Metroid Prime: Trilogy Review

"The Wii’s answer to The Orange Box is an absolute must-have compilation."

What do we have here? A compilation of three spectacular first-person adventure games on one disc, in a well-made shiny metal box that comes complete with some very nice concept art as well as a synopsis of the whole trilogy? You may be thinking, “There’s no way that all of this is sold for only $50!” Well, my friend, your mind may be blown right now, but Metroid Prime: Trilogy is, for all the content that it has, being sold for the price of just one game, and I can say that, for both Metroid fans and newcomers, this is absolutely worth it, and it’s incredible that, while these games have been out anywhere from 2 to a whopping 7 years, they still hold up amazingly well. Even though there is more to this review, I’m going to say it early: you MUST buy this game.

I am also going to be straightforward and say that I am not going to go in-depth with the three games in this review simply because despite the enhancements and differences from the original versions of these games (mostly Prime 1 and 2), they are still 99% of the same game that you may have played before, and that I have already made in-depth reviews of these three games. Because of this, just like what Matt did in his review, I am going to recommend that you read my reviews of Prime, Prime 2, and Prime 3 if you want a more in-depth analysis of the Trilogy, as this review will almost entirely be about the changes and additions that come with this compilation.

First and foremost is the fact that Nintendo decided for some reason to give this compilation a quite luxurious metal box for a game case. While it may look like a Wii game, the metal tin is actually covered by a plastic slip which shows the Wii logo and all the stuff you usually see on the back of the box. Upon taking this slip off you will see the game case in its entirety, featuring some really cool box art, and inside you will not just find the game and its manual (as well as a few promotional stuff included in all of Nintendo’s games), but a nice little collector’s art booklet featuring concept art of the three games as well as a synopsis on the opposite side of the whole trilogy. The booklet isn’t even half-assed, either – the paper is high in quality and has a nice glossy look with a smooth feel, probably due to being laminated. Even before putting this game into the Wii, I’m really impressed by how this game is presented just by the game case alone.

After inserting the dual-layer disc into the console, you will begin to notice Retro’s excellent presentational values in-game. The main menu itself is unique only to this game, and it looks really nice and slick. Upon selecting which game you want to play, there is a cinematic which will show Samus in a pretty cool action sequence, but what’s really neat about this is that it will change depending on what suit upgrades you have at the time; for example, if you currently have the Gravity Suit in Prime, Samus will be wearing it in the cinematic. If you currently have the Dark Suit in Echoes, she will be wearing the aforementioned suit in the cinematic. Upon selecting which game you want to play, there will be a brief loading screen that fortunately lasts only a few seconds, and then you’re good to go from there.

The most significant difference between the Trilogy versions of Prime 1 and 2 and their original counterparts are that they are now outfitted with Corruption’s control scheme, replacing the GameCube with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combo. These new controls feel more natural than on the GameCube, and although it may be awkward at first, you will eventually get used to them in a short period of time. In fact, you might just be amazed by how such phenomenal gameplay is made even better with the Wii controls, which I believe are more efficient and engaging than on the GameCube. For those of you who haven’t played these games before, you will be overwhelmed by just how good these controls are, and for those of you who are veterans of the Prime series, you will have a very good time playing these games with the new controls; I certainly did. One gripe I have is that you are only limited to a few control options now that games such as The Conduit and the Wii port of Call of Duty 4 feature a fully customizable control scheme, but for what the game has, you will find little problems with finding something that matches to your liking.

Retro Studios has also made a few fixes to the game, adding or removing some mechanics or objects that make it much harder, if not impossible to sequence break in Metroid Prime. In addition to this, some of the bosses in Echoes, which is considered the most challenging game in the series, have been slightly toned down in difficulty. This means that the Boost Guardian and Spider Guardian bosses, which were an absolute pain in the ass for many players before, are now a bit more manageable to defeat this time around. In addition to this, the first two games feature the Normal, Veteran, and unlockable Hypermode difficulty modes. Normal is the “easy” version of the games, Veteran mode is equivalent to the Normal mode of the GameCube versions of the games, while Hypermode is the Hard mode in their original counterparts.

Another welcome addition to Prime and Echoes is a 16:9 widescreen mode, which gamers with widescreen or HDTVs will finally be able to take advantage of for these games. This however is at the slight cost of the cutscenes being cropped to fit the 16:9 aspect ratio, but it really isn’t that big of a deal. Also, the HUD in these two games will appear stretched due to being unmodified, but it’s no big deal, as you won’t have a problem looking at it regardless of what aspect ratio you play in. The two games also have some slight graphical enhancements with some texture sharpening as well as the addition of bloom lighting in Metroid Prime, which makes a great-looking game even more beautiful. Prime 2 unfortunately does not have bloom lighting as its rendering method apparently does not support the use of it, but the game still looks very, very good nonetheless.

Speaking of how beautiful these games are,  I’m amazed that Prime and Echoes still look fantastic despite how old they are; 7 and 4 years old, respectfully; in fact, they sport some of the greatest visuals on the Wii despite their dated tech. Despite the graphical improvements that are present, however, there are still a few blurry textures which are present, and it disappoints me that Retro didn’t take any action to work on those specific textures, although this could be due to a limited budget or timeframe to improve upon the games’ graphical shortcomings. The rock-solid 60 frames per second is still really nice to have, but that was to be expected considering what Metroid Prime 3 was capable of.

All of the unlocks found in Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 are still present, with the exception of the original Metroid game, but that’s not that big of a problem unless you have some personal problem with it being taken out, but you can just download it off of the Virtual Console if you’re really that peeved about it. Unlike the original games, however, these unlocks are made available to unlock through the medal/achievement system, which is now implemented in the first two games. It’s kind of annoying to have to unlock the extras, then have to purchase them with the medals that you’ve earned, but it’s nice to at least have some sort of achievement system.

If you were wondering if Corruption has been changed at all, there aren’t any besides it being based off of the PAL version of the game if you owned the NTSC version. In fact, all 3 games are based off their PAL releases, meaning that there will be some different lore entries in Metroid Prime and the removal of Admiral Dane’s infamous explicative in Metroid Prime 3. Besides that and the enhancements present in the first two games, the games are overall the same.

Now, the final question is, is this compilation worth it? It really depends on the type of person that you are. If you happened to have missed out on the trilogy, this is an absolute must-have, featuring 3 excellent action-adventure games for just the price of one. However, there’s no denying the fact that despite how good these games are, they are not new by any means. If you have played the three games already and don’t think it’s worth investing the $50, then chances are, it’s not worth it for you. However, if you’re a fan of the series and are dying to try out the first two games with their enhancements as well as what else Trilogy has to offer, then you will most likely be very happy with your purchase. Metroid Prime: Trilogy may be dated, but it is unquestionably the definitive version of the Prime series, featuring a ton of content to enjoy, and has the nice touch of being a really cool collector’s item for fans of the series like me. Trilogy is absolutely worth the buy in my opinion.



Ratings:


Presentation: 10
Retro has done it again. Three excellent games on one disc, the first two with very welcome refinements, complemented with a lot of extra content. This is definitely a collector’s edition.

Graphics: 9.5
Beautiful. Prime and Echoes look even better than before with their texture enhancements and 16:9 widescreen support, but there are still some rough spots which could have been smoothed out.

Sound: 9.5
The ambient, moody soundtrack accompanies the gameplay of the Prime trilogy very well and is excellent overall. More orchestrated parts would be nice, but I'm not complaining too much.

Gameplay: 10
Words alone cannot describe how unbelievable the Trilogy is to play. Two of these phenomenal games are made even more glorious with the definitive Wii controls, and that is just spectacular.

Lasting Appeal: 10
The Trilogy is really an experience to play - it will take 60-80 hours to complete all 3 games, but the extras and replay value will keep you coming back. All for the price of one Wii game. Awesome.


Overall Score: 9.7: Incredible

(out of 10 / not an average)

So I finally can use USB Loader on my Wii.

Yep, I finally got everything to work and played a bit of New Super Mario Bros. Wii as well as Paper Mario for a short time, and I've really had a lot of fun with New Super Mario Bros. so far! I can't wait to get an external hard drive so I can fit more games on it, because the flash drive I'm using to play my Wii ISOs from is only 2 gigabytes large.

On another note, I finally got the 4th Progcast episode up, even though I recorded it last weekend, so I'm sorry it's late. You can watch it on My Podcast or iTunes.

I FINALLY beat Mario & Luigi 3!

Well, I was kinda late at doing so, but I finally beat the game. It's damn awesome, but the ending dissapointed me a bit, though.... it seemed like it was rushed to me, and the final boss was pathetically easy with Special Attacks (although I'm fighting him again using only solo attacks, and it's definitely more of a challenge). Oh well, the rest of the game was awesome and I was really glad that I pre-ordered it. Anyone else have this game, or beaten it as well?

So, I guess my podcast series has kicked off.

After coming up with the idea last month, it finally came to reality when I made the first two episodes about two weeks ago, and to tell you the truth, while it could be better, I've had a lot of fun doing this so far. If I have time, I will make Episode 3 (which I hope is insanely awesome) sometime this weekend, hopefully on Friday. What do you guys think? Please comment any suggestions or feedback you may have, that would be greatly appreciated! :D

I'm back using Blogger!

Well, after having quite a bit of fun using the blog feature on Webs, I decided that Blogger was ultimately better, as it seemed that not as many people read my blog on my website as they did here. Well, I'm back, and I'll probably post my previous blogs that were on Webs on here soon.

I am now "moving" my blog!

Well, I am no longer going to post blogs here because I have made my own website on Webs.com! It allows you to create your own blog section on your website, so I have decided to start posting there because it's more convenient to do that rather than having a separate blog and a website. Anyways, Click Here to go to my website, and Click Here to go to my blog! See ya guys there!

About an earlier post of mine...

You know what? I'm just going to keep the episodes around 10-11 minutes long. It would take me WAYYY too long to make the episodes if I made them longer than 11 minutes long, and I could just upload them to BOTH YouTube and Dailymotion! =D

Just something to say about the Super Mario series.

Okay guys, I know a lot of you are fans of my Super Mario series (I might call the full series something else, but who knows), but I just have something to say. It is NOT a blooper/comedy series. It is NOT a drama series. Yes, I use a hint of drama and comedy in the series, but does it make it a series of those certain genres? No. Gran Torino has a lot of funny stuff in it, but it's still considered a drama movie. So what kind of genre is the Super Mario series considered then?

Well, since I made the series, I'll just tell you that the Super Mario series (more noticeable in Dark Omen) is of the action/epic genre, which I think it identifies perfectly with. Why? Well, it has a lot of action sequences in it, and has a very grand feeling to it, as Mario, Luigi and company have and will embark on large adventures in Corruption, Dark Omen, and in Atonement. I hope this clears up any confusion, but if you think I'm wrong, go ahead and tell me, but you'd better back up your claim with some proof. =D

Call of Duty 4 is fun.

Yep, I got back to playing it again (I have it for the PC in case you were wondering), and I've gotten hooked! I'm currently at level 45 right now, making my way to level 55. =D

News!

I have uploaded all 6 of my Mario Shorts episodes onto YouTube, and 2 of them (the other 4 were accepted a short time later) have been accepted as CreativeContent so far, meaning...

I AM NOW A MOTIONMAKER ON DAILYMOTION!!!!

Now, you may be thinking: "What in the holy hell is ACDC talking about?" Well, being a MotionMaker enhances the limits of your videos. No longer do you have to upload a video that's 150mb or less, you can now upload videos up to 1GB large as well as 20 minutes long (although this is also the case if you're not a MotionMaker), and even longer than that if it becomes accepted as CreativeContent! So what does this mean?

It gives me the opportunity to upload even LONGER videos. No more of that 11 minute bullshit that YouTube allows, I can make and upload 15-20 minute episodes of Atonement now if I want to!!! I still don't know if I WILL make them that long or not, but I'm really considering doing so. =D

My Birthday List

Well, my birthday is coming relatively soon (it's not until March, but that counts as "relatively soon" to me), and I've been bored lately, so I decided to tell you guys what I want for my birthday or what I plan to buy soon for the hell of it. Here it is:

Xbox 360 Pro/Premium/Regular system (might want/get a used/refurbished one)
A second Xbox 360 controller
Halo 3
Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360)
Xbox Live


I'll update this list when I feel like doing it, but as you can see, I'm all 360'ed out right now. I played it with my step brother last night, and I actually liked using it a lot! It's a shame it costs quite a bit of money, but I think that it will be so worth it, as I know a bunch of guys that have one. I know I've been posting a lot for the past couple of days, but I think that makes up for my lack of posting for the past month. See you guys later!

YouTube apparently hates my Re-AMPed series.

Ok, I am getting REALLY pissed off now because YouTube has decided to block more of my Re-AMPed episodes. Here is the list of episodes that have been blocked, which I will update in case that more episodes get blocked in the future, which is likely:

Episode 1
Episode 3
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 9
Episode 13
Episode 14
Episode 15
Christmas Special

Well, that's it so far, but it's a whole bunch of episodes, almost HALF of the ones that I uploaded. These are also over a year old, which is fucking ridiculous! If I happen to keep putting my videos on YouTube, I am AT LEAST putting the Re-AMPed series on DailyMotion or somewhere else for you guys to enjoy. I am very sorry that these videos are becoming unavailable now, but apparently you can't put up other people's work anymore, even if you're not using it for infringing purposes. STUPID FUCKING COPYRIGHT LAWS!!! If I wasn't supposed to do that in the first place, then why the fuck did my video stay on YouTube for A YEAR before it was removed?! How come other people's videos are still up when they're doing the same God damn thing, huh?! If they're doing the wrong thing too, then Evolution of Dance should be taken of YouTube. Oh wait! It has almost 110 million views, and it would hurt YouTube's popularity and fame if it was taken off! I have a VERY strong feeling that YouTube only cares about themselves-to be more specific, their money and their popularity, then their own users, who YouTube actually needs to maintain their huge status. Fuck you, YouTube!!!

News for the New Year.

Well, after returning home from my vacation this week, I went online and found out that I've missed out quite a bit since I've been gone. First, ShadowMario64 closed his account on YouTube, as he apparently got into an altercation with MaxOfS2D and Iceonlava777 (I think) regarding a rant that he apparently made regarding the overuse of green screenfights in Super Mario 64.

However, that wasn't it.

I also got 4 emails from YouTube, as apparently Led Zeppelin and Avenged Sevenfold filed copyright claims against 4 of my videos - Episodes 1, 3, and 6 of Re-AMPed, and, ironically, my Goodbye ShadowMario64 video. Unfortunately, I was forced to delete those videos after my mom overreacted as usual when I told her about it, as she was afraid our asses would be sued or something, but I still have the files on my computer, so don't worry. However, what pisses me off is that those videos were OVER A FUCKING YEAR OLD, and NOW I'm finding out that I can't use music that's not mine?! Why not just block all of my Super Mario 64 videos then, since I don't own the rights to that game at all? This is FUCKING RIDICULOUS!!! Also, I didn't even play the songs in their entirety in the movie at all, and I highly doubt that I've caused them any financial troubles or losses at all, considering they have already made a shitload of money because of their albums. I mean, why don't they block the Evolution of Dance movie then? That video has a bunch of songs in it that aren't by the guy who was dancing, and it gets over 100 MILLION VIEWS, almost to 110 million views now. This is making me believe that YouTube only cares about their popularity and the money they're making, and not about the rights of the users that are the backbone of that website. Because of this, I am considering about going to DailyMotion.

Now, before you get pissed off at me, at least listen to what I have to say. I am not leaving YouTube if I do plan on uploading all of my future videos on DailyMotion. To be specific, I'll still be around, as I won't close my account or delete any of my videos that are already on there, but don't expect me to upload anything major onto YouTube if I do happen to go to DailyMotion. Instead, I will do something similar to users who are partnered with Machinima, such as MATTHEWGU4, by uploading a preview of the movie and putting the link to the full one in the video description. I will not be gone, but after what's been happening, some changes need to be made. I hope you guys understand, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays!