Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) Review

Corruption takes place six months after the events of Echoes on the GameCube, with players once more stepping into the heavily-weighted boots of galactic bounty hunter, and resident eye-pleaser, Samus Aran. As usual there are problems with Space Pirates attacks and there is an imminent threat from series regular enemy, Ridley. However, to aid with the mission, this time Samus is not alone, having the help of three other hunters right at the start. Nothing is ever simple, though, and soon the Galactic Federation identifies a gigantic Leviathan Seed ploughing its way straight towards their home world and all four hunters must work together to prevent a catastrophe from occurring. Again, though, this merely precedes the main story, as Dark Samus returns to the fold to corrupt all the hunters with Phazon just as the disastrous event is about to be averted. Can Samus maintain her sanity long enough to stave off the major threat and cleanse herself of the offending infection? Well, that all depends on how good you are, of course...

Many see both Metroid Prime and its sequel as being exemplars of just how much graphical power the GameCube really had if developers bothered to pour the right amount of time and resources into the final product. Yet when Corruption was first revealed for Wii, those same circles criticised it for being nothing more than a GC game with extra gloss. And rightly so, in fact, as it began life by being built on the same architecture as the pre-Wii platform. Now, in its finished version, Corruption truly is a sight to behold, with its sprawling landscapes, bold, vibrant colours and hectic action that can overload your retinas without any slowdown. The game certainly lifts itself above the current crop of Wii games, is certainly head and shoulders above what the GameCube could achieve and even manages to hold itself well against competition on the powerhouse duo of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. As for the soundtrack, many tracks from past games are pleasingly regurgitated, and not just past ones from the Prime games, but the franchise as a whole. Many a time a soundtrack can make or break a title, but with Corruption it is definitely a case of not only complementing the whole experience, but enhancing it. And with more voice-over work than the past two games put together, this is definitely one game you should hook your Wii up to a good sound system for.

When the game first starts, the way Corruption plays may come as somewhat of a shock to the system, especially for those accustomed to the traditional controller set-up used in the GameCube versions, as well as gamers who are not terribly au fait with PC-style First-Person Shooters. Forwards, backwards and strafing are mapped to the Nunchuk's analogue stick, whilst pixel-perfect turning and aiming is executed using the Wii-mote and its motion-sensing capabilities. There are three movement settings you can use to tailor the experience to your needs, but sticking to the 'Advanced' option is ideal for the majority of players as it grants the most complete freedom of movement for Samus. As already implied, it will take a while to get used to the controls for some, but once everything clicks into place, which should not take too long, suddenly the idea of going back to the constraints of the GC pad lacks any sort of appeal at all. Everything controls so precisely that the fate of Samus really does lie in your hands, rather than sheer good luck. Yet it is not just the Wii-mote's sensors that come into play, as the movements of the Nunchuk come into play as well, and the feeling of being able to rip doors off their hinges (for example) by simply casting the Nunchuk forwards to latch onto them and then yanking backwards is fantastic, helping to immerse the gamer more than ever before.

The implementation of a new control system is not the only fresh feature, though. Whilst the basic core gameplay remains untouched, with players having to traverse various large worlds in search of key items that can help them progress, eventually facing off against large, oft-devastating bosses, a few twists to the formula have been introduced. First off your weapons and armour no longer constantly require changing to suit the situation faced, as a 'stacked' approach is now taken, meaning that, for instance, once you discover the ice missiles, these simple become the standard, rather than forcing the gamer to constantly switch between items to utilise the desired projectile. In addition to this more streamlined approach, which makes life much easier in the heat of battle, when gamers lock-on to enemies, they can still wave Samus' arm cannon around to take out any other distractions in the immediate vicinity, again boosting the amount of freedom given to the player and making everything much more intuitive.

On top of this, once Samus is corrupted (very early in the game), her suit can then actually absorb Phazon to boost her energy, as well as allow her to enter 'Hyper Mode', where attacks suddenly become much more powerful and perform other special feats. The downside is great care must be taken as entering this mode uses up a whole tank of energy, and if in it for too long, total corruption can take place, turning our heroine into Dark Samus and leading to a prompt Game Over screen. So it becomes a balancing act, whereby players must judge whether or not the extra power during battles is worth the loss of energy and leads to an interesting strategic angle coming into play.

For those reading this and thinking Corruption is ultimately a First-Person Shooter, it should be stressed that, without any question, Metroid Prime 3 falls under the First-Person Adventure category, with the slower-paced exploration elements and clever puzzles far out-weighing the crazy-hectic, white-knuckle action side. Also, veterans of the series will be pleased to know the Morph Ball is back with a vengeance, and used more than ever to access tiny cracks and crevices where seemingly dead ends lie. These sides of the game are what will keep true Metroid fans plugging their way through to the end, but will also be the aspects that perhaps lead to pure FPS fans growing bored. Overall, though, everything in the game is so deftly tied together and perfectly crafted that Corruption blasts past its predecessors in terms of quality on every front.

And thankfully the whole thing is nicely balanced, being not too short, nor too long. With three difficulty levels to tackle, the normal one being pretty challenging-but-straight-forward and the hardest (and it is indeed ridiculously hard) only being unlocked once the middle level has been overcome, plus good incentives to actually play through all modes, the main adventure itself will give the average gamer far more value than Prime or Echoes ever did. Mix in all the special extras that can be unlocked by collecting tokens obtained by completing certain tasks or scanning specific items throughout the game and even WiiConnect24 features for sending things to friends, and Metroid Prime 3 shows just how a trilogy should be concluded, with the utmost of style and class.