To: N'Gai Croal
Fr: Stephen Totilo
Date: September 18, 2007
Re: You May Stop Now
N'Gai,
If you're only going to complete "Metroid Prime 3" with the help of a GameFAQ, then just stop. Please.
If "'Metroid' is a franchise that should never have made the jump from 2-D third-person to 3-D first-person," then what's wrong with me for enjoying it? Am I enjoying an inferior "Metroid" game? Am I enjoying a game that isn't a "Metroid" game at all?
And should they not have turned "Mario" into a 3D franchise either? Because, you know, it was a lot easier to move around in the Mushroom Kingdom when there were only two dimensions to worry about.
As wrongheaded as your absolutist conclusion is -- perhaps you meant to say that the game just wasn't your taste, not that it shouldn't exist -- you have managed to stumble, without the help of an arrow or the cue of enemies down the corridor, into a good point. That point is that there is still a great problem in gaming, a schism, even. There was the 2D era and then the 3D one. Not every game series -- and not every gamer -- has made the leap successfully, for better or worse. In the decade since "Super Mario 64," how many other platformers have been as good as their 2D predecessors? ("Sonic," anyone?) "Zelda" made the leap well, right "Link to the Past" fans? How's "Tetris" handling that 2D-3D transition? Other than "Tetrisphere," it ignored it. "Castlevania" still hasn't made a successful jump to 3D, and maybe it never will. Maybe it too is a "franchise that should never have made the jump."
What's it like to watch a great 2D game series go to 3D, have the masses praise it, and yet see it abandon key aspects in the process? I'm trying to put myself in your shoes which don't feel altogether unfamiliar. Do we praise this situation or shake our heads? Did no one notice what happened to the "Mario" platforming series? Should anyone mind? None of the three 3D "Mario" games I've played ("64," Sunshine," or preview versions of "Galaxy") feels as combative as the old 2D games. This <i>has</i> bugged me. In the "Mario" side-scrollers I was always wading in enemies. I could jump from the top of one enemy to the next, knock down rows of them with Koopa shells, and blitz through a whole bunch while invincible with star power. "Mario" 3D games are desolate by comparison. There are barely any Goombas and Koopas to fight. How many do you get on the screen at once? How many do you see in the average game minute? Very few. I've got to imagine there's an M'Gai Broal out there who just can't stand the violence done to his beloved "Mario" 2D games by bringing them into 3D. This gamer may think that the 3D "Mario" games are sacrilege and must not exist. He may be firing up his time machine right now in the hopes of changing gaming history. Others, though, might not mind the changes required of the transition to 3D, because they think enough of the essence is still there.
So that's where you and I part. I've played all three "Metroid Prime 3" games to completion, as I have all the 2D "Metroid"s except for the Game Boy one. The 3D games hold up their end. Whatever I got from the 2D games -- spooky atmosphere, sense of wonder, fun power-ups and progression, engaging detective-work -- are in the "Prime"s too.