In an interview conducted by IGN with Retro Studios, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has now officially been set as a launch title for Wii, set to come out in the fourth quarter of this year.
The third installment of the Metroid Prime trilogy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption utilizes the Wii's free-hand unit in tandem with first-person game play to deliver an immersive gaming experience, while still retaining the same style of play found in the first two Metroid Prime games.
Like the previous two games in the series, there will be no online competitive play like that found in Metroid Prime: Hunters for the Nintendo DS. Instead, Retro Studios is expanding the single-player campaign to include larger areas to explore, as well as the ability to traverse entirely different planets.
It was noted in the interview that Samus' gunship will play a more important role this time around; players will use the gunship to travel to these different worlds, and will also have the ability to "uplink" to it through a special visor to assist Samus on the ground at various points throughout her adventure. Another visor that was confirmed is the X-ray visor, which was originally featured in Metroid Prime.
In addition, Retro Studios commented on an improved graphics engine, which will feature bloom effects and much more extensive particles, all running at 60 frames per second. Although unconfirmed at this time, Retro Studios may also decide to use Nintendo's recently announced WiiConnect24 service to push new updates or content into the game, even if the console is off.
The latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine mentioned that Metroid Prime 3 wouldn't arrive on Nintendo's next-generation console until 2007. Given this new information, it would seem EGM's original statements were incorrect or misinterpreted.
Stay tuned to The Wiire for more details regarding Retro Studios' latest project, as well as all Wii news coming direct from E3.
