Music/Sound:
The music and great sound effects are very much in the same vein as the previous two Metroid Primes. That sleek retro soundtrack simply brings joy to my ears. This is a series where I honestly do not expect to have an orchastrated soundtrack, but rather a nice ode to its illustrious past. Metroid Prime 3 does exactly that and excels at it. The most notable throwback that I have heard is the battle theme when facing Meta Ridley whilst hurtling down an extremely long corridor. His theme was in full retro force and sounded almost exactly as it had in Super Metroid on the SNES. Then again it might have been a lot different than I remember, it has been nearly 5 years since the last time I played through it. Speaking of throwbacks...

Gameplay:
This game marks the first time in the series since Super Metroid that the beams stack. In addition to that, a new mode has arisen. Well, it's not exactly new as we got a taste of it before in the Prime series. You are equipped with a PED (Phazon Enhancement Device) that runs off of the Phazon that your body generates (that is part of the story and I'm not one for spoilers). It allows you to shoot a big hot load of phazon towards your enemies, for massive damage. However, it used your energy tanks, but it has a failsafe that disengages that mode when it becomes life threatening. Even so, it's a lot of fun to use and it changes the look of the world around you, as well. In a word, spiffy. Also remember that you will have you're standard set of abilities such as the Morph Ball and bomb, the Space Jump and the ever famous Screw Attack.

The puzzles in the game are great and the environments beckon you to explore them. Exploration is something I very much enjoy. Just look at my achievements in BioShock from my first run through (900 out of 1000 points). The Metroid series has always been an avenue for me to satisfy my itch to be an explorer on a different. To aid you in your exploration, you have the X-Ray and Scanning Visors, so be prepared the scan the hell out of everything, though this time around, scanning doesn't appear to be as central to moving the story along as it had been in previous titles. Oh, backtracking actually seems to have a purpose now and things are made somewhat easier, if not cooler, when you can call your ship to land in various locations. On that note, I much prefer her old ship's style over the new one, but it's still better than my space ship...because, like, I don't have one.

The battles this time around seem easier. Enemies dies faster and the boss battles, while impressive and very fun to play, seem easier. This could be due to a purposefuly lowering of the difficulty to make up for the Wii controls which, as I will get into in the next section, are easy to get used to anyways. Even so, the fighting is still as fun as it has been.

Controls:
Something else that may be quite appealing to you are the controls. For the most part, everything seems natural. Though I have to admit, I have a nasty habit of pressing the "-" button when I want to jump, rather than the "B" button. Now that I think about it, perhaps I can configure the controls to remedy that. Moving on, I especially enjoy the grapple beam. With that, you lock on to a target, fling the nunchuk towards it and swiftly pull it back to rip off doors or the shields of your enemies. If only I could do that in real life...ahhh. The 'pointer', if you will, is very sensitive and stable. There are no signs of the cross-hair behaving as though it had just drank 6 shots of espresso. This game should serve as an example of how to make your control system on the Wii.

Graphics:
Obviously, the Wii has shown people that graphics don't truly matter if the gameplay is great. Metroid Prime 3 is honestly the best looking game to be released on the Wii, so far. That can be attributed to the fact the MP3 is supposedly the first game developed for the Wii from the ground up. What this translates to are great looking character models and gorgeously huge vistas in outdoor environments. The muzzle flashes and the impact blasts for the weapons have been spruced up, as well. Let us not forget that no game is truly a next-generation title without, say it with me, bloom lighting, but it looks great and is not overdone here.

Story:
As I mentioned, I am not one to give away spoilers, and I certainly won't start here. The story this time around is presented in a much more cinematic way which can be likened to cutscenes from Halo. The only thing I do not care for is that the conversations can feel disjointed in that you have to press the "A" button to continue every other sentence or so. I prefer to keep it moving along smoothly without interruption. Other than that, it is just fine and dandy. Anyways, in Samus' latest quest, you join other bounty hunters in a quest to remove a virus from one of the Aurora Units (organic super computers). Along the way you will run into some familiar faces, both good and bad. That includes that bitch, Dark Samus...I hate her.

Bonus Materials:
There are plenty of bonus materials to be had in this game. Unfortunately, you have to "buy" them. When you do certain things are reach certain points, you earn a, for lack fo the proper term, Samus symbol of varying colors. In the bonus section, you use the symbols you have accumulated to purchase things like art or tracks form the soundtrack fo the game. It's all fun and I kind of like it this way, but I was just as happy to unlock these items based on my progress through the game.

Final Thoughts:
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a fantastic shooter with scads of things to explore. This title leaves me with the impression that it has become more of a standard FPS but fully retains the heart and soul that make Metroid special. Soon, after a few other games that need to be taken care of, I'll dive much deeper into this rich world and explore it completely just as I have done to previous Metroid games. The controls make things very accessible to newcomers to the series while appealing to the hearts of hardcore gamers and rabid Metroid fans everywhere. If you are looking for a game to buy for the Wii, get this one. You will be very happy.