Oh, what I would give for one of those talk-to-type programs right now. I’ve never really seen the point in them myself, but at times like these they would be a godsend. My hands, you see, are in some sort of pulsating numb state, twitching at the slightest movements. Why are they so broken, I hear you asking quizzically.

Blame Metroid Prime: Hunters. First-person shooters were always going to be a slightly tricky genre for the DS to offer without some sort of hand aerobics, and playing this proves that perfectly. That being said, it also has to be mentioned that Hunters is also a very good game - so good that despite finding yourself in increasing stages of cramp you’ll carry on playing.

Single player thrills are based on the same criss-crossing method by which previous Metroid titles have employed; reach area X, find a new skill or weapon, go to area Y which is now reachable and few further skills and weapons to use, head back to area X and use them to unlock more sections and so on. Taking place somewhere between the events of Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2, your task this time is time help Samus locate eight mythical Octoliths, artefacts that reputedly hold an ultimate power.

Out to stop her achieving this are a number of bounty hunters whom you will end up running into at various points on your adventure. Whilst not being given too much depth of character or personality, each has unique abilities such as being able to turn themselves into electrically charged worms or a strange frisbee with blades attached. Rather than using the other hunters as bosses at the solutions to puzzles, each will appear in time to hamper you at various stages of your quest, reappearing even when having been previously defeated.

Whilst it obviously was never going to be able to match the pair of GameCube games in terms of scope, Hunters’ adventure will still pack in a good 12+ hours of gaming. As with the other titles it’s addictive and intuitive, showing you tantalising glimpses of unreachable areas that you’ll return to later when you have the requisite beam type to reach them.

That’s not to say the game doesn’t have its faults. The boss battles are decidedly mediocre, and in truth only seem to feature two different enemies who appear alternately in ever-increasing toughness. It could also be argued that, whilst the two GameCube games split their time evenly between battling, travelling and puzzling, Hunters seems to spend most of its time engaging the player in the fighting enemies and moving to different locations with comparatively small amounts of puzzles for the player to solve.

Graphically the game couldn’t hope to hold a candle to its bigger brothers, yet Hunters still looks fantastic and has made full use of the capabilities the DS has. You might have thought that Nintendo may use the first Metroid game on the system as a classic 2D title in the vain of Super Metroid, Metroid: Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission and use the touch screen merely as a method of making Samus aim (actually, that sounds like an excellent idea so remember where you heard it first), but they’ve succeeded in creating a barely watered-down 3D world to mirror those of the GameCube games.

So, we’ve covered single player, we’ve covered visuals… ah. Now to the issue at hand, or more precisely to the issue of hands. Controlling Samus is a little on the tricky side, requiring you to walk with the D-Pad, aim using the stylus and shoot and jump using the left and right triggers. For those of you with a DS nearby, feel free to give using all of those at the same time a go whilst imaging doing what you’re doing for chunks over approximately two hours. If that doesn’t bring a tear to your eye then it’s likely nothing will. For those who find this a little too difficult, a second option is available which allows the player to move using the right set of face buttons and aim with the D-Pad, but sustained play finds this method to be a lot less accurate.

Increased likelihood that you’ll end up doing your hands a major injustice comes in the form of the game’s multiplayer modes, designed for use over Nintendo’s Wi-Fi system. Random matches see only one choice of type (deathmatch) with the first player to seven kills within a time limit of seven minutes being declared the winner. In a similar fashion to the way Mario Kart DS allowed users to select which tracks they’d race on, Hunters allows players to all vote for which level they’d like to use and selects whichever has gained the most votes.

As a reward to those with several friends in their address book, Hunters offers a heck of a lot more to players who opt to play with people they know. In addition to deathmatch, six further modes are added to choose from, varying from Bounty’s capture-the-flag larks to Defender, which is a version of King of the Hill. The option to have a good chinwag is also opened up when playing with mates, allowing the player to hold down the X button to deliver their ecstatic yells of ‘pwnd!’ at their rivals. Battles are surprisingly lag-free and their frenetic pace is a great hook to keep you coming back for me, no matter what state your fingers may be in.

The fact that Metroid Prime: Hunters takes you through the threshold of utter agony and still encourages you to keep ploughing through attests to just how well Samus has made the leap from the big screen to the little screens. The single player mode may lack the scale and depth of the previous two three-dimensional games the series has offered, but it certainly proves an entertaining way to spend two-dozen or so hours. Multiplayer modes ably back the solo aspect up and offer a selection of different modes and levels, leading to some titanic struggles which are hugely enjoyable. Best pack in the plasters and blister cream, then!