[1][2] Players control the bounty hunter Samus Aran as she battles the Space Pirates and their biological experiments on the planet Tallon IV.

Metroid Prime was a collaboration between Retro in Austin, Texas, and Japanese Nintendo employees, including producers Shigeru Miyamoto and Kensuke Tanabe.

[5] The gameplay involves solving puzzles to reveal secrets, platform jumping, and shooting foes with the help of a "lock-on" mechanism that allows circle strafing while staying aimed at the enemy.

[5][6] Samus must travel through the world of Tallon IV searching for twelve Chozo Artifacts that will open the path to the Phazon meteor impact crater, while collecting power-ups that let her reach new areas.

Items must be collected in a specific order; for example, players cannot access certain areas until they find a certain Beam to open doors, or discover new ordnance with which to beat bosses.

The display can be altered by exchanging visors; one uses thermal imaging, another has x-ray vision, and another features a scanner that searches for enemy weaknesses and interfaces with mechanisms such as force fields and elevators.

Art galleries and different endings are unlockable if the player collects a high percentage of items and Scan Visor logs.

[12] The producers stated that starting with some power-ups was a way to give the player "different things to do" and to learn the functions of these items before settling into the core gameplay.

Short cutscenes appear before important battles, and a scanner in the heads-up display extracts backstory-related information from objects.

The meteor contaminated the planet with a corruptive, mutagenic substance that the Space Pirates later named Phazon,[15][16] and also brought with it a creature known to the Chozo as "The Worm".

[17] A large containment field emitter of the Artifact Temple in the Tallon Overworld area was built as a seal to the meteor's energies and influence within the crater where it landed,[18] which the Space Pirates attempt to disable or bypass in order to gain better access to extract the Phazon.

After regaining her lost abilities in the ruins, as well as defeating a mutated plant creature that was poisoning the local water supply, Samus finds her way to the Magmoor Caverns, a series of magma-filled tunnels, which are used by the Space Pirates as a source of geothermal power.

Following the tunnels, Samus travels to the Phendrana Drifts, a cold, mountainous region which is home to another ancient Chozo ruin and a Space Pirate research laboratory used to study the Metroids.

[21][22] At some point, Samus discovers the Artifact Temple that the Chozo built to contain the Metroid Prime and to stop the Phazon from spreading over the planet.

[21][22] If the player completes the game with all of the items obtained, Metroid Prime reconstructs itself into a body resembling Samus.

[33] The Japanese crew, which included producers Miyamoto, Kensuke Tanabe, Kenji Miki, and designer and Metroid co-creator Sakamoto, communicated with Retro through e-mails, telephone conferences and personal gatherings.

The change was prompted by camera problems experienced by Rare, which was developing the Nintendo 64 game Jet Force Gemini.

[34] Senior designer Mike Wikan said that the focus on exploration led the team to spend time making the platform jumping "approachable to the player", and to ensure the gameplay had "shooting [as] a very important, though secondary, consideration".

[36] The team considered implementing the Speed Booster power-up from Super Metroid but concluded it would not work well because of the first-person perspective and the limitations imposed by the scale of game's environment.

[40] The soundtrack contains arrangements of tracks from previous games in the series because Yamamoto wanted to satisfy old Metroid fans.

Early in development, the English electronic duo Autechre were asked by Retro Studios to compose the soundtrack, but this was halted by Nintendo.

[42] Tommy Tallarico Studios initially provided sound effects,[43] but Miyamoto deemed them not good enough for an extended presentation at Space World 2001.

It has improved controls that use the Wii Remote's pointing functionality, bonus content and the ability to take screenshots of gameplay.

It was the second-best-selling game of November 2002 in North America, behind Grand Theft Auto: Vice City;[81] 250,000 units were sold in the first week of its release.

[69] It won numerous Game of the Year awards and was praised for its detailed graphics, special effects, varied environments,[90] moody soundtrack and sound effects,[6] level design,[91] immersive atmosphere[5] and innovative gameplay centered on exploration in contrast with action games such as Halo,[92] while staying faithful to the Metroid formula.

[101] IGN named Metroid Prime the best GameCube game,[102] while GameSpy ranked it third in a similar list, behind The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Resident Evil 4.

[105] Metroid Prime also became popular among players for speedrunning; specialized communities were formed to share these speed runs.

[116][117] Metroid Prime's gameplay and HUD have influenced other first-person shooters such as Geist[118] and Star Wars: Republic Commando.

Primehack modifies the game, adding new high resolution textures, 4K and 60fps support, improved lighting and keyboard and mouse controls.