Well finished MP1: What a trip.
Like you guys said the game is amazing and the small details in it (light reflecting off of snow flakes, the visor effects) really add a bit of magic on top of the great level design and music.
I was pretty burned out on it by the end but only really had two complaints:
1.) This is probably just personal but I really hate "this color beam kills this color enemy" as a game mechanic...especially when that's the only difference between the enemies. This isn't isolated to Prime but I honestly think they've done a poorer job of it than other games I've played with this mechanic. With the space pirates...fine I guess, but once they brought Metroids in as well...pffft.
2.) Having to go back and get all 12 artifacts to progress. I knew they were something I should be looking out for and I had some of them, but it was a bit of a pain when I hit that roadblock and realized I had to go search for them all. Backtracking is obviously a huge part of any Metroid game, and that's fine but this seems like the least clever way it's ever been done.
Not touching another Metroid game for a while now, but might get into one of the other two eventually (possibly just skip to MP3). Anyway, thanks for the recommendations!