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How was the reaction to the Prime 1 reveal?

Jiguryo

Aryan mech phallus gun
Metroid Prime (along with Eternal Darkness) was the game that brought me back to owning consoles. I am quite thankful for it.
 

Neff

Member
Considering Super Metroid was and still is one of my most favourite games of all time, I wasn't happy with Metroid turning into a Western FPS game at all.

Fortunately it turned out to be a superb game, albeit not one without issues.
 

ika

Member
I remember when people found it'd be made by a western and unproved studio, with Miyamoto input (and not Sakamoto's), in first person, with a lock-on feature and Nintendo calling it a "First Person Adventure", the reaction was pretty bad. Maybe not Celda-bad or Mario Sunshine-bad, but considering that was going to be the first console Metroid game in years, people were expecting something else and they were definitely not happy.

FPS fans said the FPA was a gimmick and fps for babies, and "traditional" Metroid fans wanted something well... more tradicional, and in third person. Of course, the graphics kept the people somewhat excited and that calmed them down a bit. I also remember Matt from IGN was hyped as hell and he was very trusted so it helped to maintain a "wait and see" attitude from the skeptics.

I'd take this same attitude and wait until we try the finished game.
 
72527.jpg


You really trying to defend this?

I don't even know what is particularly wrong with this other than it's not a picture of the thing you want.
 

Pizza

Member
I swear I must be the only person who thinks FF looks cool.

I had no opinion other than "oh whoever on gaf said blastball was a new metroid had some on-point detective skills! Too bad I probably won't play a 3ds fps. Cool that they're bringing the prime branding back, people will be pumped about that"

Boy was I wrong.

People take Federation Forces way too serious. The petition is particularly mean-spirited.

Yep. The horrible backlash got me to look a lot harder at the game and now I'm absolutely buying it.

That's like saying people wouldn't want a halo game with the covenant's perspective! *ha*

Halo 2 is the best halo
 
"Hey guys. Halo sells good. Let's make Metroid like Halo. Who's with me!?"

is this in reference to prime or the new game? because that might have been a compelling observation in 2001. if they wanted to sell well there's plenty of more popular franchises they could have emulated. Not to mention samus is basically a space marine has been long before halo came along.
 
People were skeptical, and rightly so. Unproven developer, change of perspective etc. Some people went overboard, but a certain level of skepticism was warranted. Wind Waker reactions were embarassing though, because they were almost entirely based on a change in art direction and nothing to do with the gameplay itself.

This is a different scenario to the games shown at e3 2015. Baring any major surprises, it's already pretty clear what we're going to get with Federation Force. It could be a good game, but it's highly unlikely it will be a good Metroid game.
 
At the time I argued that even if Prime was a good game it would create a schism in the series and open the doors to further drifting and watering down of the formula. I've actually felt vindicated for a while now (even if a lot of people haven't noticed a blatant progression towards standard FPS conventions throughout the Prime Trilogy), but Federation Force certainly takes those traits even further, adding insult to injury with a weird Lego Bionicle/Halo aesthetic. :p

It will probably be a good game on its own merits, but it's a shit move for the series, and insulting to anyone who's already watched the series strain to do everything but offer the game fans have obviously been clamoring for since the 90's. Is it that hard every half decade to just make a traditional Metroid game without some stupid wrinkle in the formula? I mean, damn.
 

Toxi

Banned
At the time I argued that even if Prime was a good game it would create a schism in the series and open the doors to further drifting and watering down of the formula. I've actually felt vindicated for a while now (even if a lot of people haven't noticed a blatant progression towards standard FPS conventions throughout the Prime Trilogy), but Federation Force certainly takes those traits even further, adding insult to injury with a weird Lego Bionicle/Halo aesthetic. :p

It will probably be a good game on its own merits, but it's a shit move for the series, and insulting to anyone who's already watched the series strain to do everything but offer the game fans have obviously been clamoring for since the 90's. Is it that hard every half decade to just make a traditional Metroid game without some stupid wrinkle in the formula? I mean, damn.
Metroid Prime Hunters had deathmatch in 2005.
 
Honestly I don't remember a lot of good things said about it. Turning metroid into an FPS, one without strafing at that, was kind of a shock, a lot of folks reacted to it the same way they reacted to say, showdowrun the FPS.

Most console FPS's of the day were not known for storytelling, or such, mainly just quick arcade shooters.

Wasn't till the first real previews/reviews that folks realized what retro had actually done with the series, and how good it turned out to be.
 
From what I read, it was met with a lot of hostility thanks to both the genre change (Platformer to FPS) and the company (Retro was founded by former members of Acclaim backed by Nintendo), then there were the delays of every single game they ever worked on (Raven Blade would be cancelled after its E3 reveal) and the concept of Metroid Prime was salvaged from another cancelled project.

Then the company went through TWO CEO replacements before releasing Prime a year later. Throughout all that time while other metroid games were noted to be released, a lot of fan backlash swept Prime until it actually came out.
 
At the time I argued that even if Prime was a good game it would create a schism in the series and open the doors to further drifting and watering down of the formula. I've actually felt vindicated for a while now (even if a lot of people haven't noticed a blatant progression towards standard FPS conventions throughout the Prime Trilogy), but Federation Force certainly takes those traits even further, adding insult to injury with a weird Lego Bionicle/Halo aesthetic. :p

It will probably be a good game on its own merits, but it's a shit move for the series, and insulting to anyone who's already watched the series strain to do everything but offer the game fans have obviously been clamoring for since the 90's. Is it that hard every half decade to just make a traditional Metroid game without some stupid wrinkle in the formula? I mean, damn.

Not really. Echoes was even further away from a standard FPS than the original Prime. A longer story, more puzzles, more morphball, even more mazelike. It did have a throwaway multiplayer, but the meat of the game more closely resembled FPS' of old if anything. Prime 3 focused on more shooting to demonstrate the capabilities of the wiimote, and did so splendidly. The enemies/puzzles that were designed around the pointer controls would not have worked well with a standard dual analogue setup. And also, there was no multiplayer of any sort, which is nearly unheard of when you are discussing standard FPS conventions.
 

daTRUballin

Member
From what I read, it was met with a lot of hostility thanks to both the genre change (Platformer to FPS) and the company (Retro was founded by former members of Acclaim backed by Nintendo), then there were the delays of every single game they ever worked on (Raven Blade would be cancelled after its E3 reveal) and the concept of Metroid Prime was salvaged from another cancelled project.

Then the company went through TWO CEO replacements before releasing Prime a year later. Throughout all that time while other metroid games were noted to be released, a lot of fan backlash swept Prime until it actually came out.

Actually, that's not quite true. They actually only had one CEO replacement before Prime released. Jeff Spangenberg was replaced by Steve Barcia in May 2002 when the company was bought by Nintendo. Prime was released in November later that same year, and then in April 2003, Michael Kelbaugh replaced Barcia.

This is all according to Wikipedia. :p
 
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