Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

When I started into MP3 again this evening, planning out this glog entry in my head, I thought about comparing it to the buildup of the previous games - where the introductory phase is slow, but necessary for driving the ramping excitement as the game continues. Then I engaged a boss in epic battle, saved a planet, and was knocked unconscious. "One month later," the screen says, and Samus wakes up in an infirmary, completely changed. Now, I can use the power of Phazon for good, instead of evil (also some evil).

Following are some spoilers if you haven't followed previews of MP3 in the media already:
The mission upon landing on Norion is to reactivate the energy reactors that were, until the pirate attack, powering the planet's primary defenses. Halfway through this exercise, comm chatter from the fleet above reveals that a massive meteor (evident to the viewer as comprised largely of Phazon) is headed straight for the defense control tower. A friendly hunter, Rundas, who has abilities similar to Iceman, even helps you on your mission - maybe I wasn't doing good enough? - by going off on his own to activate the second of three generators.

At the third generator, after another friendly hunter (Gandrayda the shapeshifter) takes out some hostiles, a morph ball puzzle is of course required to fix some broken machinery. Then the generator falls back into place - oh hi Meta Ridley! The mechanically enhanced space dragon pounces on Samus, shattering the floor beneath them and initiating a boss fight while falling, with your rapidly decreasing height displayed as a time limit for the encounter.

Eventually Meta Ridley is incapacitated, and Rundas uses his ice-surfing powers to rescue Samus from the shaft. Then the hunters (including a fourth I hadn't mentioned, the cyborg Ghor) make for the elevator to the control tower. But just before they can activate the planet's defenses, Dark Samus crashes in, wipes them all out with a powerful Phazon blast, and flies away. Samus manages to drag herself to the control panel and turn on the automated defense system to destroy the meteor just before falling unconscious.

In the infirmary, a nurse (...technician?) informs the just-awakened Samus that after the blast, she and the other hunters now have some mysterious bodily mechanic that produces Phazon. Siezing the opportunity to create a powerful weapon of war, the Galactic Federation took the liberty of equipping Samus with a Phazon Enhancement Device in her power suit.

The PED is activated by holding the + button for about half a second, and turns Samus into a mad killing machine, firing blasts of superpowered Phazon to and fro. But 'Hypermode' consumes life energy, and according to the multilingual instruction manual ("HYPERMODO"), has other, more dire risks as well.

I've been playing it slow, getting all the scans that I can (see below), but I'm already stoked to progress farther in what promises to be a grand space opera.

So, last time I promised to elaborate more on MP3's achievement-like system. There are four kinds (colors) of tokens: red, blue, yellow, and green. Red tokens are earned from scanning Creatures, and Blue from scanning Lore; these are the same kinds of logbook entries that appeared in Samus's previous outings. Yellow tokens are earned by defeating bosses. Green tokens are where it gets interesting, as you get these when your friends (from your Wii's friend list) send them to you - at least I think this is how it works, since I really have no one to test this with at the moment.

Throughout the game, certain accomplishments will bring up a black logo and a message, e.g. "GFed Trooper Saved" or "100 Enemies Defeated." These are Friend Vouchers. From the game's Extras menu, you can send a Friend Voucher to anyone in your list of friends. This list displays a number for 'Sent' as well as a number for 'Received' next to each name, thus my inference on the operation of the green tokens.

In any event, the game's extras are purchased by way of these tokens, each item having a specific cost of each type. In addition to art galleries, you can purchase each track of the game's soundtrack, and other miscellany with titles like "Screen-Shot Tool" (!!) and "Mii Bobblehead." I look forward to getting some green tokens and trying these babies out.

Progress: 6%