Anyone else disappointed by Metroid Prime 3?

[Sullla]

I liked the game overall, especially the controls. I detest the whole dual analog setup (longtime PC user here), so that was very nice - actually, the only reason I bought the game at all. I did not play either of the Gamecube Metroid games. Some of the boss fights were fantastic; the second Ridley fight and the one with the shape-shifting girl (can't remember the name, sorry) were incredibly fun.

At the same time, the game had definite flaws, things that showed it was a first-generation Wii game. Honestly, the combat was the worst aspect of the game. The shooting CONTROLS were fantastic, but the actualy combat GAMEPLAY was poor. The addition of Hypermode just makes combat way too easy and simplistic; you are invincible while using it, and the only penalty is for missed shots, so the best solution is to walk right up to the enemy and gun them down at point-blank range.

I didn't really notice this on the first playthrough, on default difficulty; on the highest difficulty setting the second time around, it was painfully obvious. With the greatly increased damage, you're pretty much forced to put Samus into Hypermode for every fight, and it was just.... boring. There's no strategy in walking up to enemies and shooting them in the face. The boss fights of course were better, but that's only part of the game, unfortunately. And some of the boss fights were amazingly tedious, like the golem boss who kept reviving those damn orbs, or the final endgame boss. The ability to turn yourself invincible for a brief period of time, whenever you want, is WAY too easy to abuse. I certainly did, heh.

If someone can keep the atmospheric and exploration elements of Metroid and combine that with better combat gameplay, I'd buying their game in a heartbeat.