Metroid Prime: Great Game or Greatest Game?

[Architecture]

I've been replaying this via Dolphin with a 360 controller, and it's just as great as I remember it being.

 

I think this might be my most favorite game of all time.

[SuperBiasedMan]

As someone who enjoyed Super Metroid a lot but hasn't gotten round to emulating this, how is the transfer to 3D?
I've heard no complaints about it ruining the game, but I'm curious about what kind of impact it had on general feel. It's obviously a different kind of game, but in what ways? What works better, what works worse and what's just flat out different?

[Architecture]

It's not a dual-stick shooter...the left stick moves you forward and backward, but also turns you left and right. The left trigger enables a lock-on aim in which you can circle-strafe around a target (a la Z-targeting), and the right trigger lets you stand in place and free aim. Jump is mapped to B (or X on the 360 pad), so occasionally I forget which button to push when trying to jump.

 

Sometimes the shooting controls feel a little clunky, but overall the control is pretty solid and everything about the game holds up. It's a wonderful transition from 2D to 3D and has some of the best game music I've ever heard (some of it is remixed versions of classic Metroid tunes as well). The game still looks fantastic, and Dolphin's texture filtering and up-rezzing capabilities mean it looks better than if I pulled my GC out of my closet and hooked it up to my TV downstairs.

 

Prime 2 is also fantastic, though I never finished it. (And technically I never finished Prime, though I gave up on the last boss, so I saw everything there was to see.)

[tegan]

I fucking love Metroid Prime, but I've never actually played it on the Gamecube, only the Wii version on the Metroid Prime Trilogy disc. I'm probably missing out on some of the decisions they had to make to accommodate a single-stick FPS, but Wiimote control makes so much sense in that game.

[BFrank]

I think of Prime as the first and last game where I enjoyed the 'turn on scan vision' mode. 

[SecretAsianMan]

I love Prime for a multitude of reasons.  The combat (while solid and enjoyable) is probably the last thing on the list of great things for me.  I'm not really into collectibles in games but I really dug the scan visor and compulsively scanned everything.  I think xenoarchaeology is an interesting concept and I enjoyed doing that.  It's got a ton of little touches I absolutely adore such as Samus changing weapons by changing her hand configuration in the arm cannon and the reflection of her face in the visor if you get a bright enough explosion.  What really sets it above other games for me is the atmosphere.  Metroid has always had great environments and being able to wander them in first person, interact with the flora and fauna, and be a badass powersuit wearing lady was just fantastic.

[Trip Hazard]

Great game. Totally absorbing; the implementation of the visor as a physical thing in front of your eyes was such a fucking brilliant idea. Like SecretAsianManz, I scanned and read every little thing I could. 

 

Really good music too:

 

 

Ohhhh, now I have to go play it again.

[Griddlelol]

This is so shallow and lame, but it's the same reason I hate all metroidvainias. I hate backtracking. I wish I could get over that, but I really hate it!

[Trip Hazard]

There is some of that, true, and normally I don't like it either but it never bothered me in Prime. Just happy to be in that world, I think.

 

Just remembered that even the menu was slick as hell. That fizzing, pulsating organism blew my mind every time I turned on the game. *gush*

[Griddlelol]

Oh god. I remember that menu giving me the creeps as a teenager.

[SecretAsianMan]

I love the title screen for Metroid Prime!  That music is rad

 

[tegan]

Maybe at E3 they'll unveil Metroid Prime IV: I Swear to God I Will Turn This Ship Around and There'll Be No Phazon for Anybody

[Twig]

The best thing about Metroid Prime is undeniably the music.

Okay that's not fair, it's a very good game. The story is, as with all Metroid games, utterly forgettable and pointless, but the atmosphere and exploration and music is fantastic. I'd kill myself for a new Metroid Prime in HD and e'ry'th'n'.

[tegan]

I actually think I like the Corruption title screen more than the first game. It cuts to attract mode footage pretty quickly, unfortunately, but I like the visuals and the music prior to that.

 

[mikemariano]

I'm a proud Quitter's Club member of Metroid Prime.  I went back to collect all those Chozo artifacts and still couldn't figure it out with YouTube Let's Plays right in front of me.

[undermind9]

There's a GameCube SD card somewhere with a hard play through stuck at ridley.

Mm, might be worth digging out

[BenLuke]

I fucking love Metroid Prime, but I've never actually played it on the Gamecube, only the Wii version on the Metroid Prime Trilogy disc. I'm probably missing out on some of the decisions they had to make to accommodate a single-stick FPS, but Wiimote control makes so much sense in that game.

I've also only played the Prime games on Wii, one of the only times motion controlled first person control hasn't been janky and terrible. 

[dartmonkey]

I've had the trilogy disc sitting on the shelf for a year but have only gone through the tutorial. The idea of scanning everything in sight is a massive turn off after two Arkham games. Should really go back to it.

[tegan]

Man, that poll is much more negative than anticipated.

[Twig]

Well it's a loaded question. It's definitely not the greatest game ever designed.

[SecretAsianMan]

Well it's a loaded question. It's definitely not the greatest game ever designed.

 

Yeah I gotta agree with Twig.  As much as I love Prime (and I do, a lot) I can't say that it's the greatest game.

[Bjorn]

This thread is making me want to play Prime.  I haven't played a Metroid game since...either Super Metroid or whatever Metroid was on the original Gameboy, whichever is the most recent one.

[lobotomy42]

It was a swell game.  Definitely not the best ever, and the formula got a bit dated by the third entry in the series.  My sense is that the all the exploring/visor stuff that seemed so cool then would now seem dated, but possibly I'm projecting.  Now I'm curious to play it again and see how well its aged...

[coaxmetal]

I've actually never been a huge fan of the prime games. I think they translated what made metroid games great to 3D successfully, but I never got into them. Super Metroid, as well as Zero Mission and Fusion, are 3 of my favorite games, but I was just never sold on prime. Part of it was also i could barely see most of it on my TV, or my friend's TV where I played it, and it all looked the same and I had no idea where I was.

[BobbyBesar]

I've actually never been a huge fan of the prime games. I think they translated what made metroid games great to 3D successfully, but I never got into them. Super Metroid, as well as Zero Mission and Fusion, are 3 of my favorite games, but I was just never sold on prime. Part of it was also i could barely see most of it on my TV, or my friend's TV where I played it, and it all looked the same and I had no idea where I was.

 

Yeah. What Prime did so well is to realize that Metroid was an adventure/exploration game with shooting, not a shooting game with exploration. This accounts for the somewhat unorthodox control scheme. The fact that they did this when conventional wisdom must have been to go to a standard FPS makes it that much more impressive.