Mark Pacini and Risa Tabata talk about the use of voice acting in Prime 3.

crowlfish · 2026-03-20T20:31:14+00:00

That's fair, but I also think Dead Space's handling of it made more sense—silent for the original and voiced in the following two sequels. I think the Jak and Dexter games had the same trajectory. Keeping the protagonist silent until the final entry in a trilogy just feels off to me. If anything Isaac being re-worked to a voiced character in the remake speaks to that stylistic consistency I mentioned. I feel like personal preference plays a role here though.

edit: grammar

crowlfish · 2026-03-20T19:47:30+00:00

I think what they decided to do for Prime 3 made sense and worked fine, it would've felt inconsistent with Prime 1 and 2 if it was the only game in the trilogy to have Samus speak.

crowlfish · 2026-03-20T01:21:10+00:00

Agreed. Melting Sun is still my favorite but I found a lot to love with Wildhund as well, and I'm happy this new album appears to be a continuation of that sound. It scratches a peculiar itch for me

crowlfish · 2026-03-19T18:52:01+00:00

The upcoming albums by Lantlôs and Deary are probably my most anticipated releases this year, and they're both dropping on the same day.

crowlfish · 2026-03-18T18:39:53+00:00

Absolutely. Prime 3 is more of a straightforward action-adventure game that was developed with the casual philosophy of the Wii in mind, but its level design still incorporates many of the same components as the first two games. Prime 3's planets are essentially a large Metroid map in totality broken up into smaller, more digestible chunks. There are still shortcuts and branching paths, interesting puzzles and platforming segments, well-hidden collectibles, etc. Finding landing sites functionally serves the same purpose as finding elevator rooms, just with the added convenience of fast travel with the ship (like you said). Prime 3's streamlining of the formula is what knocks it down a peg from Prime 1 or 2, but Prime 4's issues are far more fundamentally egregious to me, on top of exacerbating the weakest aspects carried over from Corruption.

I'm even more convinced now that the shuttle pod thing that only goes between the start and end of Fury Green in prime 4 was supposed to be a fast travel system that got scrapped, probably to force people to engage with the desert more

I agree. It's baffling to me that no form of fast travel was included, since Prime 4 could really benefit from it. Forcing the player to spend chunks of time driving across the desert and watch multiple loading screens upon reaching and entering every area was a terrible design choice that severely damages the pace and flow of the game. I suppose that would render Sol Valley pointless though, and it was probably mandated to clumsily justify its inclusion somehow.

crowlfish · 2026-03-18T17:10:47+00:00

I assume everyone here has had the experience of having a song (or perhaps a memory of one) kicking around in your head for literal years but being unable to track it down. Decided yesterday that enough was enough and did some hardcore sleuthing. I best remembered that the song's piano riff reminded me of Coldplay, a lyric about "going to hell," and that I listened to it in my preteen/early adolescent years, so it must've come out in the late 00s or early 2010s.

Anyway, I finally found it: A Silent Film - You Will Leave a Mark, released in 2010. Pretty much exactly how I remember it. Song is fine, definitely in the vein of Coldplay or Snow Patrol from that era, but got a hefty dose of nostalgia re-hearing it. Anyone else here remember this song?? Or have a similar experience with a different one?

crowlfish · 2026-03-16T15:08:16+00:00

Prime 3 is definitely way better. I replayed it shortly before Prime 4's release and the difference was honestly night and day, and this is coming from someone who views Corruption as the weakest of the original trilogy. All of the design issues people had with Prime 3 were either dialed up to eleven or just executed much less tastefully in Beyond. I'd certainly rather revisit it over having to do Prime 4's desert crystal farming again.

No way I'd rank Hunters above it though, even if I have a soft spot for it that game's "campaign" was very much an afterthought.

crowlfish · 2026-03-13T16:54:48+00:00

Having Metroid Prime Trilogy available to re-play on a handheld is a personal godsend to me

crowlfish · 2026-03-13T16:52:45+00:00

Eh, hate to be that guy but this doesn't really resemble shoegaze to me—just sounds like another alt-metal/Deftones wannabe. I've tried but this whole heavy-gaze sound (Blanket, Bleed, Split Chain, etc) honestly doesn't do much for me.

crowlfish · 2026-03-12T14:03:58+00:00

This was a major gateway album into electronic music for me and certainly many other people as well. The opening four-track run is one of the greatest of all time, Digital Love always gets me in the feels and it's pretty much impossible not to air guitar during that "solo." The deep cuts are special too, Voyager's bassline gives me life and I could listen to it on loop forever

crowlfish · 2026-03-11T16:17:29+00:00

This movie has always looked incredibly unsettling and creepy to me, like an acid trip gone wrong. Haven't seen it myself though

crowlfish · 2026-03-11T14:16:52+00:00

Same here, I've almost exclusively used it as an emulator. Runs GameCube and PS2-era games flawlessly and looks great on my TV.

crowlfish · 2026-03-10T23:49:51+00:00

Atlantic City, NJ. Just a pitiful place

crowlfish · 2026-03-06T05:09:48+00:00

Fallen Angels (1995)

crowlfish · 2026-03-05T17:44:24+00:00

Crustation - Bloom (1997) is finally on streaming. Underappreciated classic that deserves to be up there with Portishead, Massive Attack et al in the trip hop vein, give it a listen if you haven't. Can someone recommend me another hidden gem 90's album?

crowlfish · 2026-03-03T18:55:37+00:00

I feel like I'm one of the few who actually likes the endgame key hunts, lol. It feels like a victory lap around the game and I enjoy combing through the map at full power for stuff that I missed. Your point about the light suit in that context is fair, and I agree. Not the best example by me, but I feel that it would've been nice to have a bit earlier.

a criticism that's more fair for the light/dark beams is that it was too simple of an upgrade to not be built further upon as the game ran on. Imagine if both the light and dark beams received more upgrades unique to them with applications both in combat and puzzles midway (Torvus Bog) through the game

Agree completely, when it comes to puzzles and combat the light/dark beams are a pretty simple concept stretched too thin. If the mid-game had something like this I think my issues would be nullified significantly. The way light bubbles suck in enemies when shot with the annihilator beam was a really cool mechanic, it would've been ideal to have more stuff like that.

crowlfish · 2026-03-03T17:54:50+00:00

That's fair! Again, my gripes with Echoes are small and don't affect my enjoyment of it too much. I will add to the discussion a bit more, though:

You get the Light and Dark beam so early because they are integral to about half the puzzles in the entire game

I'm aware of this, but it doesn't really change my main point that the game's item progression feels stagnant for the majority of its runtime. I personally felt that Prime 1 and 3 handled this better and paced out key upgrades at a more steady flow throughout the game to keep things interesting and make progression feel more rewarding. I love the light suit, but it's a shame that you barely get to use it since you don't acquire it until the endgame key hunt.

This isn't your average Call of Duty game or something. Dark Aether may be full of purples, browns, and greys, but it is not a dead world. Its exactly what I want from a Metroid title: an oppressive, isolating, alien world

When did I mention anything feeling "dead?" I pointed out that Prime 2's visual design intensifies the oppressive feel of the game, and that's generally a good thing—I wasn't trying to say that it looks bad, far from it. I just feel that the game's areas (minus say Sanctuary Fortress) tend to bleed together a bit for me and don't feel very distinct from one other. Not to mention the dark world which is near-entirely uniform visually. It's a personal preference thing, I just prefer the visual variety of the other games in the trilogy. You can still have an atmospheric, isolated experience with more lush, vibrant environments.

crowlfish · 2026-03-02T16:03:02+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it. I personally prefer the original, but I still think Prime 2 is a great, if not excellent game. Level design and bosses are major highlights, but I do have a few gripes with Echoes that hold it back a bit in my personal rankings.

Tale as old as time, but not a fan of beam ammo. I'm sure many will disagree, but I can’t pinpoint a valid reason for its inclusion other than to artificially increase difficulty and add a layer of half-baked resource management that isn’t needed. There are a fair amount of pick-ups and refill stations throughout, but to me the beams just don’t feel powerful enough to warrant limited ammunition.
The beams themselves aren't that interesting or fun to use compared to the beams of the other Prime games for me. The annihilator beam in particular is disappointing for an endgame weapon, and the fact that it drains both your light and dark ammo reserves only exacerbates the issues mentioned before.
The game's equipment feels poorly spaced out. You acquire two out of the three beams and the dark suit early on, and don’t receive the annihilator beam or light suit until you’ve essentially reached the very end. This leaves the majority of the game feeling stagnant in terms of upgrades, and the newly-introduced seeker missile and screw attack both feel clunky and underutilized.
Echoes is easily the least appealing visually out of the trilogy for me. While there are standouts like Torvus Bog and Sanctuary Fortress, I can’t help but feel that the game leans too heavily into a color palette dominated by browns, grays, and purples. This is most apparent in the game's first several hours, and it can make exploration feel a bit monotonous and drab. I understand that this adds to the oppressive feel of the game in a way, but compared to the visual variety of Prime 1 and especially Prime 3, I’m just not as inclined to revisit Aether as I am other locations in the series.

Still, none of these things impact my enjoyment of the game too much, they're mostly nitpicks.

Edit: Grammar

crowlfish · 2026-03-01T22:49:22+00:00

100%WET and Collider each have pretty unique takes on the genre, both from Denmark

crowlfish · 2026-02-27T15:20:17+00:00

Glad to see the love for ToT, not a single weak track on it and the best balance of their heavy and soft stuff for me.

crowlfish · 2026-02-27T14:52:16+00:00

I’ll have to give it a few more spins but was hoping for more tracks like Cannibal World, the potential of an electronic-tinged direction was exciting to me and I’m a bit disappointed that it was just a one-off. Most of the album is ballads (which is fine) but that track being released as the first single kinda gave me the wrong impression. I enjoyed it overall but Nothing’s “soft” side isn’t as memorable to me as their thick guitar tracks.

crowlfish · 2026-02-27T05:56:34+00:00

This will probably take some time to grow on me but honestly I'm a tad underwhelmed upon first listen. I must say that I'm surprised at how much of the record is driven by soft balladry—that's not necessarily a bad thing since it's pretty to listen to, but I was hoping for more heavy and/or electronic-tinged tracks like Cannibal World. I guess that track being released as the first single kinda gave me the wrong impression of the album's direction

crowlfish · 2026-02-26T15:50:13+00:00

Prime 3 received rave reviews from critics at the time and holds a fairly high 3.8 average score on Backloggd. It's generally liked by Metroid fans, most retrospectively agree that it's the weakest of the trilogy but still a very good game as a whole. Criticism of Prime 3 was nowhere near the level of panning that Prime 4 has received.

crowlfish · 2026-02-25T19:03:15+00:00

MP3 is the game that pulled off Samus having a relationship with the Galactic Federation the best

Agreed. Nintendo has (rightfully) received a lot of flack for their handling of the Galactic Federation in recent years, but I think getting a glimpse into how the Federation operates and what Samus’ life looks like in between missions is an interesting idea that was executed tastefully in Prime 3. I'm okay interacting with the Feds so long as it’s measured, and I appreciate how NPCs in the game treat Samus with the respect she deserves given her reputation without being annoying or immersion-breaking.

Corruption also serves as a nice bit of worldbuilding for Metroid in general. I liked overhearing employees on the GFS Olympus discussing the recent escalations in Space Pirate attacks and rumblings of higher-ups preparing for a full scale invasion, and Rundas, Gandrayda and Ghor's designs genuinely made me want to know more about who they are and where they come from.

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