Metroid has a long history. It started way back when with the original metroid games many years ago on the NES, and continued to be one of the greatest video game series all through video gaming history. When Metroid Prime came out on the Gamecube it was an instant hit and was lauded with praise for its style and artwork, as well as its great lock-on feature.

The years have gone by and we are now at Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Does Corruption live up to the high standards of the rest in the Metroid series, or does it fall short?

The first thing you will notice when turning on the game is its nice menu. The menu continues along a similar style as the previous Metroid Prime games. It is a bit eerie, and you immediately feel immersed in a Metroid Prime experience.

Moving on from the menu, you are introduced with beautiful and engaging cinematics. It is indeed continuing the Echoes storyline (Metroid Prime 2), but you can get the jist of the story even without having played the previous games, although it won't click quite as well. Coming out of the cinematics, you are immediately introduced with the incredible wii control. Get ready to push, pull, turn, and pump levers in this game, as well as throw forth your grapple beam among other things. Quite incredibly, Retro Studious (the developer) was able to pull off these stunts in a way that was non-obtrusive and added to the gaming experience rather than detracted from it.

Soon, however, the real game begins. You board a friendly station and, if you played the previous games, you smile as Samus - already set with her energy beam - gets back to her kick-ass self.

From then on you enjoy around twenty hours blasting enemies, solving puzzles, fighting bosses, and dodging intense firepower. Furthermore, you will be playing on more than 5 different planets/ships, each with their own unique and incredible look. Furthermore, within those planets are often different areas, that look completely different. The great story develops well throughout all the different areas and planets. Beautifully rendered cinematics are plenty but not too often to be annoying, and loading times are small and usually disguised in a short cinematic.

Graphics outside of the cinematics are also impressive. Great lighting, and a steady 60 frames per second framerate is quite the feat, especially when there can be a lot of action streaking across the screen. Although it isn't a huge feat relative to the Xbox 360 and PS3's graphics, it has some of the most impressive graphics to date for the Wii - and it isn't far behind many of the other next-gen graphics.

Furthermore, you get an excellent music score which many games don't have. The sound effects were also spot-on and helped immerse you in the game.

The gameplay is what you're really coming for, though. It is constantly being 'upgraded' as Samus herself finds upgrades to boost her weapons or give her a completely new ability or outfit. And you'll need these upgrades. Every puzzle is a little different, every enemy forces you to adjust your strategy. Oh and have no fear - you will NOT be backtracking for every other objective. You will go back to places you have already visited often enough, but due to an improved transportation system it isn't nearly as hindering.

Next comes the completely new phazon gameplay. An integral part of the storyline, Samus Aran soon finds herself with Phazon coursing through her body, slowly corrupting her. You will find yourself constantly wanting to inject yourself with some phazon and start blasting away, but you must be cautious - if you use it too much you will become corrupted, and even when you don't use it to excess you will still lose many-an energy tank by using the phazon.

What really stands out in this game, however, are the controls. As mentioned earlier, you will be using some wii motions from time to time. But throughout the game you will be controlling your cursor - your aim - with the wiimote. Just point it, aim, and fire away. It feels like freedom. You even get the option to go without the lock-on, which enhances the immersive experience even further. It might take a bit getting used to this way, but I recommend it as you will soon be shooting with exact precision that you just can't get any other way. Furthermore, none of the wii controls in my experience had problems. The only one that gave me trouble a couple times was the grapple hook, but it just took some getting used to.

Perhaps the only area in which the game truly falls short is multiplayer. There is no multiplayer available, local or online, which is a very strange move by Retro especially considering they had local multiplayer in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

But still, it is obvious that the main Metroid Prime experience lies in the single player, and in that it delivers in full. Around twenty hours to beat the game fully on one mode, and then again when beating it on Hyper Mode as well as lots of unlockable content such as artwork and music makes this experience well worth your money.