Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

A flawed sequel says it best when it says nothing at all

- ABBIE STONE

Developer Retro Studios

Publisher Nintendo

Format Wii

Release 2007

Do you remember how Metroid Prime begins? "Among the stars, there is one light that burns brighter than all others: the light of Samus Aran. Her battles extend beyond her life and etch themselves into history. Here, another chapter of that history will be written." This is an extract from the rightfully forgotten narration that opens the game (in its PAL incarnation, at least), all of it delivered in an American voiceover that sounds like it's auditioning for a role in a Fast & Furious sequel, possibly as one of the cars. To Super Metroid fans, worried that Nintendo had made a fatal error in entrusting this storied series to a western studio, it must have sounded about as promising as a sharp crack from one of the titular aliens' containment tanks. Those fears were unfounded, of course - though that opening narration would turn out to be a grim omen of the problems to come, later in the series.

Prime was a true original, a game in which you had a gun for an arm but the shooting was almost an afterthought. Instead, it was far more about exploring the planet Tallon IV, an interst labyrinth of monsters and mysteries that kept pulling off miracles. A richly detailed world with puzzles worthy of Ocarina Of Time. Seamless switching from first- to third-person perspectives with the morph ball. First-person platforming that actually worked.