Metroid Prime: Hunters for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

I think that this game is really fun to play among your friends but on wifi sometimes it gets way too hard. they should add a feature where if you have a nintendo account it should rate you on your gameplay by linking your nintendo ds wifi Id and then you can play by the skill lever you are at. Anyways getting back to the game the microphone feature is cool when you can talk back and forth between players before and after games but they shoule make a headseat for ds and also it should be able to use during gameplay too. Overall the game is fun on wifi too but make sure you find people who have lost sometimes. that way you can have more fun instead of getting beat all of the time. Oh and the graphics are okay for a handheld game but what nintendo ds is missing is a anlog stick like on the psp. first person shooters would be way more fun if it had an anolog stick.

The concept and gameplay of the game are very good, as you can see by reading anyone else's review. However, the controls are *horrible*. Sure they're intuitive and all that, but they're also cramp-inducing.

Most of the DS games I've played that make heavy use of the stylus do not require you to use your left hand to press buttons or directions very much, so that hand is basically there to hold the DS while you play with the stylus. On the other hand, games that involve a lot of button pressing usually do so with both hands, so the DS is supported by both hands. In the case of Metroid Prime Hunters, you're expected to support the DS with your left hand while also trying to move your character, and you have to use the stylus in your other hand to attempt to aim at the enemies. For someone with hints of carpal tunnel, this is not a pleasurable experience.

That brings me to my other problem with the controls. Part of what made the Metroid Prime games on the Gamecube work well was the lock-on feature. You could easily strafe around enemies and concentrate on dodging their attacks, just like playing any FPS game on the PC with a keyboard and mouse. For some reason, they thought it was a good idea to replace the lock-on feature with the stylus. That was a very bad decision in my opinion. I ended up spending half my time just trying to keep enemies on the screen, let alone in my line of fire.

What about the other control mode, then? The one where the A/B/X/Y buttons are used in place of the stylus? Aside from the sheer awkwardness of that mode, there is still the problem of having to use the touch screen to select weapons, change forms, and use the scan visor. There are no buttons for these actions.

It hurts me to write this review because I really do love the Metroid series. Here's hoping for another portable side-scroller Metroid in the future.

Graphics/Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Controls: 3/10
Overall: 6/10