The Future of Metroid

[Hector]

Metroid can't really return back to 2d. It can revisit it like Mario, but it is now a 3d franchise. The problem with trying to go back to 2d is that, after a certain point of pushing the graphics, you get much less of a return in 2d than 3d. However, they could perhaps experiment a bit with shifting out of the first-person mode. As cool as the prime series has been, but it has not been as good for certain things they tried to maintain from the older games: ledges that can be grabbed, screwball attacks and wall jumps for example.

Where they decide to continue the series is up for grabs. Just look at Hunters: one could put that game just about anywhere in the Metroid timeline. What they need though, is something to string a new series together similar to the role Phazon played in the Prime series.

[Antipode]

Metroid can't really return back to 2d. It can revisit it like Mario, but it is now a 3d franchise.

I'm pretty sure that Metroid Fusion was released along side Metroid Prime, and Zero Mission was released just before Prime 2 - so maybe they're just overdue for another one.

But yeah you're right - Metroid isn't one of their very top franchises anymore so I think they can afford to experiment a bit. As far as what I think is most LIKELY to happen next (not what I want most) - I'd be willing to bet a Hunters 2 is in progress, what with the success of Hunters and the little hint at the end of Prime 3. Plus, since NST actually made that instead of Retro, it seems like something they'd be able to do again.

[I-n-j-i-n]

I really wish we don't see a 3D Metroid if a long time. Maybe until there's a Nintendo console that has actual high definition and actually does Metroid games justice as far as having cutting edge visuals go. It'd be amazing if Metroid has all the real-time-lighting and other amazing visuals games like Dead Space and other adventure-style FPS/TTPS games have.

They should just go back to 2D where it's best. If they keep making 3D Metroids, it'll keep striving to be like other FPS games.

[big giant circles]

The corpse thing is mostly from the manga, if that's what you mean.

Yeah. I mean, I've played through MP1 & 2 at least 4-5 times each, but as far as the scans go, you know how that goes. I kind of quit actually reading them after the first time through.

[Zombie]

I need to work on my metroid collection BADLY. I only have the primes and super metroid. I know, i fail.

[Bleck]

I thought the scans, while a bit tedious to completely collect, we're a unique addition to the gameplay in that it added replay value whilst simultaneously deepening the story and characterizing the Metroid universe. One would first assume that the Space Pirates are all just the mindless drones beneath Ridley and Mother Brain, but the logs and scans seem to suggest that they're a much larger and more autonomous organization, with Ridley only being in military command.

I also like that the scans don't mention Mother Brain that much, if at all, since I always thought a big brain in a jar controlling a criminal group was kind of silly.

[NNY]

I really wish we don't see a 3D Metroid if a long time. Maybe until there's a Nintendo console that has actual high definition and actually does Metroid games justice as far as having cutting edge visuals go. It'd be amazing if Metroid has all the real-time-lighting and other amazing visuals games like Dead Space and other adventure-style FPS/TTPS games have.

They should just go back to 2D where it's best. If they keep making 3D Metroids, it'll keep striving to be like other FPS games.

This is one of the few times I've ever agreed with you. I just simply haven't been able to force my way through a Metroid Prime game.

[Overflow]

Nintendo's stated that Prime 3 is the final prime game, and you can even find a hidden message in MP3 that states this. A second hunters could be possible, though, but I think Nintendo essentially implied that prime 3 would be the last FPS style metroid. I hope that's true, because as much as I love the prime games, a return to 2d would really invigorate the franchise.

but, as was said earlier, Metroid isn't their top priority and it's unlikely they'd sudden;y do huge fanservice and make a Metroid 5. Even so, I would love to see and Metroid 2 ala zero mission.

Also, I've never read these scans, but that is the way I've felt about ridley too.

By scans do you just mean the instruction booklets?

[Bleck]

No, the scans in game. There is a hell of a lot of information to take in from all of the logs and scans from the three Prime games.

[Overflow]

No, the scans in game. There is a hell of a lot of information to take in from all of the logs and scans from the three Prime games.

Oh, yeah, I read all that I could find. I'm still missing like, 2 in prime 3.

I recall in Prime 1 a scan that mentioned rebuilding Ridley, but was it the mangas that talked about his using human bodies?

[avaris]

I think they should return Metroid to what makes the Metroid games extremely fun (in my opinion): Immersive environments, a forboding sense of BEING ALONE ON A HOSTILE ALIEN WORLD, and a focus on exploration.

Metroid Prime (1) did this passably well, so it's not like you can't do it in the 3D Metroids either.

100% agree. What made Super Metroid an absolute classic was that very fact. I never played until two summers ago and it blew me away. What an absolute gem of a game all of these years later.

[Nekofrog]

100% agree. What made Super Metroid an absolute classic was that very fact. I never played until two summers ago and it blew me away. What an absolute gem of a game all of these years later.

100% disagree. That's probably why I couldn't get into the first two Primes at all. How many times do we have to play a game where Samus finds herself alone on a desolate planet? I mean, come on. There can only be so many scenarios where that can occur for a bounty hunter.

A BOUNTY HUNTER! Let her do some actual Bounty Hunting! I want an Adventures of Samus Aran game where you explore the galaxy, interacting with the various lifeforms that inhabit it and, you know, throw shit down.

[Dhsu]

Have you played Hunters?

[Gollgagh]

eh, I didn't really like Hunters all that much.

probably mostly because it felt way too short, and that there wasn't that much exploration

[Wintermute]

Precisely.

EXPLORATION. IMMERSION.

[NNY]

Samus might be a bounty hunter, but Metroid has always been about exploration and isolation. Mario's a plumber, when's the last time we had a plumbing game?

[Overflow]

Samus might be a bounty hunter, but Metroid has always been about exploration and isolation. Mario's a plumber, when's the last time we had a plumbing game?

Does sunshine count?

[Nekofrog]

Samus might be a bounty hunter, but Metroid has always been about exploration and isolation. Mario's a plumber, when's the last time we had a plumbing game?

Except for the fact that Mario is a plumber in name only.

In Metroid, Samus' bounty hunting is tied into the story itself. How do you think she got tangled up in the whole Metroid saga to begin with?

orite

bounty hunting

[Torzelan]

Except for the fact that Mario is a plumber in name only.

In Metroid, Samus' bounty hunting is tied into the story itself. How do you think she got tangled up in the whole Metroid saga to begin with?

NOTE: I realize this might not be considered very canon so consider this a fun post only; I just remembered an old (1991) "cassette & book"-thing I have when I read your post...

Sorry for horrible phone-from-2003 quality. Rough translation from Swedish of these first two pages:

"A long time ago, or to be more precise last Monday, there were two plumbers in New York. Their names were Mario and Luigi, but everyone called them the Mario brothers.

This particular day they were cleaning a sewer beneath an old fortuneteller's store.

If it was because of the fortuneteller's magical powers, or because the brothers opened the wrong valve somewhere, we do not know, but suddenly the brothers were sucked into a pipe and straight through the time zone."

"They fell through time and space until they landed at the feet of the princess of Mushroom Kingdom.

Any buses back to New York were not to be found, so Mario and Luigi were allowed to stay in the Mushroom Kingdom together with the princess and the Mushroom people.

To keep busy, they opened up a plumber firm."

Sorry for the off-topic, carry on!

[Ferret]

Somebody probably already lambasted Radical Dreamer but I have to throw my two cents in:

Metroid/Zero Mission:

Two Ridleys: Given that you can't stretch Ridley's skin over Mecha-Ridley I can only guess the latter was built for outer space operations and use the "Ridley" image to strike fear into Federation crews.

Metroid Prime:

The Orpheon is the frigate whose distress signal that Samus responds to. It is most certainly a Pirate ship (in-game scans and events support this claim) and they were rebuilding Ridley or attaching the leftovers to a cybernetic frame.

No Ridley in Metroid Prime 2, or Metroid 2.

I haven't played the third Prime past the introductory areas, but I can guess that if there's a phazon-infused Ridley that corruption would end when Samus destroys Phaaze (which I'm assuming she does; she has a habit of blowing things up).

Super Metroid: Either a clone or the restored original. Phazon survivors are granted an accelerated healing rate among other things. Mutated pirates dying when they stand on it notwithstanding.

Metroid Fusion: since it's possible that Ridley's leaving his DNA all over the galaxy (especially considering he keeps getting killed by Samus) it's entirely possible that the B.S.L. has a clone of him in cold storage for study.

As for who originally thought of using Metroids for power and weapons? The pirates.

[Overflow]

Also don't forget that it was Ridley who led the attack on Samus' homeworld K-2L, which is one of the reasons she hates him so much. After all, he was the sole reason she landed on Tallon IV anyways.

[Thalzon]

I recall a scan from Prime 1 which pretty much stated Meta-Ridley is the original Ridley rebuilt. He's destroyed at the end of Prime 1 but returns in Prime 3 (still "Meta-Ridley" during the first encounter). I think it's futile to explain how or why he keeps coming back, except perhaps from a dramatic perspective. That is, he'll keep returning until some aspect of Samus's character is resolved, simply because he represents that aspect of her.

[JCvgluvr]

I'm expecting what most are wanting and expecting: A sequel/continuation of Metroid Fusion. Why? 2-D is selling like hotcakes nowadays.

What I'd like to see is beautiful graphics similar to Contra 4 and a sprawling world at least 1/3 bigger than Zero Mission's. And some new power-ups, gosh darn it!

[zircon]

Yeah, Metroid is one of the worst offenders when it comes to repeating the same powerups, IMO. Of course people would otherwise start to complain "But you can't have a metroid game without _____________".

[JCvgluvr]

I personally wouldn't remove any of the previous power-ups, I'd just add more. Getting rid of something that worked perfectly in a past game just seems like regression to me. *coughBRAWLcough*