People give Corruption a lot of flak, but it's the game that got me into first person shooters, as absurd as that may sound. Most people seem to despise the motion controls, but honestly, they were the first time aiming in such a game felt intuitive and easy to handle for me. Consequently, as much as I loved the first game, and as heretical as it may seem, I think I prefer the third (I wasn't crazy about the second, which felt like something of a slog to me).

Personally, I loved the fights with the other bounty hunters. Sure, you didn't have the independence of the first two games from the beginning, but once Samus' allies started to turn on her, I found it did enhance the feeling of being on my own, and made the phazon threat seem more dire.

I also think the linearity didn't bother me so much because I loved most of the environments. Each planet felt unique enough that I was still wrapped up in the exploration, and Elysia in particular stands out as a beautiful world I kept wanting to return to. Riding that platform that held the nuke to the leviathan seed while fighting off all the attacking pirates is the type of mission I usually find tedious, but the tension worked for me: I felt like a complete BAMF.

Admittedly, there are some other factors that influenced my bias towards it. I played it in college, while my roommate and friends would watch, and we created a collective commentary that added a lot to the enjoyment. I don't think most people had a comparable experience. But I'll never forget exclaiming, "LIQUID PHAZON!" every time that enemy type appeared on-screen, and having a room full of people react with, "So we meet again!" or "Impossible! It can't be!"

aaaaaaanyway, "liquid phazon" subsequently became our go-to term for any illicit substance.