Retro Studios may well have been an unknown developer for a lot of you but that's certainly about to change with the release of this little beauty. The brief history of the Retro Studios 'reform' if you will was that they were working on some titles you may know of such as 'Raven Blade' (wishful thinking has it that maybe they may undertake this project once again) but despite having the grasp for a great game, the team then were short staffed and were having all sorts of problems, then came along Nintendo and sparked some inspiration and effort. With a larger team, support from Nintendo and direct help from Shigsy himself Retro Studios cancelled Raven Blade and other projects to solely concentrate on Metroid Prime. Now in all truth, it was a long hard road, Prime in its early days wasn't the blemishing gem you see before you today, there were all sorts of technical problems and the graphics have come on in leaps and bounds, the gameplay itself was fiddled with numerous times when this game was switching from being totally 3rd person to cases when it was considered to go completely 1st person. But now we have the finished version and praise be to Retro Studios, their hard work has paid off, their status as a developer now has raised a few bars I'm sure, new outstanding developers like this may certainly overshadow our loss of Rare and future projects will certainly be ones to look out for�

Here be the second of our Staff's mini reviews of the mighty Metroid by Dringo, a full review and more mini reviews are on their way soon�

Mini Review #2:

You know the best way to describe Metroid Prime is that of an Adult Zelda in first person with far more shooting and jumping� so nothing like you've ever played before. After receiving a distress signal Samus visits a space station, finding the station overrun with baddies Samus must research what's happened and if there is any survivors or not. This part of the game acts like a mini tutorial, you at this stage have everything at your disposal, grapple hook, Morph Ball, Missile Launcher� the works. After escaping the station Samus is damaged and all these abilities are stripped from you.

So starts the game, chasing a metallic Ridley (flying thing) to the planet (Tallon IV) surface Samus sets about trying to locate him. The game has the atmosphere to end all atmosphere's, it is the one adventure game that requires limited character interaction. There is no one there but evil, you are a bounty hunter� you are on your own. This isolation feeling is essential to making Metroid Prime play like its 2D third person incarnations. And it works. I really can't recommend the game enough, after receiving it 4 days ago I haven't gone out, had anything to eat or even slept. It has made Super Monkey Ball 2 and Resident Evil 0 feel like distant memories.

It is all to do with the most unusual yet startling mix of gameplay elements, an original control system, sprawling adventure style landscape in a first person mode combined with controversially effective platform gaming. The game is very clever especially with rewarding you, after losing all your very cool abilities you are often treated to getting the back, this way the game opens up even more. Similar to when you receive a new weapon in Zelda you can now go back and do loads more. So when they say this is not a first person shooter they are not joking, this is more like Starfox Adventures than Timesplitters 2 but out matches both of them ten fold. The atmosphere is aided by the scanning concept, everything is scanable, each plant, tree, feature, object, creature, power up and so on can be scanned with a little of information about each one. This gives you a feel for each environment, be it a lava themed world or an ancient civilisation.

Another outstanding feature is the graphics of Metroid Prime, they are certainly stunning but it is the effects that are particularly special. Samus' eye often reflects in the visor, water spray and blood (green goo) often splats against the screen. Plants wave in the wind and the entire landscape literally feels alive with creatures scuttling into crevices and under jutting outcrops. The music all adds to the unnerving atmosphere the game presents and the sound effects are that of typical action games.

But enough talking, this game is truly outstanding; one of the greatest things I have played since Ocarina of Time and that is on hell of a reputation. Metroid Prime is THE reason to get a GameCube and is without a doubt the greatest title in this generation of gaming.

by Dringo

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