Development
Retro Studios intended to give Metroid Prime 3: Corruption larger environments than Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and enable the game to run at 60 frames per second. The developers were also interested in using the WiiConnect24 feature to provide additional content for the game that would be accessible from the Internet. 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 the controller's special abilities with a version of Echoes modified for the Wii and shown at the Tokyo Game Show in 2005.
The title Corruption and some of the first gameplay footage were revealed at Nintendo's Media Release at the E3 2006 trade show. Iwata said he hoped Corruption would launch with the Wii in November 2006, but a few months later the game was delayed to 2007. In April 2007, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime stated in an interview that Corruption was "not going to ship by June" and set it at a summer 2007 release date at the earliest. Later he opined, "when we release it, it will be perfect. And if that's a little later than folks would have liked, I'm hoping they're going to be happy." In late April 2007, IGN editor Matt Casamassina revealed that Corruption would be shown in detail during May of that year, and that the game would be released on August 20, 2007 in the United States. Nintendo of America later announced to have moved the release date to August 27, 2007, but Nintendo finally announced an "in stores" date of August 28, 2007. The game was released in Europe on October 26, 2007. At the Media Summit held by Nintendo during the week of May 21, 2007, Reggie Fils-Aime said that Metroid games "never played this way before" when referring to Corruption. He also noted that Nintendo employees who had seen the game in action claimed that it "will reinvent the control scheme for a first-person shooter".
Game director Mark Pacini stated that the biggest concern Retro had during production 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 announced when the game's development was almost done. Retro president Michael Kelbaugh said that the delays for the game's release gave them more time to tune the controller, which took a year. He also stated that while Retro did "a great job on the multiplayer in Metroid Prime 2", focus was centered on the single player portion of the game, which was considered to be "the core strength of the franchise". Art director Todd Keller declared the graphics to be focused in both texture detail and variety, with every single texture being hand-made and trying to "make every room its own custom stage". During development, the Nintendo EAD team involved with Corruption suggested Retro to turn Hypermode into the core of the game, saying it would enhance the tension as it made players powerful but if used excessively would lead to a game over. Retro initially disagreed, saying it would be difficult to implement the feature without dampening the entertainment value, but after discussion decided to turn Hyper Mode into a regular functionality of the game. Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe said that a questionnaire on choosing the game's difficulty was made for the Corruption's Japanese release.
Prime, Prime 2, and Prime 3 were bundled together on a single disc as Metroid Prime: Trilogy, released on August 24, 2009 for Wii. Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes feature the motion controls and achievement systems introduced in Prime 3.
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