One of the first heroines of gaming history has been a staple for Nintendo's various systems for many years now. With the release of the Nintendo DS, it wasn't so much "if" Samus Aran would make an appearance, but "when." That time has come and now you can control the femme fatale with the touch of a stylus. But is her adventure really all that grand?

THE STORY SO FAR

"A ferocious race, now extinct, has left behind relics of its once powerful warrior culture. Now bounty hunters across the galaxy race to claim these relics in hopes of harnessing their power for themselves!"

Or at least that is the story on the back of Metroid's box. None of the Metroid games have ever been really all that heavy when it comes to story, and that case is still as prevalent today as it was back on the NES. If you were to ask me the story of Metroid Prime Hunters, it is "Samus Aran runs around, shooting enemies, an occasional bounty hunter mini-boss, finds keys, fights a big boss, then runs back to her ship with a countdown clicking down. Rinse, repeat, and backtrack again and again and again."

Yes, there is a bit more story if you choose to spend the majority of your time in scanner mode, looking for a little square to provide you with some info, but I shouldn't have to go out of my way to search for a story. A story should always lurk just under the surface or either be a major selling point. Players shouldn't have to turn over rocks to get an idea of what is going on.

For the Metroid fans out there, the lack of a proper story probably doesn't really mean anything to them, but for those other fans like me, who like the character and the "idea" of the franchise, I'm still waiting for that extra oomph.

SINGLE PLAYER: GAMEPLAY

Before we get into the gameplay, let us talk about the controls, which are a major sticking point for this game. There are two different modes of control: one using the stylus and the other using the face buttons. In this age of double analog sticks, I've frankly forgotten how to play first person shooters without the second control stick. Attempting to play Metroid with the face button control scheme (X-button looks up, B-button looks down, A-button looks right, and Y-button looks left) makes me question how I ever played games like Goldeneye and Turok during the N64 days.

The stylus, meanwhile, works better, but is far from perfect. I've never played a FPS on the computer (system won't handle it) so I don't know how a mouse and keyboard really feel when gaming, but I've been told the stylus controls have that feel. During stylus mode, the directional pad controls the direction that Samus runs, while the stylus is used to look her around. The stylus controls everything (except the fire button, which is mapped to the L-button), so you'll be jumping by tapping on the screen, switching to your scanner vision, choosing to roll into a morph ball, equipping your missiles, and changing between your various collected weapons, all by simply touching the screen.

The problems with Metroid are present from the beginning and hamper the experience hours later. For one thing, the screen is fairly small, and you really do need to keep the stylus as close to the middle as possible, because if you stray too far up, for example, you'll be touching your weapon selection section, and you'll be accidentally equipping your missiles and secondary weapons without even knowing it (trust me, have done it way too many times during my game time). The other problem, which is perhaps only my own, is that the L-button, which you use to shoot, makes me angle my finger in a weird position, which ultimately leaves my finger constantly falling off the button, or getting tired and stressed from the positioning, which means I have to pause the game or either simply take a beating from whatever enemy is in the area with me. Metroid Prime Hunters is simply painful to play from a physical standpoint. Not to mention placing the stylus against the touch screen often made me double jump when I didn't want to.

Combat was a trifle bit frustrating as well, as the aiming never felt pinpoint accurate because of the stylus control; I was amazed whenever the game told me I'd got a headshot. My shooting style typically consisted of letting enemies get close to me, take a beating in the process, and wail on the bad guys when they got right on top of me.

For fans of the Metroid franchise, the next section will barely register, but it has to be talked about. The setup of the Metroid gameplay MUST change for it to ever truly be a spectacular franchise. Metroid is all about "exploration," and I use quotes because I think that is the politically correct way to say "running around like an idiot till you stumble onto where you are supposed to go." Unlike the early installments, a map has been included, but on the DS it is too difficult to manage, so it's back to the old standby of running around till you find the place.

But at first, Metroid Prime Hunters seems like the game the franchise should've always been. You don't start the game off by losing all your good equipment, because really, you don't have all the goodies from past games anyway, but at least it doesn't start out the same. And as you explore the world, you're constantly moving forward and rarely backtracking at all. But alas, it isn't long until the game falls into its old formula, which just left me bored and tired, trying to figure out a game I could play in its place. As you are playing through the game, you'll run across different colored doors, which can only be opened with certain weapons…that you don't have yet. So you move on to the next level, and so on and so on, and then when I got to the last level and completed it, I thought I was done, because no other place appeared on my map, but then I learned the rest of the game was going back and forth through levels I'd already been through, just to find weapons I'd need to open other doors on other levels. Yawn.

The Metroid series is also known for its "race against the clock" finales, which are quite fun when they only happen once, but not when it happens multiple times. As soon as you beat a main boss and grab an artifact, a countdown timer will sound, meaning you better hurry your butt up back to your ship. The first time was tense, if only because it was the first time it happened, but later instances of this phenomenon, though I was often close to not getting back on time, never had that same immediacy or excitement because the trick had been played out by then.

MULTIPLAYER: GAMEPLAY

In retrospect, it is pretty obvious that the single player portion of the game was not the key consideration (unlike past games) when this game was thought up. Surprisingly, considering the game is on the DS, the multiplayer is quite robust and offers a good amount of match types for various modes of play.

For starters, games are limited to a maximum player count of four, which isn't a terribly high number, but the closeness of the arenas makes up for it as four players adequately fill the space and there is always someone else to shoot just hanging around the corner. Positioned around the arenas you'll find various powerups that will either restore your health, ammo, improve your ability to deal damage, make your character invisible, and allow your hunter the ability to use his "Affinity Weapon." There are four ways to play the multiplayer of Metroid Prime Hunters: 1) Single-Card play, 2) Multi-Card play, 3) Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, and 4) Bot play.

Single-Card play is the most limiting, as players without the card must use Samus as their default hunter of choice since the others are unavailable to them; however, if you want multiplayer gaming, it will still fill your need. Multi-card play and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection are the same deal, only Multi-card requires you to be in the same vicinity while Wi-Fi Connection allows you to connect with everyone as long as they have an Internet connection. Bot play is for those moments when you are sitting alone, nobody to game with, and you want to train; load up a game, set what you want, and practice killing the enemy AI hunters with various difficulties for you to change up. When finding games, you can either choose to look up opponents from your region or based on your rank.

Once you have people to play against, you can then choose what game mode you want. There is Battle (typical frag matches where you fight everyone), Survival (last one standing is winner), Bounty (grab the flag – in this case called an Ocolith – and take it to a specific point for points), Defender (attempt to secure a designated area), Prime Hunter (a "King of the Hill" type tag match), Capture (typical capture the flag), Nodes (a territory type battle scenario). You can also choose to have teams in the modes if you so wish.

Though the multiplayer is quite fun, it suffers from the same faults as the single player game. An annoying quirk is that you actually have to play a good deal of the single player to unlock any of the hunters or the other arenas. In order to play as one of the six other hunters (totaling the possible character choices to seven) you must first run across them in the single player story and beat them; otherwise, you can only be Samus. And though the other hunters look different appearance wise, they frankly play the same with the only changes coming from their alternate form (like the morph ball) and the appearance of their HUD.

And as I've already mentioned before, I found myself suffering from the same control problems, as swiveling around to find an enemy, jumping over obstacles, and attempting to land a shot still felt random rather than skillful; every match felt like a random crapshoot where you "prayed and sprayed" your weapon, hoping just to hit anything before it hits you.

GRAPHICS

Sure the graphics are jaggy, but we are talking about the DS here and not the Xbox 360. Given that fact, I'm amazingly surprised by the quality given its hardware limitations. The enemies are fairly lackluster and lack creativity, as many enemies are simply past enemies shaded a different color, and even bosses are recycled and used multiple times, but the environments for the most part look rather nice, though there are some uninspired moments there as well. Still, despite the jaggies, Metroid Prime Hunters is a good looking game for the DS.

SOUND

Nothing really outstanding in the sound department, though the music is nice to listen to for at least a little while into the adventure. The rest of the effects, mostly the blasting, is too monotonous and repeats way too many times; spend an hour with the game (if I'm being generous) and you'll probably have heard every sound byte the game has.

CLOSING COMMENTS

Metroid Prime Hunters is a mixed bag of sorts, as it has the same feel of past games in the franchise, but yet nothing really stands out, as it seems like the same Metroid gameplay that refuses to grow up and change with the times. The multiplayer is robust for a handheld, but it suffers from the same control problems as the single player, thus hampering that experience as well. If you are looking for a first person shooter experience on the DS, Metroid Prime Hunters will fill your need, but I doubt it will satisfy you.

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