Pumped and nearly primed

User Rating: 8.8 | Metroid Prime: Hunters DS
Wow. Just over a year ago we were all playing First Hunt with all the awkward control schemes. Fast forward to a year later and let me tell you; developer NST sure knows how to make a game great. Unlike the other ugly bounty hunters our main girl Samus competes with, the game looks absolutely stunning with some of the best graphics the DS can pump out.

While I wasn’t loving the multiplayer as much as NST wanted me to (The games emphasis was on multi) the online part did its job. There are many modes to choose from and a lot of creative stages to play in. The voice chat may be limited, but it is a step in the right direction. The problems were that the weapons were unfortunately weak, the characters (Like I said earlier) are ugly, and battles were limited to only four players.

The single player isn’t nearly up to par with other Primes, but it gives a great FPS experience. Hunter’s game goes down like this: you guide Samus through many different worlds, collecting alien artifacts. And even thought the multiple environments and open-ended progression represent innovation the franchise needs, the half-assed execution won’t win any awards. After a few worlds of fighting the same bosses over and over, looking for keys, and escaping before the bomb explodes, the game feels like you forgot to save the last time you played.

The game is still great though, a huge leap for FPS on the DS, and the game is perfect in short bursts, which is probably for the greater good because after about 15 minutes I began to get headaches.