Rating: - Best Game Cube game, best Metroid game, one of best games period
Absolutely an amazing game, Metroid Prime has to be the not only the best Game Cube game, but undoubtedly the best Metroid game, yes, even exceeding Super Metroid. No disrespect intended towards Super Metroid; it has its own strengths, but I always thought that it could have been better in various ways. Metroid Prime is better in some of those ways, and overall I found it to be a much more complete and satisfying game than Super Metroid.

One area in which I will say that Metroid Prime is indisputably superior to Super Metroid is in how it manages the power-ups; you get so much more out of them in Metroid Prime. Super Metroid it's fair to say did lay the foundation since most of the power-ups in Metroid Prime are the same things seen in Super Metroid, and the few power-ups from Super Metroid that did not make the transition to Metroid Prime often had something similar replacing them that was more suitable for a 3D environment, such as the Boost Ball replacing the Speed Booster. There are also some new power-ups in Metroid Prime, but regardless of whether they are new or back from Super Metroid, they are all put to better use in Metroid Prime. Consider that much of Super Metroid, at least until the Wrecked Ship, can be completed almost solely with the wall jump and occasional assistance from the turbo bomb technique. The High-Jump Boots are not necessary to complete the game, and even most of the grappling beam parts earlier and later in the game can be done using the wall jump. In fact, whether the wall jump is there or not, the Grappling Beam becomes virtually useless once you find the Space Jump. Other power-ups like the Spring Ball and X-Ray Scope are interesting, but certainly not necessary. I tend to get more out of a game that actually requires use of the pick-ups. In so many platform/adventure games the designers put in tons of things and quite often end up making the game in such a way that requires use of less than half of them. Rygar the Legendary Adventure for PS2 is a perfect example. Metroid Prime, with the exception of some of the beam/missile combination attacks, requires use of everything, and the power-ups are not only used, but also used well. The puzzles and parts of the game which require use of a specific power-up are extremely well done. Nothing left me thinking anything like "Oh that was a dumb power-up," or "Oh they shouldn't have bothered having that kind of puzzle in the game." It is to me absolutely indisputable that Metroid Prime does a better job than Super Metroid with the power-ups.

For some specific ways in which the power-ups are put to better use in Metroid Prime, it is worth considering the beams, super missiles and power bombs. Power Bombs in both Super Metroid and Metroid Prime clear paths, whether by opening doors or clearing away terrain, but in Super Metroid they put in way too many. Unless you refuse to use the Ice Beam on the metroids in Tourian, there is no way you'll ever even come close to using fifty power bombs, let alone even ten. Metroid Prime puts in just enough, and unlike in Super Metroid, they can actually help a great deal in certain clutch situations. As for the beams, I found them much more fun to use than anything in Super Metroid, and combat as a result was much more fun. For instance, when you finish off a frozen enemy with a missile or another weapon, it makes an awesome shattering noise and ice parts fly everywhere. Not only are the beams more visually impressive and destructive, but they are also used in new puzzles that are extremely well designed. The Wave Beam now has a lightning element to it, and certain puzzles require its use to restore power to doors. The Plasma Beam melts things and is very destructive. In fact, the beams themselves are so well-rounded for so many situations that I only found myself using regular missiles for little more than finishing off frozen enemies.

The entire system with missiles is different in Metroid Prime than in Super Metroid, I say for the better. Regular missiles do fire at a much slower rate in Metroid Prime than in Super Metroid, but I find this to be a non-issue since the game seemed designed to minimize their use. I only found myself using regular missiles sparsely throughout most of the game, and once the Plasma Beam came, missiles were very forgettable; the Plasma Beam destroyed just about everything, even some fire-based enemies. Does this mean that missiles are useless in Metroid Prime? Absolutely not. Metroid Prime does different things with the missiles. Unlike having the Super Missiles as separate pick-ups from regular missiles, the Super Missile in Metroid Prime is an individual pick-up that functions similarly to the Charge Beam. It's activated by hitting the missile button after charging the Power Beam instead of releasing A, but it still costs five missiles. The concept is that the Super Missile itself never runs out as long as you don't run out of regular missiles. I found this to be a very good idea, and the visual upgrade and devastation from the regular missile to super missile are both much more imposing in Metroid Prime than in Super Metroid. Charging other beams and using them with missiles produces some devastating attacks that help greatly late in the game, and they really left me thinking that aside from the completion percentage, it was these amazing attacks for which it was worth picking up all the missile expansions. Anytime a game makes it worth finding the power-ups, it deserves praise.

I believe that another thing that should be taken into account in a Metroid game is the quality of the surroundings and environments. I found both Super Metroid and Metroid Prime to have a decent variety of environments, but for a variety of reasons I found it much more fun to roam around in Metroid Prime than in Super Metroid. As mentioned I found combat more fun in Metroid Prime, but other things to take into account are the visors. In Super Metroid movement is impossible with the X-Ray Scope, but in Metroid Prime, not only is movement possible with the different visors, but also mandatory since certain enemies can only be seen and fought with them. The Thermal and X-Ray Visors can be visually mesmerizing, and the Scan Visor is one of the best ideas ever made for taking a series from 2D to 3D. It makes paying more attention to the surroundings well worth it and helps shed much insight on the story. It should also be noted that Metroid Prime rewards the player for finding items and getting all the scans. Look back at Super Metroid; does the game give any reward for collecting 100% of the items? No. In Super Metroid the best ending comes from beating it in less than three hours, regardless of how sloppily it may have been played. Metroid Prime awards better endings and opens art galleries for more objects picked up and scanned, and in doing so it creates much more motivation and satisfaction for picking up everything than Super Metroid does. Looking for power-ups in Metroid Prime is also much more manageable without help since they make a noise when you get close to them. By no means does this guarantee that you'll find 100% without any problems; you will still have to be thorough, scan things, and use your brain since not all of them are immediately accessible. Some are in isolated little areas and you won't hear them if you have to bomb something, go through a tunnel, or do something else to get within hearing range. In Super Metroid the power-ups are much more obscure, and if you don't already know where they all are, you're not nearly as likely to find them. Using the X-Ray Scope to go over every inch of the game certainly wouldn't be much fun either. In Metroid Prime if you really try hard to find things, scan everything, keep the TV at a loud enough volume, and generally just play thoroughly, you should find close to at least 90-95% of the pick-ups without help. Rewards based on how well the game is played I find much more fitting for a Metroid game than rewards based on how fast the game is played.

I think that Super Metroid has only a few things over Metroid Prime. One of them would have to be its creepy beginning. The creepy atmosphere on Ceres Station and on Zebes in the very beginning is really amazing. The beginnings of Metroid Prime 1 and even Metroid Prime 2 are somewhat creepy, but I found Super Metroid to surpass them. The lack of enemies and mysterious music created the mood perfectly. Another area where I can see some people having a problem with Metroid Prime is that it does not really have much of a final area. The Impact Crater is little more than a few rooms, and there is no evacuation at the end of the game. These things are very true, but I think Metroid Prime makes up with a final boss that's actually somewhat challenging. Mother Brain is a joke in Super Metroid. All it takes to win is to just stand there and shoot, and annoyingly wait for all your life to be drained out. The final boss in Metroid Prime, which ironically is also called Metroid Prime, can actually be challenging and takes some time to kill.

It can't be put into words how good Metroid Prime is. Compared to Super Metroid or on its own, Metroid Prime is about as close to perfect as a game will ever get. The only valid complaint worth making against it is that a few of the scans are unreasonably easy to miss. Some enemies only appear once and in their brief appearances disappear very quickly; therefore you won't be able to get their scans unless you hit reset or start a new game. I certainly understand the one-chance with bosses since the only way to miss scanning a boss is by just forgetting, but little enemies such as some bats that appear for maybe five seconds and are never seen again? That's just not fair, but one negative against an infinitude of positives certainly makes the positives dominate. For anyone who owns a Game Cube or Wii and is more than a casual game fan, Metroid Prime is a must. Anyone expecting a typical first-person shooter from it obviously knows very little about video games. Metroid Prime is a Metroid game all the way, and the best one at it by far.

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