Corruption is the "Prime" example of the Wii's true aim.
The Wii gets a lot of flak, and I mean a lot of flak for its control setup. Often called "gimmicky", "pointless", or "childish", it is the bane of all that the traditional gamer stands for, or at least that's what some select haters would lead one to believe. The points made on why the control setup doesn't work were completely shattered with Metroid Prime 3. While the game is fundamentally very similar to the prior two games, it represents better than any other game on the market what the Wii's goal is: changing the way you play the game.
In Corruption, you play as Samus, as you do with all Metroid games. You have a Chozo suit and a hand cannon that can shoot lasers and missiles. You also have a selection of visors and a ship, both of which you can use to interact with your environment. The goal of the game is to destroy the Phazon seeds (which can "corrupt" the planets they inhabit) and confront the Space Pirates. This time around, because you were also corrupted with the Phazon, you can go into a heightened power state, called "hypermode". This is used to make penetrating alien skulls with lasers as well as traversing your environment easier. Other than that, all prior rules apply: get powerups, explore, find stuff, fight bosses, etc.
What the game throws at you is similar to the prior games in the series, and for that, many have condemned this title as a "rehash OMG". However, as I said before, Prime 3 truly gives the Wii's new control opportunity concept wings. The FPS control system on this game was unparalleled in the console market upon release, and really gave the game its own flavor and own life. Shooting stuff is satisfying and accurate, auto-lock on is intuitive, and everything flows. The minimalist approach to motion controls also adds to the game rather than detract. Motions are not used as a major control in combat, but are placed in more subtle spots, such as pulling levers or gathering energy tanks. You do use the nunchuk for your grapple beam, but this isn't used incredibly often. When it does need to be used, it works.
Other than the controls, both the boss fights and graphics need to be addressed. The boss fights in this game are all really creative and genuinely challenging on the higher difficulties in a mostly non-cheap way. All the bosses reflect their environment and have creative ways of being defeated. This game actually somewhat reinstilled my faith in the art of the boss-fight. So few games have them nowadays that when a game does them as well as Prime 3, everyone should take notice. Also, the graphics in this game are mind blowing. Technically, they're very impressive for the Wii, but not for the other consoles. It's the art direction that really sends this thing to the level that it sits. There are moments visually in this game where I just have to stop and watch, mesmerized by how beautiful the scene truly is. This game stands as a pillar, just as Okami did before it, of how important using the television as a canvas can be in making a visually breathtaking piece of software.More developers should take a hint from the art direction at Retro (or former art direction at Retro). They might be the best in the business.
Put all this stuff together, and you'll get beautiful, well laid-out environments that are easily navigatable, ending with a clever boss fight that will really test your mettle. What do we call that? We call that classic form, and this game has it in strides. It mixes the old ways of Metroid with the new ways of Wii to make a game that is completely recommendable in every way. You should play it. In fact, everyone should play it. Maybe if they did, people wouldn't complain about Nintendo's little white box anymore.
