#42 –Metroid Prime
(24 Points) 1 of 11 Lists - Highest Ranking - #2 – Tyrant
In the vast universe, the history of humanity is but a flash of light from a lone star.
Release Date: November 17, 2002
Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:Metroid Prime is a video game developed by Retro Studios and Nintendo for the GameCube console. It was released in North America on November 17, 2002, and in Japan and Europe the following year. Metroid Prime is the fifth main installment and the first 3D game in the Metroid series. Because exploration takes precedence over combat, Nintendo classifies Metroid Prime as a first-person adventure rather than a first-person shooter.
Metroid Prime is the first of the three-part Prime storyline, which takes place between the original Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus. Like previous games in the series, Metroid Prime has a science fiction setting in which players control the bounty hunter Samus Aran. The story follows Samus as she battles the Space Pirates and their biological experiments on the planet Tallon IV.
The game was a collaboration between Retro's staff in Austin, Texas and Japanese Nintendo employees, including producer Shigeru Miyamoto, who suggested the project after visiting Retro's headquarters in 2000. Despite initial backlash against the game's first-person perspective, the game garnered universal acclaim and commercial success, selling more than a million units in North America alone. It won a number of Game of the Year awards, and it is considered by many critics and gamers to be one of the greatest video games ever made, remaining one of the highest-rated games on Metacritic
As in previous Metroid games, Metroid Prime takes place in a large, open-ended world in which regions are connected by elevators. Each region has a set of rooms separated by doors that can be opened with a shot from the correct beam. The gameplay involves solving puzzles to reveal secrets, platform jumping, and shooting foes with the help of a "lock-on" mechanism that allows circle strafing while staying aimed at the enemy. Metroid Prime is the first game in the Metroid series to use a first-person view instead of side-scrolling, except in Morph Ball mode, when Samus' suit transforms into an armored ball and the game uses a third-person camera.
The protagonist, Samus Aran, must travel through the world of Tallon IV searching for twelve Chozo Artifacts that will open the path to the Phazon meteor impact crater, while collecting power-ups that enable the player to reach previously inaccessible areas. The Varia Suit, for example, protects Samus' armor against dangerously high temperatures, allowing her to enter volcanic regions. Some of the items are obtained after boss and mini-boss fights, which are encountered in all regions except Magmoor Caverns. Items must be collected in a specific order so that the player may progress. For example, players cannot access certain areas until they find a certain Beam to open doors, or discover new ordnance with which to beat bosses. In common with previous games in the series, the player must return to areas already explored to retrieve items that were previously inaccessible.
The heads-up display, which simulates the inside of Samus' helmet, features a radar display, a map, ammunition for missiles, a health meter, a danger meter for negotiating hazardous landscape or materials, and a health bar and name display for bosses. The display can be altered by exchanging visors; one uses thermal imaging, another has x-ray vision, and another features a scanner that searches for enemy weaknesses and interfaces with mechanisms such as force fields and elevators. Metroid Prime introduces a hint system that provides the player with clues about ways to progress through the game.
Pak's Thoughts – Making Metroid into a first person shooter should have been a total disaster. I remember hearing all about it in the previews and being completely unable to comprehend how Metroid’s 2D platforming could possibly translate into 3D. Boy did they pull it off, though. It took an already-immersive franchise and cranked the immersion up to 11. This game and its sequels have also resulted in the most frustrating, controller-throwing frenzies since childhood.
Fun Fact! The last 3 items on this list have all been released on the same date in different years. Must be something magical about the 17th of November…