Metroid

Have we been too hard on Nintendo? According to your feedback, we have. We take a thoughtful look at the company, it's past, present, and future and offer our definitive stance on The House of Mario. Don't worry, it's not 60 straight minutes of unbridled hate. 56 minutes, maybe. Featuring Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Tim Spaeth.

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Topic and Game References:

• Nintendo Wii
• Super Mario Galaxy
• Wii Sports
• EA Sports Active
• Mario Kart
• Metroid
• The Legend of Zelda
• Animal Crossing
• Assassin's Creed
• The Conduit
• E3 2009

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Game Description: The Galactic Federation's Base Sector Zero is under attack by Space Pirates. As Samus you must boot up the generator to restore the defense systems. But at the end of her path, someone awaits you. If you think you knew what it felt like to be the bounty hunter behind the visor, think again. Take aim at evil with Nintendo's revolutionary controller. You control Samus by moving with the Nunchuk controller and aiming with the pointer, allowing for a level of immersion unlike anything you have ever experienced before. Through the eyes of Samus, you experience a quantum leap in first-person control as you wield the Wii Remote. Samus will employ well-known power-ups like the Grapple Beam and Morph Ball on top of new surprises to help her survive her coming trials.

After an extended trek through the bloated and tedious middle of the Metroid Prime trilogy, the execrable Echoes, I was more than a little hesitant to start another session with the usually-enjoyable Samus Aran. After the last installment, I felt certain that Retro Studios had run out of ideas and lost the touch that originally brought this famously 2D series into the third dimension with such grace. After biting the bullet and giving it a try, I found that the end result was better than I had expected... though a bit too familiar.

Being a game critic is sometimes a difficult task. Some games are a joy to play and review, whereas a bad game turns reviewing into a voluntary form of torture, like sitting through a Britney Spears “comeback” performance. Where does Corruption sit on the scale?

According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Blood, Violence

This morning I awoke to my Wii's disc tray pulsing with that seductive blue glow that implies internet activity is going on. I was curious as to what might be updating. Most recently that glow brought news of a Wii system update. (Incidentally, the new Wii store shopping experience is an improvement for Virtual Console perusal.)

Bringing Metroid to three dimensions seemed like an impossible task, but it was done and done to perfection. After such an accomplishment, squeezing it onto the Nintendo DS seemed challenging, but not as vast a leap.

Game Description: Metroid Prime Hunters challenges your skills as you control Samus Aran, the space bounty hunter made famous in the Metroid series. A ferocious race, now extinct, has left behind relics of their once powerful warrior culture. Now bounty hunters from across the galaxy are racing against each other in order to lay claim to these relics hoping to harness their power for themselves. It's the race of a lifetime, as you guide Samus to the relics before other hunters can reach them—and use them on her.