Ush's Videogames review thread!

CLASSIC REVIEW: CHRONO CROSS (PS)

Well I had to play this afterwards, didn’t I?

Moving onto the next generation now, Chrono Cross is more noticeably distinct from Final Fantasy but the style is still 90% similar, from the FFVIII-alike character graphics to the beautiful music. And of course the basic gameplay mechanic is still the same- aside from anything else, this is still ‘just’ an RP at the end of the day.

Most of what I can say about the basics of all this are the same as in Chrono Trigger above, so I can get this review done rather fast. I didn’t like this game as much, and there are three reasons, all of which are really based around the idea of there being ‘too much’.

Firstly, their innovation on battle doesn’t work as well- it involves a huge amount of customisable special abilities and doodads that you can assign to your characters. But there are too many slots and too many powers to go in them- it’s just a fiddly chore that bored me very fast. But to be fair on innovations… there is no xp system in this game. Your characters develop a little from fighting… but basically you only ‘level up’ when you defeat a boss. This works so damn well- even better than Chrono Trigger’s avoidable monsters (which are still present, and which you may want to fight for the money and equipment and special abilities you can nab off them) that it is a crime it has not been used since. It’s an example of a mechanic that gets to the POINT of something like a levelling system, but takes away much of the tedious grinding nonsense generally associated with it. Full marks for that.

Secondly- too many characters. Chrono Cross has a very rich tapestry of interacting plotlines and character arks, which is great, but then it makes most of those characters available for play, which is not. More than FORTY people form your potential party, of which only three can be fielded at a time. Of course, the idea is that you get given a customisable choice of style. But the final effect is just to make you not care about just about everyone other than the main character… and even then, less, to be honest. All these characters and I simply didn’t care about any of them as much as I did about any of the characters in the original. It’s character spam, basically. Lesson here- with character choices, fewer is better, quite often. This is one idea that has not been repeated that I am thankful for.

Thirdly, the plot! Ahhh!

Ok, let’s get to grips here. The basic foundations and principles are awesome like Chrono Trigger before it. The game doesn’t appear to have anything to do with CT at all for a very long time. It is set on an archipelago of islands away from the mainland where most of CT played out. “But I flew around the world in CT,” you think. “Why did I never see it?” You write that of at first to the way sequels work. As it turns out though, there IS a good reason. Rather satisfying!

You play the teenager Serge, who lives in a small fishing village. He fancies a girl- fair enough- and goes out on a hazardous trip to the sea shore to collect pretty knick-knacks for her. However, he has a funny turn and falls unconscious. Coming too, he cannot find his girlfriend, and struggles back to his village, to find that she doesn’t recognise him. In fact, no-one does, his mother isn’t there, and he is rather alarmed to find about that he apparently died ten years ago, as a young kid, in an accident that he remembers surviving. The moment where he finds his own grave has a lot of dramatic input, and early on to. The game certainly starts well.

Long (and I mean long) story short- it transpired Serge has fallen into an alternate world where he died as a child, and from there, there appear many, MANY differences- yet so much is the same also. Serge is attacked by a bunch of bad guys apparently and a trifle oddly) looking for him at his gravestone, and is saved by the mysterious wanderer known as ‘Kid’. Having little else to live for, Serge travels with Kid to the capital up north as he learns about this mysterious world (possibly accompanied by the alternate version of his girlfriend in one of the game’s many branching possibilities with characters), and he inevitably gets drawn into great and mighty plots about people searching for the ‘Frozen Flame’, an item of great power indeed.

So, what the bloody hell does any of this have to do with what came before (relatively speaking)? The game certainly keeps you going. Many of the names involved keep you aware you are playing in the same world, but little else does. Not until main bad guy- the catlike Lynx- refers to Serge as a Chrono Trigger during a cut scene do you get any confirmation that you are indeed playing a sequel. When you, much later, find the ruins of a city of the future that seems to have come back in time and whose records talk of an entity named ‘Lavos’ you get a kick up the backside, and as to when it transpires that Kid is Lucca’s adopted daughter… well…

What eventually transpires is that Lavos is now doing its Skynet impression, messing around in time to try and get rid of those irritating bastards that destroyed it in Chrono Trigger, and re-establishing its own timeline. Serge is caught in the alternate world scenario that is resulting- one timeline that will lead to the end of the world in 1999 as seen in CT, and one where that doesn’t happen because Cronos and crew destroyed Lavos. In a nice twist, Serge is from the ‘wrong’ one. He only survives as a child in the continuity that will see the world end in 1999. The game puts you into the viewpoint of the idea that Cronos’ actions in CT effectively ended the lives of many potential people- he ‘killed’ Serge, as it were.

The Frozen Flame is related to Lavos, and the focal point of what is going on is on this archipelago. The set of islands Serge lives on only exist because of actions taken in the ‘good’ future done by people messing around in time- which is why they did not exist ‘yet’ in Chrono Trigger, as the timeline that would later go back in time and create them didn’t exist until Lavos was destroyed. Their existence relates also to the reptile life forms from the ’65 million years ago’ timeline and…

Ok look, you are probably getting an impression of the problem now, yes? Ok, it is awesome how they held their nerve about when to relate it to CT, and that they took such a different angle with completely different main characters. But it’s too much! It’s unbelievably complex. Even all I just laid out is hard to follow and that’s just scratching the surface. CT SEEMED complex but was actually simple concepts well-connected. This just IS complex from the start and never does any favours in explaining itself. AND they deliberately left in ambiguity! That’s mad. AND some plotlines were left unfinished due to time constraints? Geez. Oh and then they deliberately create a confusing and even more ambiguous ending sequence? Sign me up for the rubber room, please…

It’s a mess, that’s the only way of putting it. At times it is a brilliant mess, but a mess nonetheless. By the end I was just thinking “fine, it’s Lavos Mark II, let’s just beat it up and go home.” I’d stopped caring, it was just all too much- and I welcome intricate plotlines! If I found it a bit much I hate to think what many others made of it. They probably stopped caring as well.

In a brutal move, the heroes of CT are wiped out, mostly. Ghostly forms of Cronos, Marle and Lucca are occasionally seem- though not inhabited by their true personalities- outlining how events have now taken them out of the running, and how Lavos’ reinstatement is Serge’s fault, hence he has made all of CT worthless. Cronos and Marle’s fates are not explained outright so some like to maintain they are still alive. Lucca is not seen dying but it is heavily implied she is killed at a fire at her home- which had become an orphanage- caused by Lynx in one of the game’s few pieces of genuine time travel; indeed, you can visit her home in the past on fire (in the game’s one and only re-creation of a CT location) and recue Kid from the fire, which in turn set’s up Kid’s affection for Serge which relates to the reason why he doesn’t die in the ‘Lavos wins’ reality and… oh look, the plot is giving people headaches again. The game is even callous enough to destroy the robotic hero of CT ‘Robo’ in front of your eyes in the city from the future that crashed back in time, JUST as you meet him. Only two characters seem to escape the axe- the swordsman ‘Frog’ (so named as he was turned into a humanfrog lifeform by Magus) is not referenced directly (although one character has noticeable thematic relations, leading to theories of being a descendant) so presumably he was just fine in 600AD. The other omission is Magus, which reinforces one of the main issues with this game.

See, not getting in to details, but one of the main plotlines in CT, fundamental to Lavos’ threat, is Magus’ sister, from the Age of Magic. Her plotline is picked up in Chrono Cross and is fundamental again to the new form of Lavos and the Frozen Flame plot. But missing from that plotline is the vital element of Magus himself. And that’s not just a critique- it is literally true, Magus is missing. They MEANT to have him in but the plotline was just getting so darn full they had to leave him out… basically, the plotline is unfinished. The central plotline of the game. This is representative of the sprawling mess that is the CC plot. It’s such a shame!

By now you probably think I hate this game. No! It annoyed me but no. On a more fundamental level, the game is very good. But it just went wrong in a few key places, and becomes so dense you lose the thread. Obsessive fans online have pieced it together, but you shouldn’t have to be that obsessive, and besides, they all argue anyway.

And then that is that! No more Chrono games since then. Trademarking indicates game three would have been Chrono Break (I’d call it ‘Chrono F*** up’), but it was never to be. But then… maybe it will be. Occasionally commentary from the makers express interest. Maybe they can as yet tie it together. Maybe Serge and Crono will meet. Maybe Magus will find his sister. Maybe Lavos, in true Skynet style, will try it again, with better special effects. Maybe they will confuse the hell out of us even more. It must be said- even if they did do that… I'd still welcome the game. It would be better than most stuff out there. Here’s hoping.

CARDINAL SINS- None. Note that by my definition, messing up a plotline is not a cardinal gaming sin, it’s just a shame.

SCORE: 8/10

COMMENTS: It’s still a great game and it’s a great sequel… but some of its innovations have sacrificed quality for quantity.

I remember this game. 🙂

Nice review. 🙂

I looooooove Chrono Trigger. That was was absolutely mind blowing for its time, I remember playing it when it first came out and I couldn't believe how "good" it was (I was young, I couldn't formulate ideas or real substantial reasons at that age, besides 'this is awwwwesome!!!'.

One of my favorite games.

Another good review...or in this case two.

METROID PRIME 3: CORRUPTION (Wii)

Last summer I reviewed the two previous Metroid games as part of my Gamecube round up. Metroid is an area where I am not quite in-step with general feeling in this area, especially as the first Metroid Prime was a contender for best game of its generation. I can sum up my feelings about this FPS franchise from Nintendo in five points:

1. Despite its pretensions otherwise- long hold by some fans- the ‘adventure’ parts were a nothing., The games were first person shooters, plain and simple, though being in a non-linear environment was good. Although you did waste a whole lot of time back-tracking.
2. I really didn’t think they were THAT brilliant, especially with the control scheme
3. I liked the second better than the first, which put me even further out of step
4. They made me MAD! They are honestly some of the games I have become most annoyed with over time, to the point where I termed it ‘Metroid Rage’. Man… so angry I got…
5. I couldn’t deny that they were very well constructed

So onto the new reincarnation for the Wii, with of course its own spin on the control scheme. Without being able to make anything lime the graphical/presentational leap that Metroid Prime made over the old classic Metroid platformers, there was a certain feeling that the third game in the franchise would be worth playing but basically would just be another re-hash of the first Prime with some gimmicky Wii controls. On the other hand, at the end of my Gamecube reviews I said I was looking forward more to this one as I thought the changes looked positive. Well… was I right?

Well, whilst there is some gimmickry, I’ll make this clear- this is an awesome game and it is simply much better than the other two. They got a HUGE amount of things dead-on right this time and a whole broad set of individually modest improvements made the game drastically better for me. And then on top of that they did a damn good job with the Wii controls which removed the biggest problem of the last two at a stroke.

Let’s get the plot etc. out of the way. You play the famed female bounty hunter Samus, in a future setting where the human Galactic Federation is under threat from an aggressive hi-tech scavenging alien race known only as the Space Pirates. Earlier games in the line told the story of how the Pirates planned to use the deadly brain-sucking blob race known as ‘Metroids’ to further their plans of conquest. Samus, helped by a deadly battle suit built by an ancient, powerful (but very unaggressive) alien race known as the Chozo is often the one sent into stop them.

The ‘Prime’ series- set roughly in the middle of Metroid continuity- added to this mix the concept of ‘Phazon’ a deadly material of alien origin that corrupts and transforms all it comes near. The first two games saw planets hugely transformed by the sudden appearance of phazon meteors impacting their surface, sending the wildlife insane, creating deadly new lifeforms, and in the second game actually splitting the world into a light and dark half. The space pirates try to take advantage of the phazon, seeing it as possibly exploitable, and the combination of phazon and Metroids created a new brand of threat. Once more Samus is involved in seeing off such threats, but the nature of phazon itself reains a mystery.

In being the self-declared end of the Prime trilogy, Corruption has rather a lot to do, seeing as virtually nothing had been explained about Phazon hitherto. And indeed, it is just a little too ambitious in that respect, but it still does a lot very well. This game opens with Samus being called together with several other bounty hunters on the flagship of a federation fleet in orbit around a federation world, being called on a mission to deal with a virus that has been introduced into the Feds biological computer network- a problem caused when the pirates ambushed a federation battleship, wiped out the crew and stole the biological brain-computer, and were able to subsequently access the network. Samus and her fellows are just getting their mission details when a space pirate fleet appears and attacks. Samus and the hunters fight hard, the battle spreading down to the planet surface, when to everyone’s surprise a huge phazon meteorite- seen pre-impact for the first time in the games- appears on a collision course with the world. Samus and the others manage to prevent the collision and save the world- but in the final encounter (with the Samus-copying phazon-based lifeform that was created at the end of the first Prime game and was the main bad guy in the second) leaves Samus and all the Hunters suffering from a massive phazon overdose. This Corruption is what the game is named ater.

It turns out that the Federation itself, following the events of the seconed game, has been experimenting with the use of Phazon as a power source and weapon- indeed, some Federation troopers in the initial fight were using such means, apparently successfully. Although Samus is badly affected by the Corruption, the feds take advantage of it to outfit her with new phazon-based weaponry, to be used with caution. Samus now has a new problem to deal with- she has been out of commission for some time, during which the other hunters have gone on with the main mission to restore the network. However, it turns out that Samus has not been as badly affected as the others (why I don’t think was ever made clear- I would assume it is connected to the events of the first two games, especially the second where she received a lot of phazon-proof gear). Contact with the other Hunters has been lost, and furthermore, several Federation planets have been struck by Phazon meteors. Inevitably, it turns out the Hunters have all been corrupted and turned evil by phazon- and Samus has to go sort the whole mess out. She has to destroy the embedded phazon meteors before they ruin the worlds, deal with the turned-evil hunters (rather sadly, they must all be killed), sort out the network troubles, discover that the space pirates have been taken over by the ‘Dark Samus’ embodiment of Phazon, and eventually trace back the origins of Phazon itself to the planet ‘Phaze’, and go there to deal with the issue forever.

If that seems a lot… it IS a lot. The game is huge for an FPS, for sure. It’s not RP length, but there must have been an enormous effort to keep it going this long- and unlike some other games, nearly all of it feels like something fresh and new is coming. Whilst the different planets to visit are only the equivalent of different areas of the same planet in earlier games, each one still feels fully fleshed out with its own history and mysteries and lots and lots and lots to do. The basic set-up is all rather the same- basically you need to keep coming back to earlier areas as you exploit new capabilities you have received in order to access what was previously inaccessible. But this has been made much smoother by several methods that enable you to move around the game world quicker- like flying there with your ship, an option so obvious that it seems absurd it was not in earlier games (though they did at least have the decency to say it was damaged in the second game). And although they feel a tiny bit shoehorned, they even manage to get some Metroids in there as well, and the part where they introduced is appropriately atmospheric.

So, a good job with the basic plot structure. As I say, the only flaw is that it does too much. Finding out the space pirates have been taken over by Phazon and subsequently zipping over to their homeworld to wreak havoc… hmm. Their homeworld is not done too badly (though as ever with such planets in computer games, looks badly underpopulated) but being able to go there and trash it so easily seems very odd, especially as the situation ends with the federation fleet blowing the heck out the place, and with their entire culture having been changed by the phazon thing… I guess the main problem is just how much this weirds up later continuity for the pirates but it also makes them look much more feeble as a threat. And then worse still, it being a mystery the whole series, AFTER this you then find the Phazon homeworld, go there, destroy the entire planet and remove all phazon forever… in about fifteen minutes. That climax seems… horribly rushed. I think it might have been better to prevent the phazon invasion of Federation space but leave the source intact than to suddenly destroy the whole concept forever- especially as this depends on the old “Do something to Phaaze and all of Phaaze blows up” trick, which, again, makes the bad guys look pretty stupid. (Oh, and there is also a link made between the biological ‘Aurora’ unit computers and the Mother Brain from the classic games; this link was made especially strongly in the promotional material. Long story short- it really makes no sense at all)

It’s a little petty to moan about such issues I guess. But it’s more of a shame when you consider that for the majority of the game, the area of plot and presentation is a triumph. The plot is hardly Dickens but it’s laid out about as well as you could ever possibly expect for an FPS- and here is where the modest improvements made possible by the Wii have had a huge impact. The big difference here is the storage format available. On a DVD, as opposed to Gamecube’s mini-DVDs, they’ve fitted in a far more encompassing game world.

It is important to get this point across. Whilst the previous Metroid games have always paid lip service to the idea that there is a Federation and Samus works for it, this whole concept only ever existed in text. In fact, the earlier games were almost totally devoid in context, putting you as the loner against endless amounts of bad guys in the same way as a mid-80s game (err… like the original Metroid...) might. FINALLY, Corruption breaks that cycle. Right from the start you are there in the midst of a Federation fleet. Friendlies are all over the place. They talk to you in perfectly acceptable voice acting throughout the game. Your briefing is done live-in-game. When the pirates attack, you REALLY feel part of the world, rather than just in an alien world-based obstacle course, which is what the others come down to. The rest of the game is more traditionally Metroid but it still has all these extra presentational touches which made the whole setting feel far more real than it ever did. This twins with good use of the Wii hardware- the graphical quality might only be a slight (though still noticeable) improvement in the earlier games, which makes it a tough sell in these days of PS3s and Crysis, but what they have been able to create now are far more expansive landscapes (the earlier ones were always rather claustrophobic) and far more stuff appearing on-screen, always running at high speed throughout. Gorgeous. Frankly I’d rather games were better in that area than just had higher resolutions with the latest graphical fad and what-not. It’s the same thing I said about Zelda vs. Oblivion- doing more with what is already there is often better than just trying to push boundaries, You cannot stay still forever, of course, but I feel in games like this, some studios are showing a better balance of how to approach this areas than others. And meanwhile, you are left with fantastic sequences- such as when giant pterodactyl recurring bad guy ‘Ridley’ swoops past you during the invasion on the opening world, ending with a highly polished Balrog-style fight against it as you fall down a giant shaft, clashing with it in mid-air. It’s the kind of thing action-junkies should live for.

So, that’s one half of it dealt with. The other half is the gameplay, and the majority of that is the control scheme. Well now, that has gone very., VERY well indeed. My review on Red Steel, just after the Wii came out, talked about how the control idea for first person games would have to improve. Well, improve it has. The Metroid control scheme is fluid, fast and accurate. That said, it’s also exceptionally jumpy and sensitive and someone who has not used the Wii before would have trouble adjusting, and anyone at all will take a little bit to adjust, but the effort is exceptionally worth it. Of course, that it is so jumpy led them to put in a ‘standard’ mode of control which is rather more like Red Steel’s, leaving the p[roper mode as ‘advanced’ which might mean some people never use it- a shame. The basic difference is that in Red Steel you only turned around if your crosshairs moved outside of an invisible box, so you could make small aiming differences without turning. That sounds like the right approach, but in fact Corruptions’ hyper-sensitive approach of meaning that almost any movement turns you very quickly shows its superiority in removing the horrible sluggishness that Red Steel left you with- though sadly (and I feel this is insoluble) you still do not turn 180 degrees as fast as you can with a mouse/keyboard arrangement. Even so, though, the controls feel fantastic. And if you NEED to not turn, a simple button press leaves your view fixed in place and only moves the crosshairs, and meanwhile the old ‘lock-on’ system returns from the earlier games. Locking on to targets was needed in the old games to make up for the Gamecube gamepad being useless for FPS games, but here it is used to keep your view fixed on an object, leaving your crosshairs free to move around the screen without affecting that view. Oddly enough I actually found locking on made me LESS accurate, but I am sure it worked well for others.

Accompanying this is the use of the nunchuk (other than to move you, of course) which acts, fairly soon into the game, as a sort of electronic grappling hook, which can be used to attach to certain surfaces and pull bits off of certain enemies, via the nunchuk’s motion sensor. This works rather well and is a very neat use of the technology. In comparison, you also use the nunchuk to operate controls with your left arm but this does feel a bit gimmicky and unneeded. It doesn’t make the game worse but it’s niot as inspired as much of the rest that they do.

And so the game plays very well. Lots of decent shooting, exploring and general action gaming to be had. Better controls and a smoother experienced considerably reduced my ‘Metroid Rage’ this time around, even though I was playing on the higher difficulty setting first time through. A couple of boss fights caused my greatest aggravation, and once more you have to replay a stupid amount of stuff, whilst your adrenaline is up, if the end of game boss kills you.. But on the whole, the whole game is an improvement here as well. It is interesting to see the contrast between design philosophies in this game and standard line FPS; a friend of mine was watching as I introduced my brother to the game. My friend is an FPS junky but not a particular Nintendo fan and knew nothing of the franchise, My brother ran into an early enemy which is basically a set of approaching droids in formation, each with an energy shield protecting them, but at any moment one drops its shield as it is about to fire, and you have to hit that one. My FPS playing friend complained about what a stupid tactic that was for the droids. And whilst that is true, here is the difference- in the terms of other FPS games, that might like stupid, But HERE, it was a good way to get the player used to targeting with the Wii remote. In fact, it was a very appropriate enemy in the context of a Wii remote powered game. Just another little touch of quality, really- but some hardcore FPS players won’t like these areas where clever implementation has come above how gritty the experience is.

Probably the only area that is not improved, control-wise, on the earlier games is Samus’ ‘morph ball’ form, which is controlled the same as ever plus a not entirely convincing ‘flick the remote to jump with it; ability. The least convenient control is the missile fire button- the lower d-pad control on the remote. I had no real problem with it but it is not really a button designed for that kind of use and can be harsh on your thumb. The other little Samus tricks work fine- scanning (used to find info in Metroid about enemies and objects) is much easier now you can just look at the thing you want to scan, and using the remote to select your visor by pointing at a certain area of the screen feels weird at first but very soon becomes exceptionally fast and efficient. The different visor modes are once more introduced with great graphical competence, though the addition of a ‘ship control’ visor is rather limited. Prime 2 added a great new idea with the Echo visor which picked up sound (though the concept was never done as well as it should have been in a world that should have been entirely dark but was instead… purple) but Corruption has gone back to the traditional x-ray view from the first Prime- done very well, but not a progression. I guess there are only so many visor modes to think of.

So you can see I can only come up with minor niggles for this game. Bottom line- it is a comprehensive improvement on the last two with great use of the Wii controls… pretty much as I said at the start! I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing it, and the only reason I didn’t give it a higher mark is that this is still not quite my sort of game; I’m not a total hardcore action junkie kind of guy. Even so, I enjoyed it a lot, and if you DO like that, this game is a no brainer. Once more- all games should have this much effort put into them.

CARDINAL SINS: Not really any. Some loading times are a little long but well masked. You might get stuck in a dangerous area sometimes whilst the adjacent area loads.

SCORE: 8/10

COMMENTS: Extremely well designed and well polished action shooter; good use of the Wii remote and a notable improvement on the shortcomings of the earlier games. Add a mark if you love action gaming.

Nice review, and considering the fact that I loved the first two the rest of MP 3 should be great for me (barely started).

*applauds* Agreed pretty much completely, as always.

The MP3 controls really ought to be the basis for standard Wii FPS controls, I think.

I like the Prime games, but I always got annoyed with checkpoint save system.

After numerous times trying to defeat a boss and then dying, going through the level again and redoing all the puzzles got too tedious for me.

I'll check this out onces I have some money and the lack of new games.

Doesn't anyone wonder how Ush has time to play all of these games? 😉

I do...

Originally posted by Smasandian
I like the Prime games, but I always got annoyed with checkpoint save system.

After numerous times trying to defeat a boss and then dying, going through the level again and redoing all the puzzles got too tedious for me.

I'll check this out onces I have some money and the lack of new games.

Well that is something they fixed in it, if you die you spawn back at your previous "Big" achievement, like taking down a smaller boss before the real boss, a tricky puzzle that open a door, etc.

So basically, if I beat something like a small boss, the game saves automatically?

And does it happen all the time, or just whenever the game feels like it?

I actually have no idea, I learned this by accident because I died.
I had just destroyed two Cannons, and were on my way to the save spot. The destruction of the cannons had taken me about 45 minutes more or less, but on my way to the save station I managed to get myself killed. I cursed, but also noted a very cool death-scene, and thought about the 45 min wasted. But to my surprise I spawned at the second cannon, and they were both still destroyed.

That's cool.

Your example is pretty much what happened to me in Prime 2. I was trying to kill the boss in the water, and I died numerous times and I had redo all these battles and the puzzle to get into the boss battle.

In games, I dont mind the checkpoint system, but either give good checkpoints (right before a big boss battle, or huge battle), or give the ability to save anywhere.

The reason I loved Super Mario Galaxy was because they had checkpoints and I didnt have to redo any of the major parts. It was brilliant.

Yup, that redoing issue was one of the causes of Metroid Rage for me.

As I say, that's much lessened in Corruption- though sadly not for the final boss.

I like the term "Metriod Rage".

I totally see where your coming form.

That's good its lessened in the third. I understand people want difficulty but in my opinion, its not cool to have people redo sections over and over.

The most Metroid Rage moment of the entire Prime trilogy has to be the lava-and-Metroid-infested caves just before the final boss in the first game. Evil checkpoint, not being after all the hurty things...

But if the checkpoint was before the hurty things you would have to redo them every time you died at Prime...

Originally posted by Captain REX
The most Metroid Rage moment of the entire Prime trilogy has to be the lava-and-Metroid-infested caves just before the final boss in the first game. Evil checkpoint, not being after all the hurty things...

I can actually still see it. Jumps in just the right spots to not alert the Metroids... start the climb, ignore the terrifying "squee"s... ball up on... the third floating platform, I think it was; that's where the closer two always charged you... mad dash right next to the higher pair for the missile recharge door... curse as it doesn't open... run in just in the nick of time. After that it was easy. Straight run to Prime itself. 😊