As you stated, like many, this was my first Metroid game. My dad was a huge Metroid fan since the first game and was super excited to play through this with me. I was too young at the time to advance the game by myself as I was 7 or 8 when it released. But I remember sitting alongside my dad as he progressed through the levels and being just as invested watching him play as he was actually controlling Samus. It was the night before the first day of 2nd grade and he let me stay up a bit later than usual and I remember freaking the hell out when he completed the Spiderball puzzle to get the Plasma beam. I spent the whole day at school excited to get home just to get the chance to melt enemies with the final beam you unlocked. I replay it all the time to this day and it is easily within my top 5 favorite games of all time.
41:00 I don't mind Magmoor's backtracking as much as others seem to. Know why? Because each time you come back with something that helps you skip things a bit easier. Best example is that small room with the triclops and the fire spouts up top. First time through, you have to go under and face the triclops. Second time, you can space jump over it, but you have to watch out for fire. Third time, you have the ice beam and can freeze those spouts. Each time in magmoor gets a bit easier, and it's a great measure of your progression.
You have a very well-written script. It sounds like you have an ease for describing the aesthetics and sound design with clinical precision as well as with educated vocabulary. I look forward to seeing you grow and develop and refine your video essay skills 👍👍👍
To me, the thermal and x-ray visors were the most magically immersive things I had seen in a video game. I really felt like that put in the effort to make it feel like you were seeing in the infrared and x-ray parts of the spectrum.
I was like 13 or 14 when Metroid Prime was first released. Highly anticipated game for me since I played the shit out of Super Metroid when I was a kid. I'll never forget that moment I finally got my hands on the game on release day and took it down to my parents basement to blast the family surround sound on the opening theme. That scratchy noise effects at the very beginning are always so absurdly nostalgic to me. And to this day Metroid Prime is still my absolute favourite game to play.
I never knew that you could see her hand gestures with the x-ray visor related to the beams. Thank you for pointing that out. You can see this even better underwater.
Excellent analysis. So much to comment on, but I feel like the thing that struck me was the soundtrack, atmosphere, and joy of exploring a space. It hit such an intensely nostalgic note for me, I feel like there aren't any games coming out today that feel quite like this.
Absolutely. It's half the reason I find the game so compelling. Phendrana Drifts is one of my all time favorite game locations for that very reason. Thanks for the kind words!
Your video does a great service to what a player experiences thier first time through, a feel of nostalgia for my first few times playing this as I didn't originally own a memory card when I first had this game, so the opening sections were very familiar.
Thank you! That's actually exactly what I was going for. My first full playthrough of this game was unforgettably magical, and I wanted this video to be a reflection of that. I'm glad it ended up landing!
I know very little about the Metroid series in general, but I really enjoyed this! For a 20 year old game, it looks like it holds up well. I hope this video makes it's way into the recommended box of some big Metroid fans :))
This is a small nitpick, but you said at 41:15 that the Tallon Overworld to Magmoor Caverns elevator doesn't unlock until halfway through the game and that you have to use the Chozo Ruins to Magmoor Caverns elevator. This isn't true, you can use the Tallon elevator as soon as you get missiles. It's the elevator I use for the Space Jump detour and Gravity Suit detour. I rarely use the Chozo Ruins elevator.
I think that Prime's beam system was what made it so amazing. None of the beams REALLY outstrip the others completely, they all have strengths and weaknesses. The Power Beam gets stale since you're stuck with it for so long before Wave, but right after the Wave you get Super Missiles, which are your best and most efficient damage dealers if you're not using the rapid missile glitch, which gives you more reasons to equip the Power Beam further into the game than you normally would. It's definitely the weakest beam but you have plenty of reasons to use it even if you think being forced to use it exclusively on Chozo Ghosts is a little forced. The Wave Beam gives you a powerful homing attack that paralyzes on charge, and the Wavebuster is the best DPS combo if you've spent the time to gather all the missile tanks you can. It's a great all-arounder beam but really only excels if you've taken the time to explore well or are fighting a fast enemy and want to save missiles. The Ice Beam gives you better crowd control than the Wave Beam but you're never gonna clear a room with it. I appreciate that the Ice Spreader can freeze things the charge shot cannot, and redeeming 1 charge shot + 1 missile for an instakill gives you a much needed firepower boost as pirates start spawning in more areas. And of course, the Plasma Beam has the most immediate firepower, but that short range and somewhat useless beam combo means that it's an amazing tool for conserving your resources but not a one-size-fits-all beam if you really want to evaporate enemy health bars. I'd say it's overall stronger than Echos, which increased the overall power of all the non-Power beams to account for the limited ammo. But there's so little tactics to the beam system in Echos: Light Beam beats dark, Dark Beam beats light, Annihilator beats both but muches ammo. The Power Beam simply becomes a weapon of last resort instead of something you'd use tactically. Even the Super Missiles seem weaker.
@@sm3argleliker slightly more. it's 5 points more damage at full charge, which is equivalent to 1/3 of a missile the damage values for each beam|charge|combo Power: 1|25|90 Wave: 1[x3]|20|30/sec Ice: 10|30|75 Plasma: 6|50|50/sec Missile: 15 per missile
9:40 there is a setting where you can swap the jump and shoot buttons in the trilogy version, and oh my god it is a difference maker. shooting soups has never been easier, and the controls feel much more natural, only downside being you can't effectively spam powerbeam anymore, but its still such a better experience.
Gamecube version is my cup of tea. Enjoyed how the visor interacts with the environment (walking out of water, standing in rain, under waterfall, poison gas, heat, cold, etc). Spent many hours just listening and enjoying the nature making no progress. Relisten to the ost from time to time.
The biomes would make some sense if the game took place on and/or around a mountain or mountains. Washington State's east has a desert, because the mountains block the moisture from the ocean blowing over, it it's in no small part why western Washington gets so much rain. You get the mines and volcanic areas from inside the mountain, a rainy side and a dry side, and of course snow and ice near the top.
I'll never forget the first time I beat Metroid Prime. I was about 10 or 11 easily, I had sunk probably 100 hours into the game over the course of at least a year. I finally finished off that pain in the ass Omega Pirate and collected all the artifacts. I took down Ridley and entered the impact crater, I had an intense fight with Metroid Prime, dying a few times and struggling to figure out the Phazon Beam. Eventullay the squid goes down and I let out a cheer, all I can think of after that fight is "okay! What's next!" But, there was nothing next, Samus left the crater and the credits started to roll, I stared at the TV and felt not pride or happiness but dissappointment. As a kid you don't have a good way to sense progression, Metroid Prime was just another enemy to me and not the final boss, I wasn't ready for the game to be over. No game since has given me that feeling and I doubt any game ever will again.
The game is great, definitely one of my top favorites ever! I even bought a Korg MS2000R Synthesizer which was used to produce the majority of the Soundtrack and SFX in Metroid Prime 1&2
Great video love this type of content. Takes a lot of effort to make these videos, very appreciated. Gonna finish this and the rest of the trilogy retrospective
had prime 3 on wii, but finally dropped 75 on the prime trioloy on wii used. I thought to myself...thats only 25 a game so its not bad at all!!! loving it people lovin it!!
What an amazing look at an amazing game. Loved the video, my dude. It brought me back to my childhood and playing Prime for the first time with my Dad during the summer he was laid off from work. I have such fond memories with the game, and all the points you brought up hit the nail on the head. Excellent video!
The backtracking in this game was the reason I never finished it. Not because it sucks or anything... But because I was 7 and I genuinely did not have an idea on how to progress certain areas. Oh, an area is too high for me to reach? Maybe if I just... try to stand on that tiny ledge and pixel perfect this jump I'll make it...
It’s especially hard to figure out when it’s your introduction to the series as a whole. I started it as my first Metroid game but got confused pretty quick. I played through super metroid and came back to finish this later on with a better idea of what I was supposed to do.
@@Kohana64 I certainly do plan to go back and finish it before Prime 4 comes out. Since then I've had the pleasure of playing through some other Metroid games. Including Prime 2, which became one of my favorite games of all time. So definitely looking forward to revisiting this game. Great video btw!
My first Metroid game and to this day one of best games I've ever played. It's expertly designed and the attention to detail is second to none. Great video!
I believe you’re referring to the beginning where I was talking about Super Metroid on SNES. If not though, and I actually did say Prime 1 was my favorite gamecube game, I redact that statement. Prime 2 is my favorite, but Prime 1 is a pretty close second.
It seems like Nintendo wants any Metroid game to be as close to perfect as possible. Especially when it comes to music and sound design. Even on the Gameboy advanced
I was 10 when I discovered Super Metroid, that game captivated me, scared me, but ultimately made me love videogames. I'm from latin america and we always got games later than the release date, in some countries we had "Club Nintendo", an official nintendo magazine for the region. There was an issue giving news from an E3 featuring Samus, WW Link, Mario (Sunshine) and Fox (Adventures), I crearly remember begging my mom to buy it for me. I was so hyped, I knew I couldn't buy any of the games, I even couldn't get a console but I always went to videogame shops to look for the game and it was awesome. But when I had that game two years later my whole love for the series just went trough the roof, I felt most of what you said here as I had all the patience in the world to traverse magmoor caverns time and time again lmao. Also, this game helped me learn english A LOT. I can't imagine my life without having Prime in it. This was an incredible video. I'm going to watch the next ones.
I really enjoy retrospectives like this because they demonstrate how lots of people can play and enjoy the same things about a game for different reasons. This video does an excellent job conveying your experience with the game and what you came away from it with, which has made me see things in a game I personally adore from a angles I hadn't considered, despite sharing many of the same perspectives about the game in common. That said, I just want to comment on some statements about controls for the game. I first played Prime on the Trilogy release with a wiimote and nunchuck on original hardware, and then played through it on Gamecube a year later. To me, personally, the Gamecube controller is by far my most preferred way to experience Metroid Prime. The game's world and level design (apart from the few more vertical areas, as you mentioned) are designed with this controller layout/tank control movement in mind, and it is definitely something you can feel as you go through the game. I also find that boss fights feel physically more tense on a GCN controller since you have these massive shoulder buttons that you're repeatedly gripping forcefully and letting go of to try and hold onto lock-on as you frantically get hits in before the window of opportunity disappears. While the tank controls are slower, the game is designed in a way to accommodate that, not being combat focused and rarely punishing a slower pace of traversal. With my preference for the Gamecube controller in mind, however, I want to refute one of your criticisms for the Wii controls. You mention visors and beams being slow and clunky to change on the Wiimote, but that doesn't have to be the case. If you hold the button and look at the menu to change them, sure, it's slow, but it's set up so that you can hold +/-, quickly flick your cursor to the edge of the screen, and let go, making the change fast and unobtrusive. This ONLY works on an actual Wiimote, however, and when playing with mouse and keyboard (without primehack binds) it completely ruins this functionality, making the slower, clunkier changes you mention the only option. Moving a mouse from one side of the screen to another takes a lot more physical motion and time than it does to flick a cursor across a screen with a wiimote pointer, which leads to this issue. In another video, I saw someone have this same criticism for the Wii control beam/visor change based solely on trying to use them with mouse and keyboard before, but then in a later video they said they tried it on an actual Wii and took back the criticism, since it actually worked in that environment. I would also argue that Primehack makes Metroid Prime a fundamentally different experience from the original. Movement in Prime wasn't necessarily intended to feel that fluid and twitchy, which makes moment to moment traversal a distinctly different experience. This isn't to discredit Primehack, I think this new way of interfacing with and traversing the game's world can be liberating in a lot of ways, allowing for the world's details to be more easily observed and taken in, but, to me, it changes the feeling of traversal enough to be a different experience and something unique to itself, almost a different game. I want to make it clear that I'm not commenting to state that "one control method is more optimal than another", whatever way someone wants to experience a game is fine. Everyone is going to have different preferences and familiarities with controls that make one control option better for them individually when compared to others, and that's perfectly fine. It's awesome we have so many ways to interface with the world of Metroid Prime. I just want to argue against the positioning of Primehack as the "recommended way" to control Metroid Prime as less of a rule and more of a personal preference. When someone is considering what control scheme they should use with Prime I would recommend trying different ones on subsequent playthroughs since how you interface with a game can have a profound influence on the experience you come out of it with.
Firstly, I want to say thanks for watching and taking the time to leave a massive comment like this! I genuinely enjoy the discussions. I actually do sympathize with the preference for the GameCube controls, as it’s how I first played the game, and I do think the game being designed around them makes for a great experience. My preference for the wii/primehack controls comes from having more options to optimize your movement and aim, as I’m sure you could guess. I actually agree with your point about the beam/visor switching, I think it’s a pretty minor issue, especially since the game never really asks you to switch between these upgrades all that fast. On PrimeHack though, I had it configured to have each beam and visor have their own dedicated keys, so I didn’t ever have to deal with the mouse movement thing. My recommendation for the PrimeHack version comes through the lens of having more movement options and optimal keybinds, although I guess I should have specified. Also, I don’t think that an option being more “optimal” means that everybody should experience a game that way, just to be clear. As you said, any way somebody likes to experience a game is perfectly valid!
Nice retrospective. I'm an huge Metroid fan and the Prime games are no exception. Prime 1 is still my favorite to this day cause I think it's the most consistent and faithful to the Metroid formulaic. Not to say the later sequels were bad. Oh no. They're great. But I have an more comfortable and fun time with Prime 1 than I did with Prime 2 & 3.
My 1st and only Metroid game has been dread, I'm really new to the series. But man oh man after watching this video I really want to try this game out. Phenomenal job i really enjoyed my time watching this.
The chozo artifact quest gets too much flack, it's a great addition to the game. If you did read the lore, the chozo locked the source of the great poison away with the artifacts, and the clues they left for the savior they reference shows how much thought they put into creating the world in a way that you can explore, find their technology, and become stronger. The space pirates on the other hand recognize that the life brought by the meteor and infected the world with phazon is locked away, and since they want to harness the phazon they obviously want entrance. They get that the chozo locked it away, but they don't understand the language, so the clues as to where they are remain a mystery to them. And when you touch down, they send a bunch of emergency messages out to each other about you and how you are essentially going to unlock the artifacts, but you are going there to destroy the worm that brought the phazon to the planet. This makes Ridley's reappearance at the impact crater make sense for a creature that can fly too, since he wants to take advantage of you unlocking the impact crater for the space pirates. Idk, it's just such a thoughtful way to pull the world together. The clues as to where to go are plainly put forward to you, and the tools you have like the x-ray visor make it not too complicated once you are there, so it's essentially a victory lap through the map. And the lore that builds the world has entranced me since I was a kid.
Hot take: Metroid Prime is better than all the other 2d metroids. The puzzles feel so much more immersive, the hallways are so much more atmospheric, and exploration is so fun. Despite all the backtracking, I still enjoy it a lot because the backtracking is less boring than in 2d metroid. Not a fan of the Chozo artifacts, Flaaghra's boss fight, or the invisible X-ray visor platforms, but everything else in this game is done to perfection. I played the remaster on switch but I gotta get me the trilogy for the Wii because Metroid Prime 1 is just so awesome.
The game blew me away long after it came out. Didn't pick it up on the Gamecube back in the day, but bought a copy of it in the mid 2010s and was hooked all the way. I later bought the trilogy on the Wii U virtual console and couldn't quite get into the motion controls (and playing an SD game on an HDTV didn't help even if the image quality through the Wii U HDMI would have been better than the Wii composite output). Having meshed with the Gamecube controls, I guess my thought was, "eh I played this a few years ago and loved it the way it was. Why bother being frustrated for maybe an hour or so before these controls mesh with me too" and never touched the Trilogy again. Still want to play through 2 and 3. But I've left all my older consoles at my folks place, so here's hoping they remaster it for the Switch. Heck, enough time has passed for me that I'm sure I'd power through learning the motion controls this time around, which by all accounts are better once you get the hang of them.
The motion controls are definitely far superior, but honestly if you have the means I'd suggest playing through them in PrimeHack! Keyboard + mouse controls are heavenly
Jeez how do you have so much trouble with the Blood Flowers? All you have to do is wait for them to launch their green acid spit ball attack, lock onto it, shoot it and bounce it back at them, which kills them instantly.
Translating the purpose of the 2D Wave, Ice, and Plasma beams to 3D would be absolutely ridiculous, and it wouldn't work. Shooting through doors? Freezing enemies as platforms? Blowing through several enemies coming at you single file.... But translating the purpose of the 3D Wave, Ice, and Plasma Beams into 2D would be fucking awesome, because there's no contradiction there whatsoever.
Lol I'm playing through the remastered game, and I just got the gravity suit, but I didn't go through the sunken ship yet, I went straight to the gravity suit without knowing there was another option 🤷♂️
49:50 Use bombs when Thardus turns into a ball. You can skip the Thermal Visor part and expose the next weak spot if a bomb hits him. Play the game in hard difficulty and review again the boss fights, I'm sure your opinion will change regarding most of your points.
46:12 The main complaint is that the interactable power bomb wall can't be scanned unlike similar ones. It's inconsistent and isn't first playthrough friendly, all to make X-ray better artificially.
I totally understand that, it’s just hard for me personally to sympathize with the complaints when the hint does so much to put you in the exact right spot. Of course, I don’t think anybody is stupid or anything for missing it, I just don’t think it’s poorly designed.
So you mentioned you wished Fission metroids showed up earlier? Well in the Wii version you can actually ecounter them in the phazon mines when returning to certain rooms
Hi Kohana, I started watching your retrospectives with prime 3 down to prime 1, and I noticed the sound is a little bit low. While I watch any video with %30 of my computers volume, I have to watch yours above %50. Just to let you know, cheers
That intro spiel is completely non-canon by the way, the Prime games are between Metroid Zero-Mission and 2, and there definitely isn't over ten years between those games.
I’m aware, my point was to compare Prime as a 3D adaptation of the Metroid formula, which I think Super perfected for its time. I’m definitely not a super deep metroid lore guy, and it wasn’t my intention to tell the full story of the series.
@@theonlybilge Ah. It's simply some promo material voiced by Jennifer Hale I found online that I thought would make for a good atmosphere to introduce the game.
It’s called PrimeHack! It’s a build of the Dolphin Emulator, and it works off the ROM of the prime trilogy, although I’m not sure if it’s also compatible with Prime 3. forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-fork-primehack-fps-controls-and-more-for-metroid-prime
The Space Pirates made the Metroid Prime by complete accident, it was just a Phazon Metroid that escaped containment and phased through the barrier around the Phaaze seed, and after consuming so much Phazon it just got too big to get out, much like how ions can't pass through cellular membranes.
That's wrong. The space pirates never created Metroid Prime, they were never able to enter inside the Impact Crater which was sealed by the Chozo way before the Space Pirates arrived to Tallon IV. Metroid Prime origins are not 100% clear. But Metroids are Chozo made creatures so I think that the Chozo from Tallon IV created/brought? metroids to contain the Phazon contamination and when they saw how phazon mutated metroids they sealed them in the impact crater chamber. That would also explain why there is Chozo technology inside the Impact Crater.
@@obakamaster They exposed captured Metroids to Phazon, no? E: looked at the Metroidwiki, I was wrong. The Leviathan essentially landed on a Metroid, sought a host, and latched onto it.
Metroid Prime is lauded as the perfect Metroid 3d. I disagree. Metroid Prime was a good start, but Prime 2 is better. Prime 3 is the most replayable, but it sadly suffered from some ... losses. Most of all what made the different weapons of Prime 2 so good.
Since you're a long time fan maybe you'll agree... Is it just me or is 900p from the remaster depressing more than it is awesome? Is it just me that still loves the game but gets annoyed every time I think about what metroid could look like if Nintendo would just keep up more with tech? It's always two steps forward and then one back for me. Maybe I'm just old but 900p on switch with the old engine tells me that prime 4 is going to have to release on the next console. 900p on a 4k tv even with an upscaler is pretty awful in 2023
Honestly I’m happy that we got anything at all. Maybe that isn’t the best way to look at things when we’re paying a premium price for these games, but honestly I had no issues with the changes they made with the remaster. I definitely do wish they would keep up with the competition in terms of hardware power, though.
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When someone hits you with the Samus box art render, you know the video's gonna slap.
Definitely not wrong
Literally
Pretty amazing that on their first try, Retro made such an easily understandable 3D map system.
It blows my mind also, that’s really why I tried to spend a chunk of time highlighting it with my video.
As you stated, like many, this was my first Metroid game. My dad was a huge Metroid fan since the first game and was super excited to play through this with me. I was too young at the time to advance the game by myself as I was 7 or 8 when it released. But I remember sitting alongside my dad as he progressed through the levels and being just as invested watching him play as he was actually controlling Samus. It was the night before the first day of 2nd grade and he let me stay up a bit later than usual and I remember freaking the hell out when he completed the Spiderball puzzle to get the Plasma beam. I spent the whole day at school excited to get home just to get the chance to melt enemies with the final beam you unlocked. I replay it all the time to this day and it is easily within my top 5 favorite games of all time.
I love that this video came out 3 months ago, only to have Nintendo drop the remaster, what timing!!
41:00 I don't mind Magmoor's backtracking as much as others seem to. Know why? Because each time you come back with something that helps you skip things a bit easier.
Best example is that small room with the triclops and the fire spouts up top. First time through, you have to go under and face the triclops. Second time, you can space jump over it, but you have to watch out for fire. Third time, you have the ice beam and can freeze those spouts.
Each time in magmoor gets a bit easier, and it's a great measure of your progression.
Thats what i noticed today lol
You have a very well-written script. It sounds like you have an ease for describing the aesthetics and sound design with clinical precision as well as with educated vocabulary. I look forward to seeing you grow and develop and refine your video essay skills 👍👍👍
Thank you so much. I really appreciate that!
@@Kohana64 anytime brother
To me, the thermal and x-ray visors were the most magically immersive things I had seen in a video game. I really felt like that put in the effort to make it feel like you were seeing in the infrared and x-ray parts of the spectrum.
Yeah, the addition of the Spring Ball really was awesome. Made that Energy Tank in Magmoor gettable lol
I was like 13 or 14 when Metroid Prime was first released. Highly anticipated game for me since I played the shit out of Super Metroid when I was a kid. I'll never forget that moment I finally got my hands on the game on release day and took it down to my parents basement to blast the family surround sound on the opening theme. That scratchy noise effects at the very beginning are always so absurdly nostalgic to me. And to this day Metroid Prime is still my absolute favourite game to play.
Thank you for sharing! Great story
I never knew that you could see her hand gestures with the x-ray visor related to the beams. Thank you for pointing that out. You can see this even better underwater.
Excellent analysis. So much to comment on, but I feel like the thing that struck me was the soundtrack, atmosphere, and joy of exploring a space. It hit such an intensely nostalgic note for me, I feel like there aren't any games coming out today that feel quite like this.
Absolutely. It's half the reason I find the game so compelling. Phendrana Drifts is one of my all time favorite game locations for that very reason. Thanks for the kind words!
Your video does a great service to what a player experiences thier first time through, a feel of nostalgia for my first few times playing this as I didn't originally own a memory card when I first had this game, so the opening sections were very familiar.
Thank you! That's actually exactly what I was going for. My first full playthrough of this game was unforgettably magical, and I wanted this video to be a reflection of that. I'm glad it ended up landing!
I know very little about the Metroid series in general, but I really enjoyed this! For a 20 year old game, it looks like it holds up well. I hope this video makes it's way into the recommended box of some big Metroid fans :))
Thanks for watching it anyway! Appreciate it a ton
It has.
I hope you give the Metroid series a chance.
I've been playing for 20 years.
@@TheMissingLink2 I think at some point I definitely will!
You missed out. Get a game cube or wii w/ game cube and a copy
This is a small nitpick, but you said at 41:15 that the Tallon Overworld to Magmoor Caverns elevator doesn't unlock until halfway through the game and that you have to use the Chozo Ruins to Magmoor Caverns elevator. This isn't true, you can use the Tallon elevator as soon as you get missiles. It's the elevator I use for the Space Jump detour and Gravity Suit detour. I rarely use the Chozo Ruins elevator.
Perfect timing!
I think that Prime's beam system was what made it so amazing. None of the beams REALLY outstrip the others completely, they all have strengths and weaknesses.
The Power Beam gets stale since you're stuck with it for so long before Wave, but right after the Wave you get Super Missiles, which are your best and most efficient damage dealers if you're not using the rapid missile glitch, which gives you more reasons to equip the Power Beam further into the game than you normally would. It's definitely the weakest beam but you have plenty of reasons to use it even if you think being forced to use it exclusively on Chozo Ghosts is a little forced.
The Wave Beam gives you a powerful homing attack that paralyzes on charge, and the Wavebuster is the best DPS combo if you've spent the time to gather all the missile tanks you can. It's a great all-arounder beam but really only excels if you've taken the time to explore well or are fighting a fast enemy and want to save missiles.
The Ice Beam gives you better crowd control than the Wave Beam but you're never gonna clear a room with it. I appreciate that the Ice Spreader can freeze things the charge shot cannot, and redeeming 1 charge shot + 1 missile for an instakill gives you a much needed firepower boost as pirates start spawning in more areas.
And of course, the Plasma Beam has the most immediate firepower, but that short range and somewhat useless beam combo means that it's an amazing tool for conserving your resources but not a one-size-fits-all beam if you really want to evaporate enemy health bars.
I'd say it's overall stronger than Echos, which increased the overall power of all the non-Power beams to account for the limited ammo. But there's so little tactics to the beam system in Echos: Light Beam beats dark, Dark Beam beats light, Annihilator beats both but muches ammo. The Power Beam simply becomes a weapon of last resort instead of something you'd use tactically. Even the Super Missiles seem weaker.
Well said! I definitely agree
plus, iirc, the power beam’s charge shot does more damage than the wave beam’s
@@sm3argleliker slightly more. it's 5 points more damage at full charge, which is equivalent to 1/3 of a missile
the damage values for each
beam|charge|combo
Power: 1|25|90
Wave: 1[x3]|20|30/sec
Ice: 10|30|75
Plasma: 6|50|50/sec
Missile: 15 per missile
This game was my gateway into the series. When I got a GameCube for Christmas I also got this to play and it was amazing.
9:40 there is a setting where you can swap the jump and shoot buttons in the trilogy version, and oh my god it is a difference maker. shooting soups has never been easier, and the controls feel much more natural, only downside being you can't effectively spam powerbeam anymore, but its still such a better experience.
I’m aware of the option. I couldn’t ever get used to it personally, although I really should have mentioned it in the video.
I love magmore caverns! The whole area is cool and the music is just so soothing for me. Also keep up the good work!
Very good retrospective my guy. You’ll get my sub
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed
Gamecube version is my cup of tea. Enjoyed how the visor interacts with the environment (walking out of water, standing in rain, under waterfall, poison gas, heat, cold, etc). Spent many hours just listening and enjoying the nature making no progress. Relisten to the ost from time to time.
The biomes would make some sense if the game took place on and/or around a mountain or mountains. Washington State's east has a desert, because the mountains block the moisture from the ocean blowing over, it it's in no small part why western Washington gets so much rain.
You get the mines and volcanic areas from inside the mountain, a rainy side and a dry side, and of course snow and ice near the top.
i need to get out my gamecube and play this gem again. the soundtrack sounds even better than i remember
I always love seeing Metroid love spread around. My first game experience ever!
I'll never forget the first time I beat Metroid Prime.
I was about 10 or 11 easily, I had sunk probably 100 hours into the game over the course of at least a year. I finally finished off that pain in the ass Omega Pirate and collected all the artifacts. I took down Ridley and entered the impact crater, I had an intense fight with Metroid Prime, dying a few times and struggling to figure out the Phazon Beam. Eventullay the squid goes down and I let out a cheer, all I can think of after that fight is "okay! What's next!" But, there was nothing next, Samus left the crater and the credits started to roll, I stared at the TV and felt not pride or happiness but dissappointment. As a kid you don't have a good way to sense progression, Metroid Prime was just another enemy to me and not the final boss, I wasn't ready for the game to be over. No game since has given me that feeling and I doubt any game ever will again.
The game is great, definitely one of my top favorites ever!
I even bought a Korg MS2000R Synthesizer which was used to produce the majority of the Soundtrack and SFX in Metroid Prime 1&2
I am just here because I love people who talk about Metroid Prime.
Love your vids mate. Saw ur prime 2 review first this morning. Had to watch the others as soon as I could
You can hit Thardus in ball form. It’s just hard, and only works if the exposed weakpoint is on the outside.
Well, on the Wii version, you should swap jump and shoot anyway so that shoot is B, AKA the button that's shaped and placed LIKE A TRIGGER.
Great video love this type of content. Takes a lot of effort to make these videos, very appreciated. Gonna finish this and the rest of the trilogy retrospective
had prime 3 on wii, but finally dropped 75 on the prime trioloy on wii used. I thought to myself...thats only 25 a game so its not bad at all!!! loving it people lovin it!!
I’m surprised you were able to find it that cheap, that’s a great deal!
Wii version super missile problem is why i always swap the firing and jump buttons so that i fire with B and jump with A
great video! watching your echoes video after this. thank you for the content.
Thank you so much!
I like how you mentioned fission metroids and how you wanted them to be in more places. You got your wish sir lol
Hiss
This was the game that pushed me to buy a Gamcube way back then. Was not disappointed.
What an amazing look at an amazing game. Loved the video, my dude. It brought me back to my childhood and playing Prime for the first time with my Dad during the summer he was laid off from work.
I have such fond memories with the game, and all the points you brought up hit the nail on the head.
Excellent video!
Thanks so much! I’m happy this video was able to bring you back to your first play through of the game, that’s exactly what I wanted.
The backtracking in this game was the reason I never finished it.
Not because it sucks or anything...
But because I was 7 and I genuinely did not have an idea on how to progress certain areas.
Oh, an area is too high for me to reach? Maybe if I just... try to stand on that tiny ledge and pixel perfect this jump I'll make it...
It’s especially hard to figure out when it’s your introduction to the series as a whole. I started it as my first Metroid game but got confused pretty quick. I played through super metroid and came back to finish this later on with a better idea of what I was supposed to do.
@@Kohana64 I certainly do plan to go back and finish it before Prime 4 comes out. Since then I've had the pleasure of playing through some other Metroid games.
Including Prime 2, which became one of my favorite games of all time.
So definitely looking forward to revisiting this game.
Great video btw!
@@deeodeus9009 Thank you! I hope you enjoy the game!
My first Metroid game and to this day one of best games I've ever played. It's expertly designed and the attention to detail is second to none. Great video!
Thank you! Been a fan of your work for a while now, glad you enjoyed!
How can it be your favourite game on the system when metroid Prime 2 is on it
I believe you’re referring to the beginning where I was talking about Super Metroid on SNES. If not though, and I actually did say Prime 1 was my favorite gamecube game, I redact that statement. Prime 2 is my favorite, but Prime 1 is a pretty close second.
It seems like Nintendo wants any Metroid game to be as close to perfect as possible. Especially when it comes to music and sound design. Even on the Gameboy advanced
One word: Randovania :D makes the game far more fresh with each randomized run.
10:26 "That's why the gameplay looks much snappier than that of the Wii remote and GameCube footage" (game suddenly GRINDS to a halt :P)
Metroid Prime video essay? Definitely sticking around for your channel, keep up the good work
I was 10 when I discovered Super Metroid, that game captivated me, scared me, but ultimately made me love videogames. I'm from latin america and we always got games later than the release date, in some countries we had "Club Nintendo", an official nintendo magazine for the region. There was an issue giving news from an E3 featuring Samus, WW Link, Mario (Sunshine) and Fox (Adventures), I crearly remember begging my mom to buy it for me. I was so hyped, I knew I couldn't buy any of the games, I even couldn't get a console but I always went to videogame shops to look for the game and it was awesome. But when I had that game two years later my whole love for the series just went trough the roof, I felt most of what you said here as I had all the patience in the world to traverse magmoor caverns time and time again lmao. Also, this game helped me learn english A LOT. I can't imagine my life without having Prime in it. This was an incredible video. I'm going to watch the next ones.
Thanks for sharing your story! And I’m glad you enjoyed
49:55 bomb the ground right in front of thardus when he rolls around and it’ll damage him
I really enjoy retrospectives like this because they demonstrate how lots of people can play and enjoy the same things about a game for different reasons. This video does an excellent job conveying your experience with the game and what you came away from it with, which has made me see things in a game I personally adore from a angles I hadn't considered, despite sharing many of the same perspectives about the game in common.
That said, I just want to comment on some statements about controls for the game. I first played Prime on the Trilogy release with a wiimote and nunchuck on original hardware, and then played through it on Gamecube a year later. To me, personally, the Gamecube controller is by far my most preferred way to experience Metroid Prime. The game's world and level design (apart from the few more vertical areas, as you mentioned) are designed with this controller layout/tank control movement in mind, and it is definitely something you can feel as you go through the game. I also find that boss fights feel physically more tense on a GCN controller since you have these massive shoulder buttons that you're repeatedly gripping forcefully and letting go of to try and hold onto lock-on as you frantically get hits in before the window of opportunity disappears. While the tank controls are slower, the game is designed in a way to accommodate that, not being combat focused and rarely punishing a slower pace of traversal.
With my preference for the Gamecube controller in mind, however, I want to refute one of your criticisms for the Wii controls. You mention visors and beams being slow and clunky to change on the Wiimote, but that doesn't have to be the case. If you hold the button and look at the menu to change them, sure, it's slow, but it's set up so that you can hold +/-, quickly flick your cursor to the edge of the screen, and let go, making the change fast and unobtrusive. This ONLY works on an actual Wiimote, however, and when playing with mouse and keyboard (without primehack binds) it completely ruins this functionality, making the slower, clunkier changes you mention the only option. Moving a mouse from one side of the screen to another takes a lot more physical motion and time than it does to flick a cursor across a screen with a wiimote pointer, which leads to this issue. In another video, I saw someone have this same criticism for the Wii control beam/visor change based solely on trying to use them with mouse and keyboard before, but then in a later video they said they tried it on an actual Wii and took back the criticism, since it actually worked in that environment.
I would also argue that Primehack makes Metroid Prime a fundamentally different experience from the original. Movement in Prime wasn't necessarily intended to feel that fluid and twitchy, which makes moment to moment traversal a distinctly different experience. This isn't to discredit Primehack, I think this new way of interfacing with and traversing the game's world can be liberating in a lot of ways, allowing for the world's details to be more easily observed and taken in, but, to me, it changes the feeling of traversal enough to be a different experience and something unique to itself, almost a different game.
I want to make it clear that I'm not commenting to state that "one control method is more optimal than another", whatever way someone wants to experience a game is fine. Everyone is going to have different preferences and familiarities with controls that make one control option better for them individually when compared to others, and that's perfectly fine. It's awesome we have so many ways to interface with the world of Metroid Prime. I just want to argue against the positioning of Primehack as the "recommended way" to control Metroid Prime as less of a rule and more of a personal preference. When someone is considering what control scheme they should use with Prime I would recommend trying different ones on subsequent playthroughs since how you interface with a game can have a profound influence on the experience you come out of it with.
Firstly, I want to say thanks for watching and taking the time to leave a massive comment like this! I genuinely enjoy the discussions. I actually do sympathize with the preference for the GameCube controls, as it’s how I first played the game, and I do think the game being designed around them makes for a great experience. My preference for the wii/primehack controls comes from having more options to optimize your movement and aim, as I’m sure you could guess. I actually agree with your point about the beam/visor switching, I think it’s a pretty minor issue, especially since the game never really asks you to switch between these upgrades all that fast. On PrimeHack though, I had it configured to have each beam and visor have their own dedicated keys, so I didn’t ever have to deal with the mouse movement thing. My recommendation for the PrimeHack version comes through the lens of having more movement options and optimal keybinds, although I guess I should have specified. Also, I don’t think that an option being more “optimal” means that everybody should experience a game that way, just to be clear. As you said, any way somebody likes to experience a game is perfectly valid!
Amazing Content, sent me on a trip down memory lane. now i must play metroid prime 1&2 again
Thank you! Have fun
I love the Sunken Frigatte Theme.
I'm pretty sure you encounter fission metroids on the mines after defeating the omega pirate
I believe you’re right!
Nice retrospective. I'm an huge Metroid fan and the Prime games are no exception. Prime 1 is still my favorite to this day cause I think it's the most consistent and faithful to the Metroid formulaic. Not to say the later sequels were bad. Oh no. They're great. But I have an more comfortable and fun time with Prime 1 than I did with Prime 2 & 3.
My 1st and only Metroid game has been dread, I'm really new to the series. But man oh man after watching this video I really want to try this game out. Phenomenal job i really enjoyed my time watching this.
Thanks for checking it out! I highly recommend you play it ASAP if you can, and if so, I hope you enjoy it!
Now is the perfect time with the remaster
The chozo artifact quest gets too much flack, it's a great addition to the game. If you did read the lore, the chozo locked the source of the great poison away with the artifacts, and the clues they left for the savior they reference shows how much thought they put into creating the world in a way that you can explore, find their technology, and become stronger. The space pirates on the other hand recognize that the life brought by the meteor and infected the world with phazon is locked away, and since they want to harness the phazon they obviously want entrance. They get that the chozo locked it away, but they don't understand the language, so the clues as to where they are remain a mystery to them. And when you touch down, they send a bunch of emergency messages out to each other about you and how you are essentially going to unlock the artifacts, but you are going there to destroy the worm that brought the phazon to the planet. This makes Ridley's reappearance at the impact crater make sense for a creature that can fly too, since he wants to take advantage of you unlocking the impact crater for the space pirates.
Idk, it's just such a thoughtful way to pull the world together. The clues as to where to go are plainly put forward to you, and the tools you have like the x-ray visor make it not too complicated once you are there, so it's essentially a victory lap through the map. And the lore that builds the world has entranced me since I was a kid.
Hot take: Metroid Prime is better than all the other 2d metroids. The puzzles feel so much more immersive, the hallways are so much more atmospheric, and exploration is so fun. Despite all the backtracking, I still enjoy it a lot because the backtracking is less boring than in 2d metroid. Not a fan of the Chozo artifacts, Flaaghra's boss fight, or the invisible X-ray visor platforms, but everything else in this game is done to perfection. I played the remaster on switch but I gotta get me the trilogy for the Wii because Metroid Prime 1 is just so awesome.
This might be the best review ever.
A new prime video I haven't seen! Yay!
I’m here before your channel blows up. I’ll give it a couple of months before this vid has a couple hundred thousand views.
Thank you! I really hope you’re right.
Great job again bro!!! Do one on Metroid Prime 4
Thank you! I’ll do it eventually, rest assured!
Top 5 game for me. PS You can swap A and B in the menu to make Super Missiles easier
The game blew me away long after it came out. Didn't pick it up on the Gamecube back in the day, but bought a copy of it in the mid 2010s and was hooked all the way. I later bought the trilogy on the Wii U virtual console and couldn't quite get into the motion controls (and playing an SD game on an HDTV didn't help even if the image quality through the Wii U HDMI would have been better than the Wii composite output).
Having meshed with the Gamecube controls, I guess my thought was, "eh I played this a few years ago and loved it the way it was. Why bother being frustrated for maybe an hour or so before these controls mesh with me too" and never touched the Trilogy again. Still want to play through 2 and 3. But I've left all my older consoles at my folks place, so here's hoping they remaster it for the Switch. Heck, enough time has passed for me that I'm sure I'd power through learning the motion controls this time around, which by all accounts are better once you get the hang of them.
The motion controls are definitely far superior, but honestly if you have the means I'd suggest playing through them in PrimeHack! Keyboard + mouse controls are heavenly
Jeez how do you have so much trouble with the Blood Flowers? All you have to do is wait for them to launch their green acid spit ball attack, lock onto it, shoot it and bounce it back at them, which kills them instantly.
Translating the purpose of the 2D Wave, Ice, and Plasma beams to 3D would be absolutely ridiculous, and it wouldn't work. Shooting through doors? Freezing enemies as platforms? Blowing through several enemies coming at you single file....
But translating the purpose of the 3D Wave, Ice, and Plasma Beams into 2D would be fucking awesome, because there's no contradiction there whatsoever.
48:50 I did not know you were supposed to missile this boss. For my entire life I've always used the power bombs under its ass
Still a good strategy! I believe it’s actually faster to do it that way
Lol I'm playing through the remastered game, and I just got the gravity suit, but I didn't go through the sunken ship yet, I went straight to the gravity suit without knowing there was another option 🤷♂️
That speech from Samus at the start was the same one used in Smash Bros Brawl's Metroid Prime menu theme remix, where's it from?
It’s some old promo material voiced by Jennifer Hale! That’s really all I know about it, but it is up on youtube to this day.
49:50 Use bombs when Thardus turns into a ball. You can skip the Thermal Visor part and expose the next weak spot if a bomb hits him.
Play the game in hard difficulty and review again the boss fights, I'm sure your opinion will change regarding most of your points.
"Prime-arily the Wii version..." lol
46:12 The main complaint is that the interactable power bomb wall can't be scanned unlike similar ones. It's inconsistent and isn't first playthrough friendly, all to make X-ray better artificially.
I totally understand that, it’s just hard for me personally to sympathize with the complaints when the hint does so much to put you in the exact right spot. Of course, I don’t think anybody is stupid or anything for missing it, I just don’t think it’s poorly designed.
So you mentioned you wished Fission metroids showed up earlier? Well in the Wii version you can actually ecounter them in the phazon mines when returning to certain rooms
Great video Ifound your channel right as I was about to try thebgame for the first time ever with the remaster
Thanks for watching. Hope you enjoy the game!
@@Kohana64 It's pretty cool so far
I've played this enough on emulators to tell that's what your using in this video lol
I wish you put a warning for the blur when you have us listen to the soundtrack. It hurts my eyes. It like putting on the wrong kind of glasses.
Sorry about that! It won’t be done in the next one
Hi Kohana, I started watching your retrospectives with prime 3 down to prime 1, and I noticed the sound is a little bit low. While I watch any video with %30 of my computers volume, I have to watch yours above %50. Just to let you know, cheers
Good video dude.
6:45 well there are 3 versions now 😉
I don’t think prime has subpar main bosses. Just subpar mini bosses
super metroid is literally the best super nintendo game period
Good take
That intro spiel is completely non-canon by the way, the Prime games are between Metroid Zero-Mission and 2, and there definitely isn't over ten years between those games.
I’m aware, my point was to compare Prime as a 3D adaptation of the Metroid formula, which I think Super perfected for its time. I’m definitely not a super deep metroid lore guy, and it wasn’t my intention to tell the full story of the series.
@@Kohana64
I'm referring to the woman talking one.
@@theonlybilge Ah. It's simply some promo material voiced by Jennifer Hale I found online that I thought would make for a good atmosphere to introduce the game.
Who do you think would win in a fight halo or metroid
Gonna have to go with Metroid personally
Zelda chop both in half with his big sword
Whats the pc mod? Ive been dying to replay the trillogy and would love to do so on pc
It’s called PrimeHack! It’s a build of the Dolphin Emulator, and it works off the ROM of the prime trilogy, although I’m not sure if it’s also compatible with Prime 3.
forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-fork-primehack-fps-controls-and-more-for-metroid-prime
@@Kohana64 thank you!
I stopped playing because of Ridley. The second half takes forever and I always lose. (I finished Prime 2 on Hard mode (PAL Game Cube) and Prime 3)
The Space Pirates made the Metroid Prime by complete accident, it was just a Phazon Metroid that escaped containment and phased through the barrier around the Phaaze seed, and after consuming so much Phazon it just got too big to get out, much like how ions can't pass through cellular membranes.
That's wrong. The space pirates never created Metroid Prime, they were never able to enter inside the Impact Crater which was sealed by the Chozo way before the Space Pirates arrived to Tallon IV.
Metroid Prime origins are not 100% clear. But Metroids are Chozo made creatures so I think that the Chozo from Tallon IV created/brought? metroids to contain the Phazon contamination and when they saw how phazon mutated metroids they sealed them in the impact crater chamber. That would also explain why there is Chozo technology inside the Impact Crater.
@@obakamaster
They exposed captured Metroids to Phazon, no?
E: looked at the Metroidwiki, I was wrong. The Leviathan essentially landed on a Metroid, sought a host, and latched onto it.
@@theonlybilge yes, but that's different topic and not related to the Impact Crater metroids.
I can and will listen to Chozo Ruins for hours. Thanks Nintendo!
15:58 Bruh this misleading, this following shot is an AI HD texture pack or upscaled beyond 720P at LEAST if not both (which is how I play).
Yeah
So does anyone know where I can find that mod that allows me to play in PC?
forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-fork-primehack-fps-controls-and-more-for-metroid-prime
9:35 Swap the A and B button in the settings you heathen! :P
Metroid Prime is lauded as the perfect Metroid 3d. I disagree. Metroid Prime was a good start, but Prime 2 is better. Prime 3 is the most replayable, but it sadly suffered from some ... losses. Most of all what made the different weapons of Prime 2 so good.
Fully agree. I’ll echo largely the same sentiment in my upcoming Prime 3 video
Since you're a long time fan maybe you'll agree...
Is it just me or is 900p from the remaster depressing more than it is awesome? Is it just me that still loves the game but gets annoyed every time I think about what metroid could look like if Nintendo would just keep up more with tech? It's always two steps forward and then one back for me. Maybe I'm just old but 900p on switch with the old engine tells me that prime 4 is going to have to release on the next console. 900p on a 4k tv even with an upscaler is pretty awful in 2023
And what they did with the burst fire before the beam will start charging is just upsetting somehow
Honestly I’m happy that we got anything at all. Maybe that isn’t the best way to look at things when we’re paying a premium price for these games, but honestly I had no issues with the changes they made with the remaster. I definitely do wish they would keep up with the competition in terms of hardware power, though.
@Kohana I was happy enough at first to go buy an oled switch just for this game. As i have been playing things have been adding up I suppose
@@johndodo2062 That's totally understandable. I hope Prime 4 lives up to your expectations!
Spoiler: metroid is a really cool dude
Please level your audio
Please don’t call Metroid a Metroidvania 😩
How is this a retrospective? You're just describing the game.
Yeah