Nintendo Wii Fanboy

It took me a while to get used to the controls; RE4 was my first console shooter and coming from a background of PC shooters, movement felt very sluggish but at least in RE4 the monsters move very slowly.

My biggest complaint is that your view moves when you aim unless you hold down Z, but it enables circle strafing with the nunchuck joystick, so I guess that's a good tradeoff.

Regarding the doors, it seems the Wii loads a section of the game world at a time, probably to save RAM; if you listen to your Wii as you walk up to a door and shoot it, you can hear the drive spin up and start loading data. Sometimes it seems to take longer than others. It is annoying so far.

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My favorite part about the game so far is the graphics. The Wii can't handle the best, so the MP3:C team did everything they could to make it look good and they succeeded. My only 2 complaints are the loading times when you open a door (I'm pretty sure loading time is what makes the doors stay shut temporarily) and the inaccuracy of the missiles. It's impossible to hit anything that's moving with one. Other than those, the game is great. My favorite Wii game so far.

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LOVE it, so far.

Quick question......as soon as I put the disk in for the first time and accessed the Disc Channel, it initiated a Wii System Update. Anyone know what it was for?

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Mine did that update too, not sure what it was.

Yeah the A and B buttons were totally backwards, but luckily there's a setting where you can flip it. Much better.

My favorite thing I think was that you could pick "Veteran" as the difficulty level right at the start without having to beat it once through on "Normal" first. Games are getting too easy these days.

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I hate that jumping is mapped to A. it should be mapped to C. I can't tell you the numbe rof times I have morph balled trying to jump.

I love the presence of other hunters, it fleshed out the world considerably. Rundas is awesome.

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Uhm... this is the 3rd Metroid Prime game to use the "room by room" loading system. I'd think we'd be used to it by now. The only time there's a delay is if you enter a room and then quickly try to go to the next room, because the engine seems to load the room you are in and the adjoining rooms when you enter a room. If you try to leave too soon... you have to wait.

BUT.. WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A DISRUPTIVE LOADING SCREEN WITH A STATUS BAR GRADUALLY FILLING UP ON EACH LEVEL? NO? THEN SHUT UP ABOUT IT! THE LOADING SYSTEM IS INCREDIBLE!

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I noticed that about the doors in Prime 1 and 2, that's nothing new, I just got used to it. I like the a and b buttons the way they are, it's easier to flail on the A button with my thumb than it would be with my peter pointer. I have been playing games a long time, and when you need to shoot as much as you have to in Prime 3, the thumb gets tired less.
Favorite part of the game? My ship just got upgraded. :) I REALLY enjoy the power of the PED suit. It's kinda like crack, I use it a lot, and when I'm out, I REALLY REALLY REALLY want it back.

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I absolutely love the game, and have about 8 hours in so far. My ONLY complaint is with the pointer calibration. For some reason it treats the sensor bar location more like the center of the TV, so I find I have to keep pointing too far down. After a while, it hurts my wrist. I wish there was a way like in Zelda to adjust the center position to move it up where it should be. Do others have this issue? I have a 56" TV with the sensor bar the *bottom*. I'd like to hear from others...

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Well I've only played for a few because I'm working on Super Metroid and MP2 first, but I can say that the controls (and the ability to adjust sensitive) are easily the best of any Wii game so far. My only complaint is the aliasing in the beginning, but I've heard that the graphics get better as you go along so maybe that will be fixed up later in the game.

Spotpuff, you can prevent your view from moving when you aim by turning down the sensitivity, but then it makes turning slower. Just like PC games, there's a tradeoff.

sherman, remember that everything is centered around and relative to the sensor bar. I've found the best way to use it is to make sure the sensor bar is level with the remote in your favorite sitting position. For me, I moved my sensor bar up using anything I could find until I was pointing straight at it when my wrist was comfortable. This prevents any pain and makes it a complete breeze to control.

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To m.sherman

I had this same problem - have you gone into the Wii system options to designate where your sensor bar is located (on top of tv or on bottom)?

Onto the game - great! The art style is bar far the best part. When you fly to a different planet, space looks very cool - all different types of celestial detail. Some of the powerful systems fail at adding character/style like that.

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I can't believe everyone complains about the doors. The doors do that to MASK THE LOADING TIME. SO WHAT DO YOU WANT THEM TO DO? ITS CLEVER THAT THEY DID IT THAT WAY. SCREW OFF. (Sorry, but I am sick of hearing complaints about this. There are obviously loading times with these complex settings. Would you rather look at a bar and have it say 'Loading?' Or do you want a cartridge-based console with $80 carts that hold no info? C'mon, guys. No more door complaints unless you are prepared to say you want the game to have loading bars.)

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The delay for the doors is a great solution to mask the load times. It only bothers me once in a while.

Otherwise, they game feels much more involved than previous Metroid games. Starting on the flagship was an awesome way to set up the scale of the story. The voice acting is also well done and character animations are fantastic.

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The game is amazing and beyond my expectations. My only problem is the lengthly loading times at the doors. Sometimes I'll be on the run and need to leave quickly and its in those instances where the loading time gets me. Of course the game is better looking than its predecessors so I do understand and I am used to it from the previous two but sometimes its annoying.

And I agree with the Veteran setting option. I decided to choose that option from the start and man does the game kick my ass. I've had to say Gawd Da**it on a few occasions.

But regardless, the game is a masterpiece that I hope all future Wii games will use as inspiration and to raise the bar on what a Wii game is capable of.

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I'm actually a little disappointed that weapons just stack. I really miss the ability to swap weapons in some way, to make choices about that as needed.

Other than that, I can live with the load times and slow doors.

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I haven't made it that far yet Dan. Can you remove the individual pieces of the weapons like you could in Super Metroid? Taking one beam out of the equation if you want? I haven't heard about that yet.

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Regarding the system update:

I don't have MP3 yet, but nevertheless, I have a theory.

When first put in Super Paper Mario and went to the Disc Channel it performed an update. In the manual (I think it was) it explained that SPM has to perform an update because it includes and upgrade to the Disc Channel that allows for more complex splash screens.

I'm wondering if the same update it included on MP3 for the same reason.

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"It's impossible to hit anything that's moving with one."

If you lock onto an enemy, doesn't it make it a homing missile?

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everythings good so far, but i find myself losing the crosshair a little too much, particularly when locked on, havent dug through the options to see if you can change its color or anything yet....maybe its just that im too used to pc FPS where the center of your screen is ALWAYS where your shots are aimed and it will go away with more time with the game.

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I'm thinking about moving my sensor bar above the tv, so when I sit my feet in front of me I can still play the game and relax on the couch. I'm a few hours in the first planet. The game is great. My largest gripe is actually the controls. I just am not used to them. I keep going into a ball when I want to lock on to a target, or go into hypermode when I want to scan. I really want to put my wii on my roomates 60 inch 1080i tv and put it in widescreen/surround sound to check that out. This is probably the first prime game where I didn't/couldn't resort to a walkthrough to do everything. I normally don't use them until i'm stuck. but now i'm really just using my head as best I can.

I honestly would like Nintendo/Rare to make a multiplayer "Prime Hunters" game, cause I think it would be fun. Though I'd love to see a newer version of "GoldenEye" with wii controls....

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Ozfactor, I'm having the exact same issue.

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It does loading only when opening certain doors, right? If so, perhaps they could have had a little unobstrustive symbol on those doors just to tip people off that there may be a slight delay.

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Why put a symbol on the door? Yes, it can be a little frustrating for some of you. But every Prime game loads the rooms the same, and if you take 2 seconds to think about what it would be like with a "loading........." for 5 seconds every three rooms perhaps you can say, "meh, it isn't so bad."

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the door thing is actually an elegant way to hide load-times

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Yes,....just think on Twilight Princess when you move to Hyrule Field from Kakariko Village for example....the action fades and the sceen goes black.....then the next area appears.

Metroid Prime games have all used the "jammed door" loading technique and it works really well....better than a "fade to black"....yes?

Plus, about the Nintendo/Rare thing mentioned by Gary Combs....I wish Rare still were making Nintendo games...I really do. Shame "Money Bags Microsoft" bought them up.

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Love the game only have about 3 hours of play time in thus far. Controls are smooth although I would have loved to seen a zoom for aiming and a run button Samas runs a little slow for my taste.
As for the doors it is a little annoying (i havent played the MP games) but I figured out if you just hit the doors from a distance they will gen be open by the time I reach them.

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oh, i totally forgot that Microsoft bought Rare. Bleh.

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I am enjoying the game so far. This is my first metroid and love it. I have a question though, has anyone else had their wii reset on them while playing? I am on Bryos (I think thats the name) and I have already had 2 times that my wii just up and reset in the middle of exploring. and since the save areas are kinda far between, I am worried about getting through this area.

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So, yeah, I have the sensor bar position set right in the Wii settings, and it works perfectly in the Wii menu and Wii sports... It just seems as though in MP3 it doesn't use the setting that I set with the sensor bar at the bottom.. . instead, it's like it assumes the sensor bar is in the *middle* of the TV... so therefore I have to point down more to compensate. I can't move my sensor bar to the top of the TV because I have a glass coffee table, and it'll actually pick up the reflection in the table and mess up the positioning... Oh well. I was just hoping for an adjustment like I think Zelda has so move the "center" up or down a bit.

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my only complaint besides the graphics not being as good as they should be (yes, they're nice and all, but honestly, they're underwhelming), is that even in the advanced setting for the pointer, it still takes a bit to turn around. it may just be me, but I don't know a way around it.

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Has nobody noticed that the music gets choppy when transitioning to the map screen? I'm in Bryyo now and it happens every time.

Otherwise, the game exceeds my expectations in every way.

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Since someone mentioned RE4 controls, I'm going to go ahead and link to this RE5 on Wii petition. I've been wanting to avoid going off-topic but this is pretty close, and maybe this deserves a post of its own.

Allegedly Capcom has admitted that they listen to fans, especially when they can combine 10,000 or more. I'm sure some dummies have double-signed this but it's almost at 5,000 already.

http://www.petitiononline.com/WiiRes5/petition.html

As for Metroid, I love that so much attention and energy went into it, and look forward to playing when I can find it cheaper.

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I believe that the system update had something to do with Home menu transition, it seems to be smooth as milk for all applications, and is now see-through on VC games as well as Disc titles (i tried it with Super Metroid, and previously, it would just show grey lines on black at the home menu)

As it is, i like pretty much everything about this game. My chief gripes are the fact that you lose lock-on connection every time you get hit now, and the whole switching-visors thing

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***SPOILER ALERT***






My absolute favorite part in the entire game is when you go to drop the nuke on Elysia's leviathan.

...

Crap, I gotta go. But w/e, point made.




***END SPOILER***

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LOVE: shooting those little tiny repair drones on the ground. It reminds me of the Mouse Droids in Star Wars and their tiny little death noises are hilarious!

HATE: When I have to shoot things while i'm hanging on that mag rail system, and I can't see my green reticule against the backround clouds.. And then it leads to much cursing when I fall (though you barely lose any health from it so it's not too bad)

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I have to say that the scene where you have to kill the enemies before they flip the switches was -infuriating- and I'll be honest, sometimes I don't like the load times. Not the loading -mechanism- mind you, I like the clever way that it's hidden behind those doors, but I've seen times where I had to wait about 30 seconds for a door to open, which is particularly maddening if I'm simply trying to get through to a save room because I'm low on health.

Also, some way to still use the Hypermode when low on health would be useful, it's not a big deal on normal but on Veteran it's infuriating to suddenly be forced to admit defeat against a boss simply because I don't have enough health left to actually damage him. I mean, I know at that point there's very little chance that I could win anyway (usually) but I absolutely loathe what seems to be essentially a pre-game over when I see that "Not enough energy to enter hypermode" message on a boss.

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