Review: Metroid Prime: Hunters (NDS)

If there's one word to describe Metroid Prime: Hunters, it's "comprehensive". The extra development time has paid off, and given us an online multiplayer mode with voice chat, local wireless play with one or more game cards, and a spruced up single player adventure with plenty of puzzles, story elements, full-motion video sequences and rumble functionality. Even the control system has been tweaked and perfected. The dubious 'touch-to-shoot' option has been removed (a result of bad feedback from the demo, no doubt) and remaining are two options: stylus control and button control.

Since control is such an integral component of the game, it's essential to understand how it works. Stylus control uses the pen for free-look movement on the touch screen, whilst your other hand tackles the D-pad to move you around. Combining the two, you can perform 'circle strafes' and target swiftly and accurately - it's much like playing with mouse and keyboard on the PC. Jumping is handled via a double-tap of the screen, and morph ball, weapons and the scan visor are chosen by selecting their icons (crucially, this selection rarely interferes with the normal looking motions). Once mastered, the stylus controls are nigh on perfect, and both right and left handed options are included here. In one fell swoop, Nintendo has shown first-person shooters can work on the DS. Although other games will no doubt copy this method in future, such a set up does require a tighter hold of the DS, so hand cramps are to be expected. The button-only method of control alleviates this, but it's far from precise and will put you at a disadvantage against skilled stylus players online, so it's worth learning to play it properly.

Essentially, Hunters is split between two modes. A single player adventure spread across four themed locations in which you have to collect eight artifacts (called Octoliths), and a competitive multiplayer mode including a range of themes familiar to FPS veterans, like capture the flag, survivor and king of the hill. Hunters' multiplayer maps are pulled right out of its adventure mode, modified where needed and bordered off. Much like Goldeneye successfully managed, you can learn your way around the maps whilst playing the adventure mode; but the down side to this is that this mode doesn't live up to past Metroid standards due to its level designs being unsuitable.

And that's primarily where it suffers. That's not to say it has bad level design - much of it is really quite inspired, with multi-tiered caverns and sequences of locks and barriers to overcome - but instead of thoughtful progression tied into Samus' own abilities, we're left with tedious switch-finding objectives and fetch quests. 'Find X number of keys to open door Y' and 'defeat all enemies in the room to continue'. The scan visor is used far too frequently as a means to search every corner of every room in case you missed something, and less as a vessel for the narrative. Only when you get to the halfway point in the game does it even attempt to offer the kind of ability-driven exploration of other Metroid titles through the use of weapon upgrades; and even then it's little more than a lock-and-key memory test. Disappointing.

Yet Hunters looks and feels very much like authentic Metroid. The graphics hide their crude polygon count well and it has the look and the sound effects of Prime more or less spot on. Even the doors have that unmistakable loading pause before they open (which is a bit baffling) and the 3D map makes a decent attempt at being useful. Upgrades in the way of health and ammo are plentiful and not as tucked away as you might expect, which is handy, as the bosses can require some serious firepower.

The boss designs themselves are quite lazy. They're not only tedious to take down (why make us repeat the same sequence over and over to whittle down a health bar?) but they repeat themselves throughout the game, sporting upgrades. Once defeated, the same 'escape' sequence begins, and it really dawns on you how repetitive it all is. The only save points are back at the landing zones (via teleport pads) and random ambushes from the other hunters really start to grate. It becomes little more than a combat game.

But sufficiently trained on random encounters, you'll have an easier time battling it out in the multiplayer arenas. It's a fairly fast-paced game, with varied maps and lots of customisation, ostensibly similar to Quake 3 and its ilk; yet the plentiful supply of spare health and fairly weak default weapons means taking out opponents is more grueling than it could be. The weapon upgrades throughout the main game become standard pick-ups here, and it's surprising how well suited everything is, with missiles, ammo and health pick-ups, and so forth. Every 'hunter' has their own strengths and signature weapon, and all can use a morph-ball style alternate form. Picking a Hunter must take into account the type of arena you're fighting in and what weapon they're best at using.

The implementation is exceptional. The dreaded friend codes make a return but in a different enough way to really work well. You can join a random four-player game (deathmatch only) in which the opponents are chosen and the level is voted - it's the same as Mario Kart. But if you add people you meet to your rivals list, or add the friend codes of people you know, you can set up custom games of all types, and even talk to friends to arrange the next session (only in the 'lobby'). Voices are a bit muffled, but functional. All the while, you'll build up a reputation, your statistics permanently saved to your profile.

Hunters may be competent as far as first person shooters go, but its only spectacular achievement is that it's running effortlessly on the DS. The franchise has taken a turn away from 2D exploration - a sorely undermanned area of the market - and joined the overcrowded ranks of the competitive FPS, and it makes Gamestyle cry a little inside. Come on, Nintendo, give us what we really want.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Daniel James