Metroid Prime 3: Corruption finally completes the Prime trilogy started on the GameCube 8 long years ago.  It takes place 6 months after MP2: Echoes ends, and everyone’s favorite bounty hunter, Samus Aran, has been hired by the Galactic Federation to deal with those pesky space pirates.  Metroid Prime 3 begins with Samus and a few other space pirates meet on a Federation ship to discuss some important Federation shit when it is abruptly attacked by Space Pirates.  After kicking their ass they are deployed the planet Norion, where the Space Pirates are attacking again.  They are trying to plant a Levianthan seed on the planet, which is essentially a seed that spreads the super-dangerous chemical Phazon around the entire planet, either corrupting or killing everything it comes in contact with.  Right before Samus activates the defense system for the base, Dark Samus appears and attacks them all.

Upon recovering from her attack a month later, it is discovered that Dark Samus’ attack has infused her and the other bounty hunters’ DNA with Phazon, and have designed a special space suit to that can harness the Phazon energy within her.  Samus has been assigned with the task of heading to the other planets in the solar system (and beyond!) to destroy the Leviathan seeds there and eradicate all Phazon as well.

Or that is what Wikipedia says.  Honestly, I can’t remember the story so I just paraphrased from there.  It obviously isn’t anything great.  But let’s get to what everyone really cares about: the gameplay.  Which is pretty awesome.  Retro Studios was magnificently able to transfer the complex controls onto the Wii remote, so there is nothing to worry about from that standpoint.  The gameplay is traditional Metroid gameplay.  You travel from area to area, destroying enemies while collecting power ups and scanning everything for tips on how to beat enemies and for data logs.  The difference in this game is that you are able to also transfer into Corruption mode, where for a short period of time, by harnessing the Phazon in your DNA, your attacks do a shit ton of damage and everything looks really trippy, although it costs health to use it.  Some enemies can only be defeated in this mode and some areas only able to be accessed in this mode.  It’s pretty cool.  Other enemies can go into their own Corruption mode as well, which makes them a bitch to fight.

Your space ship plays more of a part in Corruption than in previous games.  Besides from using it as a save station, health center, and as transportation, you can use it to destroy obstacles or move objects from one area to another.  The map has also been slightly upgraded.  Once you access a certain area, if displays on your map where the upgrades in the world are.

Overall, all of the changes are appreciated and make the gameplay better.  However, there are still some problems, nothing too major.  If you didn’t like the backtracking in the previous games, you won’t like it in this one either (although there is less of it).  Not to mention there is a quite a bit of loading between certain areas, cleverly disguised as a door waiting to open or flying between areas.

But probably the biggest set-back to the game is the loss of atmosphere.  Unlike in the previous Metroid Primes, there a good deal of contact and conversation with other people in this game.  While it does help continue the story, it loses the atmosphere of isolation in this game as well.  In the previous games, you felt truly helpless in this world, and that you all alone.  It was actually pretty creepy in areas.  This feeling of isolation in Metroid Prime 3, unfortunately, has been lost (to a degree).

But like previous games, the boss battles are still pretty awesome and varied, and the graphics are still excellent.  Prime 3 has a very varied color palette: some areas are very vibrant (like out of a hippie movie), while other areas are more dark and creepy.

Overall, Metroid Prime 3 is an excellent game that finally completes the Prime trilogy.  It will last you at least 20 hours if you take your time.  It may not be as good as the first iteration, it lives up to its Metroid name, and is one of the best adventure games on the Wii.  If you liked the previous games, get Corruption.  If you didn’t, obviously you shouldn’t get this one.

tl;dr version
Good: gameplay, graphics, atmosphere, bosses
Bad: Story is lame, backtracking can be a hassle, atmosphere isn’t as good

Score: B