We continue Women's History Month with another iconic female
character that has been with us since the 1980's, Samus Aran from
Nintendo's popular Metroid franchise. The above game is Metroid Prime,
a first-person action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and
published for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002. It is the fifth installment
in the Metroid franchise and the first game to make the transition into
3D, and man, oh man, did it get a lot of hate when it was first
announced. From the decision to be a first-person view game to allowing
an unproven Western developer to handle a Japanese title. However, it
managed to endure all of that and became a critical and financial
success spanning a series all its own. So, without further ado, let's
dive into Metroid Prime!
The game is visually stunning, and combined with the soundtrack makes it
incredibly easy to immerse yourself into an enjoyable Sci-Fi
experience. Gameplay? It plays exactly like any other Metroid game
would. The only difference is it's first-person and set in 3D
environments, but it has everything that makes Metroid, Metroid.
The weapons, the power ups, the enemies, the level designs, save rooms
and maps, they're all there. As far as transitions go, Metroid Prime is
the perfect example of what to do right.
As per usual, the levels are made up of facilities founded on alien planets and the player must navigate through the different rooms and corridors to their objective, and each base has a room to save throughout, and a room to download a map of the facility to assist you further. Enemies are, to put it simply, aliens.
There all three suits overall in the game, and one extra suit you can get upon completing the game and hooking up the Game Boy Advance to the GameCube with Metroid Fusion. Each suit has a specific function that you can take advantage of while overcoming obstacles. If you complete Metroid Fusion you can also hook up the Game Boy Advance to play the original Metroid game for the NES. That's a pretty good treat considering the age of the NES, and there would be some players who never got to play the original Metroid before. All in all, it's worth having both games and a connector cable since you're essentially getting three games out of it.
Like many of Nintendo's protagonists, Samus is a silent warrior throughout Metroid Prime and has little in the way of character compared to Metroid Fusion for the Game Boy Advance that came out at the same time, but what we do know is that she's a strong, capable woman that can get the job done, and no matter how bad things look she's able to dust herself off and come back out of it better than she was before.
We see this early on when an explosion knocks Samus into an elevator and she takes heavy damage to her armor losing most of the power ups she had at the beginning of the game. This is little more than a minor setback as she continues on with her mission without a second thought. Granted, a lot of that is because of the player's intervention, but still. She's all by herself in a power suit with whatever training she received as one of the most revered bounty hunters of all time, if that doesn't speak for her resolve nothing will.
If you're a Metroid fan, and you somehow missed this entry in the franchise, then I would definitely recommend giving it a go as they did a beautiful job taking the Metroid formula into what used to be considered next gen. If you're new to the franchise then I can't think of a better place to get started.
Get it
As per usual, the levels are made up of facilities founded on alien planets and the player must navigate through the different rooms and corridors to their objective, and each base has a room to save throughout, and a room to download a map of the facility to assist you further. Enemies are, to put it simply, aliens.
There all three suits overall in the game, and one extra suit you can get upon completing the game and hooking up the Game Boy Advance to the GameCube with Metroid Fusion. Each suit has a specific function that you can take advantage of while overcoming obstacles. If you complete Metroid Fusion you can also hook up the Game Boy Advance to play the original Metroid game for the NES. That's a pretty good treat considering the age of the NES, and there would be some players who never got to play the original Metroid before. All in all, it's worth having both games and a connector cable since you're essentially getting three games out of it.
Like many of Nintendo's protagonists, Samus is a silent warrior throughout Metroid Prime and has little in the way of character compared to Metroid Fusion for the Game Boy Advance that came out at the same time, but what we do know is that she's a strong, capable woman that can get the job done, and no matter how bad things look she's able to dust herself off and come back out of it better than she was before.
We see this early on when an explosion knocks Samus into an elevator and she takes heavy damage to her armor losing most of the power ups she had at the beginning of the game. This is little more than a minor setback as she continues on with her mission without a second thought. Granted, a lot of that is because of the player's intervention, but still. She's all by herself in a power suit with whatever training she received as one of the most revered bounty hunters of all time, if that doesn't speak for her resolve nothing will.
If you're a Metroid fan, and you somehow missed this entry in the franchise, then I would definitely recommend giving it a go as they did a beautiful job taking the Metroid formula into what used to be considered next gen. If you're new to the franchise then I can't think of a better place to get started.
Get it
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