Common misperception about Metroid Prime is that it is an FPS. Yes, it does take place in a first person perspective, for the most part, however it is FAR from a run of the mill FPS. It's more of a first person action/adventure game. The emphasis is placed on exploration more than combat. There's a lock-on button so all you need to do is hold down the button and you can jump, strafe dash, whatever all over the place and the enemy is always in your sites. The control scheme is very unbecoming of an FPS too. For those of you familiar with the Gamecube controller, it works something like this:
-The analog stick moves you forward and backwards, and turns you left and right
-The direcitonal pad is used to switch between the various visors (combat mode visor, scanning visor, thermal visor, x-ray visor)
-The C stick is used to switch between different arm cannons (pulse cannon, wave beam, ice beam, etc.)
-The B button (little red button) is the jump button
-The A button (big green button) is for shooting
-The X button fires missiles
-The Y button turns you into the morph ball (I may have the X and Y buttons mixed up)
-L shoulder button is held down when you want to strafe instead of turn, and also is the lock-on button and the button used to scan things in scan mode
-R shoulder button is held down when you want to look around
-Z button brings up the map
If you have played Super Metroid, or any of the recent Castlevanias, then you'll be familiar with the format this game takes. It's essentially Super Metroid placed in a 3D world through Samus' perspective. There are no levels...Just one HUGE set of interconnecting environments that you explore searching for powerups and addons that let you reach often times visible, yet previously inaccessable areas. I really really dislike almost all first person shooters (especially for consoles). Metroid Prime, however, is one of the greatest things ever.
