AarowSwift

Cheese is what you get when you try to compress meaning into a few minutes. I didn't think it was that bad. For the most part I thought the dialog and delivery was excellent throughout the game. The parts that didn't quite hit the right beat were pretty mild. The ending narration was pulp, but the delivery was good. I really liked the voice actors who portrayed the Aurora Units and the other bounty hunters (particularly Rundus and Ghor. Gandraya was really good too especially when she got nasty) Edit: My most hated cut scene was when I had to listen to that ugly woman explain the PED suit to me. I also think it's funny that, on the bridge of the Olympus, Admiral Dane reacts to the other flagship getting blasted before it actually gets blasted.

You can See Rundus' ship in Bryyo Fire, it's parked right above yours. It looks nothing like the ship at the end of Corruption. Edit: I watched the videos and though there are some general similiarities, I wouldn't call them the same ship. Any speculation at this point is just that, speculation. There's not any real evidence as to the ship's identity. Edit 2: Also, Noxus and Rundus may look similiar in design, but they are not the same species. Rundus is a Phrygian (sp?) and Noxus is a Vhozon.

I think they said "Horus Rebellion". Also, speaking of mysteries, was there anything to that mysterious communication that you hear twice in Bryyo Ice?

Yeah, the problem could be with your timing for jumps. You can get a lot of distance out of the Screw Attack.

I can only tell you what I'd do. I didn't care for some of the events laid out in Fusion, namely Samus decked out in the butt ugly Fusion Suit, so that would just go by the wayside right there. Things I'd allude to would be the consequences of the final events in Fusion. Due to her actions in Fusion, I'd see Samus as out of favor with some of the Powers in the Federation. That scenario could be played out in a lot of ways.

I really don't want 3-D remakes of the 2-d games at all. I do want to see a Zero Mission style remake of Metroid 2. As for how the next 3-D Metroid should be made? I have a design document in my head and unless Nintendo hires me, it'll stay there. I'd also like to see brand new 2-D Metroid, be it on DS or Wii.

Actually this one is a free download, I filled out their little form but not for a paid membership.

::sigh:: I hear that. Metroid is my favorite series, surpassing Legend of Zelda in my enjoyment of. I want everyone to love these games and experience them the way I do. What's wrong with people? Ah well. So, the music. You can download the sound track in its entirety here: http://mdb.classicgaming.gamespy.com/index.php?g=mp3&p=music Of course, no game, Metroid or not, has surpassed Super Metroid's soundtrack, but each of the Prime games has had one or two pieces of music I really liked. Now, I like Bryyo's main overworld, but I've found Rundus' battle music to be my absolute favorite track in the game. I'd love to hear what a remixer could do with it. What's the number one song for ya'll?

Nova Beam + X-Ray Visor works wonders on Metroids.

I think it's silly to break the game down into component parts and critique it that way rather than as a whole. I enjoyed everything I had to do in the game. As for the PED suit, it isn't a whole new armor, it just sits on top of Samus' Varia suit, same as with all the other hunters. As for how she obtained it, so what if it's story based? Does everything have to come from a boss battle? If you insist then think of it this way. She did get it from a "boss battle", one she lost. I was rather surprised at there being no Super Bomb, but the hyper ball was cooler anyway. I'd like to see that ability return in the series (obviously in a non Phazon related manner). Finally, If you're a space marine bomb squad member, and you're basically running around with high explosives strapped to your back, why the heck would your issued armor be weaker than a regular space marine's?

I've had the exact same complaint about Metroids in Metroid. They were reasonably threatening in Corruption, but still nothing compared to the 2-D Metroids. Metroids were little more than an nuisance in the first two Primes. I'd like to see a future 3-D Metroid give us all of the Metroid evolutions and make the series namesake a serious threat.

That's what it boils down to. I absolutely feel I-n-j-i-n is approaching Metroid Backwards by saying it's a shooter that had the adventure elements take over. That's sounds rather absurd to me. That's like saying The Legend of Zelda was a hack 'n Slash but the adventure element diverted focus away from the combat. Starting with the primitive original, search and discovery was pretty obviously the point of the game. The fact that you had a (rather pathetic) blaster to make your way past hostile aliens was just part of the full package. The upgrades you got in the game made you more powerful sure, but they still were at their most useful as tools. The Metroid games are Adventure games with frag style shooter elements incorporated into them. Anyway, on MP3: Corruption, I have to disagree with comments on the PED suit being a gimmick and complaints about incorporating the story into the game play. C'mon, what do you want? It was well done, fun, and interesting. The Fusion Suit in Metroid Fusion on the other hand...now that just plain sucked. If you want to talk ugly design, look no further than that. Still a great game. ...wish I could have reformatted "Adam's" hard drive though to shut him up.

Aww, but I was hoping I-n-j-i-n would at least respond to my main points before this concluded. He's been cherry picking certain arguments to contest. I'm missing a Federation Creature Scan. It's the last one on the list. What the heck did I overlook? Also, you know how you can view creature models in the Log book? So far it seems the only version of Ghor I can look are of him in his battle armor. I really wanted to look at his regular model. Is it somewhere in there or did Retro leave it out?

My first play through was on Veteran Difficulty and I finished in a bit over 17 hours with 88% items. I did a lot of wandering and looking around. Since I ignored any and all hints I spent a of time in the wrong places. But it never felt that way. I'm replaying with the purpose of collecting and scanning everything this time. I put the difficulty down on Normal so the battles don't distract me too much from my desire to poke into everything. I'm also using the map marking feature which will save a whole lot of faulty memory "where was that missile expansion again?" I really wish the map marker existed in the previous Primes, what a great feature.

I think that's it right there. That's why I say Metroid isn't a shooter but rather an adventure first and foremost with shooter components. If you take Metroid as a shooter, you get a very simple shooter. A very basic shooter. A very primitive shooter. A game that has none of robust characteristics of the shooters you are trying to defend. In its shooting elements, Metroid is not very heavy on strategy, or stealth, or any advanced shooter mechanics. This is why Metroid is not a shooter. Its shooter elements are added for variety. To mix up the pacing. To give a sudden shot of adrenaline now and then. I can't speak for anyone else, but when I say Metroid is not a shooter, I am not in any way saying shooters are basic, simple, primitive frag fests. I'm saying the shooter elements in Metroid exists on too minor and simple of a level to be placed next to much more advanced shooter games. This is because Metroid doesn't focus its game play on the shooting combat aspect. If you're used to the advanced mechanics of serious shooters, and you go into Metroid thinking its foremost a shooter, you'll probably be disappointed by Metroid's simplistic approaches. Because Metroid is not a shooter. Metroid simply incorporates basic shooting combat into its whole. Metroid's focus remains, as always on Navigating the Environments. Since that's Metroid's biggest draw, that is how it should be labeled: Action Adventure or First Person Adventure.

First, I just want to clarify that at no point have I felt or said all shooters are run'n guns. Nor am I even, or at any point, talking about multi-player. I only have single player campaign in mind and that's all I've ever been talking about. What I mean by shooter is a game that has shooting as its principle element. Can we even agree on that? If you took the guns out of these games, they would change in a fundamental way. Is that true or not?

I'm not sure how you got that impression from what I said at all. I thought I explicitly stated that there's a wide variety among shooters. In fact, I've tried to make mention of said variety every time I've mentioned them. FPS is a varied genre. They share a common basis for their primary gaming mechanic but that hardly means they're clones of each other and I don't think anyone suggested that they were.

I don't think it's really necessary to be so defensive of FPS games. They're really not my cup of tea (though there are a few 3rd person shooters I like) but I'm familiar enough with them to know they are hardly lacking their own depth. I've played a few, watched a few more, and read about others. They have a specialist focus on shooting, and there's nothing wrong with that. I think most people here are just trying to point out the different degree of importance that Metroid gives shooting combat VS true shooters. Of course it is true some shooters are true blue while others make greater use of elements from other genres. It's the balance of these different game play focal points that tell where a game falls categorically. Some shooters probably veer closer into adventure territory than others. It's when you cross that fuzzy genre line that you enter into Metroid territory, and need to label it accordingly.

I disagree. Combat may be more intense in MP3, but no more frequent than past Metroids.

Okay, I'm not just here to debate genres, so here's something else. Here's part one of my Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Second Play through. I only really completed the introduction segment and landed on Bryyo. Still, there were lots of little things I really appreciated during this short sequence of events. But first, here's my little critique of the opening cut scenes. I thought they were done well enough. The voice acting was top-notch, the writing was fitting. The facial models for the humans were okay. The only complaint I really have concerns the animation. The broad body motion was fine but the gesture animations were too soft. They weren't quite floaty, but I'd say they were definitely spongy. Also, the facial animation of Dane was, at best, serviceable (though I think the dear general forgot to put his dentures in). The (non Samus) human characters went through their motions but lacked any kind of personality, but then they really don't have any to begin with. The other Hunters fared quite a bit better when you got to see them moving around. That's one of the little touches I really liked, catching glimpses of the other Hunters doing their thing as you make your way through the ship during the attack and down on Norion while restoring the generators. I have to say I became rather attached to Rundus and Ghor, what little I saw and learned about them (Ghor is especially a sympathetic character. I'd missed the terminal that had his profile on it my first play through. Now I'm even more sad he ends up dying). Gandrayda, however, I hated from the moment she first giggled. Then calling Samus Sammy? Oh she did not just...that's an automatic bitch slap right there. I enjoyed helping out the GF grunts too, like the poor fellow who was almost sucked into space. I wish there had been more instances like that. And of course, one can't talk about the initial sequence of Corruption without at least mentioning Ridley. What a great initial battle. I wonder though, if you just dodge his attacks and let yourself fall all the way down the shaft, what would happen. Tune in next time as I share my thoughts on my continuing adventure through MP3: Corruption. Also Lessons Metroid Taught Me: Metroid has taught me that the most common survival mechanism of alien flora and fauna is self-detonation. Mushroom? It explodes. Fruit? It explodes. Bug? It explodes. But the real mystery is how the suicidal Shriekbat species haven't driven themselves to extinction yet.

For descriptive purposes. You probably want to get some idea what sort of experience a game offers before you buy it, right? Classification is a short hand description that aids in making a decision on what to play and what to pass. Since classification is usually limited to a short sentence or even a single word, then the words chosen should be as accurate and enlightening as possible to avoid misleading people into misguided expectations.

To those getting hot under the collar about this debate, please relax. It isn't a fight, or a flame war, or even an argument. It's a debate. A discussion of two or more views and I happen to be enjoying it. Most of the relevant posts make good reads, eloquently stating their points for their favored position. Debate is a healthy mental exercise, wouldn't want to have your brain turn to mush doing nothing but listening to people who always agree with you, would you? Sure, the subject matter here isn't important to the continuation of existence, but so what? I'm enjoying the discussion (so long as nobody involved makes the mistake of investing too much emotion into his/her argument. I'm passionate about the Metroid games, but I'm not going degrade an intelligent conversation by throwing a fit because somebody doesn't agree with me). Granted, it is a tangent not exactly in line with the thread's specific subject matter and that's a valid complaint. If it's bothering too many people who feel they can't discuss around us, we should probably move this into the Wii thread. I shy away from suggesting a new thread for it though as I don't think this debate is likely to last much longer. Most of the strongest points have already been posted.

I'm not denying it in the least. I'm just trying to point out that this isn't the element that best defines the Metroid experience. That's all. As shooting is not the main characteristic of Metroid, calling the shooting factor to center stage by labeling Metroid a Shooter is inaccurate and misleading. The label Action Adventure or First Person Adventure are more general terms, conjuring to mind a more even spread of gaming elements. Shooters, Brawlers, Hack'n Slashers, they're "specialists" in game play. Sure, they can and do incorporate many different play elements, but these exist as supplemental to the primary focus. Adventure titles have more than one focus that are more evenly distributed in game play. The most prominent focus being Navigation. Now, I've already typed an extensive post on this so I'm not going to tread old ground here. Ultimately, I feel that labeling Metroid as a shooter, thus focusing attention on the shooting element, does Metroid no favors. This does not in any way, shape, or form mean I'm disparaging the shooting element at all. I love the combat. But I love it because it plays a supporting role in the game, injecting variety, like a sudden shot of adrenaline, into the general calm mystique of exploration.

I think we can all agree that the Metroid series incorporates shooting elements to greater and lesser degrees depending on the specific game. There's no question about that. Where the debate comes in is the genre label. All I'm saying is categorizing Metroid as a shooter because of its shooting elements is not as accurate (and can be misleading to the uninitiated) as calling Metroid an Action Adventure game, or a First Person Adventure if you feel the perspective needs to be noted. Another reason I dislike the Metroid Primes being mis-labeled FPS games is this seems to cause certain factions of people to immediately make direct comparisons between Metroid and Halo (or whatever shooter, but mostly Halo), and demand multi-player frag fests in Metroid. But Metroid and Halo are not in the same genre, and demanding a focus on shooter elements in Metroid is missing the point of the games. See what happened to Echoes. Retro made the mistake of adding a shooter multi-player bonus to Echoes and more or less were criticized for their efforts because it failed to be up to shooter standards. What did anyone expect, really? Metroid is not a shooter. And Metroid Hunters tried to focus on the shooting element, and ended up a rather poor Metroid game. Because Metroid is not a shooter. Metroid is at its best when people stop trying to make it into a shooter. Metroid is at its best when the shooting element remains one lesser part of the robust Action Adventure whole.

But why is that the one element you are focusing on to define Metroid? To label its genre? Do you also label the Legend of Zelda titles as Hack and slashers because Link carries a sword? Is Mario 64 a Beat'em'up because Mario can punch goombas?