HIGH Unique creatures to transform into!

LOW The backtracking feels like it only exists to pad the playtime.

WTF A Dark Souls-esque currency-dropped-on-death system that can be turned off anyway.

For years, the so-called metroidvania subgenre has been a favorite for many indie developers. Biomorph is Lucid Dream Studio’s crack at the classic formula, and they deliver a satisfying and modern experience that many fans will appreciate.

The adventure begins with an animated cutscene, whose art style (along with the art direction for the humanoid characters) is reminiscent of 2012’s Dust: An Elysian Tail. Characters offer an interesting blend of animal characteristics without necessarily drawing to mind any specific animals — instead of a generic cat girl, a character may have cat-like ears but a reptilian face, or wing-like arms.

The monster designs are where the team’s creativity shines, as they manage to be unique and monstrous — even disturbing — while still fitting into the more ‘cartoony’ world, which is especially important as one of the main character’s signature powers is transforming into enemies they have defeated. After besting enough of an enemy type, that type can be morphed into at any time, each coming with their own movesets and movement options to solve puzzles or offer advantages in combat. One monster let me hover past spike pits that would otherwise kill me; a majestic elk-looking monster offered little in terms of traversal options but did have great kill power.

The base character has a variety of attack and action options, thanks to a system of ‘chips’ which can be swapped out and upgraded. One chip offers standard directional melee punches, while another may offer ranged options, or a shield that can block an enemy’s attack.

Movement is basic and somewhat limited. Jump height can be adjusted by how long the button is held, and there’s a short ‘slide’ the player can perform to get through tight spaces or dodge high-aiming attacks. Platforming can be somewhat dull due to these limited options, although some enemy forms offer other options to navigate certain rooms, and I would say this is fairly standard for the subgenre.

Exploration in Biomorph is fairly standard for metroidvanias, with backtracking encouraged when new powers are gained, and a map that’s easily readable and allows for the placing of various pins to notate areas that need to be revisited. There main and side quests that are generally marked on the map and are rarely if ever confusing to follow.

However, there are occasions where back-and-forth travel required by missions serves no purpose other than wasting time. For example, several missions required meeting a character in the main town after finding them elsewhere in the world. Then that character makes the player walk across town to ‘submit a form’ so they can establish a business, and then they return to the same spot. Why not just have the character set up shop as soon as they return to town?

It’s worth noting that by default, Biomorph has a souls-esque system of making the character drop all currency when they get killed, before immediately auto-saving. However, if the currency is lost in a boss room, the pile will spawn outside, which is great. With that said, there’s an option in the menu to simply turn this soulslike mechanic off entirely, which was a good move as it felt tacked on as a nod to FromSoftware, rather than a thoughtful inclusion to their own work.

In terms of bosses, Biomorph‘s are scattered throughout the world, and they offer a different experience from the usual platforming and basic puzzle-solving. These bosses are, for the most part, not particularly difficult and tend to devolve into jumping around until they offer an opening to get some hits in. Simply rinse and repeat until they explode into a gory mess. They serve their purpose but ultimately weren’t memorable.

Ultimately, Biomorph is a serviceable addition to the metroidvania subgenre that I think most fans of the content will enjoy thanks to the appealing look of its graphics and the novelty of the main character’s ability to transform. It might not break much new ground, but a solid experience doesn’t necessarily have to.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Buy Biomorph – PC– PS – XB – SW

Disclosures: This game was developed and published by Lucid Dreams Studio. It is currently available on Switch, PS5, XBO/X/S, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch OLED. Approximately 12 hours were devoted to the game, and it was not completed. This is a single-player-only title.

Parents: This game has received a T rating from the ESRB and contains Blood and Violence. While none of the characters players fight are human, monsters do explode in messes of gore and viscera when defeated. Fighting these monsters is frequent and encouraged via gameplay.

Colorblind modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue is written and no gameplay segments encountered required sound cues. This game is fully accessible.

Controls: The controls are fully remappable.

The post Biomorph Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A colorful and vibrant art style.

LOW The combat system feels off.

WTF Gaining XP but not being able to spend it until finding the upgrade

The metrodvania genre has a long history, and it’s one I have an affinity for. The name is a portmanteau of two seminal titles in the genre, Metroid and Castlevania. These experiences are typically in 2D and have extensive maps that are gradually unlocked by exploring and learning new skills that open the way to previously-inaccessible places.

The sense of discovery lends a sense of reward, particularly in how the worlds often fit together, and this design style is both popular and has had a broad influence on videogames in general. There are many, many metroidvanias out there, and given the competition, sometimes being a bit too derivative can be an issue. However, a unique hook or being an exceptionally smooth experience can make one stand out. Sadly, Mars 2120 lacks either of these.

As Sergeant Anna Charlotte, players crash down onto the eponymous planet near a colony where no one appears to be alive. Instead, the facility seems to be overrun by mutants and other enemies. Once the action begins, Mars 2120 makes a decent first impression. It sports fairly attractive visuals with a clean, vibrantly-colored style and a soundtrack that does a good job of building atmosphere, though it’s typical sci-fi fare.

However, it’s not long before feelings of overfamiliarity set in, since Mars stars a female character in a metroidvania who happens to be wearing a combat suit. It’s impossible not to immediately think of Metroid, and given the general look of things, specifically Metroid Dread. This is also clear in the combat, which comes in two variations – shooting and melee.

Shooting is done with a rifle that has different states but lacks power, further let down by no discernable visual feedback. Enemies don’t react to being struck with gunfire — they just stand there or continue advancing as a tinny audio sample from the gun plays. Combos are more effective than firearms, but they’re repetitive as Anna will be doing the same combos over and over again. Additionally, most bosses maintain the same boring pattern throughout — stagger them by shooting and then use a melee combo, repeat ad nauseum. 

The other side of the expected experience is, of course, exploration, and again there’s nothing exceptional here — the environments are well-designed, with some nice graphical details such as shimmering ice in an ice cave location, but it offers the typical environmental tropes typically found in games of this type, with few exceptions. 

Ironically, Mars 2120 lacks the interconnectivity in level design that the best metroidvanias boast, yet but I still often found myself lost due to a lack of a clear indication about where to go next. There are times when Mars 2120 switches from a 2D perspective to a 3D one — which looks interesting and shakes things up — but can also lead to some confusing platforming. It already feels a bits floaty and imprecise, so this lack of clarity and direction only adds to the overall sense that this key aspect of play is unsatisfactory.

There are other issues as well. Early on, the narrative drive is absent, though this does improve later in the campaign thanks to audio logs. Additionally, the developers have chosen a perplexing level-up system, where the player accrues experience points but can’t spend them until a skill is found in the world. It turns the experience system into a pointless exercise, as I frequently racked up huge amounts of experience but couldn’t use them to customize or make choices for huge stretches of time. It was hardly different than simply finding a skill and moving on without any EXP involved, much like most metroidvanias.

All of these things (and I haven’t even mentioned the performance issues!) all add up to the fact that Mars 2120 just doesn’t have anything to make it stand out, let alone stand above the rest of the competition in this already-saturated genre.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by QUByte Interactive. It is currently available on XBO/X/S, PS4/5, Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBS. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood and Violence. I would definitely say that the violence depicted in Mars 2120 is on the mild side — there’s no sexual content nor any salty language. The use of violence is of the sci-fi variety and not graphic. 

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present.   

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles can be altered and resized. I did not notice any issues when playing without sound, though the game did have trouble with telegraphing enemy attacks, but it had nothing to do with audio. Also, the accessibility options for Mars 2120 were extensive. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Mars 2120 Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Fresh from his court martial, Captain Spaeth regales the crew with his Top Ten Games of 2021. Commander Naik revisits some long lost Castlevania titles and does his best to define “Ecclesia”.  And in our Shared Steam Library Game of the Month, we look back at the Steam game that started it all, Half-Life 2. Does it hold up? Or are we afraid to find out? Fire up your gravity guns and join us on this all-new Bridge Crew!

The post The Bridge Crew 15: Two Less Lonely People in the World appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Yo, it’s Axiom Verge on the TV or on the go.

LOW $20 may be a tad high for a two-year old game with no extras that’s on sale all the time.

WTF One guy made every aspect of it. I am clearly inferior to this man.

Backlogs sure are a kick in the teeth, right?

Everybody has their own pile of shame, and we all tell ourselves we’ll get to them eventually. Due to a combination of selling off my entire game collection, general fatigue with the Metroidvania genre and moving to Vietnam, Axiom Verge was one of those aww shucks, I really wanna get to that titles as the April 2015 release notched acclaim from fans and press alike. When things got less hectic, I was able to pick it up a year later and found myself enthralled with a supremely well-designed, inventive title that filled the nostalgia cup.

Thomas Happ, who made the entire game on his own, has ported Axiom Verge to nearly every modern gaming device, and its new home on the Nintendo Switch may be the best fit for the game yet.

We here at GameCritics took a look at Axiom Verge back in 2015, and I find myself in general agreement with the original review. As stated previously, the game is a wonderful throwback with the most obvious comparison being Metroid. Taking the role of a possibly-dead-but-who-really-knows scientist named Trace, players will maneuver around a huge open world and collect a wide variety of weapons and tools that help defeat increasingly-difficult opponents while also slowly unlocking new paths of exploration. So, for a full top-to-bottom review, hit the link up there and then come back so I can point out a few things that make this game awesome.

Primarily, it’s the weapons. They’re incredibly varied and allow the player multiple paths to success in enemy encounters. Most people will latch onto a couple (I personally rolled with the Kilver, which is essentially the shotgun from Metal Slug but with lightning) but every weapon serves multiple purposes and will be useful when scouring the map for countless amounts of well-hidden-but-not-unattainable secrets and upgrades. Exploration here is highly enjoyable, and not the chore that it is in other games of this ilk.

I also adore the vibe. Axiom Verge is unnerving thanks to some grotesque creatures making dreadful screeches, the foreboding atmosphere, and a truly outstanding soundtrack that fits the nature of the game while also providing good, thumping beats to keep the player going through tough combat sections.

The original reviewer seemed to find the story and script rather hokey, but outside of some dialogue that may have needed a second pass, I found myself constantly intrigued and wondering just what the hell was really going on in this world. Like the secrets and exploration, Axiom Verge‘s reveals also come through gameplay — Trace will acquire the ability to ‘hack’ the world in order to decipher certain things. It’s a neat effect that fits the themes while also contributing to the exploration.

As for this particular version of the game, don’t expect any new content. It’s Axiom Verge on the Switch, so the main new feature is the new platform. Vita owners already know this, but it makes for a great portable game, with numerous save points meaning that a player never needs to worry about finding a good place to stop. For collectors, a physical “Multiverse Edition” will be shipping with an art book, documentary, and a poster. However, heads up that it comes out November 21^{st —} well over a month after the digital release reviewed here.

Putting the lack of new content aside, Axiom Verge is just as good now as it was in 2015, and it also pulls off the rare feat of being incredibly imaginative while also paying obvious homage to its inspiration. Thomas Happ clearly loves Metroid a whole lot, but his outstanding art design and musical talents keep the game he spent five years of his life on from feeling like a knockoff. Anyone with a Switch who hasn’t played Axiom Verge yet will find a polished adventure that would be a great addition to their library — just don’t leave it in the backlog pile. Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Thomas Happ Games. It is new to the Switch, but is also available on the PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, Vita, and Steam. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Nintendo Switch. Approximately 3 hours of play were devoted to the game. The 12-15 hour game was completed previously by the reviewer on another platform, and the time spent with the Switch version was to check for technical competence. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10+ for Fantasy Violence and Mild Language. While there is no truly objectionable content, the unnerving nature of the world and story may be a little much for younger players

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The story is told entirely through text and there are no audio cues. It’s fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: This game’s controls are not remappable

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

The post Axiom Verge Review (Switch) appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before — a 2D platformer borrowing from Metroid and Castlevania which also has roguelike elements just hit Steam Early Access. Hang on — this time the game already feels finished, and has been nearly impossible to put down for the past week. Dead Cells manages to go beyond genre pastiche and freshens up one of the most crowded spaces in gaming. It’s well worth checking out even in its “unfinished” state.

Dead Cells is one of those games that felt perfect from the moment I started learning the controls. Rolling around enemies, double-jumping, and pouncing from above all feel best-in-class, and fluid in a way that belies Dead Cells’ Sega Genesis-era 2D graphics and Early Access designation.

As if the exceptional movement wasn’t enough, Dead Cells provides a dizzying array of combat possibilities. Runs through the world are replete with weapons and abilities that can occupy one of four slots for use at almost any time. This goes beyond the trusty sword and bow to include flashbangs, electric whips, bear traps, ice projectiles, and even more that I have yet to discover. The abilities can chain together in unexpected ways, and each have their own animation timings and cooldowns to learn. What’s more, the level design constantly beckons the player into challenging combat scenarios that invite experimentation with those abilities, and go beyond the “here’s a pit full of bad guys” design of similar titles.

The level design in Dead Cells also goes a long way toward keeping the player invested in an environment they’ll see dozens, (if not hundreds) of times. While the charm of exploring a handcrafted world is lost in games that are randomly generated, Dead Cells gives the player several permanent traversal abilities that re-contextualize earlier areas. In a game where the starting area is seen over and over again, having dead-ends and set dressing transform into new paths to progress leads to the ever-present feeling that I’d quit after “just one more run”.

Though Dead Cells is indeed one of the most fully-realized and complete-feeling Early Access games I’ve played, there are a few things I’d like to see addressed in the coming months of development.

First, combat never truly feels stale even after several runs, but enemy variety is sorely lacking, and is especially frustrating when the environmental art changes so drastically between levels. Also, as much as I love the ability to gradually open shortcuts that skip the early areas as they become too easy, I found myself often stuck in an area I wasn’t prepared for when I used them. While it’s good to let intermediate players skip right to the action, taking these shortcuts left me feeling unprepared and resigned to an inevitable death, rather than being challenged.

However, those issues haven’t stopped me from losing hours and hours to Dead Cells, and its perfectly-tuned combat and constant sense of discovery have been easily distracting me from other “finished” games.

Dead Cells is currently available in Steam Early Access.

The post Dead Cells Preview appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH When the game starts inverting and magnifying gravity.

LOW The cut-scene preceding a major boss encounter that depicts Samus as a sobbing child.

WTF Could you have maybe let me use the Varia suit before I spent all that time dying from heat?

The Metroid series contains some of the most celebrated games in history in part because Nintendo has been willing to be innovative. The Metroid Prime games were a radical departure from the template of the preceding entries, but after three successful outings their potential had been pretty well explored. Thus, Nintendo handed Metroid to Tecmo's Team Ninja, a development team known for the brutally intense and difficult Ninja Gaiden games. Of course, Team Ninja is also known for its soft-porn spinoffs of the Dead or Alive series, a heritage that might not bode well for a series with a female lead. Unfortunately, their contribution to the series canon is more evident in the storytelling than in the gameplay. Other M adds almost nothing positive to Metroid.

Other M concerns protagonist Samus Aran's work assisting a team of marines investigating an enormous, derelict research starship. That kind of restricted environment offers a rather small set of unique environments, a clear weakness for a game about exploration. Except for a short zone that plays around with gravity, however, Team Ninja squanders even that limited potential, retreating to the old standards: jungle zone, ice zone, lava zone. Yes, lava on a spaceship. All these places are rendered with exceptional beauty (I occasionally forgot I was playing on an SD console), but the overbearing familiarity was impossible to escape.

The player moves Samus through this space using the Wiimote's D-pad, firing with the 1 button and jumping with 2. This system works very well thanks to a very competent auto-aim that generally managed to shoot the target I wanted to hit. If more precise aim is called for, pointing the Wiimote at the screen enters a first-person point-and-shoot perspective, which is the only way to use missiles and is required during most boss fights. As Samus cannot move in this state, the viewpoint represents an added tactical challenge in the most dangerous battles.

There's nothing wrong with this control scheme per se, but there's nothing particularly right with it either. The D-pad can be a twitchy (and physically uncomfortable) way to control movement in 3-D space, which is why analog sticks are such popular control devices. The Wii has an analog stick available, and there was no reason not to use it. Shifting the Wiimote around adds almost nothing to the game beyond the inconvenience of actually doing it, and it comes across as a pointless gimmick rather than a well-considered design. Indeed, the same could be said of the first-person view itself, since the nunchuck's additional controls would have allowed missile lock-on without requiring the perspective switch. Beyond that function, first-person view is only really used for some irritating pixel hunts the game would have been better off without.

Nonetheless, combat and platforming control quite fluidly and are generally great fun. Despite Team Ninja's reputation for creating hard games, progress through most of Other M is relatively easy. The difficulty, however, often jumps up obnoxiously, not just in boss fights but also in some scripted one-time encounters. Because health cannot be collected from enemies and the only healing possible requires Samus to stand still, death can come quickly early on. Closely-spaced restoration points make death less painful, but no less frustrating.

The frustration is greater because it's obvious that Samus shouldn't be dying at all, and is only in peril because her suit is not operating to the fullest of its abilities. This has been a constant of the Metroid series, and never a strong point. It's particularly galling in Other M, however, because it reflects not an absence of those powers but a prohibition on their use. Samus is dying because some guy told her not to use the good gun, and she seemingly lacks the pluck to even suggest that maybe he should let her use the heat-resistant suit in a room where she is literally dying from proximity to lava.

The story has a sexist subtext, to be sure, but the top level of text was so bad I almost didn't notice it. If Samus was "Samuel" this narrative would still be appalling, not only because it makes no sense on its own terms but also because it undoes the character. Samus has always been depicted as a tough, strong-willed fighter, but this game recasts her as an emotionally vulnerable wreck of a person. In this respect the story reaches its nadir in the boss battle against Ridley, a monster Samus has fought and destroyed at least half a dozen times before. However, in this scene, the encounter reduces her to a sobbing child so incapable of reacting to the threat that she must be rescued by a squadmate.

It is no aid to the story that Samus's long monologues are delivered in a flat, somnolescent tone that suggests she has been drugged for interrogation. The monotonous voice acting simply can't support the idea that the events of this story have any emotional significance for Samus, and the writing can't get the job done on its own. Furthermore, Other M terminates in a series of insufferable cut-scenes that introduce a new character and try to make her a relevant and sympathetic figure by dropping an enormous payload of backstory. Even by the standards of JRPGs it's ridiculously talky and melodramatic, and it sucks the last wriggling bit of life right out of the game, even before a man steps in at the last moment to really save the day.

Without its irritating narrative, Other M would be a commendable, if not particularly inspiring, exploration-based shooter. If the box had borne some other name, I might even have been able to react to the story with mere boredom rather than anger, but the box says Metroid. The innovations are few, and the unskippable story is outright destructive of the series' heritage. Rating: 6.0 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game was obtained via retail store and reviewed on the Wii. Approximately 14 hours of play was devoted to single-player modes (completed once).

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game contains animated blood and violence. Some scenes depict animals that have burst open from within and there are a few corpses here and there, though they don't look particularly horrifying.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: There are no essential audio-only cues. Subtitles are available, but I recommend you turn them off.

The post Metroid: Other M Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

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Topic and Game References:

• Nintendo Wii
• Super Mario Galaxy
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• Metroid
• The Legend of Zelda
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• The Conduit
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After an extended trek through the bloated and tedious middle of the Metroid Prime trilogy, the execrable Echoes, I was more than a little hesitant to start another session with the usually-enjoyable Samus Aran. After the last installment, I felt certain that Retro Studios had run out of ideas and lost the touch that originally brought this famously 2D series into the third dimension with such grace. After biting the bullet and giving it a try, I found that the end result was better than I had expected… though a bit too familiar.

In my view, Corruption is best described as an expanded version of Metroid Prime: Hunters, found on Nintendo's handheld DS system. Since I found that particular game's restructuring of the classic formula to be quite enjoyable, I mean this as a true compliment. Specifically, I admired the way Hunters introduced the ability to hop back and forth between planets, as well as the rogues' gallery of rival bounty hunters competing with Samus in that adventure. Such elements greatly enhanced the sci-fi themes that this series thrives on, and gave it a more logical, well-rounded quality. Corruption mirrors these enhancements and I'm glad to see that they've been implemented on a more powerful console that can do them justice.

The storyline, usually the Metroid series' Achilles heel, has also benefited from these changes. By including a cast of characters to both support the streamlined events and to explain how Samus receives some of her special ability upgrades, Corruption feels like a more convincing adventure. As a long-time Metroid vet who's been asking for most of these changes for years, I couldn't be happier. However, there are still several areas of design that adhere too closely to outdated concepts.

For example, the second half of the game lapses into the same tired "classic" backtracking and item-hunting that adds little except playtime, and most of the late-game abilities seem pointless except to progress past arbitrary barriers. These contrivances may be faithful to Metroid's original concept, but they're stale and unnecessary. I'd say it's high time the series gets a more thorough revamp in this regard.

There are some technical nitpicks to be brought up, too. Killers for me were the too-frequent pauses in the action while the console loaded areas behind closed doors. It wasn't game-breaking, but it was annoying to have my immersion constantly disrupted.

Additionally, the current system of infrequent save points in special rooms or at Samus' spacecraft needs to go. There were several times when I needed to stop playing in a hurry, yet I was usually several rooms (if not further) away from the ability to record my progress. In today's environment, it should be a simple thing to enable a quicksave (if not a full save-anywhere) for convenience's sake.

Finally, on the subject of controls, I was left with the impression that Retro has created the best possible first-person configuration on a piece of hardware that is simply not optimal–there's no getting around the fact that the Wiimote is tailor-made for stripped-down, basic player interaction. Trying to reach the crosskey's "down" direction or the plus and minus buttons in the middle of play was never comfortable, and it was extremely tiring to have the camera tied to the direction the Wiimote was pointed in. Not only did keeping the unit straight and still require more than the usual amount of physical effort, I got tired of having my view spin wildly every time I scratched my nose or adjusted my position on the couch. Like most of the Wii's other games, using a normal analog controller would have been preferable.

In the main review, Jason comes to the conclusion that Corruption is a well-polished expansion to the Metroid legacy. I agree, though I'd be hard-pressed to find any elements in the game that are new or original. Considering that the series has a storied history and celebrated status as one of Nintendo's core franchises, this isn't automatically a bad thing. Quite frankly, the developers had lost ground after their initial effort, so Corruption's return to form goes a long way towards making up for the errors last time around. That said, I won't be interested in the next installment unless a bigger shakeup to the formula takes place. Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

The post Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Second Opinion appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Being a game critic is sometimes a difficult task. Some games are a joy to play and review, whereas a bad game turns reviewing into a voluntary form of torture, like sitting through a Britney Spears "comeback" performance. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is, fortunately, a game that evokes something of that joy and wonder for me. Corruption is the thoroughly polished conclusion of the Prime trilogy, which was an initially unexpected take on the classic Metroid series. This new game takes the legacy formula along with its modern makeover, and gives the gamer a new world to explore through the eyes of its supremely capable heroine: bounty hunter Samus Aran.

Let me get down to brass (or brinstone) tacks, because frankly, the question likely to be burning in gamers' minds is, "how does the control scheme play on Wii?!" Using a scale of pirates versus ninjas, the fear would be that this game controls like a wooden-legged pirate drunk on grog. Fortunately, the Wii controls infuse the game with new life, bequeathing the experienced player with the grace and deadliness of a skilled ninja.

Note that I said the experienced player. The first two boss battles in particular were frustratingly difficult for me; they required a lot of movement and agility to keep up with the actions of the bosses, and I hadn't come to terms with the swift movement and responses required on my part. On a more generalized note, I tended to morph ball when not wanted because my fingers took time to develop the muscle memory to hit the correct buttons to scan.

It took me a few hours to become proficient with the controls where I felt at one with Samus. After that, everything "clicked" and I proceeded through the rest of the game without control issues. Moving, locking on, turning… all became natural. I controlled my point-of-view by moving the Wiimote, which would have grown tiring except that I was able to rest my hand on my lap. Combined with the nunchuck for Samus' movement, the setup was precise and responsive; and for this game, preferable to a standard controller. Shooting was very accurate, although I initially felt out-of-place without the lock-on aim that I recalled from the last Prime games. For the record, players can lock on and strafe around enemies, but they still need to have accurate aim with the Wiimote to target them successfully.

Samus must constantly visit unforgiving places as de rigueur. Making the player one with the capable Samus to create the sense of immersion in these harsh environments is something this game achieves with moxie. Corruption is big, and ups the ante by offering something new to the console trilogy: exploring multiple worlds. The once-beautiful planet Bryyo is now a war-torn planet of primitives. An empty art deco city floating in the sky above its planet was a particular favorite. The dark side to this expansive galaxy is the actual process of travel. It's nice that Samus has a fab ship with controls that "Wii" can interact with. But enforced sky-watching as Samus left one area or atmosphere and entered another was time-consuming and grew frustrating.

As usual, Samus has her hands full with a variety of life forms intent on survival of the fittest. Breaking tradition with a series mainstay, Samus doesn't lose her inventory at the game's beginning. Rather, she begins with a basic arsenal and acquires upgrades and new gear as the game progresses. The weapons and abilities are used to solve puzzles and let the gamer proceed. The new grapple hook is my favorite, and is gained right away. It is used by physically "throwing" the nunchuck controller to send out an energy beam, in an attempt to latch onto certain surfaces or enemies. Something about the visceral interaction with this really grabbed me, and I enjoyed using the grapple throughout the game. The morph ball now allows a jump to be triggered with a quick flip of the Wiimote–convenient. It's worth noting that for some reason, I had a much easier time with one tried-and-true technique from the series: the morph ball double-jump, mainly used to access some tucked-away powerups.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is an expansion of its predecessors, and it builds on their legacy in every aspect. New weapons, more attack options, greater variety of bosses, more creative use of Samus' abilities to solve puzzles; it reads like a talented game designer's checklist. To say the game is competent would do it a disservice; it is a well-polished gift to both the Wii and to Metroid fans, and it puts the Wii's control scheme to good use beyond the mini-games. I think Corruption would be a solid entry in the series as a "normal" game using standard controllers, but the translation to such tightly-honed motion-control is what makes the game stand out most, and concludes the trilogy on a high note. Rating: 9 out of 10

According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Blood, Violence

Parents probably won't have much problem with Corruption. There is plenty of violence, but it is only against odd space creatures, and, while intense, it's never notably gory.

Fans of the Metroid Prime series should definitely play this game. It really culminates the series with its excellently-tuned use of Wii controls, and in ending manages to show that Samus is a real person behind the mask.

Casual Wii gamers may find this too intense for their liking. I think the game is playable to "newbies" to the Metroid series, but to finish the game requires more commitment and skill than nightly rounds of Wii Sports or Cooking Mama. Don't get me wrong, I love Cooking Mama, but it's an entirely different challenge than an atmospheric science-fiction themed exploration game with lots of shooting.

Fans of first-person shooters aren't going to leave Halo 3 or Gears of War for Corruption. However, they might enjoy at least seeing how the Wii controls allow for a smooth first-person-based console experience.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing gamers will do just fine. A lot of the backstory is achieved through reading scanned data; and all spoken dialog is accompanied by subtitles, so nothing verbal will be lost. There are instances where an enemy may be heard before it is seen, giving warning of its arrival, but I don't think this would negatively impact the gameplay. Samus has a radar which shows the locations of enemies, which is more useful for pinpointing their locations.

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This morning I awoke to my Wii's disc tray pulsing with that seductive blue glow that implies internet activity is going on. I was curious as to what might be updating. Most recently that glow brought news of a Wii system update. (Incidentally, the new Wii store shopping experience is an improvement for Virtual Console perusal.)

I was assuming some kind of updates in the store, but I noticed a new message which turned out to be from Nintendo, letting me know that there were new Metroid Prime 3: Corruption previews available. Yay! Seeing as how that is the first Wii release that I'm excited about (and the reason I recently obtained my Wii), I immediately hit the store and downloaded.

I was hoping for a playable demo, frankly, but what showed up were two movies previewing the basic gameplay, with placeholders promising two more movies on the 13th. There was also a picture of Samus that could be revealed by "scrubbing" with the Wiimote. Nintendo has made August "Metroid Month" so I wonder if there will be goodies beyond these four movies? After checking the internet, I now see that Super Metroid is expected this month on the VC; and I know it was just released for the UK. That's a good lead-in, although I personally question releasing that one week before the full-blown Corruption. Two weeks (or a month) would have given more playtime; I might even have bought it, but not knowing that I'll be playing the full-blown Wii entry after a week!

The footage wasn't overly impressive to me, mainly because the compression gave it a grainy quality. However, it did put me in mind of the crisp video goodness of the first two Metroid Prime games, and that was exciting. There were lots of space pirates, and Samus used a new weapon to break the shield barrier that some of them were sporting. (Those darn pirates, what will they think of next.) I've avoided most information about Corruption, but after viewing this demo, I believe the new weapon will be utilized by the hand holding the analog stick, probably with a swipe gesture. I was immediately imagining what it would be like to play by looking around and/or aiming with the Wiimote, while gesturing with the stick in my other hand.

In that sense the demo was successful, because I was envisioning the new gameplay, and if I wasn't already expecting to get Corruption at release, this would be a good reminder. I hope we get more of these online-distributed previews in the future, it's a convenient way to see what's coming down the virtual pike.

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