All right.

Now that Halo 3 has been officially released, now is the time to finally settle this sad, pathetic argument that has been going on the Nintendo NSider Boards for the past 3 months.

 

Metroid Prime 3 is not a First Person Shooter. (aka FPS)

Halo 3 is.

 

Sure, you take one look at Metroid Prime 3, and you see yourself from a First-Person perspective. And firing weapons.

Simple math, and you get a FPS, right?

 

Wrong.

Metroid has always been an Adventure, no matter what the perspective.

Metroid is much more than shooting aliens and scoring kills.

In Metroid, you are looking for the items that will get you through each of the levels to the final boss.

Along the way, there are many puzzles you need to solve to either get those items or to get to the next boss.

Many of those items are weapons and/or upgrades, and you use those to get further along.

The items can also be the key to fighting the next boss, who will give you the next item to get further as well.

 

Now, on the other hand, we have Halo 3.

The entire Halo franchise has established itself as the best-of-the-best FPS game platform of all time (or maybe I just heard someone say that...)

Anyways, all you do is go around and frag Covenant alien forces left and right until you progress further and further forward until you defeat the final boss.

 

In Metroid, you will constantly go back and forth throughout all the levels you have visited in order to retrieve the items you need.

In Halo, you just keep on going forward. You don't really need to have a map to know where you're going to head to next.

 

So some people now say, "Well, then, Metroid Prime 3 is a First-Person Shooter Adventure!"

You can't do that. FPS is a genre all by itself.

You cannot categorize Metroid Prime 3 as a sub-genre of FPS, because the main gameplay mechanic is Adventure, not Shooting.

 

Try as you might, you just cannot place Metroid Prime 3 into a "FPS Game of the Year" contest with Halo 3.

You can do "Overall Game of the Year", that's fine - but Super Smash Bros. Brawl will win that, hands down. ;)

 

Metroid Prime 3 is established as an Adventure game, in the First-Person perspective.

Therefore, it is a First-Person Adventure.

 

"Well, I've never heard of that genre before!"

Well, not directly. But you have heard of the game Myst, right? You solved puzzles, explored every nook and cranny to open up new areas and eventually finished the game. And it was all done in the First-Person perspective.

And that's what you do in Metroid Prime 3; you just have your missles and gun to aid you through your adventure.

 

So there you have it.

You have Metroid Prime 3, a First-Person Adventure.

And you have Halo 3, a First-Person Shooter.

 

Two different categories, which should never be grouped together to determine which is better, unless it's for Overall Game of the Year.

Hopefully this will bring some light on the confused people and finally stop the arguments.