Skett
Nov 25, 2004, 12:34 PM
Wow, this is a first. My first review on PSOW. *Ahem* Those who go to Hikara's board know very well that I enjoy creating journalistic things like reviews, previews, and editorials. Since PSOW is back I thought it would be a good time to show them to a whole new audience.
Now, normally I wouldn't review a demo but most demos are not as completed as this. Plus, it is packed-in with Nintendo DS, thus I think it is a duty to let you all know whether you should seriously buy a launch game right away or stay with this game. And if you already bought DS and played First Hunt, well, tough love. Without further delay, my review of Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Once it was announced to the public that Metroid Prime for GameCube was to be put into a first-person view, fans broke into an uproar. First-Person Shooter suddenly came to mind and are words fans don't want anywhere near their Metroid franchise. What would become of the series trademark exploration? Thankfully Metroid Prime was released and put fan's fears to rest. The more accurate term was "First-Person Adventure", which was far from the non-stop shooting of Halo. Now Nintendo DS has been released and packed-in with every unit is a demo game called Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt. Based on the series she-hero, First Hunt takes Samus' combat abilities and puts them into a true FPS. This does not have the exploration like every other Metroid game. We are talkin' shootin', shootin', and Morph Ball.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/Namevah/MetroidPrimeHunterstitle.jpg
Name: Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt
Release Date: Available Now (With Purchase of Nintendo DS)
ESRP Rating: Rating Pending
Genre: First-Person Shooter
System: Nintendo DS
Published by: Nintendo
Developed by: Nintendo Software Technology
Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt is a strange departure from the entire series. Usually you, as Samus, explore a huge world alone, collecting items and upgrades that gradually make you stronger against enemies and bosses. First Hunt instead is about one thing: shooting. The backstory is limited, however. Samus is entering a competition for Bounty Hunters for some reason and wants to train, thus she goes though a series of training simulation (i.e., this game) to improve her abilities in battle. While you will be training via the actual game, I doubt you will become better at any of the previous Metroid games of FPS in general. The story is just a backdrop and serves hardly a purpose. In fact, the game doesn't even mention anything about the competition; only the manual does.
What makes this different isn't the fact that you're just shooting enemies. You do a lot of that throughout the past two Metroid Prime games. It is different because of how the game is set-up. It's just you, your weapons, and enemies. The game actually forces you to kill all the enemies before continuing. Your enemies are slow moving spiky-backed turtle things, Moctroids from Super Metroid, and regular ol' Metroids, not including the boss character. The enemies are simple to kill, requiring only a few blasts from your weapon. This makes the action go very fast.
Throughout the battles, items can be picked up, either in the form of ammunition for your Power Beam or Missiles. There is another beam that shoots a green blast and screws up your visor when your hit but it only appears in multiplayer. Missiles are, not surprisingly, very strong. Since you can run out of missiles, it is best to save those to when facing Metroids and the boss. The missile can also be charged into a Super Missile which is obviously stronger. Your main weapon, the Power Beam, uses ammunition too, sort of. Normally you have a limited amount of ammo that allows you to fire repeated shots quickly but once that runs out, your shots become slows, which makes things harder and slower.
The Morph Ball is also present and serves the same purpose as always: escape from a Metroid's life-sucking grasp and travel through small areas. It can also lay bombs which you can use to jump. Double-tapping the D-Pad "boosts" you into that direction for added speed. The Morph Ball is controlled by using both stylus and touch screen for analog control or D-Pad.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/Namevah/MetroidPrimeHunterspic.jpg
There are three modes: one that lets you go through a series of rooms killing increasingly difficult enemies. Another sets you loose on some kind of station to kill as many enemies as you can. The last forces you into Morph Ball to race and collect little pellets to improve your time. These are all very fun and kind of addiction, although short.
Multiplayer mode is good. The environments have many sections to hide behind, run into, or trap unwilling competition into. My experience was lag-free and connecting to the other DS nearby was quick and painless. A few more weapons and possible turrets or vehicles would greatly be appreciated since the Power Beam, Missiles, Bombs, and the other weapon is a short list to pick from. Last, since DS can connect up to 16 players wirelessly (although other companies have connected up to 30 units together), it would be great to see more than four player combat.
Controls are surprisingly similar to recent PC FPS controls from games like Battlefield 1942. The D-Pad allows you to move foreword, backwards, or strife left and right. The shoulder buttons fire whatever weapon is selected. Simulating a computer mouse, the stylus is used on the touch screen to look around and tapping the screen twice is jump. The touch screen is also used to select weapons, get into/out of Morph Ball, and shows your position on a map. This setup works incredibly well. However, if this isn't your bag, the game lets you pick a few other controls for both right and left handed people. The regular controls are so well done, who knows why anyone would use any other controls?
The game tries to mimic Metroid Prime's beautiful graphics but since the DS is significantly less powerful than GameCube, it can't really do this. What we have looks very nice, though. The enemies, although slightly blocky, are nicely created but the environments tend to repeat each other. The textures are sharp and impressive, too. Although obviously not created using in-game graphics, the CG cutscenes intro and end movies are impressive, showing characters that will probably become bosses in the full version of Metroid Prime Hunters. These visuals as a whole are clearly a step-up from N64 and should only improve.
Sound is sadly less impressive. Since this is a demo, not all the music has been completed so they stuck in tracks from Metroid Prime. While music from Metroid Prime is not bad by any means, original music would have been more appreciated. Other tracks are very up-beat and fit the mood but isn't very incredible. The music should be replaced once the full version is released sometime next year.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/Namevah/MetroidPrimeHunterspic2.jpg
Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt is clearly taking the right path, especially using controls more in-tune to PC gamers instead of console gamers, although the weapon list is pretty short right now, as is the demo itself. I would really like to see this expand from its roots of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes's multiplayer mode into a unique spin-off that will hopefully inspire developers to create more FPS for Nintendo DS.
VISUALS: 8/10
+ Good enemies and textures
- Repetitive environments
SOUND: 6/10
+ Few classics
- Nothing original or incredible
CONTROLS: 9/10
+ PC mouse-like targeting
- Holding DS can be uncomfortable
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
+ Addicting, wireless multiplayer
- Repetitive after awhile
REPLAY VALUE: 8/10
+ Three different modes and multiplayer
- Only three short modes
MAIN SCORE (not an average): 7/10
+ Addicting portable FPS demo
- Repetitive, short
Now, normally I wouldn't review a demo but most demos are not as completed as this. Plus, it is packed-in with Nintendo DS, thus I think it is a duty to let you all know whether you should seriously buy a launch game right away or stay with this game. And if you already bought DS and played First Hunt, well, tough love. Without further delay, my review of Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Once it was announced to the public that Metroid Prime for GameCube was to be put into a first-person view, fans broke into an uproar. First-Person Shooter suddenly came to mind and are words fans don't want anywhere near their Metroid franchise. What would become of the series trademark exploration? Thankfully Metroid Prime was released and put fan's fears to rest. The more accurate term was "First-Person Adventure", which was far from the non-stop shooting of Halo. Now Nintendo DS has been released and packed-in with every unit is a demo game called Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt. Based on the series she-hero, First Hunt takes Samus' combat abilities and puts them into a true FPS. This does not have the exploration like every other Metroid game. We are talkin' shootin', shootin', and Morph Ball.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/Namevah/MetroidPrimeHunterstitle.jpg
Name: Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt
Release Date: Available Now (With Purchase of Nintendo DS)
ESRP Rating: Rating Pending
Genre: First-Person Shooter
System: Nintendo DS
Published by: Nintendo
Developed by: Nintendo Software Technology
Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt is a strange departure from the entire series. Usually you, as Samus, explore a huge world alone, collecting items and upgrades that gradually make you stronger against enemies and bosses. First Hunt instead is about one thing: shooting. The backstory is limited, however. Samus is entering a competition for Bounty Hunters for some reason and wants to train, thus she goes though a series of training simulation (i.e., this game) to improve her abilities in battle. While you will be training via the actual game, I doubt you will become better at any of the previous Metroid games of FPS in general. The story is just a backdrop and serves hardly a purpose. In fact, the game doesn't even mention anything about the competition; only the manual does.
What makes this different isn't the fact that you're just shooting enemies. You do a lot of that throughout the past two Metroid Prime games. It is different because of how the game is set-up. It's just you, your weapons, and enemies. The game actually forces you to kill all the enemies before continuing. Your enemies are slow moving spiky-backed turtle things, Moctroids from Super Metroid, and regular ol' Metroids, not including the boss character. The enemies are simple to kill, requiring only a few blasts from your weapon. This makes the action go very fast.
Throughout the battles, items can be picked up, either in the form of ammunition for your Power Beam or Missiles. There is another beam that shoots a green blast and screws up your visor when your hit but it only appears in multiplayer. Missiles are, not surprisingly, very strong. Since you can run out of missiles, it is best to save those to when facing Metroids and the boss. The missile can also be charged into a Super Missile which is obviously stronger. Your main weapon, the Power Beam, uses ammunition too, sort of. Normally you have a limited amount of ammo that allows you to fire repeated shots quickly but once that runs out, your shots become slows, which makes things harder and slower.
The Morph Ball is also present and serves the same purpose as always: escape from a Metroid's life-sucking grasp and travel through small areas. It can also lay bombs which you can use to jump. Double-tapping the D-Pad "boosts" you into that direction for added speed. The Morph Ball is controlled by using both stylus and touch screen for analog control or D-Pad.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/Namevah/MetroidPrimeHunterspic.jpg
There are three modes: one that lets you go through a series of rooms killing increasingly difficult enemies. Another sets you loose on some kind of station to kill as many enemies as you can. The last forces you into Morph Ball to race and collect little pellets to improve your time. These are all very fun and kind of addiction, although short.
Multiplayer mode is good. The environments have many sections to hide behind, run into, or trap unwilling competition into. My experience was lag-free and connecting to the other DS nearby was quick and painless. A few more weapons and possible turrets or vehicles would greatly be appreciated since the Power Beam, Missiles, Bombs, and the other weapon is a short list to pick from. Last, since DS can connect up to 16 players wirelessly (although other companies have connected up to 30 units together), it would be great to see more than four player combat.
Controls are surprisingly similar to recent PC FPS controls from games like Battlefield 1942. The D-Pad allows you to move foreword, backwards, or strife left and right. The shoulder buttons fire whatever weapon is selected. Simulating a computer mouse, the stylus is used on the touch screen to look around and tapping the screen twice is jump. The touch screen is also used to select weapons, get into/out of Morph Ball, and shows your position on a map. This setup works incredibly well. However, if this isn't your bag, the game lets you pick a few other controls for both right and left handed people. The regular controls are so well done, who knows why anyone would use any other controls?
The game tries to mimic Metroid Prime's beautiful graphics but since the DS is significantly less powerful than GameCube, it can't really do this. What we have looks very nice, though. The enemies, although slightly blocky, are nicely created but the environments tend to repeat each other. The textures are sharp and impressive, too. Although obviously not created using in-game graphics, the CG cutscenes intro and end movies are impressive, showing characters that will probably become bosses in the full version of Metroid Prime Hunters. These visuals as a whole are clearly a step-up from N64 and should only improve.
Sound is sadly less impressive. Since this is a demo, not all the music has been completed so they stuck in tracks from Metroid Prime. While music from Metroid Prime is not bad by any means, original music would have been more appreciated. Other tracks are very up-beat and fit the mood but isn't very incredible. The music should be replaced once the full version is released sometime next year.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/Namevah/MetroidPrimeHunterspic2.jpg
Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt is clearly taking the right path, especially using controls more in-tune to PC gamers instead of console gamers, although the weapon list is pretty short right now, as is the demo itself. I would really like to see this expand from its roots of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes's multiplayer mode into a unique spin-off that will hopefully inspire developers to create more FPS for Nintendo DS.
VISUALS: 8/10
+ Good enemies and textures
- Repetitive environments
SOUND: 6/10
+ Few classics
- Nothing original or incredible
CONTROLS: 9/10
+ PC mouse-like targeting
- Holding DS can be uncomfortable
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
+ Addicting, wireless multiplayer
- Repetitive after awhile
REPLAY VALUE: 8/10
+ Three different modes and multiplayer
- Only three short modes
MAIN SCORE (not an average): 7/10
+ Addicting portable FPS demo
- Repetitive, short