Metroid Prime 1-3 Visual Retrospective Announced

While we're still waiting for Metroid Prime 4, we can always dwell in the nostalgia of the original trilogy. Metroid Prime Remastered was one way of doing so, another will come next year in the form on an artbook. This one gets published by Piggyback, the same company behind the guides for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom (which I have yet to get).

Here's what they have to say about it:

Developed in collaboration with Nintendo and Retro Studios, this art book showcases concept drawings, sketches and assorted illustrations from the Metroid Prime series. With an extensive range of behind-the-scenes, high quality artwork, this hardcover anthology spans more than 20 years of Metroid Prime development and includes exclusive commentary from Nintendo producer, Kensuke Tanabe, as well as the esteemed Retro Studios. Printed on premium sheet-fed art paper, this book is stitch-bound with a lavish cloth hardcover featuring an etched Samus metallic foil.

It's also said to cover Metroid Prime Remastered, where it would be a shame if we were to get another remaster now, but it didn't make the cut for the artbook. Maybe Nintendo has really no plans to release more remasters at this point, or maybe they should have waited with this book...

There is also the chance that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will be released before this book, which is coming in June 2025, but that game may potentially qualify for an artbook of its own, similar to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

In any case, I will get this, because I usually enjoy such artbooks quite a lot and I love the Metroid Prime series.

Nintendo Switch: Remaster & Port Wish List

The Nintendo Switch will soon enter its eighth year and has the potential to become the best-selling video game system of all time, if Nintendo keeps it going for a little while longer. Still, they are with all certainty in the middle of preparing its successor and a number of new games for it, where it's even likely that any big titles that remain, like Metroid Prime 4, are going to be saved for the new system. In the meantime, Nintendo will tie us over with smaller titles, remakes, remasters, and ports, like Mario vs. Donkey Kong, or Luigi's Mansion 2 HD.

Now, this is going to be a wish list of ten titles, where I would still like them finding their way onto the Nintendo Switch, either for the sake of convenience or the sake of completeness. I will focus on games that can be either remastered or ported, meaning that they wouldn't need a from-scratch remake in order to look good enough. This essentially limits the choices to GameCube, Wii, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS titles.

This can be anything previously published by Nintendo, so this won't just be about Zelda games. If you want to read more about those, check out my Future of Zelda Remakes & Remasters article, though there will be a bit of overlap here. Also, I'm perfectly aware that this post may look ironic, considering that I wrote this about six years ago. But times change and by now I really prefer having all games on my Nintendo Switch, where I rarely go back to my older Nintendo systems to play on them.

Luigi's Mansion HD

We're soon going to get Luigi's Mansion 2 HD for the Nintendo Switch, a remaster of the Nintendo 3DS title. The first game was brought onto the Nintendo 3DS as well in 2018 by GREZZO, where this could serve as the basis to later also have it remastered in the same style. With that we would have entire trilogy on the system.

The Wind Waker HD & Twilight Princess HD

These titles always have been such an obvious choice for ports from the Wii U that this kept coming up ever since the dawn of the Nintendo Switch. And after such a long time it's perfectly okay to take the last bit that the Wii U still has going for it. It would allow to play all 3D Zelda games on the Nintendo Switch, which is a big deal for those who don't own any older Nintendo consoles.

On the other hand, if Nintendo was willing to put more effort into these, then they would make great titles for the next console. Imagine Twilight Princess getting the same treatment as Metroid Prime Remastered – it would certainly make a lot of fans very happy if this were to happen over a simple port of the previous HD remaster.

 

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Remastered

Speaking of Metroid Prime Remastered, it would be nice to see the sequel getting the same treatment, because it's really one of the best looking and most impressive games on the Nintendo Switch from a technical standpoint. This would serve as another filler in 2024, before we're finally getting Metroid Prime 4 and it could also be shadow-dropped in the same style as last year.

As a separate title once more, they could also put bigger focus on the multipayer mode, maybe even allow you to play it online for the first time ever. If Metroid Prime 4 also were to get multiplayer, this could serve as a play test, so to speak.

 

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Remastered

At one point it will be nice to have the entire Metroid Prime trilogy on the Nintendo Switch in some form, but there may be a split here. If Metroid Prime 4 really is one of the first major games for the Nintendo Switch successor, then a remaster of Metroid Prime 3 might be something that they will keep for later, also making use of the better hardware. After all, there was a generational gap between the first two games and the third, even if it only was a slight one.

Wario Land: Shake It! / The Shake Dimension HD

This Wii game was the last entry in the Wario Land series, which is a shame, especially since it returned to its roots of Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land here, meaning that Wario won't transform whenever he gets hit by something. It is a hidden gem made by Good-Feel, the studio that would later make such cozy platformers like Kirby's Epic Yarn or Yoshi's Woolly World. Both of these got ported to the Nintendo 3DS as some of its last titles and maybe the Nintendo Switch will get a similar treatment from Good-Feel in its last years...

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD

Coming from Jump 'n' Runs and games made by Retro Studios, we move on to a combination of both, where they had revived the Donkey Kong Country series with two fantastic games. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was already one of the first ports for the Nintendo Switch and it would be nice if its predecessor were to find its way right next to it. There was a Nintendo 3DS version, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, which added a couple of levels, better controls, and some helpful extras, but came at the price of the frame rate. A Nintendo Switch release therefore could become the ultimate version of the game.

Kid Icarus: Uprising HD

This was one of the early Nintendo 3DS games and the only "recent" game by Masahiro Sakurai that wasn't a Super Smash Bros. title. It was also the revival of the Kid Icarus franchise, which didn't last... But it had a number of barriers, where the biggest one were probably the controls. The whole AR card collection thingy, which was going on at the time, may also have been something to put you off. There have been rumors that Sakurai has been working on a remaster of this title, where this certainly would do it some good...

Xenoblade Chronicles X

Just for the sake of completion, to have the entire series on the Nintendo Switch, there's one more game to port over from the Wii U: Xenoblade Chronicles X. But if we're truly getting a "Xenoblade Warriors" this year, as I'm personally predicting, then this could also be something for later.

Metroid: Samus Return HD

Finally, after the success of Metroid Dread, MercurySteam may update their first Metroid title from the Nintendo 3DS for some quick cash. Well, they will probably go for another remake entirely, like Super Metroid or Metroid Fusion, or they are already working on Metroid 6. But in case that the assets for Metroid: Samus Returns already were developed in HD and only got downscaled for the Nintendo 3DS (which happened with other games, e.g. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS), then a remaster would be a very good side project for the meantime and allow you to play this excellent game in the same glory as Metroid Dread.

Metroid Prime Remastered: Hopes for the Sequels

Playing Metroid Prime Remastered makes you immediately want more, where we have no idea how far Metroid Prime 4 is currently into development. It still could take years to come out, but in the meantime fans and new players alike will certainly be happy with getting remasters of Prime 2 and Prime 3 to pass some of that time.

Naturally, there have been many rumors about this, where I don't want to address a particular one. But I do believe that Retro Studios has been working on remastering the entire trilogy, before they were re-assigned to Metroid Prime 4. They have finished the first game nonetheless, but remasters of the other two titles are either on hold or got outsourced, where it's possible that some of the many other studios involved with Metroid Prime Remastered are now working on them.

But we do know for a fact that Metroid Prime Remastered has been finished since July 2021 (see here) and there must be a good reason why they have been waiting over one and a half years to finally release it. Either they wanted it closer to the release of Metroid Prime 4 or they wanted to wait until the other remasters are taking shape. Of course they also didn't want it to collide with Metroid Dread, but there was no need to wait that long.

In any case, remasters of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption should get the same level of detail as Metroid Prime Remastered. This is a very rare occurrence of a Nintendo title where the graphics are really the selling point. The game is simply a feast to the eyes and anything less for its sequels will result only in disappointment. They could just make remasters with upscaled textures, like it was done with Twilight Princess HD, but they really shouldn't.

Personally, I can't wait to see Agon Wastes or the Sanctuary Fortress with such detailed assets. The atmosphere of Metroid Prime 2 was amazing and the game had a "cleaner" look to it overall, where it would be a good match for the art direction of Metroid Prime Remastered. It doesn't really need much more for the second game in the Metroid Prime Trilogy, except that they should also simplify the menus to not use these rotating data bubbles. While it was very unique, it wasn't very convenient to use...

With Corruption I mainly hope that they will get rid of the credit and Friend Voucher system entirely and simply let people unlock the gallery contents in the same way as in Metroid Prime Remastered. Alternatively, they could turn the Friend Vouchers and some of the gold credits into ingame achievements, but I really wouldn't want to do "Flawless Escape" ever again.

On the other hand, without such a system there would be no real reason to hunt down the Red Phaazoids at all... But they could give you a better reason for this than just some virtual checkmark, where one simple idea could be that each of them increases your resistance to Phaaze.

The bumper stickers for your ship also will probably be removed entirely or at least updated to modern games. Would be cool to have a sticker based on Tears of the Kingdom, for example. But considering that they didn't even bother with the Fusion Suit, this feature is likely not to make a re-appearance.

And then there are the motion controls, where they need to be toned a bit to make the game work properly with a Pro Controller or in handheld mode. The novelty of throwing the Grapple Lasso with your Nunchuk or turning some devices with your Wii Remote got old quickly and never was fully reliable anyway. So, they should be looking at Skyward Sword HD here for how to do all this with traditional controls.

Both titles would also certainly profit from free button mappings. That's one of the few complaints that I have with Metroid Prime Remastered, where the many control options are very good, but not perfect. Just let the people fully customize the controls to be comfortable, where this also adds to the accessibility of the game.

Anyway, it will be nice to have the entire Metroid Prime Trilogy on the Nintendo Switch in the long run, but it shouldn't happen at all costs. They should give these games the same care as Metroid Prime, because they deserve it.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption – Friend Voucher and Credit Hunt

I'm currently in the middle of replaying Metroid Prime 3: Corruption as part of the Metroid Prime Trilogy, where again I'm going for both the Veteran and Hypermode difficulties. Playing Veteran mode first has actually a greater purpose this time, because with the goal of fully completing the game, I also want to finally get all Credits and Friend Vouchers and there were still some tricky achievement-like goals left, where some of it is simply easier to do on Veteran.

Friend Vouchers

Luckily, I received enough Green Credits to unlock everything in the Extras menu from people over at GameFAQs, when WiiConnect24 was still a thing. Today you can't get these Green Credits anymore, unless you're using a prepared savegame, but you can still get the Friend Vouchers, which were originally used to send Green Credits to other players.

There was also this trick, where you could send Fried Vouchers and then restore your savegame from a SD card to get them back, which is why I still had my total of 23 Friend Vouchers preserved. They are earned by clearing various achievements throughout the game, with 26 in total. This meant that I was still missing three achievements and I made it my goal to find and unlock them. Well, I still had to get those:

• GF Trooper Saved
• Flawless Escape
• Perfect Execution

Thing is that the game doesn't keep a list around of which ones you already got, so I had to make an educated guess. With "Flawless Escape" and "Perfect Execution" I was pretty sure that I never did those, because they are easy to screw up and frustrating to repeat. The other one completely eluded me, however. I had no clue, which one I could still be missing, because they all seemed doable enough. So, I had no choice than to try them all again one by one (here you can find an excellent guide by the way).

Luckily, it turned out that I originally failed to save one of the GF Troopers on the GFS Olympus sequence right at the beginning of the game, so I didn't have to keep looking and worrying for long. However, I still repeated the "Juggling Bonus 20" right before that, which isn't easy to pull off. But at least I didn't have to look any further. I suppose, when I first played this I was focused on the three Blue Credits, where you also have to save various GF Troopers, but I completely ignored this one.

So, this was easy enough, but sadly I can't say the same about "Flawless Escape". Getting this one was hell and it stagnated for over a week, because I couldn't do it. In the past I would try maybe once or twice and then move on, like any sane person would do. But since I'm now in it for the completion, there was no moving on until I got this.

And this created my personal nightmare of a Groundhog Day. You can't save right before this sequence, so if you screw up (and it's very easy to screw up here), you have to cross through half of Norion again, getting through the same scripted sequences again and again. You watch a Space Pirate getting blasted by a PED Marine, who then shouts "Hostile eliminated". You walk through Crawlmines and then destroy some actual mines. In the next room you have to wait forever, before the door opens. And then you have to skip two cutscenes with Ghor, who has the atrocity to block the way to the other Landing Bay, where the way would much shorter from there... This really made me hate Ghor more than already, where blasting his face with my Hyper Beam was more satisfying than ever.

Anyway, it takes about five minutes to retry the Ridley escape sequence and during that very short sequence it's easy to make a mistake. His feet hurt you, so you can't fully dodge to the sides. You need to be fast and precise here and it takes a lot of practice and some luck. Now, if the game had checkpoints like Metroid: Samus Returns, you could just skip back to the beginning of the sequence to try it again. Then it probably wouldn't take long to earn this Friend Voucher, because you can really practice it. But sadly Metroid Prime 3: Corruption doesn't have checkpoints and the extremely dull repetition of those scripted Norion sequences takes you out of it again and again, where it's hard to stay focused.

This really took a big hit on my motivation and it took me around a week to do it, before I could finally move on with the game. I started playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, right after I had finished Metroid Prime 2: Echoes last month on May 21st, but I wasn't done with this Friend Voucher before May 28th...

I probably couldn't have mustered the motivation if I didn't also complete Super Mario 3D World the other day, where I still had to clear every level with every character. For this I also had to do the crazy Champions Road again, as well as the Mystery House Marathon, both two tough and lengthy levels, where you don't have any checkpoints. But at least there you stay focused all the time, there are no dull moments. While here you just walk through some corridors. It's needlessly frustrating padding and I really hope that the Metroid Prime Trilogy games will get checkpoints like in Samus Returns if they are remastered in HD someday.

As for the "Flawless Escape" sequence itself, to me it felt like the first part was much harder, because Ridley spams the laser more and goes in for a bite attack more quickly. In theory clearing this challenge sounds "easy enough", where you lure his laser attacks to one side and then quickly dodge to the other, but in practice it felt like the return of Metroll Ridley. Sometimes he shoots in the middle or at the opposite side just to confuse you and I would dodge right into the beam, because you have to dodge early...

The key to success was watching Ridleys head more carefully instead of focusing on the attacks themselves. If you focus on the lasers, you would need to dodge right when it starts, which then causes twitchy behavior, where you dodge, while you shouldn't dodge. But watching his head gives you more time to react properly, so I then finally did it after multiple evening of trying this.

It didn't take me as long to score "Perfect Execution", in fact I got it on my first try. But repeating this would probably be worse, because the game shuts you off from the last save point during the entire turret sequence on Bryyo. So, to repeat this, you would also need to destroy the first turret again, which is an annoying fight thanks to the endlessly spawning Space Pirates.

I hate this mechanic and it's also what makes "Perfect Execution" tough, because these Aerotroopers keep swarming in and they might even appear behind the turret, where you can't immediately hit them. On top of that you have to deal with the terribly unresponsive motion controls of the Grapple Lasso, where you might waste time trying to get a clamp down, which then results in a loss. I was lucky, though, and I could do it despite these difficulties on my first try. This is still a terrible Friend Voucher, however...

Gold Credits

With that I finally had all 26 Friend Vouchers unlocked, but I was still missing a special Gold Credit called "All GF Troopers Survived". Or at least I thought, I was. There you have to make sure that all 20 Demolition Troopers survive on the Pirate Homeworld, which isn't the easiest task. You have to be really aggressive, use Hyper Mode almost all the time and make sure that none of the Space Pirates can take a shot at your comrades...

Again, I was in a Groundhog Day situation, where you do the same sequences over and over again. And that pitching sound of a GF Trooper dying really started to get on my nerves. But when I finally did it nothing happened, which had me really baffled. "Is this a glitch?" I tried it again, but again for nothing...

It turned out that I already got this Gold Credit on Normal Mode back in 2009 and I was simply miscounting the Gold Credits on the aforementioned Credits Guide. I was counting how many Gold Credits I was missing in the Extras menu (18), and then compared it against the number of Hyper Mode bosses mentioned in the guide (17). I thought I was one short, but defeating the Commander Pirate on Hyper Mode also rewards you with another Gold Credit, which wasn't included in the boss count of the guide, but as an extra entry, which I had missed when checking. I simply assumed that I was missing the most difficult one, while I wasn't really missing anything at this point.

Well, I still have to beat the game on Hyper Mode and I will hopefully collect all Gold Credits then. The biggest challenge will probably be Mogenar, who didn't gave me much trouble during Veteran Mode – he didn't even regenerate his orbs once. But I've tried him on Hyper Mode once before and it didn't go well... my run ended at that point. So, let's see, how this will go this time.

Metroid Prime 4: Quotes & Visions

One of the big Nintendo games in 2018 could become Metroid Prime 4. Even if the game doesn't get released this year, we will certainly learn more about it soon and it probably will become one of the biggest games at E3 2018. We might even see something in the rumored Nintendo Direct next week already. So, this is the perfect time to speculate and to gather everything that we might already know about the game.

Officially we only know that the game is in development for the Nintendo Switch and that a "talented new development team" led by Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe is in charge. But Tanabe has been interviewed various times about a potential fourth installment and he always has been quite open about sharing his visions. Especially around E3 2015, where they first had shown Metroid Prime: Federation Force, he gave some interesting quotes, which we can use to get a vision ourselves.

For starters, in an interview with Eurogamer he already teased back in 2015 that developing Metroid Prime 4 would take around three years and most likely place the game on the "NX", better known as the Nintendo Switch today:

If we started for Wii U now, it would likely take three years or so. So it would likely now be on Nintendo's NX console. It's a long time but it would need to include a lot of content, which would take a lot of work on the development side.

If the game really is to be released in 2018, this already adds up. So, let's see what else there is.

A Story About Sylux

Each title in the Metroid Prime Trilogy ends with a secret cliffhanger that gave a hint about the antagonist of the next game. In case of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Dark Samus finally seems gone and instead we see Delano 7 from Metroid Prime Hunters chasing after Samus at the end of the game:

Tanabe confirmed in the Eurogamer interview that this was indeed Sylux and that he wants to do a story about him, while the story about the Phazon and Dark Samus really is over.

The stories of Dark Samus and Phazon are done now. [...] It was Sylux, another hunter from Metroid Prime Hunters at the end of Metroid Prime 3. Personally I'd like to create a story centring around Sylux and Samus.

He confirmed something similar in an interview with Wired:

Are you familiar with the ending of Prime 3? You might remember the scene where Samus gets on the ship and you see the planets, but after that, there’s another ship that lands in that place. That was actually Sylux, who appeared in Metroid Prime Hunters. In my mind, I still have that idea where Sylux is going after Samus. So to continue that story is something I’d love to work on.

In an interview with IGN he added the following:

There’s still more I want to build around the story of Sylux and Samus. There’s something going on between them. I want to make a game that touches upon [it]. I’m also thinking that, in that eventual game between Sylux and Samus that might get made, that I want to involve the [Galactic] Federation as well.

From the information in the games we also know that Sylux uses stolen Federation technology and that he hates both Samus and the Galactic Federation for unknown reasons. Reasons that we probably will get to know in Metroid Prime 4. His character has been completely shrouded in mystery to a point, where we have no clue, who or what is underneath his "Power Suit". And this might lead to an interesting reveal.

On top of that, there's a secret ending in Metroid Prime: Federation Force, which further teases Sylux' actions against the Federation.

You can view this ending, after fulfilling a bonus objective in the mission M17, "Infestation". There you have to collect at least one Metroid Egg from a Space Pirate laboratory.

In the hidden ending Sylux sneaks through a Federation research facility, approaches said Metroid Egg and lets the Metroid hatch:

Artist Logan Foster, who created that ending scene, even confirmed that it indeed featured Sylux and that this was actually one of the first tasks that he was given about the game (source). So, we know for sure that Sylux is still on the mind for Metroid Prime 4 and we also have a picture of what he might be planning.

Of all the hunters in Metroid Prime Hunters Sylux was probably the one who felt the closest to Samus in design. And that he's using Federation technology that kind of emulates Samus' Power Suit will probably be a key part of the story. Also, a common theme in the Metroid Prime Trilogy, at least for the 2nd and 3rd games, was Samus facing herself in the form of Dark Samus. And these could remain with Samus facing Sylux as her rival. The title of the game might even become "Metroid Prime 4: Rivals".

A Bridge to Metroid II / Samus Returns

Chronologically, Metroid Prime 4 will most likely be placed between Metroid Prime: Federation Force and Metroid II - Return of Samus. And it just so happened that the latter saw a remake last year on the Nintendo 3DS with Metroid: Samus Returns, where Nintendo might want to link the stories. So, actions in Metroid Prime 4 could lead to the events and circumstances of Metroid 2.

There's already some potential in the hidden ending of Metroid Prime: Federation Force and what happens there...

With a Metroid in his hands, Sylux might use it against the Galactic Federation somehow. Sylux' actions might be what opens the eyes of the leaders of the Federation about the danger of the Metroid species. This then could lead to the scene, where Samus gets the order to exterminate the Metroids on SR388.

Also, it could be that the Metroid that Sylux hatched could be attached to him like the "Baby" to Samus.

There's also another detail with Samus' Gunship. It has been different for all three games in the Metroid Prime Trilogy, where the Gunship in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is the one that she uses in Metroid II - Return of Samus and Super Metroid. You can still see her use her advanced Gunship from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in Metroid Prime: Federation Force, however.

It's likely that Samus still uses her Gunship from Prime 3 in the beginning of Prime 4, but it gets destroyed somehow, maybe as it crashes on some planet. So, after the events of Prime 4 Samus will switch back to her old Gunship from Prime 2. It's a detail, but it's the attention to detail that is quite strong in the series.

A Different World and Experience from the Trilogy

Despite all following the same visuals and core gameplay, every game in the Metroid Prime Trilogy has been unique in its approach. For example each title has quite a different world layout, as depicted in my Worlds of Metroid article.

Metroid Prime essentially translated the Super Metroid experience into a 3D First Person Shooter game, where the game uses the maze-like world of Tallon IV. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes focuses on a Light and Dark World mechanic and uses a hub-like world setup on the planet of Aether. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption then introduced the Hyper Mode mechanic, but also did a lot more with Samus' Gunship, where you can travel between various worlds on different planets.

Now, Metroid Prime 4 should do something different as well. In the very least it needs a different world layout and a new gameplay mechanic as the focus. And in the Eurogamer interview Tanabe expressed the following:

Instead of broadening it to more planets I would have one and would focus on the timeline, and being able to change that. That's one interesting idea I have in mind... but I understand many people thought that [Echoes] was too difficult.

That doesn't sound too special at first, but there's some potential here. First of all, if it actually holds true that Samus' Gunship from Prime 3 will be destroyed somehow, it makes sense that the game is confined to a single planet again. It could be that Samus escapes using the Delano 7 at the end of the game...

Anyway, the time shift mechanic sounds awfully similar to what we had in the Lanayru Desert of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. And this could be interesting. So far Samus usually explored the ruins of destroyed civilizations, may it be that of the Chozo, the Luminoth or the Alimibic. With a time shift mechanic she might be able to explore such a civilization in its prime and see how the life on the planet used to be before everything fell to ruin.

With the success of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey and their open world designs, it's also quite likely that Metroid Prime 4 will follow an "open planet" approach, where you might be able to freely explore a small world in its entirety, instead of following a limited set of areas.

Multiplayer

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes included a multiplayer mode, where four players would face each other as different colored variants of Samus. Metroid Prime 4 might add something similar with online support. Instead of only featuring Samus, there should at least be Sylux as a playable character and maybe also some other hunters. But if the game really focuses on the "Rivals" theme, it might become just a two player mode, where Samus fights Sylux.

It could also be that Metroid Prime 4 will lead to another game like Metroid Prime Hunters on the Nintendo Switch, which sets its focus on multiplayer

Metroid Prime Trilogy

You notice a good game, when you don't hesitate to buy it again for another system and have lots of fun replaying it. Metroid Prime Trilogy offers three of those games on one disc. By now I've completed all three games at 100% and unlocked all of the extras with the exception of the Corruption soundtrack and some minor artwork. And allthough I've already played the previous versions of all three games, it was a great experience.

Of course the most important addition is the new control scheme for both GameCube games. In Japan Prime and Echoes are simply part of the New Play Control! series, but luckily Nintendo of Europe and America decided to release the Trilogy instead. The upgraded controls are very simple, it's basically just the aiming via the pointer and flipping the Wiimote to activate the Spring Ball while being in Morphball mode. There are no other big motion controls like throwing the Nunchuk for the Grapple Lasso or interacting with the environment with your Wiimote in Corruption, but that's fine. And the controls make the games much more easier. You don't have to target everything manually, which saves time, and some of the Morphball puzzles get a lot easier thanks to the Spring Ball, best example is the Energy Tank in Transport Tunnel A in the Magmoor Caverns. Overall the difficulty of the first two games was reduced a little, the new "Normal Mode" is more like an Easy Mode. But since I have beaten the games on the GameCube, which was quite challenging for me, I don't mind this as well. This way I could enjoy the second trip through the games much more and I was able to focus more on getting a complete Logbook collection, which I haven't done before. And there's always the new Hypermode difficulty for all Metroid veterans.

If you beat one of the games, your save state for this game gets erased and you start over from the beginning. But all your Logbook entries are saved, so if you have completed your Logbook in your first playthrough, you get a 100% filled Logbook from the start and everything is pre-scanned, which makes replaying the games even more relaxing. And if you've missed something, you just have to focus on the missing parts and not on the other scans. It's basically like the 2nd Quest in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, where you keep your Minintendo figurines and where it's easier to finish your collection. And completing your Logbook can be a challenging task, especially in Corruption. There you have like 10 different, exotic Space Pirate types like the Armored Shield Trooper, that you can potentially miss. Every time you encounter Space Pirates, you basically swap to the Scan Visor first instead of blasting them to Pirate Hell immediately. Or the bosses in Echoes, where every single body part can be a different Logbook entry, can bother you as well. But I don't have to worry that about anymore, because my Logbooks are filled and they stay that way for the next time, when I'm going to replay these games. Nice.

The scans are also important for the credits. Both Prime and Echoes now use the credit system from Corruption for unlocking bonus content like artwork, a complete soundtrack, dioramas, a screenshot tool and extras like the Fusion Suit for Prime and the Ship Bumper Stickers and the Mii Bobble Head for your gunship in Corruption. However, the credit system for Prime and Echoes is much simpler than the one for Corruption. You collect orange credits for beating bosses in Prime and purple credits for bosses in Echoes. Additionally there are silver credits for collecting the Chozo Artifacts and Sky Temple Keys and for completing your Logbook. Completing both games once on any difficulty level is enough to unlock all the bonus content for the games including the Fusion Suit. Unlike for Corruption you're not forced to play through the games in Hypermode again or to trade those stupid, annoying Friend Vouchers (thanks again to RossMadden and Howser1994 from GameFAQs/Gamespot forums for trading with me).

All three games got a global main menu with a nice new music track using the pointer controls similar to the menu in Corruption. However, the ingame menus of the GameCube games and the menu of the multiplayer mode remain the same and don't use the pointer, Nintendo really should have updated those menus too. Additionally an option to swap the menu style would have been nice. The Japanese New Play Control! versions got their own new menus similar to the original menus from the GameCube versions, which could have been easily included. They could have added them as an unlockable bonus and it would have been nice to use the classic style menus, I love the menu and menu music in Prime. But it's not that important, just an idea.

The multiplayer from Echoes works fine, even with a small TV. However, some new leves and online functionality would have been awesome, but I'm happy that they didn't just simply cut it out alltogether.

Overall this is one awesome compilation, definitely one of the best videogame compilations ever next to Super Mario Allstars and Unreal Anthology. If you have missed out one of those games or more, Metroid Prime Trilogy is a must-buy for you. But getting the Trilogy is still worthwhile for someone like me, who has played all three games before. The new controls really add something to both Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and make these games even much better and more enjoyable than they were already.

If you're a Zelda fan and wonder, if you should get this, do it. Zelda and Metroid both share a similar Action Adventure core gameplay. In Metroid you will explore large, coherent worlds and collect new items to proceed into new territories. There are also lots of puzzles and hidden collectibles like Missile Expansions, Energy Tanks and scans, which will keep you busy for a long time.