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Metroid Day is finally back! I got a chance to sit down and play some of the Metroid Prime Trilogy, and I must say it feels like a new experience, even though I still remember how each game plays out. Not having played Corruption in about two years, the controls are kind of rusty for me, and they might be for you too. For new fans, you'll finally get to see what you were missing, and for older ones, it's great to give the originals a second look after so many years.

Using the Wiimote instead of the Gamecube controller changes some habits you might have learned from the Gamecube versions. For one, you can't auto-lock onto targets, which means the days of lazily blasting your way through a room are gone. Unfortunately, this means it's much harder to hit some enemies, such as those pesky War Wasps, making the War Wasp miniboss battles much harder (it wasn't easy to lock onto those guys to begin with!). I find the lock-on function to be almost useless on small targets, but that little bit of homing on the missiles is becoming a godsend. The more I play, the more it seems that Prime and Echoes were designed specifically for the Gamecube controller and so the games do not translate as well to the Wiimote interface. This may change though the better I get with aiming, but there is simply no way of getting around the extremely small size of the targets.

The other major change is the art upgrades. The first thing you'll notice is that the menus from all the games have been removed and replaced with the generic Trilogy menu. Which is sad actually because especially Prime had such a great menu. Inside the games, Prime has much better textures now, creating a lot more detail in the walls and models, helping the washed-out look of the original age better. However, the textures are not on par with Echoes, which still has a shinier Samus and better-looking environments. Fonts for most cutscenes have been enlarged, making them much easier to read, especially on lower-resolution televisions. The visor interface has changed as well, having a much slicker appearance, but it still takes a little bit of time to get used to. Doors open much quicker too, making transitioning between rooms much easier. The music has also been remastered and the game menu theme is also impressive (higher resolution recordings on the way; also check out Prime Blue's rip of the Disc Channel jingle). Note that the voiceovers for the European and Japanese versions of Prime's intro video are not present.

However, even though all three games are on one disc, they have not been standardized in terms of the scan system. Prime still utilizes the small box scanning versus the large color coded scans of the later games (which are much easier to see). Additionally, you have to scan different objects to fill your log book in both games: scanning a save point or energy ball will net you an entry in Prime, but not in Echoes. This was probably done for technical reasons, but if you were expecting a smooth transition between the games, you will be disappointed here.

Prime and Echoes also utilize the credits system from Corruption. Credits are color-coded differently for each game, so in order to unlock Echoes goodies, you have to play some of Echoes. One cool feature is that you can turn off the 'credit unlocked' notifications, either globally or for each individual game, making it much better than the XBLA system it kind of resembles, which doesn't give you a choice. The credits system also appears to be slightly better documented, but I will continue to rely on our FAQs, which we will be updating in good time.

Lastly, in terms of the game's presentation, the tin box is very nicely designed and the art 'booklet' has a nice sheen to it (unfortunately, this makes it a bit difficult to read the text). The booklet clarifies a few things about the story, but contains a rough spoiler-filled narrative outline for each game. Expect scans shortly.

Having all three games together in one pack for $50 makes this a great collection, and it's great to be able to play through all the games back-to-back, George Lucas style. Just remember that this isn't game preservation but rather re-presentation, so the original versions still have some merits on their own (such as the Gamecube control scheme). I'm curious to see how the Wiimote controls will feel after giving Prime and Echoes a good play-through, but I am a bit concerned as to how well they will work in the long run, considering the original games were designed to rely heavily on the lock-on system.

Until next time...
Captain Commando