a collaboration between Retro Studios and important Nintendo EAD
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development
, commonly abbreviated as EAD, is the largest division inside Nintendo. It was preceded by the , a team of designers with an art background responsible for many different tasks, which Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka originally belonged to...
and R&D1
Nintendo Research & Development 1
was Nintendo's oldest development team. Its creation coincided with Nintendo's entry into the video games industry, and the original R&D1 was headed by Gunpei Yokoi...
members. Retro Studios was created in 1998, by an alliance between Nintendo and former Iguana Entertainment
Iguana Entertainment
Iguana Entertainment, renamed Acclaim Studios Austin after 1999, was a video game developer operating from 1991 to 2004 in Santa Clara, California, Sunnyvale, California, and Austin, Texas in the USA, and Teesside, England...
founder Jeff Spangenberg
Jeff Spangenberg
Jeff Spangenberg is a video game producer and entrepreneur who has founded and presided over video game developers Team Design, Punk Development, Iguana Entertainment, Retro Studios, and Top Heavy Studios.-External links:*...
. After establishing its offices in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
in 1999, Retro started working on four different GameCube projects. When producer Shigeru Miyamoto visited Retro in 2000, he did not like the games being produced, but suggested the development of a new Metroid game, considering the studio could deal well with the license after seeing the prototype of a first-person shooter engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
they created. In 2000 and early 2001, three games were cancelled at Retro, and in July 2001, an RPG called Raven Blade was terminated so that Prime would be the only game in development. During the last nine months of development Retro's staff worked 80 to 100-hour weeks to reach the deadline imposed by Nintendo.
The Japanese crew, which included producers Miyamoto, Kensuke Tanabe and Kenji Miki, as well as game designer and Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto, communicated with the Texas-based studio through emails, monthly phone conferences and personal gatherings. The game was originally envisioned as having third-person perspective gameplay, but this was changed to a first-person perspective after Miyamoto intervened, causing almost everything already developed to be scrapped. Among the reasons for leaving the third-person perspective were Rare's trouble with the camera in Jet Force Gemini
Jet Force Gemini
Jet Force Gemini is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Rare. It was exclusively released for the Nintendo 64 in late 1999 in North America, Europe and Japan...
, shooting in third-person "not being very intuitive" and exploration being easier using first-person. Miyamoto has also professed a fondness for games to be in the first person perspective in an interview with Satoru Iwata
Satoru Iwata
is the fourth president of Nintendo, succeeding the long-standing previous president of the company, Hiroshi Yamauchi in 2002. He was responsible in great part for defining Nintendo's strategy both before and during the release of its Nintendo GameCube video game console in 2001, a vision which...
. He then said he even wanted The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
is an action-adventure video game developed by Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development division for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It was released in Japan on November 21, 1998; in North America on November 23, 1998; and in Europe on December 11, 1998...
to take place in the first person perspective. Lead designer Mark Pacini said Retro tried to make the game so that the only difficult parts would be boss battles, so players would not be "afraid to explore", because "the challenge of the game was finding your way around". Senior designer Mike Wikan also declared that the focus on exploration led to development team spent much time making the platform jumping "approachable to the player", and that the resulting gameplay had "shooting [as] a very important, though secondary, consideration". Retro Studios developed the storyline of Metroid Prime under the supervision of Yoshio Sakamoto who verified the plot ideas to be consistent with the lore of the series' earlier entries. Kraid, a boss from Metroid and Super Metroid, was intended to make an appearance in Prime, and designer Gene Kohler modeled and skinned him for that purpose. However, time constraints prevented him from being included in the final version of the game. The development team also considered implementing the Speed Booster power-up from Super Metroid, but discarded as they considered it would not work well due to the first-person perspective and the "limitations imposed by the scale of our environment".
The first public appearance of the game was a ten second video at SpaceWorld
Nintendo Space World
Nintendo World, formerly called Nintendo Space World, Nintendo 64 Space World, Super Famicom Space World, Famicom Space World, and , is a video game trade show hosted by Nintendo, typically to unveil new consoles or handhelds...
2000. In November of the same year, Retro Studios confirmed its involvement with the game in the "job application" part of its website. In February 2001, the game was confirmed by Nintendo, who also announced that despite the first-person perspective, it would be more of a first-person adventure than a first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
due to focus on exploration. On May, the game was showcased at E3 2001, with its name confirmed as Metroid Prime. The first news of the game had mixed reactions from fans, due to the change from 2D side scrolling to 3D first-person.
Audio
Kenji Yamamoto, assisted by Kouichi Kyuuma, composed the music for Prime. The soundtrack contains remixRemix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
es of tracks from previous games in the series, because Yamamoto wanted "to satisfy old Metroid fans. It’s like a present for them". The initial Tallon Overworld theme is a remix of Metroid
Tommy Tallarico
Tommy Tallarico is an American video game music composer and musician. He is best known as the co-creator of the concert series Video Games Live...
initially provided sound effects for the game, though Shigeru Miyamoto thought they were not good enough yet for an extended presentation at SpaceWorld 2001. The game supports Dolby Pro Logic II
Dolby Pro Logic
Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround. Dolby Stereo was originally developed by Dolby in 1976 for analog cinema sound systems...
setups, which allows it to be played in surround sound
Surround sound
Surround sound encompasses a range of techniques such as for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with audio channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and...
. There was an official soundtrack released for the game called Metroid Prime and Fusion Original Soundtracks which was supervised by Yamamoto himself.
Versions
Prime was released in three versions: the original North American version; a second version, released in North America and Japan, with resolved technical issues (such as a glitch that occasionally caused the game to freeze when using elevators connecting to Chozo Ruins); and the European version, with resolved glitches and altered certain elements of the gameplay to prevent sequence breakingSequence breaking
In computer and video games, sequence breaking is the act of performing actions or obtaining items out of the intended linear order, or of skipping “required” actions or items entirely...
. The European translation had logs removed or changed, resulting in a different storyline and log book. For instance, a narrator was added in the opening and closing scenes. Some of the changes were in the NTSC region's Player's Choice
Player's Choice
Nintendo Selects is a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games on Nintendo game consoles which have sold well; Nintendo Selects titles are sold at a lower price point than other games...
re-release, along with more changes not in other releases. Shortly before the release of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, known as in Japan, is a first-person, action-adventure video game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube video game console. It is the seventh game in the Metroid series, a direct sequel to Metroid Prime, and the first game in the series with...
in 2004, Nintendo released a GameCube bundle with a copy of Prime containing a special second disc, featuring both a preview trailer and a demo
Game demo
A game demo is a freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released video game. Demos are typically released by the game's publisher to help consumers get a feel of the game before deciding whether to buy the full version....
for Echoes, a timeline of Metroid games and an art gallery.
Metroid Prime was re-released in Japan in 2009 for Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
as part of the New Play Control!
New Play Control!
The New Play Control! series, known in Japan as is a program by Nintendo to upgrade several GameCube games for release on the Wii. These re-releases incorporate graphical improvements, which include 16:9 widescreen support. They also feature reconfigured controls to fit the Wii Remote...
series. It has revamped controls that use the Wii Remote
Wii Remote
The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...
's pointing functionality, similar to those of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a first-person action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. It is the tenth game in the Metroid series, and the final entry in the Metroid Prime trilogy—excluding two spin-off titles. It was released in...
. The credit system from Corruption is also included to unlock the original bonus content, as well as the ability to take snapshots of gameplay. Internationally, the Wii version was released in Metroid Prime: Trilogy
Metroid Prime: Trilogy
Metroid Prime: Trilogy is an action-adventure video game compilation developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. The compilation features three games from the Metroid series: Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption...
, a single-disk compilation featuring Prime, Echoes, and Corruption.
Reception
Metroid Prime became one of the best-selling games on the GameCube. It was the second best-selling game of November 2002 in North America, behind Grand Theft Auto: Vice CityGrand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a 2002 open world action computer and video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the second 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise and sixth original title overall...
, and hit 250,000 units in just one week. The game has since sold more than 1.49 million copies in America alone, earning more than $50 million in revenue. It is also the eighth best-selling GameCube game in Australia, sold more than 78,000 copies in Japan, and entered the Player's Choice
Player's Choice
Nintendo Selects is a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games on Nintendo game consoles which have sold well; Nintendo Selects titles are sold at a lower price point than other games...
line in the PAL region.
Prime was also critically acclaimed, including a perfect review score from Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...
, and numerous Game of the Year
Game of the Year
Game of the Year is a title awarded by various magazines, websites, and shows to a deserving game. Many are only for PC or console video games...
awards. It was praised for its detailed graphics, with special effects and varied environments, moody soundtrack and sound effects, level design
Level design
Level design, environment design or game mapping is a discipline of game development involving creation of video game levels—locales, stages, or missions. This is commonly done using level editor, a game development software designed for building levels; however some games feature built-in...
, immersive atmosphere, and innovative gameplay centered on exploring as opposed to the action of games such as Halo
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved, frequently referred to as Halo: CE, or Halo 1, is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The first game of the Halo franchise, it was released on November 15, 2001 as a launch title for the Xbox gaming system, and is...
while staying faithful to the Metroid formula. Criticisms included the unusual control scheme, which Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
considered awkward; lack of focus on the story, making Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
compare the game to a "1990s arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
, filled with over the top battle sequences, spectacular visual effects – and a pretty weak plot"; and backtracking, stated by GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
that inexperienced players "might find it exhausting to keep revisiting the same old places over and over and over".
On GameRankings, Prime is the 7th highest rated game ever reviewed, with an average score of 96.30% (as of August 2010), making it the 2nd highest reviewed game of the sixth generation
History of video game consoles (sixth generation)
The sixth-generation era refers to the computer and video games, video game consoles, and video game handhelds available at the turn of the 21st century. Platforms of the sixth generation include the Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Microsoft Xbox...
, just below Soul Calibur
Soul Calibur
is a 3D, weapons-based fighting game developed by Project Soul and produced by Namco. It is the second game in the Soul series, preceeded by Soul Edge. It was released in arcades in 1998, and it ran on the Namco System 12 hardware. In 1999 it was ported to the Dreamcast with improved graphics and...
for the Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
Dreamcast. The video game countdown show Filter
Filter (TV series)
Filter is an American television series on the G4 cable television channel which follows a countdown format. It was canceled in December 2005, resurrected in a re-formatted form, and then once again was canceled in August 2006. It is currently airing as a commercial break hosted by Candace Baily....
named Prime as having the Best Graphics of all time.
Prime was also chosen for lists of best games: 24th in IGN's Top 100, 29th in a 100 game list chosen by GameFAQs
GameFAQs
GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by CBS Interactive. The site has a database of video game information, cheat codes, reviews, game saves,...
users, and 10th in Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
s "Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever". GameSpy chose it as the third best GameCube title of all time, behind The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, released as in Japan, is an action-adventure game and the tenth installment in The Legend of Zelda series. It was released for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan on December 13, 2002, in North America on March 24, 2003, in Europe on May 2, 2003, and in Australia on...
and Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4, known in Japan as , is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 and published by multiple publishers, including Capcom, Ubisoft, Nintendo Australia, Red Ant Enterprises and THQ Asia Pacific...
, while IGN put it at first in a similar list. Nintendo Power also ranked it as the sixth best game of the 2000s. Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
included the game in its list of "The 15 Most Influential Games of the Decade" at #10, for popularizing "exploration, puzzle-solving, platforming and story" among first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
s, concluding that "breaking the genre free from the clutches of Doom, this GameCube title took one massive stride forward for first-person games." Metroid Prime also became popular among players for speedrun
Speedrun
A speedrun is a play-through, or recording thereof, of a whole video game or a selected part of it performed with the intent of completing it as fast as possible, optionally under certain prerequisites, mainly for the purposes of entertainment and competition...
ning, with specialized communities being formed to share these speedruns.
Legacy
Three other Metroid games in the same first-person style were released after Prime, as well as a pinball spin-offMetroid Prime Pinball
Metroid Prime Pinball is a pinball video game themed after the Metroid series. The game uses the graphical style and various story elements from Metroid Prime. It was developed by Fuse Games for the Nintendo DS handheld game console, and released by Nintendo in North America and Australia in 2005,...
. The first was the sequel Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, known as in Japan, is a first-person, action-adventure video game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube video game console. It is the seventh game in the Metroid series, a direct sequel to Metroid Prime, and the first game in the series with...
, released in November 2004 for the GameCube, in which Samus travels to planet Aether and discovers that a Phazon meteor crashed on the planet creating an alternate reality
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
, while fighting a mysterious enemy called Dark Samus. It was followed by Metroid Prime Pinball, a spin-off game developed by Fuse Games
Fuse Games
Silverball Studios, formerly known as Fuse Games is a Cotswold, Burford based video game developer best known for developing pinball games for Nintendo....
and released in 2005 for the Nintendo DS. Prime Pinball is a virtual pinball game that features the locations and bosses of Prime.
The next game released was Metroid Prime Hunters
Metroid Prime Hunters
Metroid Prime Hunters is a first-person shooter and adventure game for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was developed by American video game developers Nintendo Software Technology, and was released by Nintendo in North America in March 2006, in Europe and Australia in May 2006, and...
for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
, with a storyline that takes place between the events of Prime and Echoes. A demo of the game, titled Metroid Prime Hunters — First Hunt, was released with purchase of a Nintendo DS, and the full game was released on March 20, 2006 in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, and May 5, 2006 in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. The storyline follows Samus trying to discover an "ultimate power", while facing six rival bounty hunters. Hunters was not developed by Retro Studios, but by Nintendo's Redmond-based subsidiary Nintendo Software Technology
Nintendo Software Technology
Nintendo Software Technology Corporation is an American-based first-party developer for the Japanese video game corporation Nintendo. NST was created to specifically create games for Nintendo consoles for the North American market. Although Claude Comair was co-founder of NST, he retired from his...
. The game is more centered on first-person shooter aspects than Prime and Echoes, with removal of assisted aiming, more action-oriented gameplay, and various multiplayer modes.
Primes second full sequel is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a first-person action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. It is the tenth game in the Metroid series, and the final entry in the Metroid Prime trilogy—excluding two spin-off titles. It was released in...
, which closes the Prime series. It was released on August 27, 2007 for Nintendo's Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
. In Corruptions story, Samus is corrupted by Phazon after being attacked by Dark Samus, who has become the leader of a Space Pirate group and is sending Phazon Seeds (called "Leviathans") to corrupt planets. Corruption makes changes in gameplay from Prime and Echoes, such as trading the assisted aiming for free aiming with the Wii Remote
Wii Remote
The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...
, and changing the interchangeable beams for a stackable upgrade system.
Elements of Metroid Prime have appeared in other games, such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl, known in Japan as , often abbreviated as SSBB or simply as Brawl, is the third installment in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games, developed by an ad hoc development team consisting of Sora, Game Arts and staff from other developers, and published by...
, where the Frigate Orpheon is a playable stage, featuring the Parasite Queen in the background and several tracks from the game for background music. Metroid Primes style of gameplay and HUDs also led to influence and comparison in later first-person shooters, such as Geist
Geist (video game)
Geist is a video game for the Nintendo GameCube video game console, released on August 15, 2005, in North America, on October 7, 2005, in Europe, and on November 3, 2005, in Australia...
and Star Wars: Republic Commando
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Star Wars: Republic Commando is a first-person shooter Star Wars video game, released in the US on March 1, 2005. It was developed and published by LucasArts for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox platforms. The game uses Epic Games' Unreal Engine...
.