Taken straight out of Nintendo Power's Volume 219, this article introduces us officially to Corruption. Have fun. My comments are italicized. DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS.


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Beautiful Corruption

Gaming's first lady returns for possible her greatest adventure yet in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
By Steve Thomason

It may sound a bit strange given Wii's stellar success in the marketplace, but Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (MP3C) is the game that finally proves Nintendo's new console. While Twilight Princess and Super Paper Mario were great (and indeed, they were), both began life as GameCube (GCN) titles, and thus didn't fully showcase what Wii brings to the table. MP3C is the first full-fledged game published by Nintendo that's been built from the ground up for the system. And judging by the first few hours of Samus' latest adventure, Wii owners are in for something special.
It all starts with the silky-smooth controls. On the Advanced scheme, the farther you move the targeting reticle from the center of the screen (via pointing the remote), the faster you'll turn the camera. That allows you to either slowly survey your surroundings or quickly spin around to face an oncoming foe. Two other control options add a bounding box (a dead zone within which you can manipulate the targeting reticle without moving the camera) and are intended for beginners. The Advanced scheme, though, offers a level of precision and sensitivity comparable to a mouse-and-keyboard setup. This is the example from which other Wii developers will learn, and it should herald a bright future for first-person shooters (FPSs) on the console.
To coincide with this new control setup, locking onto an enemy no longer double as an auto-aim function. It merely centers the camera on your foe; you're responsible for actually lining up the shot via the Wii remote. MP3C's combat feels a bit more intense than its predecessors' as a result, and certain enemies are cleverly designed to put you sharp-shooting skills to the test.
The other big control hook (no pun intended) is Samus' new grappling lasso, which you can deploy with a flick of the nunchuk and reel in by pulling back. The mechanic feels much more responsive than it did in previous demos, and using it to yank a hunk of debris from your path or wrench a shield from an enemy's grasp is immensely satisfying. Certain activities also involve manipulating the Wii remote -- priming a pumping station, for instance (picture included with the article), or inserting an energy cell and locking it into place. Even if they don't add a whole lot from a gameplay standpoint, such tasks help draw you into the game's world and create an even more immersive experience than Metroids past.

Star Tours

MP3C begins with Samus being summoned to an enormous Galactic Federation capital ship. Upon landing, you'll learn the basics as you make your way to the command deck, only to have your meeting with the captain and the ship's supercomputer interrupted by a surprise attack. You must then lead our heroine back to her own ship, navigating rubble-filled corridors and blasting the marauding Space Pirates while the battle unfolds all around you. It's a very cinematic opening (if a bit reminiscent of a certain other sci-fi shooter [namely, Halo]) that does a fantastic job of getting you pumped up for the adventure ahead. Also worth noting is that all of the dialogue is fully voiced (and pretty well, too); Ms. Aran is conspicuous by her silence, however.
As the conflict spills over to the planet below, Samus is tasked with activating the orbital defense system on a Federation military base. The action quotient remains high, and the mission culminates in a jaw-dropping battle with the latest incarnation of an old nemesis: Meta Ridley (*glee!* :lol: ). The boss knocks both Samus and itself down a large shaft, and the two duke it out while free-falling (think Gandalf and the Balrog in The Lord of the Rings). A countdown at the lower edge of the screen shows how close you're getting to the bottom, and you've got to finish off the gargantuan beast before Samus goes splat.
By the time you reach the second planet, Bryyo, MP3C starts to ease off the combat emphasis and shift towards the series' traditional focus on exploration. And as these worlds ever a joy to explore. The gorgeous visuals represent not only an upgrade over previous games in the series, but a significant leap beyond anything else we've seen on Wii. Beautiful lighting, complex architecture, and stunning texture work are a testament to Retro's talents for making hardware sing (especially considering that the game never dips below 60 frames per second [fps]). But as always, Prime's inspired art direction stands out as much as any technical achievement. Each world has its own identity and its own history, brought to life with meticulous detail. Bryyo's crumbling ruins and hulking mechanical golems that lie in disrepair hint at the planet's war-torn past. Your subsequent destination, Elysia; eerily beautiful floating city, is populated only by steam-punk-style robots that continue to go about their programmed duties even though the planet has seemingly been abandoned for centuries. Not a single landscape we've ventured into thus far feels the slightest bit incomplete or artificial.

Third Prime's a Charm

MP3C's desire to convince you of your surroundings pervades every facet of its design. The problem with a lot of great adventure titles is that the puzzles, however engaging they may be from a gameplay standpoint, often feel like they don't belong in the environment. They seem too video game-y. In MP3C, everything is organic; all of the elements that make up a puzzle feel like part of a game's world. Whether you're trying to bypass Space Pirate defenses or activate some antiquated piece of alien machinery, the presentation is such that you're never drawn out of the illusion. Best of all, none of this comes at the expense of complexity or ingenuity. As a matter of fact, these might be the most mind-bending puzzles in the series, and many of them force you to think outside the Metroid box. MP3C doesn't throw away the rule book, but it certainly adds some new chapters.
Another major improvement over the previous game is that the re-traversal aspects are now more tightly integrated into the adventure (sort of like Fusion). In Echoes (MP2E), being forced to hoof back to an area that you'd already explored often felt arbitrary; like it was something you had to do just because it was a Metroid game. MP2C does a far better job of giving those return trips a purpose, and often introduces some new element to keep things fresh. Your first journey to a large temple on Bryyo, for instance, is relatively quiet, and allows you to focus on simply reaching your destination. When you return later to deactivate an underground shield generator, however, you'll find that Space Pirates have discovered the temple and set up a mobile command post, making your second trek more combat-intensive. What we've played thus far also seems slightly more linear than previous installments, though not to the extent that it ceases to feel like Metroid. (Just expect to get lost a little less often.)
Bringing everything together is MP3C's fantastic pacing. The game in never content to settle into a groove, whether it's introducing some cool little action sequence to get your blood pumping (like the ziplines on Elysia that quickly whisk you from one area to the next while you blast any errant maintenance drones that get in your path), or even changing the overall tone for a while. Imagine finding yourself in a place where the mood evokes something like Ridley Scott's classic Alien flick. THe blast doors have been sealed shut, various consoles are malfunctioning, and members of the crew -- seemingly frozen in time -- disintegrate into ashes upon contact (remember Super Metroid? ;) ). As you explore and try to figure out what happened, the suspense builds and builds until... well, we don't want to ruin it for you (darn! :( ). Suffice it to say that MP3C is always finding new way to keep you engaged. The last game to so skillfully blend its various environments was Resident Evil 4, and that's not a comparison I make lightly (true dat).
Of course, one of the Prime franchise's greatest strengths has always been its imaginative boss battles, and the third installment is no different. Though most are not os frenetic as your early encounter with Meta Ridley, subsequent bosses are no less impressive. In the first 6 hours of the game (which is only 19% according to the in-game progress tracker [:blink: WHAT?!]), we've already faced off against 5 big baddies (:ph43r:), and all of them have been extremely well-designed. They offer just the right amount of challenge, and in true series fashion, force you to perfect using your various abilities in tandem. Taking down one of these goliaths always brings a great sense of accomplishment.

Absolute Power
The "Corruption" in the game's title plays a major role both in narrative and in gameplay terms (finally!). During your brief meeting with the captain at the beginning of the game, you're informed that the supercomputers comprising the Federation's network have been infected with a mysterious virus (in other words, the Internet died :lol:). But what quickly becomes of even greater concern is that meteorites containing large amounts of Phazon (the powerful-yet-deadly material that corrupts the locations of the first two games) simultaneously crash into a number of planets and gradually begin to corrupt each world. Presumably because any intergalactic governing body must be bogged down by a bureaucracy of epic proportions, the Federation is forced to turn to a small group of bounty hunters, including Samus, to resolve both problems (picture of one of them included with the article). It all sounds simple enough until an old acquaintance, the presumed-dead Dark Samus [i]("DS") shows up to infect our heroine with Phazon.
Many of Samus' new abilities in the game stem from that corruption. For instance, she can now sacrifice an Energy Tank to temporarily enter "Hypermode", allowing her to fire concentrated (and superpowerful) blasts of Phazon (YES! :lol: B)). Over the course of the adventure, you'll discover additional corruption-fueled enhancements, such as the Hyperball, which allows you to discharge bolts of Phazon while in Morph Ball mode. The downside is that misusing these powers can spell an early demise for the bounty hunter (:( Crap.); you've got to keep an eye on your corruption meter, and if it reaches critical mass, quickly discharge as much Phazon as you can.
Naturally, Samus will also acquire various weapon upgrades, though unlike previous Prime titles, there's no need to switch between them (YES!). Instead, your beams and missiles "stack" like they did in Super Metroid (<_< Or better yet, like in Fusion); once you've obtained the Ice Missile, for instance (Ha! In your face, K2C!), that characteristic is added to any other missile upgrades already in your arsenal. You've also got a new ship visor that allows you to control Samus' space craft remotely. Initially, the only order you can issue is for the vessel to land at certain locations, giving you the opportunity to save your progress (what? No save rooms?) and replenish your ammo. But like its owner, the ship can be upgraded with new functions (*glee!* Air strikes, maybe?). Acquiring the first of these functions involves one of the coolest bits in the first few hours of the game. You'll come across a landing pad equipped with a full payload of air-to-surface missiles (close enough; they're similar to bombs), but in order for your ship to land there, you've got to figure out a way to open the hangar-bay doors. It takes quite a bit of effort, but the reward is well worth it.
Needless to say, we're pretty excited about this one. It's been a long, sometimes-painful wait, but the extra development time (MP3C was originally slated as a Wii launch title) has afforded Retro the opportunity to polish everything to an absolute sheen. You'll finally be able to enjoy the fruits of that labor come August 27.

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Also in the article, obviously, are several pictures. Several of the captions describe the snapshots thus:
"You don't get to fly Samus' ship in real-time, but you'll enter the cockpit and interact with the various control panels to select your next destination, check on your stats, etc." Similarly to Hunters. Think one of StarCraft's cinematic shots of a Terran fleet, then replace the Battlecruisers with what look like Star Wars rebel ships.
"Samus's fellow bounty hunters play a pretty significant role in MP3C. That's one of them piloting the kicka** mech on the right." Sorry I don't have pics. This is the mechanical hunter Ghor.
"The environments of MP3C are more expansive than thoe in previous installments." It was one of those shots over Samus' shoulder at the level that was depicted in that E3 movie I posted about elsewhere on this forum, "Sky City".

Okay, NOW you can talk about it.

I just got my copy of Sept.'s NP. Ithink it described the gsmeplay pretty good so far. I have a few small concerns, but none significant enought to bring up. Just 29 more days...

Hehe, nice comments Miles. Damn those Ice missiles!

I saw the name Meta Ridley, that's when I stopped reading.
And then I began reading again...

Well, what else could be added to the arsenal? Something extraordinary, I hope!

Yay, I was right, Ice Missles! Well, being to lazy to resubscribe, my friend gives me his editions when he's done with them, so now I have a shiny new poseter and the article!

Yep, it's hanging on my wall now!

(But I can still see that stupid Rabbid... CURSE YOU, RAYMAN!)

Ooh yah....THAT thing... my friend almost didn't give me the poster because he wanted that side of it.... creepy rabbits... like Frank off Donny Darko.... *shudders*

Frank is cool! I like Frank! I want a Frank of my own, telling me to burn up things...

I'm really impressed with the description of MP3C. I'm also looking forward to seeing other bounty hunters getting involved in the game as well. Gee, that would be so cool if the one was actually Weavel. I LOVE him!! :wub: :P

Meh. I'm waiting for Sylux, to end the mystery of what he is once and for all.

YES I can't wait till this game comes out.

So there are going to be ice missiles yay. hey might there be a chance for fire missiles or even Phazon Phazon?

YES I can't wait till this game comes out.

So there are going to be ice missiles yay. hey might there be a chance for fire missiles or even Phazon missiles?

ice missels i think would be great...
but fire missels will cause to much destruction and will blow your self up
phazon missels will kil-are the greatest wepon :P :P :P :P

Well, they need to stack... How can you have Fire Missiles AND Ice Missiles? Freeze an enemy AND burn it?
Hmm... well, they said you can stack stuff like Super Metroid... which means you can turn some abilities on or off..?

Ah, that reminds me of an attack in Chrono Trigger which involved BOTH fire and ice.
A weird combo but cool. Fire in the middle and ice around it.

Ship upgrades? Wow, sounds interesting. :o

well its like asking how can samus have ice beam and plasma beam in prime 1? she just can or in this case could have fire missiles or phazon missiles. also I wonder how her attack in SSBB works and if it maybe that new wepon well be in Prime 3.

I can only wait and see :)

But in Prime, she can only select one beam at a time. That doesn't quite apply to this game.

Woah, only 19% in the first 6 hours? I'm pretty much done with the first Metroid Prime in 6 hours!

Man, this game seems long, and I love that. Totally can't wait for this game.

I got Prime 100% Hard mode in 9:30... and they expect us to finish this in about 30+ hours? Man alive!

BTW, I actually went by faster in Hard mode than in Normal on Prime. How did that work out?

30 hours :o !
I hope they make it full with action so you don't get stuck.

Action AND puzzles, they said. So expect plenty of head-scratchers, but less getting lost.