Review: Metroid Prime Hunters

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

Metroid. One word – that’s all you need – and everybody knows what it means. This portable incarnation is the first on the DS after the demo (I still don’t know why there was a demo cart). You take the role of Samus Aran, a female bounty hunter who travels through deep space looking for adventure. This time the Galactic Federation have asked Samus to investigate a mysterious message from the Alimbic system. You soon learn the story of the eradication of the Alimbics who sealed away a massively powerful creature, called Gorea, in a galactic prison. However, it’s going to break out soon and you’re the galaxy’s only hope.

You are hunting crystals this time around, hence the subtitle: Hunters. These crystals power up certain things and give you access to locked doors. Unfortunately for you there are a number of rival bounty hunters after these crystals as well as the distress signal from the Alimbic system was sent out on all frequencies and languages…(even Scouse?). You can face up to three of these rivals at a time in the single player mode. Each Hunter has a special trick up their armour suit; some split in two, one becomes invisible and of course Samus has her morph ball trick. If you are killed a hunter can steal crystals off you and depart to another planet in the system. You then have to give chase to regain your crystal/s.

Control-wise, this game is going to give you cramp if you play for any length of time. The L button is set to fire your weapons and the control pad is to move, with the touch screen used to aim. So, as you can imagine, that’s not very comfortable, especially if you have your other hand wrapped around a stylus. Metroid cramp gained almost as much notoriety as Wii elbow in the early days. There are other control methods but the default is still the best, as crippling as it is. In contrast to this the HUD system is very easy to navigate and changing your arm cannon weapon is as simple as two presses on the screen with the stylus.

At various points you’ll find your progress blocked by colour-coded doors, which requires you to get the correct weapon so you can literally shoot the locks off. As with all Metroids you’ll be constantly backtracking and double-checking the (quite neat) little 3D map on the touch screen. The backtracking didn’t feel as much of a chore in this game as in its big brother (or should that be sister?) versions on the GC and Wii. Although it’s obviously on a smaller scale the worlds don’t feel any smaller. Nintendo deserves credit for cramming as much stuff in as they did.

A special mention must go to the superb multiplayer online mode. You can register up to a quite astounding 60 friends to play against. Plus the game allows voice chat between friends. I played this mode in the early days when Wi-Fi hotspots still worked. There wasn’t any lag and considering this was over a Wi-Fi signal in the middle of Edinburgh was excellent. Obviously it’s more fun with friends and possibly a bit too fast sometimes, as the camera loses you if you move too quickly.

The only thing that bugs me in Metroid games is the constant flipping between shooting, running and the visor. Once again you’re asked to scan, well, pretty much everything. Get 100% and you’ll get a different ending, allegedly. Woop de doo. If your life was in imminent danger would you get you camera out and say “I just want to get a good action shot of  Eyjafjallajokull while it’s spewing hot lava?”. No, you wouldn’t.

Samus Aran in her portable outing doesn’t disappoint. You basically know you’re going to get the ‘rolling up into a ball to access other areas’ trick, you know you’ll get the hidden energy packs and missile pods too. It simply doesn’t matter how many cliché boxes this game ticks, it practically oozes quality. I’d even go as far to describe this title as flashy and showing off – obviously blown up to this level the screenshots look a little pixellated but on screen they are razor sharp. But you know what? They get away with the flashiness with a brilliant technical feat and a tour de force on the DS.