"Meh"troid 3 first impressions

by: Chuck - posted: 8/29/2007 12:35:00 AM

After seeing all the hype and hearing Sean rave about his experiences with the game at the 2006 edition of E3 I picked up the new Metroid game at lunch today.  I had played Metroid Prime on the 'Cube back in the day but I'm by no means a hardcore Metroid fan.  I was interested to see if the game lived up to the hype as well as checking out how the new control mechanism worked.

My first thoughts on playing the game were not overly impressive.  Sure the game looked a little better than Prime but it still felt like the same game I played a few years ago.  The Wii control system for FPS is decent and maybe a slight tick above using dual analog sticks but I guess I had higher expectations that the controls would be a little more precise.  The basic moving and firing controls are decent but it's a bit of a stretch to have to reach down the controller to hit and hold the 1 button to bring up the scanning visor.  I got used to it over time but it's still a little on the annoying side.

I'd point out that the opening sequence of the game seems a bit like the first levels of the Halo games (escape from a ship being attacked by aliens) but Halo itself wasn't the first game to do it so it's really not that big of a deal.  The standard Metroid game play of locking on, firing, and killing is present and if you like that you're in for more of the same.  I will have to admit that I wasn't overly impressed with the game until I got to the second major boss monster in the game.  Without spoiling it I have to say it was a pretty cool experience and it did help rekindle some of my interest in the game.

If you're a fan of the series then you're going to love this game.  If you're a Nintendo fan, you're going to love this game.  If you like console FPS games with lots of backtracking, you're probably going to love this game.  Me, I'm kind of meh on it right now and I'm hoping that the game picks up a bit.  From the other impressions I've read it looks like another winner but I guess the game just hasn't sunk its hooks into me like I thought it would.