2.5/5 ★ – omegaoxide's review of Metroid Prime Hunters.

Metroid Prime: Hunters - 5/10 The DS’s tech demo Gameplay: It plays very similarly to that of the other prime games but with the ammo system that Prime 2 has. Unlike Prime 2 it is universal in upgrade and cost between the weapons. Some are good others are very bad, but these firearms are what make up the Quakelike weapon pool for the pvp. Speaking of Quake, that is what this game closely resembles. The movement is snappy and very jump based you see it in the non flying enemy ai that is supposed to resemble a players movement. They do not work well and take very obvious and repetitive paths that players would altogether avoid. Another issue is certain obstacles cause them to freak out and jump up the platforms only to get off of them a second later. All scenarios when you fight these basic gatcha game knockoff enemies lock every door out til you kill them. The other hunters are a bit more unique and challenging swapping from plain fighting to a morphball like movement mode. Bosses on the other hand are probably even worse than the basic enemies. Two bosses besides the final boss are reused 4 times each. They have weak points you break for a damage phase it doesn’t change except for a few new attacks every time they reappear. Everything else in the game is on the same scene as the other primes, but they are unfortunately a lot more janky. Progression: You get a section of the map you can explore on a planet to get three relics that open a boss portal. You repeat this on every map once and then a second go for each making 8 playable segments. As previously stated you fight one of the two bosses and escape a planet to move on to the next immediately. One thing I learned dying in an escape is that if you are killed by an hunter, you lose the bosses gem and they cycle the Hunters in all of the planets. This means you’ll have to track down the Hunter that killed you now on another planet in order to get an item you require to get to the final boss. I feel it’s a bit punishing, but you’ll more than likely only die from some sort of cheap shots like I did. Difficulty: Very easy, except for the when you are in the crusher morph ball segment, or an instant death pit above a platforming section. Timing puzzles towards the end are very strict requires a fantastic execution to what the end goal of the timing is. Timing for escapes are a whole different story. You got more than enough time to get out and feel like an excuse to pad the game out a lot more since teleporters no longer work and you must personally make your way backwards through a map. The final boss was also complete so easy I probably could’ve done it blindfolded while on fire. Level Design: It’s stitched together multiplayer maps and has some horrific load times between the transition zones. Some puzzles are decent, but it’s odd that you complete an objective to spawn a collectible that spawns another collectible or unlock mechanic. It feel like yet another way to pad out by forcing you to go grab the item to then get back to where you even got it to spawn from to get the real relic you need to progress to getting the boss portal open. Platforming is somehow actually good and works for the control scheme they have. Morphball traversal was personally designed by satan himself. By far the worst the physics on this ball have ever been and caused the most time and deaths added onto my playthrough. Atmosphere: Not good it’s basically generic pallets of common themes in the first game. Like a ship, lava, ice, and research station. There is only some environmental story telling at the end of the game with the last two gems you collect for the final boss. Story: Ultimate power in a far out system that isn’t under federation jurisdiction. Lots of other bounty hunters are also going here and you are set to either collect or destroy the power. You learn pretty quickly that the power is not what it seems and the other hunters are far too dumb to see it. Speaking of which the civilization that fought the final boss must have been color blind if they couldn’t beat something that the story completely overhypes and turns out to be a complete pushover. (Personal Summary) Best Parts: It’s not other M. Worst Parts: Basically everything. I’m sure the multiplayer is fine, but I question why you wouldn’t just play Quake or any other area shooter. Story wise it just falls flat and feels nothing like a Metroid game, you could replace the protagonist with some generic space soldier and it would have the same impact. Final Thoughts: I didn’t like it much at all. Just a waste of the ip of Metroid even with it spawning a new plot for that of Metroid Prime 4 teased in several entries after this one. However, many things in this game makes me think that this was a tech demo that they just slapped a Nintendo ip on for the sake of selling it to customers. - 5/10