It definitely has its problems, almost entirely due to the control scheme. Unsurprising for the Wiimote.

The auto-lock on makes most battles way, way too easy. You just run around, pulling the trigger, and things die. That's pretty much half the combat in the game, and it gets boring fast.

The other half of the combat is gimmicky and annoying. To use missiles, you need to be in first person mode, which not only severely cuts your vision (as turning while in first person mode is rather annoyingly slow), but also prevents you from moving. And, yeah, that just gets frustrating.

Trying to destroy a hive churning out bugs constantly with missiles while simultaneously trying to evade and destroy the bugs necessitates constant POV changes, and gets frustrating when you can't get enough time to lock on (which is required for a missile shot), or a bug steps in front of your missile.

Then there are the flashy moves. Jump on top of an enemy, and shoot a charge shot into its head for an insta-kill, or run up to a downed enemy with your charged shot for a similar deathblow. Unfortunately, the platforming is rather annoying for jumping on enemies, especially when they are all moving around. But, more than that, these just feel unnecessary. They're tacked on just to prevent you from being bored with the constant power beam spam (not that it prevents that), but are too annoying to activate, and nearly impossible to do without.

And, my final gripe, enemies don't drop health or missiles anymore. And this is just a WTF moment. With controls as unwieldly and gimmicky as this, you really, really need a constant supply of health. You have basically unlimited missiles, which is nice, but when an enemy can take out 30 energy in one hit, and you can't replenish except at a save station, you do not have kind feelings towards this game.


This game felt a little out of place to me. It doesn't feel like Metroid, which is a big disappointment after all the games that came before it. It lacks the simple elegance that Metroid's combat has always had in exchange for gimmicks and flashiness.