PixlBit

To wrap up the week and put a bow on the fine work of JD, some of the staff have contributed their first encounter with the series and some unique memories of their experiences.

Chessa's Memories

Metroid was a series completely foreign to me when I initially attempted to take on Metroid Prime nearly nine years ago. Having just purchased a GameCube, I relied on Nick to provide me with good games that would hopefully reignite my passion for gaming.

With a stack of games on my desk, I reached over to randomly select my first adventure, and Metroid Prime just happened to have been the winner. So, I popped it in, sat back and prepared for a gaming experience that I had never encountered before.

In addition to not knowing anything about Metroid, I had never played a first-person-shooter before, so you can imagine the hilarity that ensued (though it wasn’t really that funny back then). I figured out how to jump and shoot easily enough on my own, but was nearly mortified by some of the other things I could do with other buttons (“why did I just turn into a ball?”). As I trudged through the first level and was guided by on-screen notifications, I painfully stared at the controller trying to figure out where the buttons were that the game was telling me to push.

Finally, the awkwardness began to dissipate and I had become fairly confident in my newfound FPS skills (“FPS? What’s that exactly?”) and I successfully managed to make my way through the entire level and slay the boss that waited. Then it happened; a loud alarm wail accompanied by a ticking timer at the bottom of the screen, and I began to panic. Suddenly, all of my newly acquired arrogant FPS skills went out the window, and in all of my n00bette glory, jump became shoot, shoot became the ball, and my entire sense of direction went out the window (yes, I know there’s an awesome map). Needless to say, I met my demise while trekking back to my ship in a tunnel, defeated by little alien insects that explode acid. Had I known back then that all I had to do was turn into my morph ball, it would have saved my vocal chords a lot of whining and screaming, my parents ears’ a lot of cursing, and my poor bed a lot of GameCube controller smashing.

Those of you who know me fairly well will not find it surprising when I tell you that, following this incident, I angrily ripped Metroid Prime out of my system and announced quite loudly (and childishly angry) that the game sucked, I didn’t know why anyone would play such a stupid game, and that I would never play it again.

But as most of us know, that was not the case, and as I developed and polished my modern gaming skills with other titles such as Zelda, Mario Sunshine, Resident Evil, Eternal Darkness, and Luigi’s Mansion, I finally returned to Metroid Prime and was blown away. Having become more comfortable with the platform I was able to fully enjoy and appreciate the experience, and eventually fall in love with the series.

Since my first real playthrough of Prime, I have revisited the title several times, and have gone on to tackle Prime 2, a very small portion of Prime 3 and the entirety of Other M. Each one of those titles, with their wonderfully unique combination of cryptic storyline, beautiful graphics, great soundtracks, and amazing gameplay has been a memorable experience; one that I look greatly forward to passing on to the next generation in my household.