Metroid Prime (GC)

The Metroid series was always huge...up there with Mario and Zelda and the like. The games told the story of the heroic bounty hunter, Samus Aran, armed with a nifty upgradeable power suit. She also has the distinction of possibly being the first playable female video game character...which was accomplished by having Samus actually convince people that she's a man. Then, at the end of the first game...Samus' secret is finally revealed.

Of course...the late 90s weren't that kind to Miss Aran...considering the total lack of a Nintendo 64 Metroid. Then...it took years afterwards for Retro Studios in the United States to agree to make a brand new Metroid for a new generation of gamers to enjoy.

Of course...problems quickly ensued...and the brilliant individuals at Nintendo Company, Ltd. came to offer assistance. The game evolved into a first-person shooter of sorts...that changed to third-person when the morph ball mode was selected. Metroid purists naturally objected.

Despite all the complaints and nonsense surrounding the release of this game, it turns out to be...in a word...excellent.

This is probably the best game on the GameCube out at the time I'm writing this...and there aren't a lot of things that can make it better.

There isn't much to the story...so you don't even have to look into it much unless you're interested...but if you look around, you can find ancient wall inscriptions written by the Chozo...and electronic log entries kept by an evil band of space pirates. The more you read...the more you find out about what is going on...and about the mysterious occurances on the planet Tallon IV.

In the game, you explore the Tallonian wilderness...an ancient Chozo ruin menaced by toxic water and later by apparitions...a snow-covered glacier inhabited by fierce creatures that use ice to their advantage...and the phazon mines. Every stage is different enough to add variety...but they all give the impression they're part of the same mysterious world.

There isn't really anything wrong with this game. It's exciting, fun, intriguing, and it's not so difficult that it makes me want to scream and bash my head against a wall. Even when I get killed and I haven't gotten to a save station in an hour...for one thing, it's Samus that screams for me...and for another, all I seem to want to do when that happens is play again from my last save station...and try not to be killed next time.

The game is beautiful...from the weapon effects...to the creatures...to...the way strangely colored alien blood gets all over Samus' visor and drips off. The buttons do just what they ought to do...even if sometimes, in the heat of battle, I have gotten the controls for switching visors and switching weapons mixed up. The music is great...and...scanning things with the scan visor is cool!

Simply put...I really love this game!

I'm sorry, Mario Sunshine...it's not like I've forgotten you...