| Hunters is the long-awaited handheld addition to the Metroid Prime series. It's also been rewritten from the ground up since the earlier "First Hunt" demo |
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This game really sums up where Nintendo are at as a whole right now. It may be yet
another sequel in a long running series that's been around forever, but as a stand alone piece of interactive entertainment, it's ridiculously fresh and exciting.
You can't really approach Metroid Prime: Hunters as you would any other first person shooter, or indeed any other handheld game at all. The control system and input method is so original and bizarre that it's gonna take a certain degree of open-mindedness and acceptability before you can embrace it with open arms. Between this and other such games on the DS, not to mention the upcoming Revolution, this is quickly becoming Nintendo's mantra...they are redefining how we play games.
The good news is that if you're prepared to take the time to learn a truly alien, yet ultimately pleasing control scheme, you'll be rewarded with easily the best handheld FPS yet seen.
Control...You Must Learn Control!
So how does it work? The D-pad dictates your standard movement; forward, backwards, and strafing...no change there. The craziness kicks in with the DS' touch screen though. Your right hand uses the screen to adjust your viewpoint, you see; you simply draw the direction you want to turn with the stylus. In addition, you can also jump at any time by double tapping. Finally the top left trigger button acts as your fire button.
Although it's a little tricky to get used to all this for the first few minutes, the setup ultimately gives you a similar accuracy in your shooting skills as you'd get with a PC game, and is thus far more precise than the more fidgety and rigid feel of a console gamepad. Sure enough, after a while you'll find yourself lining up long range headshots perfectly and circle strafing your foes until they pass out with beautiful balletic legwork. And just like that - with a mere handheld, no less - Nintendo have come up with the best FPS control scheme since the mouse and keyboard.
It does however, tend to make your left hand ache like an absolute bitch.
On the whole though, the control system is pleasingly refreshing and a bit of a winner in my book. There are some hiccups - such as the brief moments where you can't quite drag your view across fast enough, or the mere fact hammering the trigger while moving can sometimes feel about as easy as patting yourself on the head while rubbing your stomach - but on the whole I'd say it works pretty damn flawlessly a good 90% of the time.
Let's be honest shall we? It's a handheld game. And an FPS at that. Yet it works
this good? It's very easy to ignore any minor niggles and kinda do a sex wee.
Back to the New Skool
Enough about the controls. The game itself is pure Metroid Prime in every way. I'll keep the plot under wraps for the sake of spoilers, but needless to say you can expect all the usual scanning, exploring, boss battles, and even morph ball action that us Metroid fans have grown to yearn for in the series' first person escapades.
I was expecting more of a full-on FPS shooting spree here, given the nature of a handheld game and the need for shorter, quick-fire bursts of action, and while that's true to a certain degree, it's not a particularly huge leap by any means. The emphasis on exploring and studying your environment remains firmly in tact thankfully, even if the levels are much shorter and the sheer amount of action has been beefed up. This is a real deal slice of Metroid Prime in every other way.
In fact, I would consider the tighter and more focused level design on offer in Hunters ever so slightly more compelling than that found in the Gamecube titles. Unlike those fab outings, I never feel flat out lost in Hunters. While still maintaining hubs and multiple paths, I've always a reasonably solid idea where I need to head next and what to do when I get there. There's pretty much none of the aimless wondering oh so common in these games, instead you are much more able to just get on with it and progress the story as fast as possible.
It's also worth noting, that while the DS will most likely never match up to the PSP in terms of its graphical prowess, Metroid arguably does the best job yet at coming oh so close. It's a little jaggy, sure, but the framerate is gloriously smooth at all times, the art design is simply brilliant, and the best compliment I can really give it is that it really doesn't look terribly different to the Gamecube titles at the end of the day.
It truly is quite a sight at times, and without doubt the best looking game currently on the system. It feels almost an entire generational leap over previous DS offerings in the graphics department.
Wireless Whackness
| Multiplayer mode does little for me, primarily due to being stuck with standard deathmatch unless you have a bunch of DS owning mates handy |
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It's with the online play that my love for the game starts to wane slightly. While built around Nintendo's awesomely cool wi-fi multiplayer system - the one that allows you to patch into wireless routers and enjoy online matchmaking against people all over the world on a freakin'
handheld - Metroid's downfall is that the action itself just isn't particularly engaging. Once you get over the initial wow factor of playing zero lag high speed deathmatch FPS action against strangers in the palm of your hand, it ultimately feels a little dull and clichéd. Fun for five minutes, but not something I'll return to over and over.
Now you
can play additional (and much more interesting) game modes as well - capture the flag and king of the hill to name a pair - but these modes are strictly limited to people on your friends list, or via local wireless play, a major disappointment considering how hard it is to round up 4 DS owning friends all with a copy of Hunters.
The inclusion of these modes is a nice addition, don't get me wrong - and if nothing else, you can still play them with bots - but the mere fact many of us will never get to experience them against real humans almost renders 'em useless.
As a result, you're pretty much stuck with bog-standard online deathmatch for the most part, and the handheld nature of Prime isn't quite enough to draw me back into those dated shenanigans of killing sprees and constant respawns, no matter how slick and amazing the technology driving it is.
Then again, at least now I can do it in the bath...
Despite this, Metroid Prime Hunters didn't let me down. Its endless delays may have resulted in an added online mode that doesn't do a whole lot for me personally, but the game is totally worth owning for the single player missions alone.
It's everything that's great about the previous Metroid Prime games - crammed into the palm of your hand - while at the same time remaining truly innovative due to its balls to try out something new and exciting for its control scheme. In a weird, twisted way, this is a pleasing preview as to the sort of exciting breakthroughs and interesting gameplay ideas we can expect from the Revolution later this year.
Don't count Nintendo out of the race yet, they are only just beginning.