Also, Retro has succeeded in providing some other more noticeable additions to the control scheme using the Wii controls (aside from the obvious aiming improvements). The first of these involves using the Nunchuk’s motion sensors. After locking on to a target, players can thrust the nunchuck forward to project Samus’s grapple beam. This allows you to not only grapple across holes but even use your beam while in combat to pull off enemy shields or move parts of the environment.
Another improvement helps to make Morph Ball navigation swift and fluent. By thrusting the Wii-Mote upwards, you can perform a ball jump technique that allows you to quickly move through morph ball regions; don’t worry, though, you’ll still have to use the heralded bomb jump to reach some remote powerups. Overall, these subtleties help to prevent monotony in the game’s flow, making the game feel more like and adventure than an action FPS.
Move to Improve
As for aiming your beloved blaster, Retro has succeeded in making the Prime combat system even better. As opposed to the previous track record of Wii FPS titles, Corruption’s controls are actually quite responsive and further approach the feel of a PC mouse. However, you won’t notice the improvement unless you change the aim option to advanced mode. Though there is still the problem of not being able to perform a 180 in an effective manner, Prime’s controls make up for this with its lock on feature (that has been essential in the last two games). Once locked on to an enemy, you can quickly dash left or right in order to move frantically during hectic moments and pull yourself out of a dire situation. Also added to the lock-on system is the ability to freely shoot other targets around Samus’s current lock. This increases the difficulty by forcing players to improve their aim but at the same time it makes disposing of foes a much easier task if you’re skilled enough.
Weapon upgrades are always an essential part of the Metroid series and previous Prime titles made use of the plethora of buttons on current console controllers, giving players a variety of weapons and techniques at their disposal. In Corruption, however, button quantity is far scarcer using a Wii-Mote and Nunchuk. Retro solves this problem by making beam and missile upgrades actual enhancements rather than further weapon choices. So, if you get the plasma beam or the ice missiles, each upgrades your current charge beam and missiles respectively. Rather than allowing players to choose the most effective weapon for their foes as was the case in previous Prime titles, Corruption helps keep the combat flowing by giving you less weapon choices. As for the visors, choosing one is as easy as holding down the minus button and pointing the cursor at your desired choice.
I do have a complaint about the combat system, though it is very minor and more of a preferential criticism if anything. My complaint involves the existence (or lack) of gun combo upgrades. In previous Prime games you could find additional upgrades for each individual gun providing a variety of massive attacks at your disposal. For instance, you can upgrade your original charge beam to use Super Missiles or upgrade your plasma beam to unleash a flamethrower (at the cost of your missile supply). In Corruption, the lack of weapon choice comes at the price of not including these upgrades in the game.
To make up for these upgrades Corruption does provide the combat enhancement, “hypermode” where Samus taps into the phazon corruption within her body and allows her to unleash powerful attacks and be invulnerable at the cost of an energy tank. Upgrades to hypermode allow Samus to perform other super attacks while corrupted (initially you can just shoot your gun). I personally loved hypermode because with enough skill, corruption can last for almost an entire minute whilst you rock your opponents and gain all of your life back in the process. However, once I mastered the technique, the game immediately dropped in difficulty. In fact, aside from the last boss, I found this game to be a walk in the park compared to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, which was a little bit disappointing.
More Than Meets the Eye
While the game’s intuitive control scheme is obviously the biggest improvement to the series, this game also sports some other notable enhancements. For one, the graphics are absolutely gorgeous. It’s easy to see the difference in graphical power between a GameCube and a Wii if you compare Corruption to either of the first two installments in the series. Also, the environments are as scenic as ever from tribal planets to futuristic sky towns to abandoned space stations. If you were looking for a nominee for current best graphics on the Wii, Corruption would take the cake with its detailed art and pop-in absence.
With all of the impressive graphics and environments, it’s amazing that this game still runs at 60 frames per second. I never experienced an ounce of slowdown in my entire session of gameplay, even amongst some highly intense battles. However, all of these graphical triumphs do come at a price: a few times throughout my journey I was forced to wait for extended periods of time just for a door to open between rooms. It is nice that these doors encompass any load times throughout your journey but when you’re forced to wait as much as 20 seconds, it can ruin the flow of the game and even be a further nuisance if you’re attempting to escape a room without fighting the enemies within.