Metroid Prime Trilogy

Metroid Prime Trilogy was sweet package of gaming that was well worth the price. It's pretty much a collector's edition selling for the same price as would a regular priced game. It included a metal case, small art book / game history type thing, and of course... three games in one.

Having already played Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes on the Gamecube, replaying them with the Wii controls at first felt weird. But as I got use it to, the Wiimote actually made the gameplay even more fluid and better. It felt right to be aiming around with the Wiimote instead of using an analog stick. Of course, I did change the lock-on adjustments so that I wouldn't have to fully aim in the game (because that'd be too hard XD).

Story-wise, 3 included a bit of voice-acting and even the presence of other characters other than yourself, making the world feel even more alive than the previous ones (on top of the scanning everything). But of course, being a Metroid game, the story is rarely ever that important compared to the gameplay.

Speaking of gameplay, 3 improves upon its predecessors by removing the need to switch between different beams. Whereas in the first two games, you would need to switch between your power / plasma / ice / light / dark / echo / whatever beams to open doors and such, in the third game your new beam's power adds onto the previous, getting rid of the need to switch in and out of them. Which becomes particularly useful because switching between a multitude of beams to run traverse the whole map is... well... slightly annoying.

Rather than having the game set down on one planet alone, you instead travel between a few planets and ships instead, which makes the sudden geographical changes between areas a bit more acceptable. Also, this allowed the developers to create much more lore around each of the different places, further entrenching you into the game's world.

Difficulty-wise, 3 was actually much more challenging than the previous two games and I've almost died once too. Yes, I didn't die in any of the three games (it's really hard to). This is probably due to the game mechanic where you use a full energy tank to channel a really powerful beam that's necessary to defeat your enemies.

Playing all three games in succession, one can definitely notice the change in graphics over the different games as the developers improved at what they do best. Crisper backgrounds, better character animations, flashier lighting effects, it's great. A particularly nice touch is being able to see Samus' reflection while using the scanning visor in 3. Even better was that you could see the advancement of her Phazon corruption reflected in her face.

Overall, very enjoyable games chalking up to about 40 hours? Fun 40 hours. Yes.


In other news...


Another dream last night, this one is probably the most... distraughting one I've had in a while. I don't remember the circumstances specifically anymore, but I was married? Yeah. I was married. Not that it was the marriage itself that was distraughting... but just the culmination of all things in that situation: sudden marriage, 10 kids (yes, 10), and... I don't even remember. Gah. Then there was the period where I woke and couldn't tell if I was still dreaming... and that was just awful.

But now I'm awake, and that was all a dream. Whee.


Hmm, my left wrist's been hurting. It's been like that since Saturday? I should probably go rub something on it or something. It's probably not good.


All I've been doing these past few days is eat and study. I feel so unhealthy. Augh.
Speaking of eating and studying, I think I'll go eat now.... then study.