IGN Preview
Don't say Nintendo didn't do anything for you: on August 24th, the publisher will release Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Wii. Metroid Prime Trilogy, releasing almost to the day of Metroid Prime 3 Corruption's two year anniversary, is a jammed to the brim package that combines all of Retro's first-person adventure games for the GameCube and Wii, on a single disc. And the two GameCube games – Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 Echoes -- have been reworked with full widescreen, 480p support and feature the same awesome Wii Remote/Nunchuk control that made Metroid Prime 3 Corruption so tight.
This is a far superior strategy than what Nintendo is doing in Japan with the Metroid Prime games, since in that territory Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 have been released separately with the "New Play Control" branding. North American gamers get all three for $49.99, an absolute bargain when you consider 2006's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is still one of the top titles on the Wii and you're getting three great games for the price of a standard Wii release.
This is a far superior strategy than what Nintendo is doing in Japan with the Metroid Prime games, since in that territory Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 have been released separately with the "New Play Control" branding. North American gamers get all three for $49.99, an absolute bargain when you consider 2006's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is still one of the top titles on the Wii and you're getting three great games for the price of a standard Wii release.
The front end has been designed with a bit of visual flair that matches the Metroid theme. As you work your way through the menus you're digging through a mechanical tube, and when you select the game to load it's obvious that you're inside Samus' cannon…and the camera pulls out to reveal Samus in the specific form/model of the game you'll be playing. When you select the Metroid Prime 2 Echoes Multiplayer mode from this new front end, the camera pulls out to reveal four Samus characters before it jumps into the action.
Along with the new control and display options, Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 Echoes has also been given the same medal system that's already in Metroid Prime 3 Corruption. As you complete missions you'll be given medals specific to the task completed – each medal has a specific color, and you spend these tokens in the new front-end's option menu for unlockables. Each unlockable has a specific value: you can buy concept art, music, or special options like a screen grabbing utility so you can save screenshots to the internal storage and send them to friends. Some of the more coveted unlockables are far more expensive: we saw a few items that required three red, one blue, three yellow, two green, one orange, and two purple medals. You can also score medals by linking friends over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and earn friend vouchers.