Do I really need to go over the game’s history and the preconceived notions surrounding it? Oh, what the heck! Let’s do it!  

Announced during Nintendo’s E3 2015, an event that was largely considered by the gaming populace as a tremendous disappointment for many reasons, not least of all being the fact that many of the games announced there were spinoffs of their respective series, at a time where eyes were starting to look towards Nintendo’s next generation of hardware and fan morale was at an extreme low.  It made a poor first impression to say the least! Its chunky and cute visuals were at best, considered an insult to a fanbase that by this point had written off the last game in the series as nothing less than the desolation of their beloved franchise, while the focus on co-op multiplayer gameplay was the equivalent of a kick to the nads with a set of golf shoes and a club to the head with a 6 iron for good measure.  

Whoo boy! That’s a tall order for Next Level Games! As if making a new entry in a series as beloved as Metroid Prime wasn’t hard enough! You have to make it with a cute, cartoony art style AND make it a 4 player co-op game!? Blimey!

Sorry Metroid fans.  It's canon.

But you know what? They’ve actually gone and done a darn good job with it! The resulting product actually ends up being not only a fun and well-tuned single and multiplayer 3DS shooter, but a pretty nice little Metroid title in its own right too.

The story is basically an excuse plot to get you on a planetary romp across the game’s three main planets, upon which you have a variety of 20+ missions to undertake.  They all take place on different parts of the planet and are fairly compact and compartmentalised, so don’t expect to see any of the series trademark backtracking and exploration here.  Metroid Prime Federation Force is a largely linear affair, though you will find hidden Mods for you mech by scouring the landscapes and heading off the beaten path.

Oh, I skipped ahead a bit didn’t I? I should mention just exactly what those Mods are, shouldn’t I? Right! Mods are a series of performance modifiers (get it?) that you can apply to your mech before heading out on a mission.  They can range from adding additional defence and offence, to applying additional effects to your shots such as enabling your missiles to split into two when fired.  In addition, you also get to choose what items you bring with you before starting each mission, the catch being that your mech has a limited weight capacity, forcing you to choose wisely with a limited set of items at your disposal; said items range from healing capsules, to series stalwarts such as missiles and super missiles, to new items such as the flame shot and the decoy capsule and each mission will require you to make the best use of what you’ve got (though it’s kind of obvious that bringing the flame shot to the ice planet is typically a good idea…)

Lookin’ good there Samus! You make for a fine distraction.

Ok! Back to the missions… As said before, they all tend to be very linear in design, with Mods being the prize for inquisitive hunters.  There is some non-linearity in the order you choose to tackle them in though, as multiple ones open at the same time.  What is really striking about them however is the variety of gameplay on offer here.  From straightforward combat, to stealth, to puzzle solving quests and even to monster herding (yes, really), Next Level Games have done a great job of designing missions that keep you doing something new and fresh with each one.  Even your Blast Ball skills are put to use in certain missions, as you guide suspiciously spherical looking objects into holes in order to continue.

What’s also impressive is how they’ve managed to balance the mission gameplay around both single and multiplayer.  Though the game is designed around co-op first and foremost, it’s not so married to multiplayer gameplay so as to make single player a chore.  Thanks to the Lone Wolf mod that doubles the damage you take and halves the damage you receive (exclusive to single player only), the game never feels overwhelmingly difficult or long and drawn out in single player and the missions flow very well.  This is definitely not another Triforce Heroes situation, in fact, single player actually gives you the chance to soak up the game’s atmosphere in quite a different way from multiplayer; with lone gameplay giving you quite a bit of that moody and isolated feeling that the series is known for, while multiplayer offers a more casual experience in that regard.

You can even play as Samus as well, to complete that classic single player Metroid experience…

There’s also a focus on re-playability with the missions too, with best scores and times saved for each one.  There are also a series of sub missions (Here’s one for the Monster Hunter fans), that range from the obvious, such as clearing within a certain time or killing a certain number of enemies, to the less so, such as destroying every breakable object in the mission area.  Completing these sub missions adds to your total mission score and high scores unlock medals that make more missions available; so there’s an incentive to do better each time.  Oh, speaking of replayability… the missions are not overly long either.  While they lack any sort of checkpoint system, they typically last between 8-20 minutes tops and are quick and snappy to get through on replays and are very well suited to portable play.  Those who screamed at the lengthy missions of Luigi’s Mansion 2 can breathe a sigh of relief here!

Multiplayer also brings about an interesting dynamic with the mods, as it allows you to divvy up tasks between you.  One player can act as a dedicated healer, for example, while another acts as the decoy guy for instance. Each individual player’s scores are also tracked throughout the mission, with the highest scoring player getting first dibs on the end mission spoils; so there’s a little bit of a Four Swords esc counter-co-op action going on here too.  Multiplayer also highlights how the missions often have multiple ways of tackling them.  In one mission in particular, me and another player had to go and retrieve an artefact from an ancient temple (yeah, that old chestnut); along the way we came across a chasm with a locked door, covered by rocks (double locked for good measure you see) on the other side.  On our side was a cannon we could use to blast the rocks out of the way and a zipline for getting across; on the other, was a horde of foes awaiting us that had to be killed before the door could be opened.  While we could have used the ziplines to get across, instead we only sent one of us over to draw out the enemies, while I stayed behind to use the cannon to not only blow away the rocks that were blocking the way, but also to provide covering fire for my co-op buddy.  It’s a nice touch!

It’s such a shame that the game lacks voice chat however, as it makes team co-ordination far more difficult than it need be.  While the game does include a series of shoutouts, as well as the ability to point out locations of interest on the map to other players with a simple tap on the touchscreen map, it never feels like it’s quite enough.  The strange thing though is that it’s clear that they put a lot of effort into them, because not only are there specific shoutouts for each different sub menu (in addition to the in-mission shoutouts), but they also come with 6 different languages to choose from! You can even choose to change the voice’s gender and pitch too, to hilarious effect (I’m personally rather fond of the squeaky Japanese female voice).  It’s clear that they understood how important player communication is in a co-op focused game, so why not go the whole hog and include an option for voice chat then? It’s baffling.  Hilarious, but baffling.

In terms of controls, they’re the same as in Metroid Prime Blast Ball and the tutorial for Federation Force gives you a solid idea of how the controls work, so I highly encourage you to go ahead and download the free game/demo from the eShop yourself.  While I feel they work well enough in Federation Force, I never felt fully comfortable with them.  The New3DS’ c-stick (Config B) doesn’t really offer enough precision for my liking and while I preferred the gyro controlled option (Config A), I never felt fully comfortable with it.  It works well enough to get by, but it never escapes that slightly awkward and compromised feel of playing a first person game on the 3DS.

The visuals are a lot better than the screenshots would suggest though.  While the environments and character models look rather low poly and basic, the animation is absolutely superb.  As is to be expected from Next Level Games by this point, everything is highly animated and the cartoony visuals allow for a level of exaggerated expression that is very impressive and rather charming.  Even the menus feature lovingly crafted animation (I especially like the little touch of having your little federation trooper’s hand follow your movements when navigating the game’s main menu) and there’s lots of lovely little touches scattered throughout, such as reflection effects, some nice lighting and plenty of JJ Abrams lens flares.  The art style choice may be a controversial one, but it does a great job of making everything stand out clearly on the 3DS’ small screens.  Never once did I find it hard to tell what’s going on.  And while fairly subtle, the 3D effect is nicely done and adds a (literal) layer of depth to the game’s visuals, making it feel like a solid (if low poly) little world.  It then seems strange that everything feels so small, despite the fact that you’re meant to be piloting a giant mech… Did everything suddenly become massive?

I can’t believe that my little Federation trooper is this cute!

Likewise, as to be expected from Next Level Games at this point, the music is lovingly crafted and gives off a nicely moody, but upbeat vibe.  Almost like a playful take on the Metroid series, it serves to enhance the experience nicely and may well end up on a few people’s playlists afterwards.