One fairly common thing I’ve noticed among many gamers is the tendency to hype things up. I’m not saying this is bad, because it can be that little bit of extra push a developer needs to deliver on their game. However, the bad side of hype is the letdown, which can be a massive disappointment. The latest game in a so far epic series comes out, and expectations are the highest they’ve ever been. The game isn’t that great in all actuality, and yet it’s receiving rave reviews from sources all around. It’s one of the hardest things for some gamers to do - admit that the game sucks and move on. They’ve spent the last three months of their lives preparing for what they believed would be a benchmark in gaming history when it’s nothing more than a wanna-be classic that failed. There are some gamers that actually try to convince themselves that a game is better than it is. Things that should and normally bother them are shrugged off and minor elements that were done right are emphasized beyond high heaven. This needs to stop.

I don’t relish in the idea of telling you that Metroid Prime 3: Corruption didn’t pull through on what was expected, but it’s the truth. I wish that when Reggie Fils-Aime stated MP3:C would be ‘done when it’s perfect,’ wasn’t just an advertising tagline. This review isn’t about taking a cricket bat to the head of MP3:C like Simon Pegg did to zombies in Shaun of the Dead; the game is actually very good. Just not as good as most people have been saying.

Metroid Prime was like getting hit in the temple by a shot in the dark. It has received such marvel from critics and fans, and rightfully so. It set the Prime trilogy on the right track. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes proved to be a disappointment in comparison to the first, and not many were ashamed to admit it. The heavy burden of ending the trilogy in style pounced on the back of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. To add to the headache, it had to do this with a completely different control scheme, on a different console.

There have been a good many claims saying that once you’ve played MP3:C, you won’t have any desire to go back and play a console game with just two analogue sticks. I’m not going to obnoxiously yell out that it’s the only way to play a game from now on, but I definitely wish all of my favourite FPSs could control like this. After beating this game, and then quickly going back to Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition just for kicks, I suddenly noticed how much nicer it was to play MP3:C. This is coming from a guy who stated that RE4:WE was much better than the other console versions (which it is). I couldn’t see Retro Studios doing a much better job with the controls than what they did, and by the looks of it, things aren’t going to get much better, at least during this generation. I say this optimistically, though, since developers now have the example they need to make a properly functioning Wii FPS. If only Red Steel could have done this, then people could focus more on trashing all the other crappy things about that game. The leap MP3:C made with its control scheme won’t be matched for a while to come.

The story in MP3:C does a good enough job that you’ll be left with curiosity and excitement, so you play on, uncovering more secrets and are left with awe in some situations. Then, you get stuck and it wrecks any flow you had, and it will become a chore to get to the next part. Once you figure it out, you rejoice, thinking you’ve made headway, but then you get stuck again. The whole plot is based on “corruption,” if you couldn’t already tell by the title of the game. There’s this thing called Phazon: it spreads and does bad things. It’s a little more in-depth than that, but any more would spoil it for you. Just know that you’ll feel a genuine concern for Samus and won’t be able to bear what you think may possibly become of her. Overall, the story entails extraordinary feats and moments of awe, but almost everything is to be undone by the anticlimactic ending. I’ll just tell you that I give it a thumbs down.

The boss battles within MP3:C are quite entertaining to begin with, and are throughout, but they become almost obviously repetitive after so long. All you do is deal enough damage to one area of the boss to either stun them or reveal another area to attack. Then you repeat this until you’ve actually taken the beast down. Not all of the boss fights work like this, and it’s not as bad as it sounds like I’m making it out to be, but for picky gamers like myself, it takes a toll on the overall experience. This, however, can be balanced by the very beautiful environments in the game, accompanied by very fitting music. I even found myself just standing there, looking around, at some times.

This game had a good amount of flow to it, as I mentioned earlier. You’ll be cruising along (not to say th game is easy), having to stop every so often to figure out a clever puzzle, and then continue on your way. The overall pace of the game is really nice, up to a point. Depending on how observant you were earlier on, you may need to do some more backtracking than what was necessary. And if you’re one of those players who likes to collect everything and go everywhere in a game, you’ll be aiming for one of the bonus endings. You do this by collecting stuff. In most cases, you can’t get the collectibles until you have a later upgrade, meaning you’ll have to come back to it. Doing this can take up several hours and destroys any fluidity, which, in turn, affects your final experience with the conclusion of the game. The ending wasn’t that good to begin with, but you’ll really be disappointed after you spent all that time for some special ending differing from the first in such a minor way, you would have been satisfied more just by reading about it somewhere else. A lot of intense Metroid fans go on about the backtracking being such a big part of the series, but that doesn’t mean it’s one of the good parts of the series.

MP3:C is still a solid game. The experience is lacking somewhat in certain areas where it could have been better. However, one of the best moments I’ve had in a while was first playing the game and learning the controls. It took only a matter of minutes before I completely forgot that I wasn’t playing this game like I play others, but I continually thought that it controlled better than those other games. Retro Studios did us a great deed in finally showing the industry what the Wii remote is capable of in a FPS. For some people, this game will be played through once and you’ll have experienced anywhere between 12 to 20 hours of play (maybe more), while others will play it over and over. I can tell you that you should play through it once, minimum. Go rent it or borrow it from a friend, at the very least. The conclusion is disappointing, but the gameplay does justice to the great series.