A solid shooter with a heart of darkness
Although not the shining gem of a Nintendo franchise it wishes to be, the Metroid games have gone from strength to strength as the series has continued. The jump from black and white pixel blurriness to gritty 3D splendour added more gamers to its fan base and now, 5 years later, Metroid decides to turn its attentions to the Wii.
This time around, Samus Aran doesn’t find herself in a particularly pleasant spot herself. After attempting to save a planet from a huge meteorite, Samus is rewarded by getting infected with a mysterious virus, falling into a coma and waking up to find her fellow bounty hunters missing and suffering from some vicious side effects.
Rather than have a lie down and moan that she can’t do anything about the situation due to the fact she has a nasty tummy upset, Samus fights on like a trooper, hoping to find out precisely what is going on and to see if she can find anything stronger than Paracetamol to get rid of what’s ailing her.
The feature that deserves the most attention and praise, however, is the control scheme and how it compliments the combat elements.
It’s not all bad, though. The virus known as the ‘Corruption’ has given Samus an incredible power boost that can rip apart anything in her way when she decides to activate it. Using this sacrifices huge chunks of life, however, and constant usage will corrupt her entirely.
If you’ve played any of the games in the Prime series before, you won’t find much has changed when it comes to Corruption in terms of game play, yet that’s not necessarily a negative. Environmental puzzles are still a prominent feature and involve a fair amount of head scratching and brain ticking without feeling the need to be overly complex.
The feature that deserves the most attention and praise, however, is the control scheme and how it compliments the combat elements. The Nunchuck is primarily used for movement whilst the Wii Remote controls Samus’ signature Arm Cannon, allowing players to search around and highlight points of interest easily, as well as blasting enemies in your peripheral vision. Although this may sound like a simple mechanic, the fluid and basic control scheme makes the game easily accessible and highly enjoyable.
Despite the game being littered with several different types of enemies, none of them vary much in tactics, movement or range of attacks. Although combat is still enjoyable, it does feel incredibly easy when you’re up against such pitiful foes. The same, however, cannot be said about the boss fights. Despite all harbouring a clearly labelled weak spot that you will have to exploit, all can be tense and action packed, most notable of all is a timed fight between recurring Metroid enemy Ridley as you freefall to your death.
Something which did surprise me was the sheer length of the game. Despite offering a selection of 5 levels to explore (6 for those who wish to explore even further), the amount of objectives and vast amount of extras to obtain mean that you will be playing it for longer than expected and even after completion you will find yourself coming back for more.
Although most of the planets available are a pleasure to explore due to unique set pieces, at some intervals it is forgivable to think that you have revisited the same location several times in the past 10 minutes. I’m unsure whether this is due to some unimaginative design choices when it came to corridors or the fact that it is never especially clear whereabouts you’re meant to be going. Either way, you will find yourself at some points wandering desolate hallways endlessly trying to figure out what the ‘Mega Incredible Crystal Phazon Rizoriser Tang’ you’re meant to be finding looks like before stumbling on it by chance.
This small flaw fails to eclipse the otherwise fantastic gameplay decisions that made it into the game. With it’s easy to play controls and huge lands to explore, Corruption can be played by fans of the series and newcomers alike and still be enjoyed. Anyone looking for an engaging and intelligent FPS should seek this out.
The Bad: Some environments look incredibly similar, not a big enough variety in enemies
Gold Y Award