Nintendo Wii - Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Review

Welcome, my friends, to the final piece in the Metriod Prime series, know as Metriod Prime 3: Corruption.  Personally, I feel this game finishes the series quite well, but there are some things that were left out from the previous Primes that I would've like to see back in this one.  If you happen to complete this game at 100% completion, you get left with a cliffhanger that perhaps suggests the next piece in the story line...

 Allow me to give a little background before we begin.  Metroid Prime starts the story by having Samus investigate a plant known as Tallon IV, a planet formerly home to the Chozo race.  While there, she discovers the substance which becomes known as Phazon, a radioactive substance capable of incredible mutations depending on its use.  Eventually, Samus's power suit becomes infected with the Phazon, and upon defeating "Metroid Prime", this Phazon infection is removed.  This would end up to not be a good thing, as this leads to the birth of Dark Samus.

At this point, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes picks up, sending Samus to Aether.  While there, she discovers the planet's energy has essentially been split in two world (Light & Dark Aether), and the Luminoth, residents of Light Aether, are now at risk of being eliminated from existance by their evil counterparts of Dark Aether, the Ing.  Long story short, Samus goes between the light and dark worlds, transferring the main energy back to Light Aether in order to destory Dark Aether.  Several battles take place with Dark Samus along the way, and the final battle suggests that Dark Samus is destoryed, but the 100% completion ending indicates otherwise...

 So upon transferring all the energy back to Light Aether, Dark Aether is destoryed, the world is saved, Samus waves goodbye, and thus leads into Prime 3.

I won't be giving story for Prime 3 because that would defeat the purpose of playing the game yourself!  But I will give my pros and cons in a more detailed fashion.

Pros
  - This game has incredible graphics for the "underpowered" Wii.  Hook this up to your widescreen and get it going on 480p and it only looks more impressive.  The world designs are amazing, and truly a sight to behold.
  - Voice acting is a welcome addition to the series.  Really gets old having to read everything.  If you're like me, you'll read everything anyway, but it's still nice to hear some talking once in awhile.  Now if they would do some voiceover for the log entries.  Still don't hear Samus talk, however...I'm sure she's got a sexy voice though...
  - More coordination with the ship rocks.  Exploring more than one planet is also nice.  Adds another element to this game that was much needed.  Calling in bombing runs is sweet.
  - Controls = spot on.  Incredibly well coordinated, and probably done better than any other game on the console.  Twilight Princess was pretty good, but the lack of actual motion detection (by that I mean that swinging the Wiimote up would still do a horizontal slash).  MP:3 is ridiculously good and truly shows how a FPS should work on the Wii.
  - Excellent Finish.  The game finishes the Metroid Prime series very well, while throwing in a few twists just to keep you on edge.  As mentioned above, it leaves you with a cliffhanger if you get 100% item collection, so hopefully that's indication of the next game in the series...perhaps featuring Zero Suit Samus?

 And of course we've got some of these...
Cons
  - The game was actually relatively short.  I managed a meager 18 hours with 100% item collection and 98% scan completion to beat the game.  That was only the first time through, and compare that to the roughly 40 it took for the original Prime and 28 for Prime 2 and I think we see the trend going on here.  Then again, maybe it is because I'm used to the way the Prime games played, so we'll attribute some to that.
  - Personally, I missed the ability to switch between guns.  The first two Primes had this, why would've it been so hard to do it in the third?  Essentially, the only gun modes you can switch between are normal and hypermode.  Yahoo.  Give me 4 guns.  Having 4 added an extra element to the game called strategy.  And where the heck did missle combos (e.g. Super Missles, etc.) go?
  - Yes it is easy.  But that's if you keep it on the regular skill setting.  Try veteran, or if you've beaten it, set up to Hyper Mode.  It kicks things up a notch.  One tip though: don't stay in the acid rain for more than a few seconds without the suit upgrade.  You will die.
  - Did Retro Studios forget how to implement decent loading times?  Wow.  Some doors you literally will have to wait 10 seconds or more at before they open.  The first two Primes suffered no such flaw, as doors opened in at most 4 seconds.  Maybe the bigger disc/better graphics has something to do with it, but wow, dropped the ball on this one.

That would be all I've got for this game.  Definately a recommended purchase for the Wii.  If you really want the feel the series, pick up a GameCube controller, memory card, and Prime 1 & 2 while you're at it.  The entire series is worth the approx. $80 to get the games and 80 hours it'll take to get through them.

Final Rating (viewpoints, how about half-stars for the star rating?)
Graphics - 9.5
Sound - 8.0
Gameplay - 9.0
Replay Value - 8.5

Overall - 9.3 - Get it! Now!