Preview: Metroid Prime

As pretty as the visuals of Metroid look from their new first person perspective, there are obvious control issues to be dealt with when taking a game from its 2D roots and placing it in any 3D perspective, especially a first person one. Retro seem to have dealt with this problem by simplifying the controls of Metroid Prime slightly, so the average gamer wont have much trouble jumping into the title and blasting Space Pirates away. If you attempt to treat Metroid as your bog standard shooter, looking around with the C-stick and bashing the A-button away, youll look a bit of a wally. Metroid Primes controls at the time of writing look like this:

The interesting part of the way the controller is laid out is that its possible to control Samus left and right arms individually. The L-trigger allows for Samus to grapple with her electric beam across chasms and such with her left arm, while all the blasting and general disposing of alien bugs is done with the right. This keeps the action and exploration elements cleverly separated from one another to keep the game moving at decent pace. The L-trigger is home to quite a few lock-on functions, these include:

• Locking onto the nearest object
• If a console is nearby it will actually retrieve recent log entries,
• Locking onto enemies brings up their bios (strengths, weakness, proximity) on your screen
• Will attempt to decipher codes for locked doors for opening
• Locks onto marked spots for grappling
• Strafing from left to right (when not clicked all the way down)

The scanner mode can be accessed through the D-pad (Rogue Leader style) where it is situated among the other visor modes mentioned earlier. Gameplay details of what the exact use for each of the modes mode are for will likely surface soon, but at E3 we got familiar with the standard scanning mode. Walking up to any object or enemy for a scan would trigger a short in-game loading sequence after which the said object/enemies data was made available. This incredibly handy gadget comes to your rescue when you stand at the foot of one of many gargantuan Metroid Prime bosses wondering where to shoot first, the scanner will likely emerge as your best friend in your quest.

Another friend that you literally couldnt live without is you trusty morphing gun arm. Yes, I said morphing gun arm. Just as on the bottom left-hand side of the visor theres also a cross shape on the opposite side where you can select your weapon. The cross shape only leaves room for four weapons which will -once more- disappoint the FPS crowd, but reminds gamers where Metroid Primes roots lie. They can be accessed by nudging the C-stick, north, south, east or west. At the moment only two of the weapons in Metroid are known but there are at least another few that werent present in the recent E3 demo.

As said earlier, tapping the A-button will get you nowhere fast in Metroid Prime, holding it down and charging seems to yield more positive results (well positive for you, not the space pirates). If you charge you weapon, not only will you be able to take out some enemy in one single devastating shot, but youll also be able to attract item your way with the electro-magnetic field you create at the tip of your gun. Another tidbit discovered by our resident Metroid nut Brenden, is that by holding down the A-button until your shot is fully charged and then tapping the Y-button, you will execute a super shot that will damage a large area. For example using the ice blaster combined with this super shot can cover large potion of a wall in ice... mmm... Meaty.

The list offensive weapons so far looks like this:

• Power (charge) Beam: This deadly weapon is used to blast open doors as well as clear away any rubble that obscures your path. At E3, this was the standard weapon of use. (Super shot available through this weapon)
• Ice Beam: Unloading a shot of this bad boy on an enemy and youll temporarily freeze them in their tracks. You may also remember this weapon in the original Metroids. (Super shot available through this weapon)
• Missiles: Tapping the Y-button will treat you to a neat animation of your arm-gun opening at the end, signalling the all clear to fire off your missiles. Upon firing them, trails of light track them all the way to their destined target.
• Bombs (morph ball mode): Also present in the original Metroids. You can drop 3 of these bad boys at a time and must wait for all three to explode before youre allowed to place another. Your ammo respawns so there's no worry of running out at those crucial moments.

Metroid Prime just wouldnt be a Metroid without Samus Morph Ball mode. In the original Metroid this mode was used as an access bombs that could take out walls and reveal new areas to the player. You could also roll yourself down specific routes that could just about fit (who would a guessed it?) a small spherical object not unlike Samus in her different guise. Fast forward to present day gaming and the morph ball has returned in full 3D, smothered in plenty of style. Samus can transform into her ball mode at any point during the adventure by pressing the X-button. This triggers yet another of Metroid Primes sweet transition animations, this time of Samus running then curling-up into a metallic ball.

Once in ball mode you wont be able to resist from drawing comparisons with the GameCube hit title Super Monkey Ball while rolling Samus around the large environments with pleasingly realistic physics. However Ai Ai couldnt drop bombs and navigate half-pipes now could he? Certain doors and riddles in the game will rely on you being in morph ball form, as demonstrated in clips of the game. Tapping X once more will return you to the first person perspective.

There were initial rumours that Metroid Prime's length would dissapoint gamers but recently Nintendo/Retro quashed those rumours leaving the game's lengivity up in the air. Whether short or long, it's been impressing gaming press around the world in demo form which bodes well for the full version. And with confirmed Progressive scan -that's RGB/60hz for PAL gamers-, Dolby Pro Logic II and 60fps at least we know it will look fluid and sound great.

We could go one forever talking about the features that stand out in Metroid Prime. We havent even touched upon the music and sound effects in the game that viciously rival the graphics for best aspect of the game so far. As well as that, the enemies in place in the game are few and far between with decent AI in the beginning but they gradually increase and improve the further you venture into the game.

Prime has shown itself to be a killer application in the making due to it's insistance on providing something new for the gamer, and n-sider will keep our beady eyes on this one until the first copies touch US shores. Look out for a detailed review upon the games release in November just in time for the turkey dinner with gran.