The 2007 release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was something of a milestone for Nintendo, the game’s publisher, and Retro Studios, the game’s developer. For Nintendo this was a landmark release, showing off the Wii‘s impressive capabilities as a games console, and for Retro Studios it was the end of years of experimentation with the control system. In the end, it turned out to be a masterpiece…

You use the Wii Nunchuk to move and the Wii Remote to jump, aim and fire. The morph ball returns, and pretty much works as before. Samus‘s visor still helps identify items; provide maps and hints, and can even see through things with x-ray vision.

Metroid Prime 3‘s use of the Wii motion controls does take some getting used to, but in the end it does help facilitate the game’s merging of first-person shooting, and exploration and collecting. Which results in a really captivating experience. From the opening scenes, in Samus‘ space ship, to the environments and boss battles, everything is spectacularly-designed. And the gameplay continually keeps giving you new things to play with, so rarely gets boring.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is essentially an updated Metroid Prime, but with fancier controls and flashier graphics and animation. What I mean by that is that the game is basically a first-person exploration shooter set in various zones (areas; levels), with an open-ended route through the game; fairly simple puzzles, and features and mechanics that build on those seen in previous Metroid games.

New features worth mentioning are: Hypermode, which allows Samus to use Phazon to create more powerful attacks (but also comes with added risks of corruption); the ability to command her gunship to come pick her up, save the game, or take her to another planet; the grapple hook is also now more useful and can be used for ripping shields off enemies, and also for removing blockages in the environment. The game even has its own built-in achievements, and earning these award special credits that can be spent unlocking extras within the game.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption remains a classic in the Metroid series to this day. When the game was re-released in 2009 it was packaged as a trilogy with Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes – both with fully-implemented motion controls, as seen in Corruption. I haven’t played either of these yet, but they sure as hell make me want to buy a Wii to check ’em out… 🙂

Note: while Metroid Prime 3 will work in the emulator, Dolphin, playing the game with a standard setup is a nightmare. But there is a solution! What you should do is find and use a custom build of Dolphin, called “PrimeHack“, which has been specifically tailored to suit playing the Metroid Prime games on a PC, with a mouse and keyboard. It really does make a huge difference, and playing Metroid Prime 3 in PrimeHack really is a joy to behold. You might have to tweak it slightly to suit your tastes, but PrimeHack works well ‘out of the box’ and it turns this motion-controlled shooter into something very special. For those who love mouse and keyboard controls in first-person games (like me). 🙂

More: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on Wikipedia