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 fourth and last of our Staff's mini reviews of the mighty Metroid by Conor a full review is on its way soon�

Mini Review #4:

Ever since its launch GameCube has, honestly, been missing that so-called 'killer app'. Mario Sunshine, Resident Evil, Eternal Darkness and other favorites are all Brilliant in their own right, and provide hours of great gaming, but nothing has been quite there yet. We haven't had that game to make people run out and buy a GameCube, the game which solidifies all our love for GameCube, which will be reminisced over years down the line. But now we do. Because Metroid Prime is here, and nothing else matters anymore.

Right from the word go, Metroid Prime grabs you by the gizzards and never lets go. The game is, to all intensive purposes, a first-person adventure. Admittedly, when I first heard Retro mention this, I thought it was little more than a ploy to please disgruntled Metroid fans - a FPS with adventure bits and an invented label slapped on. But I have seen the folly of my ways. Because Prime so differentiates itself from any Doom offspring that 'Metroid vs. Halo' topics which have sprung up are both immature and irrelevant.

Metroid Prime is nothing like Halo. Or Half-Life. Or Goldeneye. It is unique. Retro have taken the best bits from different games, fused it with the Metroid franchise and sparked it all up with their own brand of imagination and style. For Metroid us at its best when the lines between shooter, adventure and platformer blur, and Prime becomes its own pseudo-sci-fi hybrid self. It refuses to be slotted into a neat little box; it is, quite simply, a Metroid game. There's your genre for you. It would have been easy for lesser developers to mess up this mixing of different styles of games, after all so many have in the past. But Retro Studios aren't a lesser developer, and help from Nintendo has most definitely ensured this. There is just as much emphasis on shooting as there is on exploring. And all of these different gameplay aspects are handled with the utmost excellence.

Exploration has been a predominant force over previous Metroid games, and Prime isn't about to halt this. It's not just the excitement of discovering brand new areas which will send your body tingling, but the thrill of getting your hands on a new piece of kit. All of a sudden, things open up much more to you. That huge chasm which previously seemed impossible can be crossed with a Grapple Beam, pesky limestone blocks can now be cleared with a swift bomb and those pipes you glanced at aren't just part of the scenery any more. It's brilliant fun returning to treaded ground to try out new toys, and hunt out those elusive health and missile upgrades.

The blasting, too, is handled with certain eloquence. Essentially, Retro simplified first-person shooting down to its basics. You can't strafe (something which initially feels strange not to have), but you can lock onto enemies, Zelda-style. From here, shooting, dodging attacks and maneuvering around the baddies become child's play. Your offensive abilities are limited to missiles, four guns, and bombs when you're a morph ball, which mightn't seem like much to begin with, but become an adequate arsenal when you know how to use them right. And believe me, a simpler combat system does not mean easier battles, a more complex one would've, in fact, made any fights unnecessarily complicated and frustrated, as well as going against the games heritage. The AI of enemies (especially the deadly Space Pirates) are impressive. Also, and hats off to whoever dreamt this one up, as you progress and become more powerful, certain areas will see weak enemies replaced with more difficult ones. Not all them, mind you, but enough to prevent them becoming redundant quickly.

But the blasting is broken up by a great mix of puzzlers, and some ace platformer bits. And these puzzles aren't any 'Find Blue Key for Blue Boor' no-brainers, but require thought, a little bit of skill, and more than a dash of perseverance. This is all helped by the helpful scanner visor, which gives you information about enemies, structures and objects with will give you clues most of the time. In fact, the entire scanning part of the game is pulled off brilliantly. You can whiz through, scanning little and just completing your mission if you want. But the real Metroid fans will want to find out as much as possible about Tallon IV, and with your scanner you'll learn about the history, geology, civilisations, the effects of the meteor crash and what the hell those damn Space Pirates are up to. It's certainly much more effective than just watching cut scenes, and sucks you in more.

But what really sucks you in is the seldom paralleled presentation, complimented by some major power-sucking visuals. Even the opening menu has been lavished over, a few seconds into the game you're presented with a incredibly stylish magnified-cell backdrop. The whole game is drenched in eye-melting graphics; the enormous structures and landscapes, the way your wave beam goes spinning down dark corridors, lighting up the walls as it goes along, the intense boss battles that will send your heart racing, the blood, water and steam that drips down your visor. Oh, and it never slows down. Not once. The subtle effects are there as much as the ones that will leave you awestruck. As well as harnessing GameCube's power, Retro Studios have applied their own distinctive style. It's some of the best visuals I've seen around.

This is helped by the engrossing and atmospheric score the whole way through. It's creepy and moody, helping the feeling of isolation, and when things get intense, it quickens up and gets the blood flowing. And when you're lying in bed at night, and you hear tunes playing over in your head, you know the developers have done something right.

If anyone doubted Retro Studios' ability, not anymore. Metroid Prime is the kind of game you just don't want to end, one that constantly throws up surprises and some of the best moments in gaming. Battling Space Pirates in the dark with your Thermal Visor, killing one only to have it dive at you in a final act of kamikaze, finally being able to enter that room which has taunted you the whole thing, racing against the clock in a space station that's about to self-destruct. Metroid Prime is filled with moments when you just have to set your controller down and marvel at what's before you. It's a thing of beauty, a soulful, enriching experience that deserves to be treasured by all. These are not hollow superlatives, believe me. Metroid Prime is the best thing on GameCube, and one of the greatest examples of game design in years. You dare not miss it.

by Conor

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