• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Get the Metroid franchise back on track?

SykoTech

Member
I'm sorta afraid Nintendo won't even bother. Metroid was never a big seller to begin with, and Other M was a mega bomb. One of the few Nintendo games that I could find for $10 a couple of months after release. They didn't do a damn thing for the franchise's Anniversary either. Even freaking Kirby got a lazy ass rom dump. But Metroid? Nothing.

I hope I'm wrong and Nintendo actually gets around to delivering a Metroid as excellent as Super or Prime 1. But I wouldn't be surprised if they let the franchise got the way of Star Fox and F-Zero.
 
only people who hate great games and OMG WAGGLE OMG

My biggest beefs in Metroid Prime 3 are:

--You are way too powerful way too quickly. A big part of the Metroid formula is the feeling of starting out weak and becoming absurdly powerful by the end of the game--MP3 gives you the far and away strongest item in your inventory (Hyper Mode) very near the beginning of the game, and most of the other items you attain afterwards are relatively small incremental upgrades.

--No real feeling of a cohesively connected world thanks to the separate planets connected by way of go anywhere landing sites. It really doesn't feel like a big maze, rather a bunch of "levels" you get through--the level design within each planet is largely linear in comparison to other Metroids.

--I flat out object to any dialogue fed story in a Metroid. Metroid Prime 2 is about as much as I will allow. Fusion, MP3, and Other M fall too far the other way (in varying degrees, obviously).

--Not at all a satisfying conclusion to the Metroid Prime trilogy, the backstory leaves more questions than answers.

Metroid Prime 3 does a lot right, but there is a lot it does wrong and I'd really rather not see the series continue down its path.
 

KarmaCow

Member
MP3 also has a lot of dumb 'missions' like the bomb construction in Skytown which shows off how annoying it is to traverse the area and even a god damn escort mission that is worse than the one at the end of HL2.

Not to mention the unbalanced hyper mode that makes every enemy either a bullet sponge or a complete joke. What's even worse are the boss fights that force you to use it.
 
Yeah, the first was the pinnacle in Metroid Prime game design, which is also the one that flat out apes Super Metroid's level design. I really don't know why they tried to move it into a Zelda like "clear the three main areas in succession" nonsense in MP2 & 3.
 

Brickhunt

Member
Metroid Prime 3 is a good game, but has annoying flaws. My biggest beef is with Hyper mode. The game tries to make it seem like it's a double edged sword, but in practice is a "press - to enter win mode button". There is no excuse for a boss battle like Rhundas to end in less than 30 second because of this.

If the mode had just used an energy tank as ammo, it would be interesting. But the corrupt mode, where you can easily get out by shooting the hell out of phazon and can replinish by getting hurt, is so unbalanced that it hurts. The invulnerability on the first seconds it's also annoying that makes the boss battle with Mogenar a piece of cake.

Besides that, I think retro was really uncreative with the power-ups this time. There is no reason for two Grapple beam upgrades. There had should had been just one (And the Grapple voltage, and it's phanzon version, was the very definition of uselessness combat wise)
 
I don't disagree that Valhalla was extremely creepy and awesome for it, but overall none of the Prime games nailed that persistently eerie vibe that Super Metroid excelled at. It's not scary exactly, it's more of an unsettlingly tense and otherworldly feel. Echoes came closest perhaps, and each Prime game had some such moments, but people tend to overemphasize isolated tense sequences in each game while forgetting just how mellow much of the gameplay actually was, especially in the original Prime which was largely a jaunt through an (admittedly decayed) idyllic paradise far removed from the bizarre alien caverns of Zebes.
Super Metroid wasn't very eerie IMO. I think it being a side scrolling 2D experience with an incredibly agile Samus made it feel more actiony than the Prime games which are just dripping with eerie atmospheric conditions and demand a slower pace to soak it all in. SM is probably the least feeling of dread I've felt in a Metroid game outside of Other M. I really think Fusion was a LOT more unsettling on the 2D side.
 

brainpann

Member
As mentioned earlier, my vote still goes for 3rd person with a darker atmosphere/ more suspense. But also, maybe give Metroids and space pirates a rest. I know the game is called Metroid but maybe Nintendo could start a new series staring Samus?
 

RagnarokX

Member
I guess it is kinda ironic that Other M's gameplay is more like a Metroid game than Prime in terms of movement. In the Prime games Samus was pretty slow and not very agile, while in Other M she's the most badass agile death machine she's ever been. I have to wonder if they just got rid of the intro would people like the game. I mean the most common "complaint" people bring up when discussing Other M is "the baby" and considering she only really says that in the intro it leads me to believe that people made too big a deal about how poorly written that longass scene was and let it ruin the entire game for them. That and not understanding why Samus would have a PTSD flashback; or understanding that it was PTSD and not her just being scared.
As mentioned earlier, my vote still goes for 3rd person with a darker atmosphere/ more suspense. But also, maybe give Metroids and space pirates a rest. I know the game is called Metroid but maybe Nintendo could start a new series staring Samus?

Any game set after Fusion could easily be called Metroid without actual metroids because Samus herself is essentially the last metroid.
 
It's pretty simple - Metroid Prime 4

And pretend Other M never happened. Just like Other M pretended the Prime series never happened. Oh God I hate that game so much.
 

Fox Mulder

Member
Why not just give it the nsmb treatment and go back to 2d side scrolling?

I know they want a big fps franchise, but the industry is flooded with them.
 
I would pass on a prime 4, the series is great but the first one felt the best to me, all the others tried to throw something new in there and well I disliked the ideas mostly, I also can't get my head around the 3D maps that well :p

2.5D metroid on wii U would be magical, needs to be set somewhere away from humanity like the early games.
 

Madao

Member
Yeah, the first was the pinnacle in Metroid Prime game design, which is also the one that flat out apes Super Metroid's level design. I really don't know why they tried to move it into a Zelda like "clear the three main areas in succession" nonsense in MP2 & 3.

if you think about it more carefully, mp1 was the same shit. the thing is that they disguised things better. in mp2 and 3 they just went "fuck this. let's just put barriers and call it a day".
in mp1, you need to clear 3 main areas to get the needed powerups and artifacts to access the final area and beat the final boss. mp2 and 3's downfall is that they had more filler and more blatant blocking and that made people get tired of it fast.

the only games in the series with real exploration are the original series. anything that came after the 21st century began has been very linear to different degrees. some games just hide the fact better than others.
 

Gilby

Member
My ideal Metroid: Next:

A Metroid game entirely focused on exploration and the environment. Almost no enemies. Samus loses/leaves her arm canon at the beginning of the game, and doesn't use it again until nearly the end. Throughout the game she gains upgrades like the morphball, grappling hook, and gravity suit to traverse ancient empty alien architecture and landscapes. Finds some new items too (magnetic boots? elastic-grappling beam? return of the light-dash? portals are overdone now, but maybe...)

This time Samus has arrived on the planet before the space pirates, and must find and secure some artifact that they are reportedly after. She also needs to activate the old Chozo/Luminoth/Bryyonian/Whatever-ancient-wise-cool-alien-race's planetary defense systems. To do this she'll have to explore the planet and solve the series' most intricate puzzles yet. In the final act the Pirates land, right when Samus is nearing the end of the planetary-puzzle. She needs to defeat multiple bosses (including Ridley of course), and work her way through the inner sanctum of the planet which is now filling with enemies. Time to bust out the arm cannon, along with whatever new tricks she's learned to defeat them. Maybe she gets to the artifact just after the pirates, and needs to defeat it/a-pirate-weilding it as the final boss.

Cue Theme Of Samus, roll credits​
 
if you think about it more carefully, mp1 was the same shit. the thing is that they disguised things better. in mp2 and 3 they just went "fuck this. let's just put barriers and call it a day".
in mp1, you need to clear 3 main areas to get the needed powerups and artifacts to access the final area and beat the final boss. mp2 and 3's downfall is that they had more filler and more blatant blocking and that made people get tired of it fast.

the only games in the series with real exploration are the original series. anything that came after the 21st century began has been very linear to different degrees. some games just hide the fact better than others.

I didn't mean in the sense that they're linear. I meant in the sense that the games' worlds were designed like a Zelda's, with a hub world and three distinct areas that need to be cleared in the exact order (quite literally in MP2's case). Metroid Prime has a much more interconnected world, with multiple elevators connected the various areas in a much more organic fashion--Phendrana isn't connected to any area but Magmoor, for instance, which can be reached from all of the rest of the areas, there are at least three elevators leading to the Chozo Ruins from Tallon Overworld, etc.

Metroid Prime 2 is much more rigidly defined with a central hub world that splays out in three equal directions with a single main connection to each of the three main worlds, which all have exactly one elevator that leads to the other two main areas. There's absolutely nothing organic about Metroid Prime 2's world design. And then Metroid Prime 3 is just a whole other ball game, and I've already gone over it before.

Though if you wanted to be completely technical, the first Metroid Prime does have one instance of where you are given a choice in which order you want to do something in the main game (the X-Ray Visor and Plasma Beam can be gotten in either order), but that's just splitting hairs.
 

Gilby

Member
Metroid Prime 2 is much more rigidly defined with a central hub world that splays out in three equal directions with a single main connection to each of the three main worlds, which all have exactly one elevator that leads to the other two main areas. There's absolutely nothing organic about Metroid Prime 2's world design. And then Metroid Prime 3 is just a whole other ball game, and I've already gone over it before.

Disagree completely. Spiderwebs are completely organic. Nature often has radial symmetry. (I'm being pedantic, I know.) Prime 1 has everything connected by Magmoor, which is a giant Y-shaped tunnel you go back and forth through throughout most of the game. Gets old going through it 50 times. I think Prime 2 has the best level layout in the series, and actually quite like 3 (except for the horrible federation world). Love all 3 games though.
 

-PXG-

Member
2D please. Wii U or 3DS, I don't care.

My ideal Metroid: Next:

A Metroid game entirely focused on exploration and the environment. Almost no enemies. Samus loses/leaves her arm canon at the beginning of the game, and doesn't use it again until nearly the end. Throughout the game she gains upgrades like the morphball, grappling hook, and gravity suit to traverse ancient empty alien architecture and landscapes. Finds some new items too (magnetic boots? elastic-grappling beam? return of the light-dash? portals are overdone now, but maybe...)

This time Samus has arrived on the planet before the space pirates, and must find and secure some artifact that they are reportedly after. She also needs to activate the old Chozo/Luminoth/Bryyonian/Whatever-ancient-wise-cool-alien-race's planetary defense systems. To do this she'll have to explore the planet and solve the series' most intricate puzzles yet. In the final act the Pirates land, right when Samus is nearing the end of the planetary-puzzle. She needs to defeat multiple bosses (including Ridley of course), and work her way through the inner sanctum of the planet which is now filling with enemies. Time to bust out the arm cannon, along with whatever new tricks she's learned to defeat them. Maybe she gets to the artifact just after the pirates, and needs to defeat it/a-pirate-weilding it as the final boss.

Cue Theme Of Samus, roll credits​

You're hired.
 

Brera

Banned
Keep Retro away from it.

Keep 3rd parties away from it.

Intelligent Systems or bust.

Metroid was like Nintendo's ultimate extra special treat. They whored it out and raped it dry.

Didn't help that Iga over at Konami milked the formula dry as well.
 

KarmaCow

Member
Keep Retro away from it.

Keep 3rd parties away from it.

Intelligent Systems or bust.

Metroid was like Nintendo's ultimate extra special treat. They whored it out and raped it dry.

Didn't help that Iga over at Konami milked the formula dry as well.

Why IntSys? AFAIK, they just did the grunt work for Super much in the same way Team Ninja did the grunt work for Other M. R&D1/SPD1 were really behind the games.
 

AntMurda

Member
Keep Retro away from it.

Keep 3rd parties away from it.

Intelligent Systems or bust.

Metroid was like Nintendo's ultimate extra special treat. They whored it out and raped it dry.

Didn't help that Iga over at Konami milked the formula dry as well.

Intelligent Systems is not the heir to the Metroid franchise. Sakamoto has a Metroid team that developed Fusion and Zero Mission. Intelligent Systems helped with some programming on Metroid 1 (NES) and Metroid 3 (SNES), but it wasn't their game.
 
Let SPD1 and Team Ninja restore their names with a 3DS game using that gorgeous Other M engine.

If Retro's going to do a Wii U Metroid, make it 3rd person. I think they can handle it.
 

Gilby

Member
2D please. Wii U or 3DS, I don't care.



You're hired.

Thanks!

I think the best part about the Prime games going first person is that they emphasize the environment, which has always been the real star of Metroid games. Take away most of the enemies so that players can focus even more on environment puzzles and hazards, while finding clues/lore to find out exactly what the pirates are after, and who were the ancients (lots of vague references to whatever is at the centre of the planet, of course). Maybe make the puzzles a little more Myst-like instead of just keys (Just the idea of Myst+ Prime's first person platforming makes me drool).

And as I pointed out, this would allow the series to explore some new traversal options. Literally flying through SM after you collect the space jump is one of those "I feel like an unstoppable badass" gaming moments. Maybe some sort of elastic grappling beam (attachable to any surface) that let you fling yourself around huge vertical chambers would suffice?
 

-PXG-

Member
Thanks!

I think the best part about the Prime games going first person is that they emphasize the environment, which has always been the real star of Metroid games. Take away most of the enemies so that players can focus even more on environment puzzles and hazards, while finding clues/lore to find out exactly what the pirates are after, and who were the ancients (lots of vague references to whatever is at the centre of the planet, of course). Maybe make the puzzles a little more Myst-like instead of just keys (Just the idea of Myst+ Prime's first person platforming makes me drool).

And as I pointed out, this would allow the series to explore some new traversal options. Literally flying through SM after you collect the space jump is one of those "I feel like an unstoppable badass" gaming moments. Maybe some sort of elastic grappling beam (attachable to any surface) that let you fling yourself around huge vertical chambers would suffice?

I would love to play a Metroid game like this.

Having the enemies at the end of the game would make the encounter feel more dangerous. It would give you a sense of urgency and make you hone all of the skills and abilities that you've acquired throughout the game.
 
I want 2 games,

the first being a 2-D Metroid Dread with sprites on the 3DS

the second being a Metroid Prime style FPA game unrelated to the prime games
 

Madao

Member
I didn't mean in the sense that they're linear. I meant in the sense that the games' worlds were designed like a Zelda's, with a hub world and three distinct areas that need to be cleared in the exact order (quite literally in MP2's case). Metroid Prime has a much more interconnected world, with multiple elevators connected the various areas in a much more organic fashion--Phendrana isn't connected to any area but Magmoor, for instance, which can be reached from all of the rest of the areas, there are at least three elevators leading to the Chozo Ruins from Tallon Overworld, etc.

Metroid Prime 2 is much more rigidly defined with a central hub world that splays out in three equal directions with a single main connection to each of the three main worlds, which all have exactly one elevator that leads to the other two main areas. There's absolutely nothing organic about Metroid Prime 2's world design. And then Metroid Prime 3 is just a whole other ball game, and I've already gone over it before.

Though if you wanted to be completely technical, the first Metroid Prime does have one instance of where you are given a choice in which order you want to do something in the main game (the X-Ray Visor and Plasma Beam can be gotten in either order), but that's just splitting hairs.

in mp2's defense, Aether wa spresented as a ravaged world from the start. the planet was fully colonized by the race that lived there (those Chozo-ripoffs called Luminoth) and they built a lot of the stuff you see there. in mp1, only the Pirate labs, part of the mines and Chozo ruins have a hand from civilized races. if the chozo had colonized the whole Tallon IV, it would be pretty much like Aether. also, Aether has more elevators than Tallon IV and the places are more interconnected (they just are available very late)
now, if Aether was presented as an unknown world and had that structure, you'd have a real complaint since there'd be no way the planet would build itself like that.

mp3 even has a few excuses given by the story but the fact they wanted to make things very separate and linear was hard to hide at this point.
 

televator

Member
They should make it dark and gritty again, but you don't know what you want them to make it darker and grittier than.

I don't think any Metroid games induced more fear than the Prime games (besides Fusion, obviously). G.F.S. Valhalla is definitely the creepiest environment in the series.

Fusion was the best 2D survival horror game I ever played. No Joke.
 

CorvoSol

Member
What about that: No sexual exploitation, just a strong woman saving the day. Gaming finally needs a true heroine without that shit.

AKA Samus in every Metroid game that isn't Other M? In Fusion she flips off the entire Galactic Federation.
 

RagnarokX

Member
AKA Samus in every Metroid game that isn't Other M? In Fusion she flips off the entire Galactic Federation.
Samus is just as strong as she's ever been in Other M; hell, she's stronger. You can have a midlife crisis and PTSD and still be a badass. She couldn't exactly flip off the entire Federation in Other M; they had a large amount of guns pointed at her. You could tell she wasn't happy with what transpired. Plus it wouldn't make sense for her to piss off the Federation when she's still employed by them in Fusion.
 
Top Bottom