Metroid Prime Hunters Review

Your main objective in the single player is to discover the ultimate power. To do that, you must find eight sacred Alimbic artifacts known as Octoliths. These are crystal-like items that will eventually grant you the key to finding this power. These Octoliths are guarded by the Alimbics’ most advanced and powerful means. These means happen to be the game’s bosses. To earn your fight with a boss, you must collect three different boss portal artifacts. There are two sets of three hidden throughout each of the four locations. These sets will activate one of two portals, and you must go through them to get to the boss’ lair. There are also other portals that will instantly transport you from one area to another that make backtracking a little faster.

Unfortunately the bosses come in one of two types. One happens to be a giant cylindrical column, and the other a giant eye. Now it’s not horrible because each progressing fight has the boss upgraded in some fashion, but it would’ve been nice to do battle with completely different guardians each time. It seems NST was a bit lazy in this regard. After you manage to defeat a boss, you are awarded your next Octolith, and then it’s time to leave. But that would be too easy of course. A feature of MPH is the escape sequence after defeating a boss. As soon as you reach a certain point, a timer starts (anywhere from three to seven minutes), and you have that much time to return to your Gunship. These are pretty pointless, as after the first one you know it’s going to happen, and they really aren’t too heart pumping. You may run into another hunter or some enemies along the way, but generally you will be safe the whole time. The only challenge of these sequences is the inability to use the various portals scattered throughout the world. Even stranger is when you return to your gunship, the timer stops dead, and you never have to take off if you don’t want to.

Regardless of all the gameplay disappointments, MPH is still a great package. This includes how it looks, and this game looks darn good. In fact, it may very well be the best DS game we’ve seen to date in terms of graphics. Who would’ve ever thought it to be possible for the DS to handle well-enough the 3D presentation of the GameCube Metroid games? Well lo and behold it can, and it does it very well. Now granted it’s not identical to the GameCube games, but it gets pretty darn close. The overall polish is a little less refined and more jagged because of the lower resolution support, but they are no problem to look past. The entire interface is just awesome, so there’s no reason why everyone shouldn’t love how MPH looks. The dual screens are used beautifully not only for the graphical aspects, but for the touch controls as well. With the 3D presentation come awesome FMVs. These only occur at the very beginning, prior to boss fights and the game’s ending sequence, but they are still pretty. The touch screen is also used seamlessly as well. Whether it’s changing between visors, power beam or missile, morph ball or full body, the touch screen is what does it. It’s very easy and intuitive, so getting used to the layout shouldn’t be much of an issue.

The audio presentation is also well-done, and for a Metroid game it should be no less. A lot of music from Metroid Prime was remixed and given as the themes to the various locations you visit in Hunters. These happen to be scores from Magmoor Caverns and Phendrana Drifts, and they are very catchy. The trademark Metroid themes have also made their triumphant return, as we should expect no different. So along with the sci-fi ’spacey’ music there’s great sound to aid the experience. The other hunters’ weapons sound especially neat. The audio’s not quite perfect, but it’s there and does the job it needs to.

Metroid Prime Hunters also heavily supports Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Apparently Nintendo wanted to greatly improve upon the multiplayer features of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and saying they did is putting it lightly. NST definitely put a ton of more focus into the online aspect of the game than they did the single player, and chances are you won’t find anyone to argue that. Not only does Hunters support local wireless LAN play with single and multi-cartridge, but the Wi-Fi aspect is truly impressive. In fact, Hunters is probably the best game for the DS so far to show off what NWC can do.

It’s just as simple as all other DS games that support NWC in terms of connecting and getting right into it. Thankfully improving upon the nagging restrictions of Mario Kart DS, there’s a lot more freedom with friends, rivals and total strangers. Granted you still need that tedious friend code and exchange, but it’s worth it in the end. With friends and rivals, you can make use of every single multiplayer mode Hunters offers, and it also takes it one step further. You can actually voice chat or send messages to your friends before and after matches just for the fun of it. Whether you choose Battle, Survival, Bounty or whatever else is there, the entertainment level is great. Now granted there can be some frustration with some people if they constantly get destroyed by the competition playing online. But generally if you practice enough offline, you can become good enough to maintain a decent record.

Another nice thing about Hunters online is what is tracked. All players have their own personal Hunter license that tracks their games played, favorite hunter, favorite arena, headshots and more. Then to help you decide whether or not you want to play against those that aren’t your friends, there is a connection ratio. This is more or less how often you stay connected for the entire match, winning or losing. The lower that number is, the less likely people will want to play with you. With a random game search, you can’t voice chat or go into the other modes but Battle, but it’s still very fun. At the end of all matches, you can try adding them to your Rivals list by tapping that option. If that person does the same, you will add each other respectively. This can help compile a number of people for you to play on a regular basis so you don’t always have to rely on playing different people every time.

Metroid Prime Hunters is certainly an excellent second game in the infamous Nintendo franchise for the DS. Pinball was truly different and offered a lot of entertainment. Hunters is also very different as well, with having such a heavy reliance on a quality online environment. Now granted we still really haven’t gotten that ‘true’ Metroid DS game yet, with most still wanting a new 2D sidescroller. Nevertheless, Hunters can easily appeal to millions of Nintendo fans. You don’t even need to be a Metroid fan to enjoy this game. A lot may still be straying from the traditional Metroid formula, but this just isn’t a DS FPS that you want to pass on. If you like FPSes or Metroid at all, do yourself a favor and experience the new hunt.