History VideoGame / MetroidPrime

!Spoilers for ''VideoGame/Metroid1'' will be left unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!

* DeathByGenreSavviness: You're locked in a room, with a single Metroid in a stasis tank, you scan the Metroid and it breaks out. Veteran players will assume you need [[KillItWithIce the ice beam to kill it]]. The problem is at this point you will not have the ice beam. Cue screams of fear. [[spoiler:There is a terminal that actually tells you to use missiles (or Super Missiles) against it, but that won't be available to you until after you kill this one. Have fun with that.]]

* PurposelyOverpowered: The Phazon Beam is restricted to the FinalBoss for a reason. If you're using an AR disc, it can demolish ''everything'' in the game, including bosses ([[PuzzleBoss except Flaahgra]]), and will turn even the notorious Phazon Mines and Hard Mode bosses into a cakewalk.

* AbilityMixing: Samus can learn Charge Combos, special attacks which combine the [[ChargedAttack Charge Beam]] and Missile upgrades to create an effect based on her current beam. One such example is pressing the missile button while Samus has a fully charged Power Beam, expending her charge and 5 missiles to fire a Super Missile. Doing the same with the Wave Beam produces the Wavebuster, a continuous stream of lightning which expends missiles every second.

* CatastrophicCountdown: The seven-minute countdown that begins after defeating the Parasite Queen is justified due to said boss subsequently falling into the reactor of the ''Orpheon''. The area begins falling apart as you go, blocking off the original path and forcing you to go through an alternate one to get back to Samus's ship.

* InterspeciesAdoption: ''Prime'' is notably the first ''Metroid'' game where Samus Aran's adoption by the Chozo is first made explicit, having previously been discussed only in [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary and/or non-canon sources]]. The Chozo Lore frequently talks about the "Hatchling" that the birdlike race found on a planet ravaged by the Space Pirates and raised as one of their own. They also promised to do everything they could in the midst of their increasing Phazon-induced insanity to help her eventually save Tallon IV, "for she bears our legacy as she bears the ancient armor and weapons of our people."

* {{Remaster}}: ''Metroid Prime Remastered'' on the Switch, which completely overhauls the graphics and includes multiple control schemes.

* {{Remaster}}: The game gets a remastered version on the Switch, completely overhauling the graphics and includes the ability to move your camera whereas the movement stick controls it.

* CooldownManipulation: The [[https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/Rapid_Fire_Missiles Rapid Fire Missiles]] trick has you press the normal fire button immediately after firing a missile to stop the delay in between missile shots (although there is a ''slight'' delay during the missile "closing" animation.) It's incredibly helpful against creatures like Sheegoths, who are only vulnerable during a short period.

** The Space Pirate Beam Troopers[[note]]in Power, Wave, Ice, and Plasma flavors, to match your beam weapons[[/note]], the Fission Metroids, and Metroid Prime. All of them come in yellow, purple, white, and red, with their color indicating the Beam and Charge Combo that they're vulnerable to.

* BossArenaIdiocy: This trope is surprisingly [[AvertedTrope averted]], or at the very least [[JustifiedTrope justified]], by all of the game's major bosses.
** Flaahgra, the monster in the Chozo Ruins, has giant mirrors directing sunlight onto him--but scanning him reveals that the Phazon mutation he's gone through makes him ''need'' a constant input of direct solar energy to even have the ability to move, so having the mirrors there makes perfect sense.
** Thardus, the rock golem in Phendrana Drifts, has been placed in a round room with no exit points by the Space Pirates largely because they couldn't control him at all--the best they could do was seal him in a locked chamber and hope for the best.
** The Omega Pirate is exactly where it's ''supposed'' to be according to the Space Pirates' plans, and indeed, the arena is designed for him to be at maximum power. Samus defeating him is a sign of her own skill, rather than any gimmick in the room itself.

* InvisibilityWithDrawbacks:
** The Cloaked Drone is ''only'' visible to the X-Ray Visor, defying this trope.
** The second form of the Metroid Prime itself is only visible to one Visor at any given time, but which one that is changes... Once you have all the visors, you'll need to switch them from time to time, but that's it for enemies being able to hide completely.

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: There are Zombie Space Pirates, who move just as well as living Space Pirates.

* LeakingCanOfEvil: The barrier around the Impact Crater turns out to be not quite as impenetrable as the Chozo might've hoped. Although the HostileTerraforming efforts of the Phazon meteor are greatly slowed down, Phazon nonetheless manages to leak into the earth surrounding the crater, forming the basis for the Phazon Mines.

* PlotHole: The eponymous creature is sealed inside the impact crater by a Chozo spell, which was placed to prevent the Phazon from further infecting the planet. However, a scan in the game indicates that the Space Pirates had captured the creature for study and imprisoned it in their lab, where it proceeded to steal a lot of weaponry and escape back to the crater. This warrants the question: how did the pirates and/or Metroid Prime both bypass the Chozo seal, when you yourself can't get through it until you complet the late-game MacGuffin FetchQuest to remove the seal? The EU version of the game plus the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' compilation fixed this plot hole: In those, the Space Pirates merely detects a creature inside the crater and wastes a lot of time and effort ''trying'' to break the seal and failing. They never actually find Metroid Prime. Though now it has all those beam weapons/vulnerabilities just because.

* PowerCopying: The Space Pirates invert this on Samus by reverse-engineering Samus' beams, and unleash troopers outfitted with these counterparts at her.

** Very early on, some of the Chozo Lore seems to point toward the big plant boss poisoning the waters as the source of the 'Great Poison' that destroyed their civilization. Of course, shortly after Samus fights said boss and heads toward Magmoor, a new bit of Chozo Lore establishes that Flaahgra wasn't half of it.

* StoryBreadcrumbs: If you don't use the Scan Visor much, it's possible to complete the entire game without a single clue of what you're doing or why you're doing it. All of the important story context, such as the importance of eradicating Phazon, how the Chozo succumbed to it, why the Pirates are on the Talon IV, ''and'' how they've empowered their strongest soldiers is all in data logs you scan.

* StoryBreadcrumbs: Though the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' as a whole has this trait (despite adding more cutscenes as well as interactions between Samus and other characters), this game is such a severe example that it's possible to complete the entire game without a single clue of what you're doing or why you're doing it, if you don't use the Scan Visor much. Literally all the story, aside from some introductory text, is in logs and scans. Namely, scanning the lore logs is the only way to discover the importance of eradicating Phazon, how the Chozo succumbed because of it, why the Pirates are in the planet, ''and'' how they've empowered their strongest soldiers. The later titles include some cutscenes and basic plot development, but most of the exposition is left to you to find.

* ActionizedSequel: Taking place after ''Metroid/Zero Missiom'', the game is first of many that incorporates occurring skirmishes with enemies, with doors being locked to make sure you take care of your enemies first before resuming your objectives. Even dogfights with the Space Pirates has them engage towards you on-site.

* AdaptationalAngstDowngrade: In the original, after Samus kills the Omega Pirate, it collapses on top of her, and explodes into a pool of Phazon, [[PainfulTransformation and appears to put her in excruciating pain]] until her Gravity Suit fully transforms into the Phazon suit and she recovers. In the Remaster version, her suit immediately transforms into the Phazon Suit, and looks at her new suit's form without pain involved.

* ActionalizedSequel: Taking place after ''Metroid/Zero Missiom'', the game is first of many that incorporates occurring skirmishes with enemies, with doors being locked to make sure you take care of your enemies first before resuming your objectives. Even dogfights with the Space Pirates has them engage towards you on-site.

* VoodooShark: In the original game, Metroid Prime had been captured by the Pirates and studied for a while, before breaking loose and returning to its point of origin, explaining its fancy assimilated Zebesian tech armor. The problem is that said point of origin is behind an impenetrable barrier you spend most of the game deactivating, so how did it get out and back? Other regions and later adaptations covered over the plot hole by re-writing the relevant story entries so that the Pirates never captured it... but in doing so, opened the new plot hole of where the weapons and armor came from.

* GoneHorriblyRight: Project Titan, which was the Space Pirates' attempt at creating super soldiers from inanimate objects. Absurd though it sounds, it worked, and it created Thardus, a massive rock monster noted for a very violent temperament that tries to kill anything that gets near and had to be quarantined. Since the beast is made from Phazon Ore, the precursor to Phazite, it's ridiculously durable, and it has no spinal cord, brain, or otherwise notable internal organ systems to target to cheat. Basically, it's Phazon and rock and it hates and kills.

* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: The game's [[http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2007/08/mw-boxartp-3-nwf.jpg Japanese box art]] is actually more intense than its [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/ba/MetroidPrimebox.jpg/250px-MetroidPrimebox.jpg English artwork]], with Samus running in front of an explosion instead of standing in an empty hallway.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Completing the game allows you to unlock the Fusion Suit, which gives Samus a different look, if you can do just one more thing, depending on platform. On the original [=GameCube=] version, that would have to be using the [=GameCube=]-Game Boy Advance link cable to connect your system with a Game Boy Advance running Metroid Fusion. On the Wii version in ''Metroid Prime Trilogy'', that would be buying it at the cost of a few Silver Credits.

* DubNameChange: In the Japanese version, Phendrana Drifts and Magmoor Caverns are known as "Ice Valley" and "Lava Caves", respectively. Some areas in the former still have remnants of the original non-Japanese name, e.g. the "Gravity Chamber" is called "フェンドラナ地底湖" ("Phendrana Underground Lake").

* EmbeddedPrecursor: The original NES Metroid is included as an unlockable if you link Prime to ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion''. It includes a save feature and a new control scheme mimicking that of ''Prime''.

* EyesDoNotBelongThere: The 100% ending of Prime has [[spoiler:an eye open on the back of a hand emerging from a Phazon puddle, later revealed to be Dark Samus.]]

** The original NTSC version got careless with one of its Chozo Artifacts: the Artifact of Warrior spawns when you beat the Phazon Elite, but the doors don't lock to make sure you actually collect it. If you leave, save, and come back, the Elite and Artifact are gone for good, and you need all twelve Artifacts to access the Impact Crater and finish the game. The NTSC Player's Choice, PAL, and ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' rereleases all fixed this; Player's Choice by locking the doors until you collect the Artifact, and the other two by not despawning the Artifact if you leave and come back.

** Regarding powerups, it is the only game in the ''Prime'' trilogy where you lose and need to regain your Morph Ball, Varia Suit, and Charge Beam. There is no Seeker Missile or Screw Attack, nor can Samus use the Boost Ball to launch from a Spider Rail. This is also the only game in the trilogy to feature the Ice Beam and Wave Beam. ''Echoes'' has the Dark Beam and ''Corruption'' has the Ice Missile, both which function similar to the Ice Beam. The Wave Beam by contrast, has no analogues in the other games. Lastly, while Power Bombs are present, picking up an expansion of it plays the game's major item acquired jingle; the sequel changes it to the minor item pick up jingle, which is used for other item expansions like missiles

** The Phazon Elite highly resembles the usual Elite Pirates, has a similar moveset, and even uses the same encounter music, meaning one can quite easily miss its scan.