Metroid Prime

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Metroid Prime is a first-person adventure/shooter video game developed by Nintendo-owned Retro Studios and released by Nintendo in 2002 for the GameCube (and later bundled with GameCube in 2004). It was the first 3D Metroid game and is officially classified by Nintendo as a first-person adventure rather than a first-person shooter due to the large exploration element in the game. It was also the first Metroid game to be released since Super Metroid, which was released nearly eight years earlier (This applies to North America only; in all other markets, it was released after Metroid Fusion). The storyline, however, comes in between the original Metroid and [[Metroid II: Return of Samus|Metroid II]]. Metroid Prime is now available as a Player's Choice title.

The game was first announced in 2001 E3 and was shortly revealed soon after to be played from a first-person perspective. Following the announcement and subsequent release of first screenshots, aroused the ire of many Metroid fans who perceived it as a disgraceful transition into 3D. The game was widely believed to be an inevitable train wreck, and it was the biggest running joke since Daikatana throughout gaming related boards, publications, and magazines until near the point of retail release where various publications quietly claimed it as possibly one of the greatest video games of all time.[Metroid Prime] at Rotten Tomatoes

Contents

1 Gameplay

1.1 Items
1.2 Locations
1.3 Bonuses

2 Bosses
3 Story

3.1 Phazon
3.2 Storyline differences
3.3 PAL version storyline

4 Development
5 Reception

5.1 Speedrunning

6 Sequels
7 Trivia
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

Gameplay

Items

Related article: Items in the Metroid series

Throughout the game, the player will find and collect many different items, which range from weapons, to upgrades of Samus's Power Suit, and to various other items that grant additional abilities (such as the Morph Ball). Most of the items from previous Metroid games make appearances here; however, the functions of many of them have been altered to suit the 3D environment. For example, the space jump only allows the player to perform a double jump, as opposed to jumping continuously as in previous games, to prevent the player from getting stuck or unwittingly triggering a glitch. Glitches can allow knowledgeable players to receive items much earlier than intended, or to bypass collecting them altogether. The current world record for lowest item pickup percentage at the end of the game is 22%.

Locations

Space Pirate Frigate

Orbiting the planet Tallon IV, this is where Samus begins the game. The frigate's name is Orpheon. The Space Pirates conducted numerous experiments on this frigate on parasitic lifeforms. However many of these experiments went catastrophically wrong, as the gargantuan parasitic creatures escaped from their labs and wreaked havoc; destroying everything in their sight and leaving a trail of injured Space Pirates behind them. After Samus' visit, the frigate goes into critical meltdown and explodes. A large chunk of debris from the frigate plummets towards Tallon IV and crashes on the planet. Samus later explores the sunken piece of the frigate after she acquires the Gravity Suit.

Tallon Overworld

A rainforest-like area, this is where Samus initially makes planetfall and is where Samus' gunship stays for the duration of the game. It is where Samus can travel around Tallon IV using elevators and houses the Artifact Temple. Poisonous mushrooms, spiked beetles, and giant venomous plants are just some of the different forms of wildlife in the area. Tallon Overworld also encompasses the sunken Orpheon.

Chozo Ruins

This ancient structure was once a center of the thriving Chozo civilization on Tallon IV that was brought to an end by the dangerous meteor that hit many years ago. The walls display intricate carvings which foretell the history of the Chozo on Tallon IV and their peril concerning the arrival of that meteor. When Samus arrives at the ruins the water supply is infested with poison, and she has to find a way of purifying it.

Magmoor Caverns

A kind of subway system for the game—its magma-filled tunnels connect all the areas together with the exception of the Impact Crater. The Space Pirates use the caverns as a source of geothermal power. The area is extremely hazardous due to fire-breathing serpents, mechanical drone guns, and organisms which release toxic gas into the air.

Phendrana Drifts

View overlooking the Phendrana Shorelines, located in the Phendrana Drifts.

This cold, mountainous location consists of three main parts: an ancient Chozo ruin, some Space Pirate research labs (since the subzero temperatures make specimen containment easier), and the ice caves and valleys at the edge aptly called Phendrana's Edge. It is home to many creatures of electrical origins (Pulse Bombu, Scatter Bombu) and ice based creatures (Sheegoth, Ice Shriekbats).

Bonuses

Bosses

Story

Phazon

An important part of the Metroid Prime storyline is a highly mutagenic radioactive substance of unknown origin known as Phazon. Direct exposure to this electric blue-coloured plant-like substance results in either a violent death or the rapid addition of new abilities and/or organs, depending on the amount of the substance that the organism is exposed to. Another, more powerful, form of Phazon is bright orange and is only found in the core of the impact crater of the meteorite that brought Phazon to the planet. It seems to exist naturally as a solid and sometimes as a liquid, but its solid form may be considered more common—and possibly a metal—as many Space Pirate log entries call for mining of Phazon ore.

According to the North American release, the Space Pirates discovered the powerful creature that fed upon Phazon, and captured it, naming it Metroid Prime.

Storyline differences

The version released in North America has several storyline differences with the one released in Europe. The European storyline, among other things, says that:

Furthermore, when the game was being prepared for translation by a European team, the team decided to remove specific logs from the game which could be originally scanned, finding them to be confusing for someone trying to understand the plot. The edit not only occurred in the translated versions of the game, but also in the PAL English release. Some players sided with the NTSC version of the game, while others decided that since the PAL version was most recent it should be used to determine the specifics of the plot. Eventually Retro Studios released that the removal was never intended by them, and that the official version of the game was the NTSC version. They also promised that nothing like this would happen during the translation of [[Metroid Prime 2: Echoes]], although there were still some version differences.

PAL version storyline

Many years ago, the Chozo were prosperously living on Tallon IV, then a beautiful planet full of life. The Chozo had colonised Tallon IV in hopes to become one with nature. Eventually, the Chozo left their mortal bodies to explore the universe. The Chozo discovered the power to see into the future and prophecised the coming of "the Worm", which would destroy their way of life. Sure enough, a meteorite harbouring the radioactive substance "Phazon" crashed into Tallon IV, mutating and destroying the life of the planet. This caused the Chozo to return to Tallon IV in spirit to try to stop the spread of the Phazon. However, the Phazon began mutating and corrupting the Chozo spirits, causing the Chozo to become Chozo ghosts; these entities would attack intruders that tread on Chozo holy ground, but are extremely violent. However, the Chozo sealed off the source of the Phazon, the Impact Crater, using their technology with twelve artifacts hidden around the planet. The Chozo spirits then waited for the prophecised Newborn (Samus) to destroy the Worm and cut short the poison that destroyed Tallon IV.

After Samus defeated the Space Pirates on Planet Zebes at the end of the first game, a Space Pirate colony discovered high radioactive levels on the surface of the barren planet Tallon IV. Investigating the radiation, they set up a new base to conduct research. They soon discovered the radioactive material and named it Phazon. They researched its potential and developed a new race of Elite Pirates that were over-powered by Phazon. They also discovered that the Metroids were attracted to the Phazon because of the enormous energy emitting from it but had not managed to create any new weapons out of them.

The Space Pirates traced the source of the Phazon to the Impact Crater and found bio-signs within but they could not access it because the Chozo had sealed it with the twelve artifacts. They searched for the artifacts but were hindered by the Chozo Ghosts who were guarding the artifacts until the phrophecised hero would come to take them and destroy Metroid Prime. When Samus picked up a distress signal from an unknown space vessel flying over Tallon IV, she discovered that it belonged to the Space Pirates but had been overrun by small parasites. While escaping the ship, she came across the metallic re-incarnation of Ridley, one of the leaders of the Space Pirates who also escaped.

Back on Tallon IV, Samus infiltrated the Space Pirate bases, destroying the Metroid population along with the Elite Pirate specimens in containment. Upon defeating the newly developed Omega Pirate, Samus' Power Suit became contaminated with Phazon. After collecting the twelve artifacts, Samus returned to the Artifact Temple to access the Impact Crater and defeat the Worm. However, Meta-Ridley arrived and attempted to finish off Samus, but was defeated once again. The Chozo statues on the Temple finished off Meta Ridley, and then the few remaining Chozo spirits emerged and allowed access to the Impact Crater. There, Samus defeated Metroid Prime, whose only remaining instinct was to absorb all the nearby Phazon that existed in the crater and Samus' Power Suit. The crater collapsed but Samus was able to escape. Meanwhile, Metroid Prime (now a simple pool of Phazon) began to reform itself in the form of Samus' Power Suit. Now a creature of pure Phazon, Metroid Prime (now Dark Samus) searches the galaxy for more Phazon to rebuild its weakened form....

Development

Retro Studios was created in 1998, by an alliance between Nintendo and former Iguana Studios Jeff Spangenberg. After establishing their offices in Austin, Texas in 1999, Retro received five game ideas for the future GameCube, among them a new Metroid.

The game was developed as a collaboration between Retro Studios and important Nintendo EAD and R&D1 members, such as Shigeru Miyamoto, Kensuke Tanabe and Kenji Miki, that communicated with Texas through e-mails, monthly phone conferences and several personal gatherings. First it was a third-person shooter, but Miyamoto made them change the perspective to first-person, causing almost everything already developed to be scrapped.

In 2000, three games were canned in order to establish focus on Metroid Prime, and in 2001, the last project, an RPG called Raven Blade was cancelled, so Metroid Prime would be the only game in the works.

The first public appearance of the game was a 10-second video at SpaceWorld 2000. In November of the same year, Retro Studios confirmed in the "job application" part of its website its involvement with the game, and at E3 2001, Metroid Prime was officially announced by Nintendo, receiving mixed reactions due to the 2D-platformer to 3D-FPS change.

Reception

Speedrunning

(Please note that because the game was released later in Japan and the PAL territories, changes were made to prevent sequence breaks. The Japanese, PAL and North American Player's Choice versions are therefore undesirable for speedrunning compared to the original North American (NTSC) version.)

2D games	Metroid \| [[Metroid II: Return of Samus\|Return of Samus]] \| Super \| Fusion \| [[Metroid: Zero Mission\|Zero Mission]] \| Dread
Prime subseries	Prime \| Prime Pinball \| [[Metroid Prime: Hunters\|Prime: Hunters]] \| [[Metroid Prime 2: Echoes\|Prime 2: Echoes]] \| [[Metroid Prime 3: Corruption\|Prime 3: Corruption]]
Characters	Samus Aran \| Chozo \| Dark Samus \| Ing \| Kraid \| Luminoth \| Metroid species \| Metroid Prime \| Mother Brain \| Ridley \| X Parasite \| Space Pirates
Creatures	Metroid - Super Metroid \| Prime - Zero Mission \| Prime 2 - Prime 3
Other	Gunship \| Items \| Areas \| Phazon \| Shinespark \| Metroid Metal \| Relics of the Chozo \| Gunpei Yokoi \| Satoru Okada \| Metroidvania