GameSpy's Take

Nintendo's "New Play Control!" series of Wii games is actually a pretty clever idea. By re-releasing old GameCube titles with new controls that take advantage of the Wii Remote's functionality, Nintendo can quickly and easily get a few more games on the market, and it lets Wii users who may not have owned a GameCube experience some great games. So far, all of the New Play Control titles have been rather logical choices (although one could argue that Donkey Kong Jungle Beat isn't the same without the GameCube's DK Bongo controllers). Looking at the remaining GameCube library, two games that were prime (ho-ho!) candidates for the New Play Control makeover were the first two Metroid Prime titles. They're both fantastic, but the motion controls in the Wii's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption have made them a little difficult to go back and replay.


Which brings us to Metroid Prime Trilogy. Nintendo could have easily released the original Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 Echoes as separate Wii titles and charged $30 for each of them, but apparently the company was feeling generous. Instead, we are getting both of the GameCube games as well as Corruption for just $50. Along with The Orange Box, this is one of the best deals in gaming.

The various merits of the three Metroid Prime games have been discussed time and again, so it almost seems silly to prattle on about how good these games are, but for those who may have overlooked the series so far, these games are quite good! They are, of course, 3D continuations of Nintendo's classic Metroid series. You lead bounty hunter Samus Aran through a large, open-ended world as she hunts down a plethora of power-ups and battles space pirates. The trick is, although you're free to move about the world, there are many areas that are inaccessible until a certain item or weapon is found.

When it was first announced that Nintendo was releasing a 3D Metroid game, many fans were a bit upset at the concept. Many doubted that the exploration-heavy gameplay would translate to the first-person perspective or that Retro Studios, an American developer, would be able to do justice to this Japanese series.

As it turns out, we had nothing to fear. Metroid Prime did an outstanding job of taking the formula from the Super NES' Super Metroid (considered by many to be the best entry in the series) and translating it to 3D. Retro was even able to properly capture that special Metroid feeling of exploring a world that's quite beautiful to look at, but dangerous just beneath its surface.

Metroid Prime 2 expanded on the first game by sending Samus to a world that is haunted by a dark, alternate version of itself. It also introduced a lackluster multiplayer mode that felt more like an afterthought than a feature. This mode is included here, but without any added Wi-Fi support, it's even less enjoyable than it was before. The third game had Samus travelling to multiple planets during her adventure, but the biggest innovation was the new control scheme made possible thanks to the Wii Remote.


Although the GameCube Prime titles played well enough, their controls took a bit of getting used to due to the fact that the GameCube controller simply wasn't designed with first-person games in mind. That's no longer a problem now that you use the Nunchuk to move and the Remote to look around, aim, and shoot. Even switching between Samus' different visor views (allowing her to scan items or use vision filters like thermal and x-ray) is a breeze. Given the vast amounts of controller configuration options in games like The Conduit, though, the options here seem somewhat limited. Of course, the controls work quite well as-is, so it's not much of an issue.

Updated controls aren't the only thing added to the original Prime games. All three games now support 16:9 widescreen (previously only Corruption had this feature), include some minor graphical tweaks such as improved textures, and have the reward system from Corruption. This reward system grants you different colored tokens in return for accomplishing specific goals, and they can be used to purchase bonuses like new outfits, concept art, music, and the ability to take your own screen shots. And while the new visuals are nice, the first two games didn't really need that much enhancement -- they looked nice already.

The Metroid Prime series was pretty fantastic on its own, and now that all three titles have been brought together with some much-appreciated control improvements, it's one of the best titles (and certainly one of the best values) on the Wii. The new controls really do provide a good excuse for fans to double-dip, and if you've never experienced Samus' adventures before, this is the perfect opportunity.