Ok, you have already saw Wii getting your mother and take the whole market by assault, but you don’t have any more nails while waiting for the classics? Don’t fear, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is here!

The Metroid Prime series begun with a risky bet from Nintendo, getting some people from an old bankrupted company and investing money on a new second party, Retro Studios. It looked like the apocalipse to fans when they knew their loved series would become a FPS.

Super Metroid, on the Super Nintendo, was considered by fans the best in the franchise and transforming a classic into a FPS seemed like Nintendo was selling itself for popularity. Everything went back on tracks when Metroid Prime was launched on GameCube and got a ranking almost as high as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Two years later we had Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, on GameCube, which while still had excelency, had trouble to keep it’s quality as high as the first. Metroid Prime, according to Nintendo, begun a new genre, the First Person Adventure, or FPA, different from FPS, First Person Shooter.

Personally, I don’t buy this FPA argument, but whatever genre Metroid Prime fits in, it did more for first person games in instants than most games did it in years, reminding once again the industry that inovating is necessary. Which looks like an irony with the launch of Metroid prime 3: Corruption, showing the newest inovation from Nintendo.

Metroid Prime 3 closes the trilogy, being after the events of the previous two games, the origin of Dark Samus and its supposed destruction. This creature is not the usual cliché of the dark version of the heroine, but the one that give the game its name, the Metroid Prime, enriched by the substance Phazon, highly present on the entire trilogy.

In Metroid Prime, Phazon killed a whole race, in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, it broke a planet in half, creating two dimensions, it’s not surprising that when Phazon threatens the whole universe, the bounty hunter, Samus Aran, is called to help the federation with the problem.

The biggest difference is in the game’s subtitle. Samus was corrupted by Phazon, getting stronger, but at high costs. Initially, Samus wouldn’t be alone in this adventure, having other bounty hunters with her, also corrupted.

The subtitle actually doesn’t reffer only to Samus, but also the whole universe corruption, changing the game dynamics. No longer does the player concentrates a huge map on one planet, but several maps over various planets. The first thing it comes to mind is that this would dilute the experience, but that doesn’t happen.

Altough the maps doesn’t seem so extense in the beginning, the game prooves that it’s just as solid and well constructed as the previous, in a way that the more you explore, more it shows itself as a true Metroid.

To travel between planets we’ll use Samus ship constantly, without directly piloting it, obviously, landing at certain spots, from where we start to explore. Not only between planets, but also serving as a ride inside the same planet you’re in, making the map room now essential for your progress.

Since you can save at Samus’ ship, the game uses less save stations, considering that most of the time you’re close to the ship. This is all possible thanks to a new visor that allows the player to give commands to the ship, like landing, attacking, carrying objects, etc.

Two other older visors return, Scan, to get information about almost everything and activate objects features, and X Ray, to see trough certain surfaces or seeing things that are not visible at naked eye, including enemies’ weak spots, sometimes almost working like a sniper weapon.

The biggest revolution Metroid bring is thanks to one factor, the Wii Remote. We have already said good things about the controller, but Metroid Prime 3 raises the excelency level in a way that’s rarely found. Any FPS just gets better with the Wii Remote, but this one was made specifically with the controller in mind. How perfect is the gameplay? Can’t tell, sometime the controller became my hand and I stoped playing a videogame to start exploring an alien planet holding a weapon.

Strating with the obvius, the player points at the screen to aim where he’ll shot. Moving this aim sideways will make Samus turn. The aim configuration can give you a very high sensitivity and incredible precision or play with less accuracy in case he’s a new player and can’t keep up.

To choose between visors, you hold the - (minus) button and points on the direction of the visor you want to use. Initially this design may look complicated, but in no time you’ll get used to it and even make quick changes between visors even in the middle of intense combat.

The games requires the Nunchuk, which handles movement on the analog stick, being that left and right don’t turn, but strafe. By twisting the Nunchuk forward Samus uses one of the new features of the game, the Graple Lasso, some kind of upgrade from the Graple Beam (also present) that can pull objects directly, requiring the player to pull it back, even removing shilds or other parts from enemies, always used in clever ways during the adventure.

The direct interation with the controller doesn’t stop with the Graple Lasso, there’s a high number of switchs and monitors that behave in very different ways, asking you to rotate, point, pull, push, etc. Even Samus’ ship is fully interactive and allows the player to touch the control panel and have access to some fun extras. At a certain point you’ll be even able to fix electronics by soldering using the Plasma Beam.

Yes, the Plasma Beam is back, but this time the game don’t allow you to choose your weapon, using the Super Metroid system, where beams just keep accumulating one over the other. It’s possible that this was made to simplify the gameplayer, but actually works really well with a nice touch of classicism.

Still in the returning functions, one that just couldn’t be out is the Morph Ball, easily one of the biggest peculiarities about Metroid, the ability to fit an adult woman inside a small ball. There’s a good amount of puzzles with the Morph Ball and its movement was changed with the use of an old upgrade, the Spring Ball, meaning that you can just shake the Wii Remote to jump, instead of using bombs to propel yourself.

All the gameplay get’s an extra touch with Phazon. Samus may be corrupted but with the help of the federation and a new suit, she can use Phazon to get into Hyper Mode, a mode where her ofensive power is elevated to the extreme, being able to finish fights really fast.

But Hyper Mode comes with a price. To activate it is necessary to inject an energy tank and use your own energy as ammo, with the risk of spending too much energy, or worse, let the Phazon take control. Soon after you enter Hyper Mode there’s an overdose of Phazon and you have to waste your ammo and energy to force a deactivation, or else you’ll become completelly corrupted.

The graphic masterpiece that Metroid Prime 3 represents is rarely found on most games. Personally, I didn’t expect that the game could reach the same level the first Metroid Prime did, and then it exceeded it. The environments are so immensely rich that it’s hard to notice all the details at a first glance.

Each part of the world overflows with culture from each planet, never one equal to other, with an unique art and an equally incredible feeling that it’s not just a corridor that takes you to a room, but a place where an ancient race once lived.

Technically the game is equally beautiful, objects with high polygonal counts and an spectacular level of detail  in any small thing or creature, from unique materials to incredibly rich textures, altough not in high resolution. Some ambients are so huge and with such a high level of detail that it’s possible that something, until then inanimate, could come to life and move without surprise.

The lack of some advanced graphical techniques will only show to the hardcore player, since no normal player will question what was used to create such a beautiful world. Not that these techniques are not present, being clearly visible at some objects, but it’s not in the same league as Super Mario Galaxy.

There’s something tough where Metroid Prime 3 wins over other most advanced consoles, and it’s frame rate, a steady sixty frames per second, with no slowdowns, making the game very fluent. A lot of games graphically more advanced usually run on thirty frames per second.

Something that I do classify has negative is the use of old enemies with new skins, something that was already present in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and returns even worse on Corruption. Players that pay enough atention can even identify enemies copied from races that weren’t suposed to exist anymore, like the INGs from the second game, just with different colors. It’s not often but it can bother hardcore players of the trilogy.

Still about enemies, I should rant about the lack of huge bosses or bosses entirely based on Morph Ball, something I was expecting to see after Quadraxis on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

The Lightning don’t seen too complex at the beginning, but it would be a clear mistake to judge it as any less pretty than other elements in the game. Trough the game it’s possible to notice it’s presence more often, sometimes reflecting Samus’ face inside her helmet, face now in 3D, with eyes that follow the Wii Remote. Other effects are still nice e it shiny explosions or combustable fuel freezing or even incadescent substances melting.

The sound sector holds up with the same formidable level the series put up since it’s first appearance, with classic music that come back and new compositions that can become new classics. The sounds are also pretty detailed, showing the same level of care the rest of the game had. There’s a lot more interaction with characters on this Metroid, which also brings a good amount of voice over, even on generic workers from the federation.

Before being released there was a lot of comotion if the series should include a multiplayer mode and if it should be online, modes that were present on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime Hunters (this one developed by NST). In the end, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption doesn’t bring a multiplayer mode, choosing to focus itself on the main quest, still, it does not throw the online element out.

During the game you’ll got medals for fulfiling certain objectives, like killing one, two, three hunred enemies or killing a specific boss or scanning a certain object. And with these medals no longer the galleries are unlocked trough game completion, but they are bought.