Metroid Prime 3: Corruption — Dreadful Anticipation
Possession for Possession’s Sake
As much as I loved Prime and Echoes, my association and memories with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption are far, far hazier. I think my brother had it for the Wii closer to release. I think he played it a bunch, but I feel like I was gone. I remember trying to pick it up once, got a ways in, stopped, and never picked it up again.
I remember getting it once my partner and I were settled in Michigan, just to say I had the full trilogy (I didn’t have the money to drop on the Prime Collection; I liked the Gamecube versions just fine). And once things hit a lull with work, I booted it up, finally gave it a proper try. And…I just remember disappointment. A strangely heavyhanded plot, the Wiimote-based control scheme that (coming off of Prime and Echoes) felt gimmicky and convoluted, a disconnected gameworld, and a disappointing final act…not to mention, more endgame collectathons.
There were some novel elements, sure. Phazon was a more integral part of the game and its mechanics (hence, Corruption). There were more bounty hunters working alongside Samus, and fleshed out more than the group in Hunters ever was. Some of the music was beautiful, or an absolute banger, sometimes both. It was a proper end to the Prime trilogy…despite all this nebulous hype around Metroid Prime 4 in the ether. But it wasn’t a high point for me, nothing like the other Prime games.
I got Corruption just to say that I had the series completed: possession for possession’s sake. Maybe it’s coming off of Super Metroid and my own lukewarm recall of Corruption, but…I’ve been wrong once (and counting).
Completion for Completion’s Sake
I completed Corruption once, and I can’t say I enjoyed it then, either.
I made it past the intro mission, back into the field, and back to my ship after being told to, and oof. Maybe I’m just old and enjoy “how it used to be,” but Corruption didn’t grip me this go-around. Too many new elements, too much of the old, too much changing the game to fit the system…it felt more like a gimmick than a game.
Now, for perspective, I was (as previously noted during First Hunt) lucky enough to have a Nintendo DS pretty early in its lifespan. Nintendo, developers, and other publishers went hard for the touch-screen capabilities, and I ate it right up. It was intuitive, it was novel, and in more cases than not, it was fun. We as a family were also lucky enough to have a Wii in the household. The system was well-suited for games like Wii Sports, or Super Mario Galaxy, or MadWorld even: motion was an element (flailing to spin in Galaxy, or swinging to chainsaw in MadWorld) or the main mechanic (Wii Sports).
All of this to say that Corruption felt like a Wii-based gimmick and overly reliant on the novel control scheme out of the gate. When the precision of aiming is resting on a Wii controller constantly pointing at the screen, the “realism” of aiming loses its luster pretty quickly. Additionally, when I’m required, seemingly every fifteen steps, in the intro area to interact with something via motion (twisting dials, pushing thrusters, pressing numpads, etc.), it isn’t a mechanic, it’s a gimmick. It doesn’t add anything to the experience, and it isn’t nearly as immersive as one might thing. Also, tying upgrades to motion controls, when we’re already waggling and flailing and poking all sorts of other things in-game? My exact notes read “Great. A motion-based upgrade.” Too much, too soon.
And hoo boy howdy, it didn’t get better. There was lots of talking. Lots of exposition. And not the text-based exposition that we got in Fusion or the other Primes. No, this was fully-voiced exposition. And suddenly, the exposition is rudely interrupted by the most low-stakes inciting incident I’ve run into so far. It’s all peppered with even more motion puzzles, simple fights, pockets of tedious silence, and an ending battle that feels lethargic at best, bothersome at worst.
Things finally pick up (somewhat) once players graduate out of the first area, culminating in a stylish boss fight…
BIG OLD SPOILER ALERT, IF YOU WANT TO PLAY CORRUPTION SO MANY YEARS LATER LIKE ME AND HAVEN’T BEEN SPOILED, YOU’RE ABOUT TO BE. SO, LIKE, BE SMART OR WHATEVER. LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE. I DON’T CONTROL YOU BUT YOU’RE ABOUT TO FIND OUT THAT THIS STYLISH BOSS FIGHT IS AGAINST
…against Meta Ridley, who I guess didn’t fully die after Prime. So here’s my issue. Ridley, no matter his form, is the penultimate boss. You always work up to Ridley, because he’s so fricking powerful that you need almost everything you can throw at him to stand a chance. You don’t lead with Ridley…
MORE SPOILERS. I THINK IT’S INDICATIVE OF HOW MUCH I DON’T APPRECIATE CORRUPTION THAT I’M ACTUALLY SPOILING IT IN-ARTICLE, UNLIKE THE OTHER ONES WHERE I TRY TO AVOID DISCUSSING ANYTHING LIKE THAT. ANYWAY, AS WE WERE.
…even if he does come back as that penultimate boss. It was a cool battle, but seriously, Ridley’s been top dog since the start. To make him fight a two-energy-tank, five-missile Samus, and be beaten is insulting.
OKAY SPOILERS DONE. ❤
Now, with Corruption, I’ve realized the antithesis to Metroid’s “You found an item! But we won’t tell you what it is or anything about it! Hope you have the manual!” dynamic. It’s being strapped to a chair while some random medic explains your nifty new suit, along with every minute element of timing, its lore, and “you might’ve seen this before,” before walking you through a guided tour of how to activate and use it. It was almost enough to make me quit right there, but no, that came just a little later when I realized (or remembered) just how fragmented the world was. Elevators didn’t connect everything, you had to fly around to other planets and landing sites. It just made the whole experience feel empty and disjointed.
I understand that a great many Wii games were released with the motion controls in mind; this was a brand new way to play and enjoy games. As a game, I think Corruption would be fine. It’s novel, it’s actiony, and it’s intuitive. But as a Metroid game, it falls flat, unable to stand up next to what makes the other games, its predecessors and the main chronology, so effective. Exposition simply is not the saga’s strong point, at least not when it’s delivered like this. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice…well, we’ll see.
