I finally finished playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption today.  I haven't had as much time for gaming these days as in the past.  So this post is really for those who haven't yet purchased the game.

Straight up, MP3 is a 5 star game.  There is no faulting it.  If you like like the original Metroid Prime, you'll love MP3.  Some review sites refused to rate MP3 higher than Metroid Prime because it's not as ground breaking, but this is stupid.  We don't rate every FPS game lower than Wolfenstein 3D because it was the one that made the leap to 3D.  MP3 is better than Metroid Prime and deserves a rating that suggests so.

So why is it better?  MP3 is proof that the Wii is not Gamecube v1.5.  MP3 is visually stunning.  The screen shots I seen before playing the game didn't impress me that much, since Metroid Prime, and Metroid Prime Echoes were both beautiful games as well.  But seeing MP3 in motion is amazing.

Using the wii-mote to aim in MP3 works beautifully.  Although it's best to use the advanced configuration option.  You still get to z-targetting which keeps your enemy centre of your view, but you aim anywhere within that view.   This is also one of few games that uses gestures well.  Yanking back on the nun-chuck allows you to pull away enemies shields or armor.  Other gestures are used to open doors, or remove objects.  It's all done well, adds a comfortable amount of interactivity, and never feels clumsy.

MP3 is overall a more epic game than past Metroid Prime games.  Characters speak, you fly to various planets, events are of a larger scale.  The story feels more significant and you are less isolated, less of a loner.  The game seems to flow far more easily than past games.  It's more fun.

But the game may have flowed more easily for me, and felt more fun, because it felt less challenging.  This was a good thing for me, as in past games the difficulty of some boss fights bordered on infuriating.  MP3 still offers a good challenge, but it's perhaps more accommodating of new players, casual gamers.

Strangely, I've completed the game, but it says I've only 72% completed it.  In past games this was a measure of how much content you scanned during gameplay.  I thought I was extremely thorough with scanning everything in MP3, so I'm not sure what I have not done.

If you own a Wii and enjoy gaming then you should definitely get Metroid Prime 3.