Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii, 2007)

• Linear overarching structure up until the end of the game besides exploring (most of) the valhalla ship** (can only go to Norion after the intro gameplay and there you only have one mission to choose from at a time there+the spoke areas connecting in the middle of it are very straightforward, the first few upgrades are basically handed to you without exploration, can choose between two planets after Norion however you can't really get anywhere on Elysia without hyper ball so you might as well go to Bryyo (and you get that upgrade after basically completing Bryyo), after getting the grappling hook and the map in the first sub area on Bryyo you can choose between two new areas there but can't get far in the western one until exploring most of the eastern, sub area to sub area progression stays linear until ?, **can explore more and more of the ship as you find energy cells and you need only 6/9 in total to get to the room that lets you get the password to the space pirates' battleship+you can get most of these cells in any order (after getting to eastern skytown that is) - however you still need to finish all other areas before you can complete it since you'll need the hyper grapple and nova beam to do so, can also explore the rest of Norion (generator b area) after getting the weilding beam+ice missile+multi lock-on, need ship carrying upgrade (from skytown federation landing site) to fully complete bryyo), Some backtracking to previous planets to progress (screw attack, spider ball) as well as previously visited parts of sub areas

• Sub objectives are marked on the map and often given to you by a superior (the Aurora computer) via voiced transmissions (but not the path there thankfully, not optional like in previous games)

• Some human NPC interaction in-game (silent protagonist however)

• Some good environmental storytelling (marine corpses, broken down machinery and falling debris, seeing Ridley attacking NPCs off in the distance in the same area (and foreshadowing of later rooms in some sub areas like Bryyo west and east, some neutral creatures and machines (the data pods), )

• At certain outdoors locations you can call on your ship to use it as a mobile base (save+heal, ) or to remove certain obstacles+move certain objects in place as a key

• Difficulty options (normal, hard/veteran, unlockable very hard/hyper)

• Stats menu inside your ship

• Various scripted scenes

• A few fast travel points within sub areas and some shortcuts (there could've been some more of both however and/or some of the one-way ones could've been two-way)

• New enemies appear when backtracking through areas

• Some decent puzzles

• Decent sense of vulnerability at times (in skytown your ship getting attacked and being temporarily stranded there, later on when you defend the bomb inside the spire against the pirates and then have to escape the spire using an escape pod although this part is a bit too easy, squad protection mission and some rooms with respawning or invulnerable enemies)

• Get harassed by some bosses before fighting them properly (meta ridley)

• Some sequence breaking opportunities (minor skips using an unintended triple jump (jump towards the camera in ball form then transform and jump again), earlier Grapple Voltage after reaching the pirate homeworld - can immediately go to Pirate Research through Transit Station 3-B by getting over the gate in Lift Hub with a precise 2BSJ (2 bomb jump into space jump - tricky to pull off however) and carefully moving through the middle part while avoiding the acid rain), Hazard Shield "skip" - can disable the barrier in command courtyard by standing in the corner of the barrier without getting hit by the rain; a lot more with glitches (early elysia exploration by going out of bounds near the entrance for example))

• One optional boss (metroid hatcher - very easy though)

• Your shots tend to bounce off of NPCs but sometimes triggers a defense system

• Various death pits however like in Zelda you just lose a bit of HP and respawn where you jumped/fell off

• New beams and missile types stack here (good for obstacles but removes a bit of strategy from the combat)

• Can't fly the gunship (your spaceship) manually - only used like a teleporter when traveling with it

• Version diferences

Some notable cons:

• Still has some issues with delays on opened doors after shooting them! (these mask loading times), About 20 seconds of loading when traveling between areas on the hub map

• Some control/interface issues (see the spacecraft interface above, no jump height control, the database in the intro base's info is in VA only (slow) and the terminals being diegetic means less detail on things you're looking at, having to hold the scan button to read the short description on something and then another button to go into the logbook for a longer description is a little clunky, the mini-map is still too zoomed in and shows the current room only, can't speed up dialogue scenes (in-game cutscenes) on a per sentence/paragraph basis, can't place map markers, still can't see the mini-map while in TP view, just minor slopes will make you roll in ball form which discourages using it to bomb jump or experiment with other shortcuts, etc.)

• Using the grapple hook to remove certain obstacles is a cool idea that would've been more fun if it was more free like the tractor beam/grav gun in Half-Life 2

• Some tedious aspects (unskippable cutscenes (usually short but pretty frequent, some slows ones such as when traveling by ship between sub areas) - fixed in trilogy ver.?, dead space, some boring backtracking (eastern bryyo) - generally no fast travel within sub areas, too much minor stuff to scan at times, the energy cell fetch quest near the finale however you do get generous hints towards their locations here, kinda drawn out seed boss on Bryyo, machineworks bridge room, etc.)

• Some trial & error (the voiced countdown during the Norion generator mission really is a countdown - could've shown the timer on screen as well, some one-way shortcuts such as in Bryyo west, etc.)

• The game is a bit too obvious about where to find the next upgrade in a pretty jarring way (communicated as voice messages from the computer aurora)+these instructions also can't be turned off)

• Scanning tends to spoil puzzles

• Can't use the boost ball on the travel cannon mechanisms to actually aim them in a direction of your choosing (letting you, you know, explore?)

• Overly small Bryyo Ice area (nice atmosphere here)

• Some items don't feel worth going back to later on (too many missile tanks, gold credits that unlock concept art and a music test)

• Some invisible walls when trying to explore using screw attack

Playthrough - Video Review - Mini Review

Influenced by: Possibly Powerslave/Exhumed, Shaman King (GBA), Dead Space, Strider (NES) or Bionic Commando (NES), Red Steel, Mega Man ZX, Rad Gravity, Tails' Adventure

Influenced: Possibly Batman: Arkham Asylum, CV: Order or Ecclesia