My Gaming Heartbreak

There are blogs that are written which can grab your attention and make you think, ‘Damn… that’s a very good point’, or could just miss the point of the blog completely. But I honestly believe that I have found a topic which will affect each and every reader and will evoke the same response. This response can range from an ‘Oh gosh, yeah’, all the way to a smattering of language that I am just not allowed to write.  What I am talking about ladies and gentlemen is the dodgy gaming sequel/prequel.  (Queue the sighing and overall cursing).

My other half was telling me about the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I game which is due to come out soon. Now I knew he was beyond gutted about Sonic The Hedgehog which came out on the Xbox 360 a few years ago, so I understood his excitement at the flicker of hope that this new game will go back to what made Sonic what it was.

But come on now, haven’t we all felt this way about a game? My gaming heartbreak for me was Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. I have been playing the Metroid series, with the starring character Samus Aran since the good ol’ SNES days. I’ve loved the fact that this strong character was a woman harboured in a mammoth suit (hope I haven’t just ruined that for someone!). Samus and Chun Li from Street Fighter were my gaming heroines when I was growing up and have made me the gamer I am today. So you can imagine my sheer delight when I first heard that Nintendo was bringing this iconic character to the Nintendo Game Cube, since it missed an appearance on the Nintendo 64. I loved Metriod Prime and was even more impressed by the Metroid Prime 2 Echoes. But I was even more excited that the final in the trilogy, Metroid Prime 3, was coming to the Wii.

For those who have never played a Metroid game, let me give you a quick break down. You are a space bounty hunter who helps out the Galactic Federation to try and defeat the menacing Space Pirates.  The Space Pirates are trying to create various weapons in order to make an indestructible army.  Your job is to stop these mean space aliens, bring peace to the universe and live to fight another day. You also learn more about the Space Pirates and the technology they are trying to recreate by reading mission logs they leave behind.

With previous games in the Metroid series, there is a prelude which basically explains why you are chasing after the Space Pirates. Now this normally goes like this: you investigate a planet/space station that has set off a distress signal. It turns out that this was the place the Space Pirates were last spotted.  Then you have to fight a mini boss, which causes the planet/space station to explode. So you run back to your ship but a large explosion normally knocks you down and you lose any items that you started with.  Now don’t panic. You always get back your missing items plus some kick ass upgrades.

For some reason, this section just didn’t happen in Corruption. Upon reflection, I can imagine that someone out there had probably played another Metriod and had thrown a wobbly with this happening and thought the game was pants. But for me, this brief part of the game made the Metroid series what it was. So you can imagine my sheer horror when this failed to turn up in Metroid Prime 3. But don’t feel sorry for me now. As you may know, Metroid: Other M is coming to the Wii very soon. It seems like they have gone back to the original 3rd person layout and it looks amazing.

So what is the moral of this blog I hear you cry? With every game franchise, there will also be that one game which lets us down and I can almost guarantee that you wouldn’t be the only person who thought it was pants. But don’t give up on the franchise you love. You need to stick at it. Developers always want to try something new that doesn’t always work but when it does work, you know the game is going to be bigger and a hell of a lot better than before.