zC’s 100 Games To Play Before You Die: Pt. 3
Written by Connor Beaton, published 28th April 2009
Welcome to the third instalment of zConnection’s 100 Games To Play Before You Die, where we will be giving you a low-down of the 100 games (in no particular order) that any self-respecting gamer must play before their personal “Game Over”. From Asteroids to Half-Life, Bust-A-Move to The Longest Journey, expect to see a few familiar faces… and a few unfamiliar ones.
Nintendo’s Metroid franchise started on the NES in 1986 and finally made the jump to 3D in 2003’s Metroid Prime for the GameCube, which saw players once again take control of female bounty hunter Samus Aran, who investigates a distress call given out by a Space Pirate frigate only to discover the inhabitants slaughtered by creatures which they had genetically engineered themselves. After killing the Parasite Queen and accidentally causing a chain reaction which causes the ship’s reactor to go into meltdown, she escapes the ship, only to see Ridley, long-time antagonist of the Metroid series, in a cybernetic form known as Meta-Ridley, escape into the final frontier.
The gameplay is presented in a first person shooter fashion. In order to interact with the environment and characters, Samus must use the relevant visor; at first, players can use the Combat Visor, which Samus must be using in order to aim and fire, or the Scan Visor, which Samus can use to identify objects or interact with machinery. The Morph Ball gameplay mechanic from earlier games has been carried over, which allows players to curl Samus into a small metal ball (an ability of her Power Suit) which can roll into small crevices and also drop small explosives.
Metroid Prime also spawned two sequels, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, also on the GameCube, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on the Wii, which introduced some fantastic motion controls and new gameplay elements. In fact, the control scheme for Metroid Prime 3 was taken so well by critics and gamers alike that Nintendo have actually re-released the original Metroid Prime for the Wii with motion controls under the New Play Control! brand.
With that, we will conclude the third part of zConnection’s 100 Games To Play Before You Die list. The fourth part will be available tomorrow at 6PM, so don’t forget to check back! If you wish to be notified when the next part becomes available, please register. As always, we invite people to comment on our articles. What game do you think is a real must-play? Let us know below.