After “Super Metroid” established “Metroid” as a forerunning video game franchise for Nintendo, almost 10 years elapsed before a new home console game in the series was created.

Unlike Mario and Link, Samus Aran was nowhere to be found on the Nintendo 64.

But in 2002, her bounty-hunting escapades were reimagined on the Nintendo GameCube with such brilliance that her belated return was swiftly forgiven.

“Metroid Prime” takes players behind Samus' visor for a first-person shooter perspective.

But instead of bogging her down in a non-stop marathon of gunfights like fellow FPS mainstays “Doom” or “Halo,” the game's designers managed to preserve the strategic and nonlinear play that defines the “Metroid” series. Platforming, puzzle-solving and power-up acquisition are also crucial parts of negotiating the complex world of Tallon IV, where “Prime” takes place.

Tallon IV is a colony planet of the bird-like Chozo race whose stone hands held the power-ups that enabled Samus to roll in a ball or grapple along ceilings in previous “Metroid” games. Throughout her mission she learns from Chozo scriptures that a poison-bearing meteor crashed on Tallon IV, and that the malevolent Space Pirates have since invaded to claim the substance - known as Phazon - for use in bioweapon engineering.

“Prime” advances its story at a much steadier pace than “Super Metroid,” where only the beginning and end of the game offered anything approximating a plot. In this respect, it is easier to contextualize Samus' actions.

You're not just mindlessly collecting items that allow you to complete the game, you're collecting Chozo artifacts that will eventually allow Samus to access the meteor crash site and purge Tallon IV of the Phazon poison.

The story takes a backseat when Samus must blast away at the Space Pirates and other wildly imagined organisms standing, crawling and floating in her way.

Here the first-person shooter format benefits the franchise by making the combat more challenging than it was in previous “Metroid” installments.

The player must aim Samus' cannon at enemies on a three-dimensional plane and juggle its ice, wave, power and plasma beams - depending on the creature - in the process.

But “Metroid Prime” rises above other first-person shooters by not overloading the player with enemies and running the game into the ground with endless combat.

When Samus isn't eliminating Space Pirates, she must negotiate the challenging environments of Tallon IV.

Like Zebes in “Super Metroid,” the planet consists of areas of icy, aqueous and volcanic climates, and different power-ups allow her to access each. Meticulous exploration is rewarded by power-ups at the end of secluded tunnels you find by checking every inch of Samus' surroundings.

Sections that require platform-hopping translate remarkably well from the side-scrolling “Metroid” games; surfaces are just out of reach enough to preserve the challenge of jumping over lava or acid. In ball form, Samus must delicately maneuver through electrical mazes and build the momentum to roll out of half-pipes in the course of her mission.

With the FPS format also comes a new vision system, including a heat visor through which Samus can spot ghostly Space Pirates or hidden circuits that open doors. The game designers' painstaking attention to detail is evident when Samus' visors cloud up with condensation as she passes through humid areas.

The heat sensor vision also an example of perhaps “Metroid Prime's” greatest strength: Graphics.

The slow-falling snow and crystalline stalactites of Phendrana Drifts are breathtaking in their beauty, and the gorgeous swirls of purple light from Samus' wave beam will beckon you to fire it even with no enemies around.

All the time one could spend admiring the game's dazzling visuals alone amounts to more than enough to compensate for the eight years spent waiting for “Metroid Prime.” “Prime 2: Echoes” would follow only two years later.

The final chapter in the trilogy, “Corruption,” was released for the Wii on Monday and will be the focus of next week's Citizen Gamer.

Staff writer David Wilcox reviews video games for The Citizen. He can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net

“Super Metroid”

Score: 98 out of 100

Parental rating: Teen for animated violence

Publisher: Nintendo

Platform: Nintendo GameCube (compatible with Wii)

Features: 1 player

Life span: Twenty hours

The final boss: “Metroid Prime” flawlessly reimagines the side-scrolling “Metroid” adventures of the 16-bit era as a stunning and genre-bending first-person shooter.