Diamond of Tetra

[IUniverse]

Metroid Prime Hunters has had a rough, but long history. The overall single player was straight forward, and did not contain: Metroids, Space Pirates (besides Weavel), decent puzzles, alternate difficulty modes, original bosses, the classic beams, and the traditional upgrades. As far as the multiplayer is concerned, it is full of hackers and cheaters and its not "Metroid-like" to have a multiplayer. This is basically the main aspects of Metroid Prime Hunters that; consequently, cause some Metroid fans to call it unworthy of the Metroid name.

Metroid Prime Hunters deserves the Metroid name just as much as any other Metroid game does: Super Metroid, Metroid, Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Prime Pinball, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The beauty and detail of Metroid Prime Hunters seems to be overlooked through all the harsh critism it has faced from the overall Metroid community, through out the many forums. The environments are a sight to behold on the Nintendo DS. They give the game plenty of layers of atmosphere to the whole Tetra Galaxy experience. The Stronghold Void's organic design and eerie music contribute to the ancient and mysterious air of the Alimbic Cluster, with the glowing orbs being produced on either side of the bridge leading toward the Biodefense Chamber. The decay of the Tetra Vista, goes to show just how much neglect and ruin that has come to the Alimbic's territories since the time the Alimbics disappeared. The environments were made to fit the story of Metroid Prime Hunters nicely.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has been influenced by Metroid Prime Hunters. Metroid Prime Hunters was the first of the Prime games to allow players to see the inside of Samus's Hunter Class Gunship while in actual gameplay. Players were able to perform various functions with Metroid Prime Hunters' ship concept such as: viewing scans, changing weapons, launching the ship, landing the ship, adjusting sensitivity levels, and viewing rival hunters on ship scanners. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption did improve on the ship gameplay with the introduction of the Command Visor and the inclusion of new ship features. Even so, a finger print of Metroid Prime Hunters has been put into Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Upgrades were an issue in Metroid Prime Hunters, as it didn't include suit upgrades and the other various upgrades familar to the Metroid community. Something must have been overlooked, Metroid Prime Hunters does seem to have suit upgrades. Players can clearly see in the Octolith cutscene, that it infuses with Samus's Varia Suit. She acquires 8 of these keys to the Alimbic Cannon. The upgrade does not improve her abilities; however, if Samus dies to a hunter, an Octolith will be stolen from her. This is where it behaves like an actual suit upgrade, as the only way for a hunter to acquire an Octolith from Samus Aran is to defeat her in their skirmish. The Octoliths do seperate from the suit when Samus enters the control room for the Alimbic Cannon. Players can see through the scene, that they were in fact fused with her suit. Samus's reaction to them coming out to activate the cannon just further clarifies them as being Suit upgrades. Same thing with how they enter Samus, she reels back a bit as though energy is flowing through her Varia Suit when the Octolith is acquired in the cutscene.


Metroid usually has the same beams and such through out the whole series; however, Metroid Prime Hunters shakes things up. Metroid Prime Hunters only contained one of the traditional beams of the series: The Power Beam. The Power Beam was modified though for the gameplay of Metroid Prime Hunters, it had a faster charge rate compared to previous Prime titles. The game allowed players to switch through and collect 6 sub-weapons as well. No other Metroid Prime game has had 6 sub-weapons as in Metroid Prime Hunters. Odder still, most of the weapons within Metroid Prime Hunters weren't collected as rewards for beating a group of enemies or a particular boss. The game instead made them obtainable through the completion of puzzles, rather than conflict. This is one thing that makes Metroid Prime Hunters unique from the other Prime games.

Metroid Prime Hunters has several bonus features. One thing, is the inclusion of an Audio feature in the Options menu. This option allowed players to hear all the various sound effects and music used throughout the Metroid Prime Hunters universe. The music tracks are home to some great remixed, new and classic Metroid tunes. Another thing was the ability to view all cinematic scenes in Metroid Prime Hunters via an option off of the story file selection screen. These are some of the best quality 3-D scenes on the Nintendo DS, they are dazzling and detailed. They also add important elements to the story experience of Metroid Prime Hunters. The final game scene itself displays that there are plenty of ways for this game to continue, whether it be sequals or individual hunter series. The Gorea 1 scene displays how the other hunters evolved since Samus took them on the first time, as they each are seen using a weapon that strays from their respective affinity weapons. These cutscenes, like the environments, contribute greatly to the atmosphere and the story elements of the game. The other feature is the Records section of the main menu. With this, players can view their story achievements: fastest completion times, fastest Gorea 1 times, fastest Gorea 2 times, and total enemy kills.

Metroid Prime Hunters did lack in visors; however, it brought a whole new element to them: a 2in1 visor. The Scan Visor of Metroid Prime Hunters represents two traditional visors, the Scan Visor and the X-ray Visor. It alows players to scan various objects in the four main regions of the Alimbic Cluster as is normal for the Scan Visor. The abnormal aspect of the Metroid Prime Hunters' Scan Visor, which relates it to the X-ray Visor, is its ability to see otherwise invisible switches. In the Cortex CPU room in the V.D.O, when obtaining the BattleHammer, players can look around with the Combat Visor but will not see any switches. Once a player activates the Scan Visor, they can see the four switches that need to be activated to obtain the BattleHammer. These switches beforehand were completely invisible; however, the Scan Visor allowed players to view and activate the switches.

The sound and lighting effects in Metroid Prime Hunters were decent. The sounds and music gave off a deeper atmosphere to the game. Zoomers never sounded so real before. The Alimbic voices made the atmosphere creepier, giving off some anxiety to Samus as even though she had the Octolith things weren't over for her. The sounds also add mystery to the game, as some sounds are faint in the game. One example of this is the cannon sounds coming from the Frost Labyrinth, with the morph ball positioned under the cracked hole location in the ice (where players obtained the shield key of the area). The unknown of the disturbance gives off a sense of fear in Metroid Prime Hunters. The way the different lighting of the worlds affects your arm cannon's look is awesome. Its cool to see the green change to purple, then to a redish shade, then back to the shiny green. Also when looking for a region to land at, players can sweep their ship to look at or away from the Alimbic sun. As players get closer to viewing the sun, the ship gets brighter eventually filling the ship. While the farther you look away the darker it becomes. Both lighting and sound play a key role in the atmosphere of Metroid Prime Hunters.

Going back to environments again, people have complained about various things with them. The areas actaul fit the game almost perfectly. The blast shields and the timer clocks aren't there to annoy players, they're there to relate players back to the story of the Alimbic's past when they were mass producers of defensive and offensive combat systems. The Piston Caves, a hated area, was there to show the network of machinary that powered Processor Core's two Lava Processors. Each environment connents to one thing or another in the game of Metroid Prime Hunters. Same thing goes for Metroid Prime Hunters' gameplay, it relates back to the past influences of the Alimbic Culture.


The story mode for Metroid Prime Hunters can be challenging and can play out in multiple ways based on what players decide to do. Celestial Archives always is first and then Alinos follows. After the visits there for the first time, players can complete the story mode in multiple ways.....


Examples:  *C=Celestial Archives, A=Alinos, Ac=Arcterra, and V=Vesper Defense Outpost*

C1-->A1--->Ac1--->A2---->Ac2---->V1----->V2----->C2----->A3----->Oubliette
C1--->A1---->V1----->C2---->Ac1---->A2---->Ac2----->V2----->A3---->Oubliette
C1----->A1---->Ac1---->V1---->A2----->Ac2----->C2----->V2----->A3---->Oubliette
C1----->A1---->Ac1----->V1------>C2----->A2----->Ac2----->V2------>A3---->Oubliette
C1------>A1----->Ac1----->A2----->V1----->C2----->Ac2------->V2---->A3----->Oubliette

.....The above are just a few possible courses players can take when it comes to the single player mode. Players can go beyond the standard visits, and visit a planet or station as much as they wish. They can also perform 100%, Low %, and Speed Runs. The thing that makes specified runs in Metroid Prime Hunters different from the other Metroid games is that players decide the path they wish to take in the game (as in how they go about story order and what not).

The Statis Bunker area is very similar to the Metroid containment areas in both the Research Vacilities in Prime and the area within Sky Town in Corruption. The Guardians were contained in glass-like structures filled with a liquid substance (as players can see bubbles in the containment chambers). This added to the creepy and eerie atmosphere that was given off by the Celestial Archives, with the suspense of a Guardian breaking out of containment and attacking. The Guardians were unique though, in that they had different weaponry that they used against Samus Aran in the attack. The Metroids did basically the same thing as one another when they came out of containment. The Guardian Containment areas within the Statis Bunker was only a trait of the Vesper Defense Outpost.

This is a MPH topic, but MPH is a Metroid game so I can post it here.