When the Xbox first came out, the sole reason for buying the console was a little first person shooter from Bungie called Halo. I immediately got myself a copy, and I wasn’t disappointed. The game had an intricate back-story, a rich setting, and the graphics were nothing to sneeze at. Clearly, a lot of time and effort went into the game.

Just point and shoot. The last level made me realize that the entire game is just about one thing: shooting stuff. You go into a room, and leave with a lot of alien carcasses behind you. Sometimes you ride in, sail on a ship, or travel on a trolley, but basically, you just ran around shooting aliens. Of course, like any good shooting gallery, you shot at a variety of alien types. Big or small, they’re all nothing but cannon fodder.

Is that it? Really? Unfortunately, yes. The most complicated puzzle for the entire game was that you had to press a button to open a drawbridge to ride your warthog (a hummer type military rover) through. That wasn’t anything anyone would really have to think about now, was it? On Metroid on the other hand, you couldn’t just run through the room, kill everything in sight and call it day. There were puzzles strewn about all over the place. The level designers actually thought of ways to stop your progress.

A few kinks. The standard for First Person Shooters is a mouse and keyboard setup. Halo didn’t have that, but the developers somehow made it work with the dual analogue stick of a standard console joy pad. The only thing I didn’t like about it was that I had to replay the entire ship level before finishing the game. You see, you begin the game fighting your way out of the ship. I suppose the developers thought it fitting to end the game where it began, but that kind of made some parts of the last level redundant.

Blowing stuff up is fun. Much as I love mindlessly shooting things, and liked some of the Halo novels, I prefer the Metroid games over it. Don’t get me wrong. Halo was a blast, and the novels were great. We’re probably looking at the next Starwars franchise here. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the game itself is just all about shooting things. When it comes down to it, if you want a game about action and taking enemies out, go for Halo. But if you’re the type who likes being challenged, you’re better off with Metroid Prime.