Wii Owners Get Corrupted

October 03, 2007 | By: David Radd

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Nintendo's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption got off to a good start in August, a month that was dominated by Madden. The game didn't quite reach the level of the original MP, but with the Wii selling like hotcakes Samus could potentially make her way into even more homes this time around.

Metroid is one of those series that has a special sort of resonance with a lot of gamers. It's not beloved by quite the wide range of people as the Nintendo franchises Mario or Legend of Zelda, but many old-school gamers still have a fondness for Samus that extends back more than two decades. The franchise includes some of the most acclaimed games of all time, and some still claim that Super Metroid has never been bested by any game, including any Metroid game released this millennium.

After a giant lull between releases, the biggest change to happen to the franchise since it's Super Nintendo incarnation is Metroid Prime. Crafted by American developer Retro, it brought Metroid into 3-D for the first time and also altered the view point from a third-person camera to a first-person perspective. Now, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is here, and it marks another series first with motion sensing controls. We examine how this Metroid sucks all the life out of you � in a good way.

According to the NPD, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was the sixth best selling title overall for the August period. This made it the second best selling Wii title during that month. Overall, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption sold roughly 218,000 copies during August.

"I think the Metroid Prime 3 numbers are pretty good. Looking back historically, Metroid Prime (Nov 2002) debuted at over 360K units the first month, but it was November which could have played into it, since it's a key month for the industry," said NPD industry analyst Anita Frazier. "Metroid Prime: Echoes debuted November 2004 and did over 190K units its first month. So MP3 at 218K for its first month, and in what is usually a slow month outside of Madden, isn't bad at all. As consumers continue to snap up Wiis at retail, it will be this kind of variety of content available to play that will help the system to appeal to the broadest possible market."

While sales of the game were certainly good, only time will tell how its sales will compare to other incarnations of the franchise. Worldwide estimates place total sales for the original Metroid Prime at around 2 million overall, but Metroid Prime 2: Dark Echoes sold far less. Part of this could perhaps be attributed to the pent up demand that there was for the first Metroid Prime (which was the first new game in the franchise in nearly a decade), a demand that has not been equaled for any Metroid game since.

Still, sales for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption weren't too much higher than Mario Strikers Charged and Mario Party 8, both of which were Wii titles that released in previous months. In fact Wii Play, which released all the way back in February, beat Metroid Prime 3 in sales for the August period. Despite the fact that Metroid Prime 3 is among the few "core" game releases on the Wii and has been hailed as a "killer app" by some, its sales are strong evidence suggesting that the vast majority of Wii purchasers are not hardcore gamers and that they aren't all that interested in an action/adventure sci-fi game. BioShock for Xbox 360, on the other hand, sold more than twice as many copies than Metroid Prime 3 did in August.

Samus powers up

As could be expected, the most significant change in Metroid Prime 3 compared to its two predecessors is the control scheme. While previous games had relied upon a lock-on button to accomplish most targeting, Metroid Prime 3 uses the Wii Remote to look and aim around the environment and the Nunchuk's analog to move about, along with context sensitive movements where a specific motion must be used to proceed. While many say this is a more natural aiming convention and is "proof of concept" for first-person shooters on the Wii, others criticize the set up for making the game far more action oriented and "Halo-like."

Another departure for the franchise is the fact that there's much more story conveyed via spoken dialog along with a few separate worlds. Many have liked what Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has provided in terms of a satisfying story conclusion to the Metroid Prime trilogy. Others, many of whom are more "old-school" fans of Metroid, say that all of these changes take the series even further from its roots, which concentrated on isolation on a single alien world.

"Wii owners finally get a quality adventure to sink their choppers into with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, the final entry in Nintendo's classic trilogy," said GameDaily's 9-out-of-10 review by Chris Buffa. "Take on the role of bounty hunter Samus Aran, an armor-clad lady with a penchant for terminating alien scum. Instead of blazing through the galaxy using a more traditional game controller, tackle enormous bosses and solve head-scratching puzzles using the Wii's remote and nunchuk. The experience is nothing short of extraordinary."

The TV spots for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption were part of the larger "Wii Would Like to Play" campaign, with two Japanese men showing off the Wii in various locations. This one was set at an airport, where people of both genders were shown contorting around their controllers to shoot enemies, open doors and use the grapple beam. It was a continuation of the same simple but clear marketing message Nintendo has had with the Wii all year: it's a system anyone can enjoy with its fun, motion sensitive controls.

While this will apparently be the last Metroid game for Retro (at least for a while) it's certainly a significant enough one to keep up the faithful's attention throughout the holidays. And hey, they won't have to wait long for Samus' next appearance in a game. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is slated to ship this December, and players will be able to live out their wildest fantasies of having Samus shoot a giant laser beam and having all of her clothes fall off.