I beat the game last night, with 100% completion, meaning I obtained all of the cherished suit upgrades, missile expansions, and energy tanks. I spent a sum total of 21 hours, 34 minutes in the MP3:C universe, and enjoyed every minute.

The last boss – Dark Samus and the stolen Aurora unit – were incredibly disappointing. Both battles were amazingly easy to win – I never once felt any pressure or fear. That said, there were parts of the game up until that point that were frustratingly difficult. I sum the two together and come out with a nice balance. The game itself was challenging enough – I suppose a simpler finale was required in order to assuage fears that the game might be just as difficult overall as the first Metroid Prime game, which was, essentially, impossible. Don’t try to tell me you beat the game; it simply didn’t occur.

Interesting thing to note (which is also a spoiler): at the end of the game, if you get the 100% ending, you are treated to a brief glimpse of a ship (shown here to the right) following Samus as she careens away from Elysia. It’s a quick shot that allows you (one would presume) a bit of insight into the subject of the next entry in the Metroid franchise.

The Metroid wiki seems to suggest that the ship is the Delano 7, which apparently belongs to Sylux, one of the bounty hunters featured in the DS Metroid Prime Hunters. The funny thing is, now that Retro is stepping away from the Metroid universe (for now), we have no idea who will be developing the next game in the series, what system that game will be on, and there’s absolutely no guarantee that the next entry will even follow MP3:C chronologically.

So, what was that? A bit of a bait and switch? Retro throws something in – something that may or may not ever see a follow-up – just to appease the completionists. It’s probable. Or is the next Metroid game truly already in development? Maybe another DS entry? Who knows at this point? All I know is that I think the ending to MP3:C is nothing more than a red herring sent to whet our appetite, but not truly foreshadow the future of the franchise. Hopefully, we’ll discover more about where Samus is headed next after Nintendo gets their big titles of 2008 out the door.