Metroid Prime (game)

Metroid Prime Metroid Prime North American Cover Art

Publisher Nintendo Developer(s) Retro Studios Platform(s) Nintendo GameCube Genre Action Adventure, First-person Shooter Ratings ESRB: T OFLC: M15+ ELSPA: 11+ PEGI: 12+ USK: 12 Modes Single-player Media Nintendo GameCube Game Disc Input Nintendo GameCube controller

Metroid Prime is the first game in the Metroid Prime series released on the Nintendo GameCube, in 2002.

Plot

Samus's Gunship detects a distress signal from the Space Pirate frigate Orpheon. She boards the frigate to find it in disrepair, and largely devoid of life. Data found on computer terminals within the frigate suggest that it had recently been being used to research the material Phazon, which the Space Pirates discovered on Tallon IV, the planet the Orpheon is in orbit above. Foremost among the topics of research aboard the Orpheon is the effect of Phazon on living organisms. When Samus reaches the ship's Reactor Core, she discovers the most successful biological experiment of the Space Pirates, the Parasite Queen. The Parasite Queen is an animal native to Tallon IV that has been exposed to Phazon, causing it to grow to an atypically large size. It apparently was responsible for the destruction aboard the Orpheon. Due to the threat it poses, Samus destroys the Parasite Queen. Its corpse falls onto the reactor, causing it to become critical. Samus begins to evacuate the ship, but while doing so meets up with Meta-Ridley. He attacks her, damaging her Power Suit and reducing it to basic functionality. Samus quickly escapes back to her gunship, and both she and Ridley escape to Tallon IV. The Orpheon's reactor fails, causing it to crash into the surface of the planet as well.

Samus discovers that Tallon IV was formerly a Chozo civilization. Based on carvings in the ruins of the Chozo city, a cataclysmic meteor strike and the resulting environmental damage wiped out the Chozo living there. The meteor, which would later be discovered to be a Leviathan, brought Phazon to Tallon IV. As the poisonous Phazon brought by the meteor spread over the planet, it caused damage to the biosphere. At the time of Samus's arrival, it had already caused widespread mutations in the local organisms, and rendered some areas lifeless. Samus discovers the space pirates' estimate that in approximately 25 years, no life will remain on Tallon IV.

The various carvings scattered around the Chozo Ruins document the Chozo's struggle to destroy the Phazon emanating from the meteor and return the planet to its original state. The Chozo, who were themselves being eroded by the Phazon, were unsuccessful in their attempts to right the planet's ecosystem. Eventually, they resolved to seal the meteor and Impact Crater from which the Phazon emanates. They left behind a series of twelve artifacts that are capable of breaking the seal, in the hope that someday an individual would arrive and succeed where they failed.

This seal is an inconvenience for the Space Pirates, who want to extract all the planet's Phazon for use as an energy source and in continued biological experiments. With the goal of breaking the seal in mind, they have captured several of the artifacts. They have also set up various research stations in different regions for the purpose of experimenting with Phazon. Finally, they have begun excavations into the planet's surface so as to extract subterranean Phazon.

Samus travels over the surface of the planet, searching out the artifacts and recovering the lost functionality of her Power Suit.

Within the Space Pirates' Phazon Mines, Samus discovers that the Space Pirates have been conducting experiments involving subjecting embryos of their own species to Phazon. In a cavern in the lowest level of the mines, Samus discovers the most successful of these experiments, a huge Space Pirate called the Omega Pirate. The Omega Pirate attempts to kill Samus, but is unsuccessful. Despite its ability to heal itself by absorbing raw Phazon from the environment, Samus is able to defeat the Omega Pirate. However, it falls on top of her, deluging her in Phazon. The Phazon corrupts her Power Suit, turning it into the Phazon Suit, which resists Phazon radiation.

After collecting all 12 artifacts, Samus travels to the Chozo temple hovering above the impact crater. There she uses the artifacts to unseal the crater. However, before she can enter the crater, Meta Ridley arrives and damages the temple. Samus and Ridley begin to fight. After Samus deals enough damage to Ridley, the Chozo temple reacts, firing a laser at Ridley that knocks him into the impact crater. What happens to him is unknown, although he recovers before the events of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Samus enters the impact crater and discovers a world completely transformed by Phazon. Here there is Orange Phazon, a substance that the scan visor identifies as 86% more mutagenic than normal Phazon. There are also creatures that have been altered so far as to thrive on Phazon living here.

In a room deep within the impact crater, Samus discovers the eponymous Metroid Prime, called the source of Phazon by the scan visor. Due to its Phazon exposure, Metroid Prime has become more powerful than anything Samus has yet encountered on Tallon IV. It has the ability to attack with diverse weapons, and is able to shield itself from all of Samus's weapons. However, it is not capable of shielding from all weapons simultaneously, so Samus is able to damage it by switching weapons repeatedly. When Samus has depleted all of its health, Metroid Prime will escape to the lowest chamber of the impact crater.

Here it metamorphoses into a new form, one that is immune to all of Samus's weapons and is capable of cloaking itself in the visible, infrared, and x-ray portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. This form generates pools of liquid Phazon as waste while attacking. By absorbing this Phazon and firing it out of her Arm Canon, Samus can damage this final form of Metroid Prime.

When critically damaged, Metroid Prime will collapse into an unstable form with no recognizable features. In this form, it grabs Samus. As she attempts to escape from its grip, the Phazon Suit is ripped from her body, leaving her to escape in the gravity suit. Metroid Prime seems to lose all cohesion and explodes. Outside the crater, Samus watches as the Artifact Temple is destroyed by the instability within the crater. Entering her Gunship, Samus escapes Tallon IV.

Back on the planet, the pool of Phazon that used to be Metroid Prime merges with the Phazon Suit, creating Dark Samus.

Reception

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