Metroid Prime, Two Decades Later

 In November of 2002, I was in my Junior year of high school, and I got what I believe was my second Metroid game. I was first introduced to Samus Aran thanks to the surprise hit that was Super Smash Bros. in 1999 for the N64, which got a follow-up a mere two years later in the clearly far-higher-budget Super Smash Bros. Melee, which would remain the gold standard of the series I think until Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Anyway, I was familiar with Mario and Link, Donkey Kong, Yoshi (there were a lot of Mario-adjacent characters in it) and Kirby, etc. But I'd was unfamiliar with Samus other than the single screenshot of Super Metroid on the back of my SNES-Donkey Kong Country bundle that was my first game console. Samus quickly became my favorite character in Smash Bros, and so I decided to try out Super Metroid, and loved it.

And then, they announced Metroid's long-awaited transition to 3D, having missed the N64 generation entirely outside of Samus' appearance in Smash Bros. Rather than a 3rd person action-platformer, they made it a 1st person shooter and... somehow it worked?

Metroid Prime works just like a Metroid game, except that it's in a 3D world and you see things from Samus' POV. One of the charming touches of that choice is that they really make you feel like you're inside the helmet - when there's a flash of bright light, you can see Samus' face reflected in her visor, and things like condensation or electrical interference with her HUD will pop up.

Anyway, there's now a remaster of the game on the Switch. While I don't believe there's any really intense gameplay rebalancing, there are two major elements: the graphics are fully updated, which makes it look like a modern game, and the controls have what has become the standard two-stick control for first person shooters - the left stick for movement and the right for aiming.

I haven't yet unlocked any of the alternate beam weapons, so I don't know how I'll be switching between them, but so far the Pro Controller has been a great way to play the game (the standard JoyCons are too small for my big hands, and cause me to cramp).

I believe I selected the easier difficulty level, so I hesitate to remark on its challenge. I still dread the frost-elemental boss in Phendranna Drifts that gave me so much trouble back in the day, but I also have 20 more years of gaming under my belt. If I could one-shot Malenia on my most recent Elden Ring playthrough (albeit with an overpowered build) I should be ok, right?

I actually never finished Metroid Prime 1 or 2 - I only finished the 3rd one. So perhaps I'll finally put that notch on my belt.