How did people like Prime when it came out?

Also, let me give you some advice, from personal experience. If you make a thread with a strong opinion as the premise, DO NOT start quoting everyone who disagrees with you and lambasting them for why they're wrong. Never come out swinging, it always ends with people writing you off as an asshole.

Prime dont compare to Super but I thought it was a hell of a game....

...Better than Wind Waker. :S

So basically, because it doesn't control like Halo, it's unplayable.

So basically, because it doesn't control like Halo, it's unplayable.

Yeah, but Half-Life on PS2 controlled pretty badly as well. You pretty much had to manually go and re-map everything. It also used a lock-on, from what I remember, but there it was used as a crutch for a game that was once built around a traditional FPS control scheme.

@wgoldie: I know this is the second time I've quoted you, but I do need to say that the shooting is built around lock-ons. I think I said this in my overzealous post earlier, but you'll see why they picked a lock on system if you keep playing. I can understand getting used to it, but this sounded like a knee-jerk reaction to the first time you started moving.

Dude Wind Waker was awesome, now screw!

It was almost instantly beloved. People were nervous at first because it wasn't 2d, but it was unbelievably awesome. Still is.

I played it for the first time recently as a part of the Metroid Prime Trilogy and I thought it was pretty good. I've never been good at handling being lost for long in a video game so I used a FAQ a few times.

@greggd: I guess some of my comments could be interpreted as anger... but disagreement =/= lambasting and I don't really know why quoting people is bad, you can't post more than once or twice in a row and I was just responding to people. However, how is my thread title a strong opinion? It's literally an unbiased question. How did people like it when it came out, as in, how much did people like it. What do you mean by that being a strong opinion?

Alright, you're right I construed your opening line with the title, that was mistake. But you have to admit that calling a game like this "unplayable" is a hefty claim.

Game is unbelievable. Just get used to the controls, takes a hour or two, totally worth it.

I honestly don't remember having any issues with the controls when this game first came out. They aren't traditional console FPS controls as we know them now, but they weren't clunky, either. In fact, I remember it being one of the first games that made platforming in a first-person perspective really easy -- like, second nature easy; you didn't even have to think about it after a while. Since the gameplay is designed from the ground up with the lock-on mechanics in mind, combat and puzzle-solving are never really an issue, because it never asks you to do something that would require free aiming. If you took something like Halo and tried to shoehorn lock-on controls without freelook aiming into it, yeah, that would be a disaster, but it isn't the case here.

Best game ever made. Great art direction and level design, fucking incredible music, tight game play and fun boss fights (although MP2 did that even better), an interesting story presented in an interesting way, cool UI, good length and pacing...

The game only has one objective flaw, and its not the controls. They might take a little getting used to, but they fit the game perfectly.

@wgoldie: Killer7 had awful controls

The controls were well-turned, responsive, and perfectly suited for the gameplay. If you think the game is "unplayable" it's because you're playing it wrong.

The c-stick on the gamecube controller is junk. It's more of a toggle and is used later on to switch weapons/visors (don't remember which right now) and the d-pad switches the other. The lock-on mechanic was created to deal with the lack of a good second analogue. If you play it for a bit and are open to it you'll be fine. But if you're turned off of it right away that's fine too. But the game got a 97% on Metacritic by reviewers back in the day, was GOTY for many outlets, and there are still people who love it.

So claiming that it is unplayable for you is fine. Claiming it's unplayable full stop isn't.

I prefer Prime as well because it was my first Metroid game. But really it is kind of just Super Metroid in a new-ish environment in 3D. Prime wouldn't exist without Super. But I'll go Prime every time. COME AT ME Y'ALL!

@artisanbreads said:

Not the best example, friend. The story, unique among game elements, can make or break a game, regardless of the quality of the rest of the package. Look at Deadly Premonition, the story is the only good thing it's got going for it, but it's so good that it makes up for how crappy the actual game is.

It really, really depends on the specific game in question, though. RAGE, for example, had a terrible, poorly-explained story, but that story also had almost no impact on the game, so while it detracts from the experience, it doesn't lower the quality much. On the other hand, Mafia II, to use another example, was all about the story, putting more focus on getting you to care about the characters and the world they lived in than it did on making the shooting or driving enjoyable, so when it ended in a depressing, unsatisfying way, it all but nullified the pleasure of having completed the game, and lowered the quality of the overall experience.

There are games whose pure gameplay mechanics are excellently done, but whose positive qualities are entirely countered by a weak, unsatisfying, poorly thought-out, or just plain bad story, and that's not hyperbole.

People just thought it was one of the best games of all time. Which it is.

Now Halo that is an unplayable game because of its controls. Seriously, I played it for the first time way after its release on 360 and I could not get the hang of it. Though I will totally accept that it is me and not the game.

I thought people liked it? But this was back in the day when the concept of reading forums were alien to me, so I wouldn't know. I do remember Sessler giving it a good review on X-Play though.

I honestly felt I was the biggest cynic and snob before coming into this game, because I was into Unreal Tournement and Quake 3, prefered that twitch based reaction time of keyboard and mouse. And Metroid Prime worked, because the game isn't so much about precise controls, it's about being space detective and lock on targeting as I circle strafed everything. And actually I'm replaying it AGAIN, both Gamecube gamepad and Wii MP3 and it's still is creative control scheme.

I found and still find the one stick control scheme to be highly intuitive. Retro Studios recognized that the second stick on the gamecube was tiny and uncomfortable to use, so instead of insisting on what would have been a standardized yet uncomfortable control scheme they baked up their own. Your personal failings at being able to adapt to new types of gameplay do not render a game "unplayable", and besides, if the controls bother you that much there is always the Wii version included in the Metroid Prime Trilogy which features a more dual analog-like experience with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck.

Regardless of any of this, just because a lot of other people really enjoy a game doesn't automatically mean you have to. It's called personal taste and it will vary from person to person. A lot of people seem to lose their minds over Final Fantasy VII, while I didn't like it at all. Does that make their opinion "wrong"? Of course not. They really enjoy the game and that's that. To this day Metroid Prime is easily my favourite game on any platform because of its pacing, atmosphere, aesthetic, and it's brilliant use of a "show-don't-tell" story, but if you don't like it that's on you and there's really nothing anyone can say to change that.

Loved the game way back when. Just get over yourself.

Bummer that you were unable to enjoy it. I didn't play it until it was (oi!) past it's prime... I really did think it was pretty fun, but I can understand not loving the controls. If you are willing to give it some time it pays off, but it seems you are pretty low on it. Really don't know why I would even try to convince otherwise? But alas I'm drunk.

The game was fine, the lock on controls took abit getting used to but it was one of the most unique Gamecube games out there. Keep in mind this wasn't an FPS, it was a Metroid game first and foremost. Retro Studios focused more on nailing the Metroid atmosphere rather than creating a Halo knock off.

But Riley was a goddamn cunt. A huge cunty cunt who drove a cunty car and lived in a cunty cottage.

And why the hell would you not put a save checkpoint before the last boss? Seriously, what kind of dick move was that?

Other than that, Metroid Prime was a pretty damn awesome game.

I had a lot of trouble getting used to the controls, also. It really kept me from being able to enjoy the game for the longest time, as the dual stick control scheme in FPSes had been a convention for two years already by the time Metroid Prime came out (also note that I didn't play it till a couple years after its release). I'm not exactly excusing this (I think) mistake in the way the game handles, but it also prevents it from becoming more of an FPS than it wants to be, which is commendable. Once this hurdle was cleared I gained a greater appreciation of the game, but I still never found the will to finish it. But that's not necessarily a strike against the game, as I'm notoriously awful at finishing games, even ones I really like (last one I finished was Sleeping Dogs a few months ago, which I didn't even really care for, while I have a backlog of unfinished games I really dig—I can't figure it out either).

Going back to it years later, it's hard to play. I really dislike its desire to have you scan everything, and I'm a bit too anal retentive to ignore all that nonsense and let it be. I find that to really ruin some of the pacing. I should get back to the game one of these days, but oh well.

I found this game was difficult to get into at first, but once I was in, I was ALL in and would sit there for hours at a time, when normally I don't play anything for more than around an hour or two before taking a break.

I remeber back when the games was a year or two old I picked it up and was instantly frustrated on how there was only lock on targeting and no movement with the C-Stick. I got so sick of it that I took it back to gamestop and got someting else.

Seeing as that was many years ago I would like to go back and try it again now that I'm much more patient and more open to non-traditional means of game playing.