::A Geek in Korea::

Metroid Prime: Hunters is a game I’ve been waiting nearly two years to play. Announced when the Nintendo DS launched, and included in the American package as a bit of a "tech" demo, it’s taken nearly two years for this title to be released. Initially slated to be a simple side story that featured only local wireless play, it was then delayed to add full on WiFi Interent multiplayer content. The single player story line evolved from a simple "side story" about a bounty hunter tournament into a full on single player Metroid adventure nearly as long as the console counterparts that spawned the Metroid as three dimensional shooter concept. The game was released in the United States last Tuesday after several months of delays in which new bounty hunter rivals were added, WiFi was added, and the focus of the gameplay evolved into a Quake 3 style game wrapped around a solid single player experience.

After waiting two years for a copy, my local game shop told me they were getting it in next week. Seeing no other alternative than a trip to Youngsan in Seoul to check to see if anyone imported it, I went downtown by subway hoping that my backup sources might have scored a copy. For once, the poor exchange rate that the United States has with Korean currency helped me, as I got the game a little cheaper than usual. I’ve been playing it more or less no stop whenever I’ve had any free time, and I’m amazed at what they pulled off on a system I didn’t think could do a First Person Shooter (FPS) game like Metroid justice.

Impressions:

I played the first Metroid Prime on the Gamecube, but got fed up with the fetch-quest back tracking that made up most of the second half of the game. I had a hard time revisiting an area and still getting lost and eventually lost interest with some of the aspects of the game. The level design was as if an adventure game like Metroid was thrown into 3D, but the perspective wasn’t  "free looking". Targets were acquired with a "lock-on", which meant that you couldn’t just look around like on a console first person shooter. This made some aspects of the controls a little awkward and was part of the reason I stopped playing.

In Metroid Prime: Hunters, you use the stylus and touch screen for aiming. This may seem odd, but the bottom screen works as a sort of radar and menu, allowing to you shoot and look freely, while the top screen displays the action. This is as close to a portable has come to a workable replacement to the keyboard + mouse set up that most computer FPS games use. It recreates the accuracy and the freedom to explore very well. I’d go as far as to say that Metroid Prime: Hunters is the best game in the portable FPS genre to date in terms of feeling like you are actually interacting in an environment.

The environment in question is a remote set of locations on the edge of the galaxy populated by creatures and fellow bounty hunters. The other bounty hunters are seeking the same goal as you are, and will set up ambushes to try to impede  your progress. As you battle new bounty hunters in single player, they are unlocked in the multiplayer for later use. These bounty hunters are a really cool addition to the Metroid universe, but they pop up at the worst times, like when you trigger a security alarm for stealing a valuable relic and are fleeing a planet before it’s destruction. This leads to a tense deathmatch all while a timer counts down the time you have to return to the ship. Awesome.

I got to play the multiplayer against both bots and my DS owning cousin by marriage. All the different bounty hunters play differently, and have different weapons they excel at using. There were a wealth of options and different modes, but I’d say that this game requires a few people, and possibly a few game cartridges to fully enjoy. Having no connection to WiFi (at the moment), I still need to see how the online battles work, but the lobby/voice chat with friends they included seemed to make it a worthwhile thing to look into.  Wireless internet chat with voice would be perfect wat to talk about the games as you spend the day shooting your friends. I’ll have to put up with shooting the multiplayer bots and practice against the multiple skill levels to be the best bounty hunter in the 25 levels included (!).

The only downside in the gameplay at the moment that I’ve encountered about 50 percent of tthe way into the game is a lack of cool boss battles. The Metroid games are known for unique and difficult boss battles that require a multitude of skills and tactics to defeat. This game seems to repeat two or three bosses. They require a different weapon to take down, but don’t vary like some of the battles in the past.

The control scheme has caused me a few serious cramps after some tense sessions. Finding a way to hold the system that doesn’t put weight on your wrists and arm are important. Remember to take breaks between all the shooting to relax your eyes and arms.

It was worth the wait to have a game this well polished and thought out. The time and effort can clearly be seen in this game. It’s another shining addition to anyone’s Nintendo DS library.

(Next predicted purchase: Tetris DS, or New Super Mario Brothers.)