Recently saw this for sale at £5 never played a Metroid game before, do I need to play through the previous primes to fully enjoy this one?

I'm sure it's fine, story's not a huge part of the prime games really anyway. If you can find it you should get the Wii trilogy.

@Hizang said:

I'm sure it's fine, story's not a huge part of the prime games really anyway. If you can find it you should get the Wii trilogy.

Definitely try to get the Trilogy. It is worth it.

Story has never really been a major focus of Metroid games (aside from Other M), so you should be fine there, but the other two Metroid Prime games (especially the first one) are really good, and should be played, whether via the Trilogy disc (which I've heard is very hard to find these days) or on the GameCube.

@Hizang: I'm interested in the trilogy but it seems to be pretty expensive wherever I look. Figured the £5 is an ok investment if I like it I'll pick up the trilogy.

you don't need to play 1 and 2 but if i where you i'd try and find copies of them, they are both great as well

Sure I guess? There are some things that are carried over storywise between the Prime games, including a lot of callbacks to previous games in the scans (you scan stuff to get more information and backstory), but shouldn't be too much of a problem. Although the 1st and 2nd prime games are better games, I think. 3 is a stripped down version of the Prime experience.

No, I don't think it is. I mean, the story isn't huge in the Metroid Prime games, but I think it'd be a huge mistake to play it first. Metroid Prime 3 is a great game, but it's neither a great Prime game to start on, nor the greatest Metroid Prime game. The reason it'd be a mistake is because you need to (or should very much so) experience the first two first, then this, because if you play the third, and don't like it for certain reason, those reasons may not be present in the first or the second and may hinder your opinion of Metroid Prime altogether. I won't lie to you though, as much as I loved Metroid Prime, and I really mean love (love, love!), I didn't get all the way through the second.

I have all the Metroid Prime games including the Wii trilogy, so I should get through it on the Wii, but I just never have unfortunately. Ironically, it's the only Prime game my best friend got through, or at least believes he got through, but I had witnessed him get through the first as well. I think you should think about getting Trilogy, 'cause the first two (especially the first) should not be missed. My only problem with the third was that it became repetitive from a boss stand-point. Not only do you fight a few of the same bosses more than once, the areas you fight them in are the same or are very similar each time. And the reason I didn't get through the second completely was because I didn't really care much for the Dark Aether world, but it wasn't bad.

I'm of the mind that the Prime trilogy is probably the best series of games around (notwithstanding that the original Prime is near absolute-perfection), so I'd insist on you playing the others first, if only to experience them.

The third is still a fantastic game, it just feels a little ropey in places.

I think 3 is significantly better than 2.

For my money the first one is still the best, partially because of some gameplay stuff, and partially because it has this fantastic sense of isolation that isn't present in the others.

So you CAN start with 3, but you're better off with 1.

Noticed i could get Super Metroid for the same price on the wiishop. Is that the best starting place? Just looking to get into this series in general. And Zelda have no idea where to start there either...

@Wampa1:

You could. There is an underlying story running through all three games but the fun from these games don't come from the story. But I would look to buy the trilogy collection on the Wii so that you can play all three with the same control scheme and some cool enhancements.