Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a 2007 action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The seventh main installment in the Metroid franchise, it was released in North America and Europe in 2007 and in Japan in 2008.
Corruption is set six months after Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004). The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who becomes infected with Phazon by her doppelgänger, Dark Samus. Samus works to prevent the Phazon from spreading to other planets while being corrupted by the Phazon.
The player uses the Wii Nunchuk to move and the Wii Remote to jump, aim and fire. Corruption introduces features such as Hypermode, which allows Samus to use more powerful attacks, and the ability to command her gunship. The new control scheme took a year to develop and delayed the release several times. The game was first shown to the public at the E3 2005 trade show.
Like the previous Prime games, Corruption received acclaim for its gameplay, graphics and music, though some were divided on the controls. More than one million copies were sold in 2007. It was rereleased in 2009 as part of the compilation Metroid Prime: Trilogy. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was released in 2025 for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
Gameplay
left|thumb|250px|Samus' [[Head-up display|HUD. The targeting reticle can be aimed anywhere on the screen using the Wii Remote.|alt=View of a futuristic looking room; two enemies wearing powered armor are approaching the player, and one is being hit by the player's weapon (a large cannon), which is visible in the corner of the screen. The image is a simulation of the heads-up display of a combat suit's helmet, with a crosshair surrounding the enemy and two-dimensional icons relaying game information around the edge of the frame.]]
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a first-person action-adventure game. The player controls Samus Aran using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk devices. The Nunchuk enables the player to perform actions such as moving Samus and locking on to enemies and targets. The Wii Remote allows the player to execute actions such as jumping, aiming, and firing weapons.
Corruption is an open-ended game that takes place across several planets, each with regions connected by elevators, rail systems and bridges. Each region has rooms separated by doors that can be opened when shot with the correct weapon. The gameplay involves solving puzzles to uncover secrets, jumping on platforms, and shooting enemies with the help of a "lock-on" mechanism that allows Samus to move in a circle while staying aimed on an enemy. The "lock-on" mechanism also allows Samus to use the Grapple Beam to attach onto and pull objects, such as enemy shields or certain doors. The game uses a first-person view, except in Morph Ball mode, in which Samus' suit transforms into an armored ball and the game uses a third-person camera. Another new feature is the Command Visor, which allows Samus to summon remotely her gunship from a suitable landing site to save the game, or travel to another destination quickly. New abilities can be obtained to allow the ship to perform aerial attacks against enemy targets and transport heavy objects. The protagonist, Samus Aran, is a bounty hunter hired to assist the Galactic Federation during its ongoing conflict with the Space Pirates. After facing defeat on the planet Zebes during the events of the first Metroid, the Space Pirates sought to gain power by using a newly discovered mutagen called Phazon, but Samus managed to disrupt their operations throughout the Prime trilogy, while the Galactic Federation confiscated and repurposed their Phazon armaments.
The Space Pirates' operation was left in disarray following defeat in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Dark Samus eliminates a third of their forces while indoctrinating the remaining Space Pirates into servants. Their combined forces seek to corrupt the universe with Phazon by first executing a series of methodical attacks on three Federation planets: Norion, Bryyo and Elysia. The game is primarily centered on these planets and three other locations that become accessible after completing certain in-game tasks.
A month later, Samus awakens aboard Olympus, where she learns that Dark Samus' Phazon-based attacks have corrupted her. The Federation equips her suit with a Phazon Enhancement Device (PED) that enables her to harness the Phazon energy within herself. She is informed that her fellow bounty hunters, also corrupted with Phazon and equipped with PEDs, have gone missing during their missions to investigate several planets embedded with Leviathan Seeds. Samus is first sent to the planet Bryyo and later Elysia to determine what happened to her missing comrades. She soon discovers that both planets and their inhabitants are slowly being corrupted by the Leviathan Seeds and that she must destroy the seeds to reverse this. Samus encounters heavy resistance from the Space Pirates, Phazon-corrupted monstrosities, and her fellow bounty hunters who have been corrupted by Dark Samus. and reports that the mission is accomplished before flying into space.
Samus returns to Elysia, where she mourns the loss of her fellow bounty hunters. If the player completes the game with all of the items obtained, Samus flies into hyperspace
Development
right|thumb|[[Retro Studios, based in Austin, Texas, developed the Metroid Prime games.|alt=A building with a sign reading "Retro Studios". Trees and a hedge are seen in front of it.]]
Retro Studios intended to give Metroid Prime 3: Corruption larger environments than Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, including open world features, and to have it run at 60 frames per second. Retro canceled plans for more interactive sequences involving Samus' ship when they found the Wii was less powerful than they had expected. They were also interested in using the WiiConnect24 feature to provide additional content accessible from the internet.
As Samus is a bounty hunter, Retro initially planned to have Samus embark on missions to collect bounties. Nintendo opposed this, saying she was driven by altruism rather than profit. Eventually, Retro discovered that the Japanese Nintendo staff imagined a bounty hunter as a selfless hero rather than someone who captures fugitives for money.
Retro announced that Corruption would be the final chapter of the Prime series and would have a plot "about closure, told against the backdrop of an epic struggle". After the Wii Remote was revealed, Nintendo demonstrated how Metroid Prime 3 would take advantage of it with a version of Echoes modified for the Wii and shown at the Tokyo Game Show in 2005. At the Media Summit held by Nintendo in May 2007, the Nintendo of America president, Reggie Fils-Aimé, said that Metroid games "never played this way before", and that Nintendo employees said it would "reinvent the control scheme for a first-person shooter".
The director, Mark Pacini, said that Retro's biggest concern was the controls, which had "too many functions for the amount of buttons". Pacini also said the Wii Zapper, a gun shell peripheral, was never considered because it was unveiled when the development was almost done. The Retro president, Michael Kelbaugh, said the delays gave them more time to tune the controller, which took a year. He also said that while he felt Retro did "a great job" on the Echoes multiplayer, they focused on the single-player for Corruption, which they considered the franchise's core strength. The art director, Todd Keller, said the graphics team focused on texture detail and variety, making every room unique. Engineer Paul Tozour cited the Halo series as an influence.
The soundtrack was composed by Kenji Yamamoto, Minako Hamano and Masaru Tajima. The increase in the Wii's increased RAM allowed for higher-quality audio samples. Yamamoto used Hirokazu Tanaka's musical design of the original Metroid (1986), keeping the music and themes dark and scary until the uplifting music of the credits. Corruption is the first Metroid game to feature a significant amount of voice acting; previously, Samus "[acted] alone [... and] always came across as a lone wolf". The producers included voices to create a stronger connection between players and the characters. It was later announced during Nintendo's press conference at E3 2006. Nintendo revealed in May that Corruption would be released as a launch game for the Wii console, but a few months later it was delayed to 2007. That year in April, Fils-Aimé said in an interview that Corruption was "not going to ship by June" and set it at a summer release date at the earliest. In late April, IGN editor Matt Casamassina revealed it would be released on August 20 in the United States. Nintendo of America moved the release date to August 27, but Nintendo finally revealed an "in stores" date of August 28. The game was released in Europe on October 26, and in Japan on March 6, 2008. In the Japanese version, the difficulty level is decided by answering to "a questionnaire from the Galactic Federation", in contrast to the North American version where the difficulty level is chosen directly by the player. Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe said that an idea for a questionnaire came from Retro Studios.
Casamassina initially criticized Nintendo for its minimal marketing campaign for Corruption and compared it to the larger campaign for the original Metroid Prime, which included a live-action advertisement. He concluded that the campaign was the result of Nintendo's new focus on casual games for their console. When questioned, Nintendo of America responded: "Nintendo fans will be surprised by the quantity and quality of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption information that becomes available before the game launches on Aug. 27. Your patience will be rewarded (or Corrupted)". Following this promise, Nintendo released the "Metroid Prime 3 Preview" channel on August 10 in North America and on October 15 in Europe. The channel, available as a free download via the Wii Shop Channel, allowed Wii owners to view preview videos that included a battle sequence and previously unannounced details on new characters. The Preview channel was the first in a series of new downloadable content including videos made available in North America. The "month of Metroid", as named by Nintendo, included Virtual Console versions of Metroid, available on August 13, and Super Metroid, available on August 20. The compilation was rereleased on the Wii U's Nintendo eShop on January 29, 2015.