The Metroid Prime Trilogy: Second Best Bargain in Gaming

Usually, the average gamer gets screwed when it comes to games. Paying $60 for a 5 hour third person shooter is a bit to ask for. Paying $10 for a 15 year old game with a new coat of paint is straight up rip-off. But once in a great while, the gaming comunity gets rewarded for all their wasted money and is rewarded with a package that, for once, is worth more than they paid.

The first major bargain came in 2007, with The Orange Box for the Xbox 360 and PC, and later PS3. It featured the award-winning Half-Life 2, its two episodic sequels, the multiplayer extravaganza Team Fortress 2, and the surprise hit Portal. $60 for five fully featured and amazing games is unbelievable!

Now, in 2009, we are graced with a deal that is JUST shy of being equally amazing: the Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Wii. This is a single-disc package, featuring all three Metroid Prime titles. The original two for GameCube, and the third one for the Wii. All three games are critically acclaimed, beautiful, moody, and incredibly well-made. The best part of it, though? The original two have been completely revamped with the third installment’s Wii controls! So now all three games can be played with the precision aiming of the Wii remote, as opposed to the archaic control scheme of the original two which didn’t even allow movement while aiming.

The way it was meant to be played.

All three games are absolutely mind-blowing. They take everything that made the 2D Metroid games special and somehow perfectly translate them into a 3D world AND with a first person perspective. With so many games of the past having so much trouble adjusting to modern times, the Metroid series smartly skipped the ugly world of the 64 bit era and jumped onto the GameCube to critical acclaim.

Not only do the games come on one disc, but for once Nintendo actually went the extra mile and gave it special packaging. Featuring a metallic case, a see-through slip-cover, AND an art book, the game actually feels like a complete collection. The menus of the game allow you to launch any game from a single interface as well, so it’s not like the three games were slapped in there with a menu to choose one. They’re all integrated together as a single unit. They even include achievement-like accomplishments for each game to unlock bonus features!

Whether you’ve played the old Metroids or not, whether you own all three games or not, you owe it to yourself to pick up this huge package for only $50. If the Orange Box never happened, this would be the best deal in gaming.

Add comment August 28th, 2009