I Beat The Mother Brain

I beat Metroid Prime 3!

After receiving the code from the spaceship, I flew to the planet Phaaze, where I was CONSTANTLY in hypercharge Phaazon mode. This turned out to be less annoying than I thought it'd be, and aside from a retarded amount of Metroids, the planet wasn't very hard. The final boss(es) weren't really all that difficult either.

First up was Dark Samus. Now, I know from the box art of Metroid Prime 2 that Dark Samus is a big-time playa in this story, but I'll be damned if there was one mention of her in THIS game up until I had to fight her and her stupid clones. It's weird playing the third game in a series first. I had no idea, at any point in the process, what the fuck the story was, or what I was doing in the grand scheme of things. But, since it's a Metroid game, who really gives a shit? Maybe I'll read a wikipedia synopsis or something.

Anyway, Dark Samus was fairly easy. Just blast blast blast, and her clones provided me with energy fairly regularly. After that I had to fight a big thingie that looked like Mother Brain. Also not very difficult, but very fun! Finally, the brain detached from its tethers and I had to fight it as it bounced around. This was a bit harder, since by this point I had very little energy yet. It took three tries, but I finally beat the bitch. The bosses in this game, in general, were fairly easy but very fun. I think the hardest boss in the game was the very first one, the iceman who flew around.

So there you have it. The game's beaten. What's next? Well, I still have Zack & Wiki to work through, and a lot of little extra things I have to do in Super Paper Mario. I'd also like to at least TRY to get all the stars in Super Mario Galaxy. I also have to play Super Monkey Ball, which put me off a bit with its controls, but deserves another try. Whew, that's quite a bit to do, without even considering the fact that I am planning on getting Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and LEGO Star Wars soon.

Viva la Wii!!

ZZZZZap.

I got the Wii Zapper. Contrary to popular opinion, I actually think it's pretty cool. I like the way it feels in my hands, and I think it makes aiming a tad bit more precise. It's kind of a pain in the ass that you have to go through a huge process every time you want to assemble it or take it apart, but no biggie. The only real issue I have with it so far is that I find it difficult to move while aiming/strafe in Link's Crossbow Training. Not sure if the blame lies on the game or the zapper or myself. Probably myself. The Zelda game is pretty fun, and fairly challenging. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on Umbrella Chronicles. A old friend and I have agreed that we're going to play that game together, sitting around passing the controller back and forth until we beat it, just like we did when we were kids. Can't wait!

In Metroid news, I decided to go look for the energy cannisters (or whatever they're called) that I'm missing before I tackle the Valhalla. I made the decision to do this with the aid of a walkthrough, and it's a damn good thing I did, because I never would have found them otherwise! I had two left to get. One of them was a long and confusing quest through the planet of Bryyo. The other, which took place on the first planet in the game was a shorter quest, but ended with a boss encounter: The Metroid Hatchling. Here's what happened. I entered the room and encountered the mighty METROID HATCHLING. As I usually do when I reach a boss, I scanned it to get some info. According to the scan, the process involved blasting its phaazon parts, and then ripping off its tentacles, or some such thing. I got out of scan mode and prepared to battle. I shot the Metroid Hatchling one time. It died. Boss fight over. What the fuck? Hey, I'm not complaining. I wanted to get this pointless fetch quest over with, and a one-shot-kill boss certainly helped.

So I have all the energy thingies now, and I returned to Valhalla. I need to find the code, get back to the Space Pirate ship, fly to the Phaazon planet and, I assume, face the final boss. Almost done! Yay!

Ridley!

Whoo! Ridley is so cool. I just beat his ass. But, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here.

When I first started playing Metroid Prime 3 again after beating Super Mario Galaxy, it was as if my worst fears had come to life. You see, part of the reason I was so conflicted by the decision to pause my Metroid progress in favor of Mario is because I know what happens when I do shit like that. I have a long history of it. If I stop playing a game for a significant amount of time, and then try to go back to it, I find myself flustered and confused, like a lost little puppy in a chainsaw factory. I don't remember where I am or where to go or what I was supposed to do next, and this almost always leads to me turning the game off in disgust and self-loathing, and never touching it again.

And it seemed like that was happening with Metroid. Stepping back into that world, I was absolutely confounded and overwhelmed with confusion. Part of the problem was that, for some reason, I was positive that I had completely finished the Space Pirate Homeworld before I stopped playing, but the game was prompting me towards a location within the Homeworld. And when I tried to make my way to that location, I got pathetically lost. It's not a good feeling being totally lost on your way to a place that you're not even sure you're supposed to be going to anyway, and it led me to turn off the game. I was worried I'd never turn it on again.

The next day, I bit the bullet and put the game back on. This time I found my way to the location I was being prompted to - and lo and behold, it turns out I wasn't done with the Pirate Homeworld yet. Not by a long shot.

I made my way to that location, which was some kind of power generator for the shield that was covering the planet, and had to shut it down while fighting off hordes of pirates. Curse their reptilian hides. Then I met up with Admiral Something-or-other and I had to escort a crack team of demolition soldiers through a series of passageways densely populated with horrible space lizards. I was really nervous about this task, because generally I hate escort missions. I'll never forget my rage at a completely helpless Minnie Mouse when I had to escort her across ONE SINGLE FUCKING ROOM in Kingdom Hearts 2. Luckily these soldiers were a little tougher than Minnie and the task was actually fairly easy. I lost three men in the process, but hey - war is hell.

After that, I was able to reach the planet's seed, and that's where I met up with Ridley!! After battling him waaaaay earlier in the game, I sort of didn't expect to meet him again. I figured this game was downplaying his involvement by getting him out of the way quickly, but I guess I was wrong! Anyway, the battle with him was pretty shockingly easy. I did die once, but that was because I needlessly used up too much of my phaazon power trying to blast him. It turns out, that's unnecessary. He's a fairly simple boss, but really really fun. I thought I'd have more to say about him, but I guess I don't. Except this: Ridley for Brawl!

Anyways, after that I still wasn't done in the stupid Space Pirate Homeworld. I had to go find a battleship that could warp me to the Phaazon Planet or some shit. I found it, but I didn't have the code to activate it, so I was prompted to go to the Valhalla to find the code. I worked my way back to my ship, flew to the Valhalla, saved, and turned the game off.

I MUST be fairly close to the end now. Maybe by my next report, I will have this game licked. Stay tuned.