All-Time Highest Rated Games Tagged 'Metroid' on The Great Games Experiment All-Time Highest Rated Games Tagged 'Metroid' on The Great Games Experiment http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/css/logo.jpg All-Time Highest Rated Games Tagged 'Metroid' on The Great Games Experiment en-us SuperMetroid The galaxy once enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity. Trade lines were open, the citizens were happy and the Galactic Federation kept a watchful eye over the planets. Not long ago, that peace was broken by a startling discovery:
The Dawn of the Metroids
]]> 27 Nov 2006 09:34:50 Metroid: Zero Mission
]]> 18 Aug 2007 10:09:54 Metroid Prime Article source: Nintendo Power

Open season on Metroids has begun -- It's Prime time.

Metroid Prime is a first-person adventure game. Players control a bounty hunter named Samus Aran who must unravel a mystery behind the ruined walls scattered across Tallon IV.

The game opens just as Samus' spaceship docks on a Space Pirate vessel orbiting the planet. Immediately, the beautiful graphics slap you across the face. Trust us, it's a firm slap. A silky-smooth framerate accommodates razor-sharp visuals of efficient machinery and foreign architecture. Meanwhile, a cinematic soundtrack sets the mood and eerie sound effects thicken the alien atmosphere.

By far, the most effective visual effect is that everything you see is viewed through Samus's visor. The entire screen has a convex look, and a digital display provides information ranging from current energy levels to ammunition data. The most effective ideas are sometimes the most simple, and the visor view in Metroid Prime makes a huge leap forward in immersing players in the first-person perspective.

Samus uses a Power Beam to shoot a series of locked switches, and eventually enters a cylindrical corridor very similar to the passageways found in the original Metroid titles. When Samus strides by broken pipes spewing steam, the visor becomes smeared with condensation. Later in the demo, the visor is splattered with the internal juices of ruptured enemy carcasses. Yes, life within Samus' gravity suit is a beautiful thing.

Weapon effects are equally pleasing. Hold the A Button to juice up the Charge Beam, and you see the corridor glow and warp as the blast travels through space. Enemy animation is delightfully disgusting, whether it's a giant parasite queen squirming from the ceiling or a swarm of blood-thirsty critters gushing from a dark hole. Take note: the word "swarm" has been misused in video game reviews for years. With Metroid Prime, we can use the word "swarm" and feel perfectly justified. The screen fills -- FILLS -- with baddies, and the framerate doesn't even blink.

In the Gravity Suit

Of course, graphics are just the glossing on the gravity suit. No matter how good a game looks, it won't get fired up more than once without solid game design and user-friendly play control. In Metroid Prime, both are spot-on.

How do you know if play control is good? If you don't think about it, it's perfect. Once you get a feel for the Controller configuration in Metroid Prime, you spend 100% of your time worrying about blasting enemies -- not thinking about the play control.

The Control Stick moves Samus around, the A Button fires weapons and the B Button makes Samus jump. Press and hold the R Button to enter an aiming mode which allows you to freely look around the environment. The L Button activates an automatic lock-on feature, which makes for easy strafing while firing at a targeted enemy.

Changing weapons is as easy as moving the C-Stick. By pressing different directions on the D-Pad, you can activate the different features of Samus' visor. A variety of visor modes are available including Combat, Scan, Thermal and more. Combat is the normal view, and Scan produces a slightly magnified rectangular viewing strip in the middle of the visor. By pressing and holding the L Button, Samus can scan various items in the environment. Sometimes a scan simply provides additional information, and other times scanning an environmental element can activate a switch or identify and enemy's weak spot.

Pressing the Y Button activates Samus's missiles, and the X Button engages the Morph Ball. The game switches to a third-person perspective while Samus is in Morph Ball form. In Morph Ball form, Samus can roll through tight quarters, place bombs, activate switches and much more.

Exploration is Key

When Samus lands on Tallon IV to begin her investigation of Space Pirate activity, the bounty hunter is stripped of most power-ups. It's up to you to explore the world and recover the many power-ups and weapons which gradually open more and more gameplay areas.

Although this is a first-person game with plenty of shooting action, the heart of the experience is highly exploratory and adventurous. Enemies abound, but there are just as many elaborate puzzles to solve as there are bad guys to blast.

For an immersive adventure unlike anything you've played before, get behind the visor and see what's it like to be Samus Aran in Metroid Prime.
]]> 28 Jan 2007 09:47:07 Metroid prime 2: Echoes Article source: Nintendo Power

In this highly anticipated sequel to Metroid Prime, become the bounty hunter behind the visor once more and travel to a planet torn into light and darkness.


Retro Studios, producers of the wildly popular Metroid Prime, take Samus Aran on a terrifying journey.

Galactic Federation Trooper Squad Bravo is missing; their last transmission-- a distress call from a rogue planet called Aether, located in the Dasha region.

Enter legendary bounty hunter Samus Aran. Her mission: Locate the Federation troopers and render assistance. But what begins as a search and rescue mission becomes an intense, haunting sojourn to save a species from total genocide in a world caught in the maelstrom between dimensions of light and darkness.

Light Aether is the domain of the Luminoth, gentle beings with a unique and highly developed civilization. But when a great cataclysm tore the fabric of space and time, the Ing Horde were unleashed from Dark Aether, a dimensional echo of Light Aether. Now the Luminoth are under siege. The Ing send armies into Light Aether, absorb its lands into the clutches of Dark Aether, and possess the Luminoth's warriors. Only the Luminoth's four gigantic energy generators keep the Light World from collapsing. If the Ing seize control of the generators, the Light World will be extinguished forever. Samus embarks on her mission to defeat the Ing and restore peace to Aether.

But, as Samus will soon learn, an ominous shadow lurks in the darkness, a shadow which stealthily hunts the hunter...

Features

  • New Beam Weapons: The Dark Beam and the Light Beam wield powerful ordinance to crush the Ing, solve puzzles, and open doors

  • New Suits: As Samus traverses the depths of Light and Dark Aether she can don powerful new suits to protect her against the planets myriad enemies.

  • Screw Attack: The famous attack from Metroid games of the past makes its triumphant debut on the Nintendo GameCube

  • Power Ups: The space jump and the grapple beam are just some of the power-ups you'll find

  • Multiplayer Metroid: For the first time in the history of the franchise, up to four players can battle each other as they search for weapons, grapple across ceilings and turn into Morph Balls to make their escape

    • Bottom Line

    Metroid Prime 2 Echoes is one of those rare games that exceeds its predecessor in quality. The game expertly weaves themes of light and darkness in every element, from plot, to characters, weapons, power-ups, even the music. The action is engaging and intense (you'll love to hate the Ing Horde), the levels brilliantly designed, and the puzzles intelligent but approachable. Metroid Prime 2 Echoes is a fantastic installment in one of the Nintendo GameCube's most exciting franchises.
    ]]>     28 Jan 2007 10:25:51     Metroid Fusion The first Metroid adventure for Game Boy Advance, Metroid Fusion, also known as Metroid IV saw Samus Aran with a radical new look.
    While lending mission support to the Federation on SR-388, Samus is attacked and infected by a new lifeform Federation scientists call the X parasite, which has infected much of the creatures of SR-388. Samus is only saved from death by a vaccine made from cells from the last Metroid. The Metroid DNA changes Samus' metabolism so much that she can heal herself and upgrade by absorbing any X parasites she finds. Now the X have spread to a nearby abandoned space lab, infecting all research specimeans, including pieces of Samus' power suit, and a substantially weakened Samus must exterminate them all or die trying. But she is being constantly stalked by a advanced beast called the SA-X which not only resembles her, but knows everything about her and possesses all her weaponry...
    ]]>     04 Mar 2007 12:58:03     Metroid prime: Hunters Samus is on yet another mission. This time, to investigate strange mental transmissions coming from the Alymbic Cluster.
    Along the way, Samus will do battle with 6 other dangerous hunters, who are all out to obtain the "ultimate power" for themselves.
    ]]>     23 Jan 2007 01:33:08     The Underside the underside is an exploration based action platformer in the vein (it's a pun~) of games like castlevania, metroid, and cave story. however, unlike most other games in this genre, the gameplay is driven more by plot than by free-roaming exploration (though the world is fully explorable).

    the game's graphics and engine are (believe it or not) completely original. the game's engine is written in clickteam's multimedia fusion 2, while the graphics are done in humanbalance's graphicsgale.

    the music is written by both me (arthur lee), and my close friend, j. michael brown. done in fruityloops using the 3xosc plugin as well as tweakbench's toad and peach vsts, the game's soundtrack has a real retro feel to it.
    the game's plot revolves around a character named 'ip' who must escape from the underside, and maybe prevent the world from being destroyed while he's at it. the game's world, characters, plot strands, and dialogue are heavily inspired by earthbound, and are quirky, whimsical, and sometimes a little strange.

    the gameplay is very fast based -- a lot more akin to games like megaman or metal slug rather than metroid or cave story in terms of pacing.
    ]]>     11 Feb 2007 04:25:52     Metroid II: Return of Samus After the events on planet Zebes (alternately known as 'Zebeth'), the Galactic Federation decided that the Metroids must be eradicated to prevent anything similar from happening in the future. The danger was simply far too great. An extermination squad was sent to the Metroids' homeworld: SR388. Mysteriously, they were never heard from again...

    Samus Aran was considered the only one capable of completing this mission, and so she was called on once again, to wipe out the entire Metroid species by herself. In spite of the disturbing disappearance of the special squad sent in before, Samus ventures into the depths of SR388 alone, collecting upgrades to her Power Suit and hunting down these dangerous, yet curiously fascinating, creatures.

    However, the Metroids aren't simply the floating green parasitic jellyfish she encountered before... No, here in their home world, they grow beyond that and evolve into far more unnerving and powerful creatures, becoming increasingly tougher to kill. These creatures are defined by the stages of their evolution: Alpha, Gamma, Zeta, and Omega. Finally, the source of all Metroids, the Queen, lurks at the climax of the game.

    Thoroughly scouring the murky depths of SR388, finding herself frequently lost in it's maze-like catacombs, and barely struggling her way out of some frightful close encounters with the Metroids, Samus clearly has her work cut out for her. However, with the help of conveniently hidden Missile and Energy Tank expansions, as well as the Varia Suit and arm cannon upgrades (the Ice Beam in particular was helpful - those savvy with the series will understand why!), she manages to battle through this challenge and arrive at the Queen Metroid... A massive, freakish monster that is so advanced in her mutated evolution she barely even resembles her own offspring...

    The Queen, outraged at Samus for destroying her children, bursts through a wall and -eats- Samus! With some quick thinking, Samus curls into her Morph Ball and sets off as many bombs as she can inside the beast's stomach. After being consequently expelled out in result (and likely covered in some sort of mucus or slime), she's immediately attacked again! Narrowly scraping the surface of death, Samus leaps away from the lashing maw of the Queen, and frantically plugs her with every Missile she's got.

    After suffering enough concussive blasts, the Queen is reduced into nothing but withering ash... Victorious, Samus makes her way through the giant tunnel the Queen had occupied during the battle, and heads for the planet's surface, where her ship waits for her. But wait.. what is this pulsing mass in the dark..? An.. egg..?

    Samus witnesses the birth of the last Metroid as it breaks free of it's shell... The hatchling is immediately drawn to Samus - yet, it doesn't attack her. In an alert, confused analysis, Samus decides that since she was the first thing it saw after being born, it must see her as it's mother..! The little hatchling eats through obstacles in Samus' path as she treks for her ship to finally leave SR388, exhausted, her mission complete. Seeing this kind of behavior in the creature causes Samus to take the last survivor of the species back with her to the headquarters of the Federation...

    This bizarre turn of events on SR388 results in the next compelling chapter in the franchise: Super Metroid. It's an underrated and misunderstood gem in the series, one that definitely deserves a chance, especially considering that it's the story that defines the rest that follow it.

    Give it a play, you might be pleasantly surprised...

    See you next mission!
    ]]>     08 Feb 2007 01:39:50