Prime Time

Metroid for Nintendo DS is a big game in a small console.

By Chris Grant
Add Comment Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Apr. 19, 2006

Get 'em, girl: You play as a female bounty hunter.

Metroid Prime: Hunters
A-
Platform: Nintendo DS.
Price: $34.99.
ESRB rating: T for teen.
Features: Great controls, robust multiplayer.

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Nintendo shipped a demo of Metroid Prime: Hunters as a pack-in with their dual-screened DS in November 2004. Now more than a year later Hunters has been released, and having undergone plenty of polishing, it shines. From the massive levels to the surprisingly functional interface to the myriad multiplayer modes, Hunters is the finest first-person adventure to grace a handheld's screen (or screens, in this case) to date, quirks and all.

You play as the mainstay of the Metroid franchise, female bounty hunter Samus Aran. Armed with her ship, suit and various gadgets, Samus is looking to uncover the source of an ancient race's "ultimate power." Unfortunately, she isn't the only bounty hunter with her eye on the prize; six other hunters will try to collect the mysterious octoliths and uncover the ultimate power for themselves.

Levels take the form of tracking down the octoliths in various outposts in the isolated Alimbic Cluster. The Metroid Prime series has long distinguished itself in level design, opting for huge, labyrinthine alien worlds with more emphasis on exploration and discovery and less on run-and-gun action. For the most part, Hunters follows the same formula, although the level and game design can be repetitive. Each level ends with the same urgent escape to your ship even though there's no looming explosion or imminent threat. By the end of the game you're thinking, "Been there, done that."

The game's major strength-and the reason for the delay-is the multiplayer. Using the DS' built-in Wi-Fi, gamers can play against friends (even sharing a game cart), or against strangers over the Internet using Nintendo's free Wi-Fi connection service. Nintendo's service works flawlessly, though the functionality is less than intuitive compared to Microsoft superlative (albeit fee-based) XBox Live service. Manage to get some people on your friends list and you can challenge them from anywhere in the world, even using voice chat.

Hunters takes full advantage of the DS' unique abilities, with the touch screen doing an admirable job standing in for the mouse control of a first-person shooter. Using the stylus on the lower screen to manipulate the look control, and to select different weapons and visors, the action occupies the top screen undisturbed, correcting the major complaint of the original demo. Metroid Prime: Hunters is an ambitious game that works far better than I'd have imagined. It's another showpiece title for Nintendo's unlikely hit handheld.

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