Metroid general

[Lurkerish Kandor]

I can't even fathom what it's like to be a huge Metroid fan right now.

Similar to how it felt when I saw Dragon's Dogma 2: I say "yep, yeah, mmhm" and go back to playing the first game (or romhacks in this case)

Unrelated, I only played Super on the SNES emulator. Which game should I try next? Fusion? Zero Mission?

I'd say play Zero next: there's some things in Fusion that seem like follow-ups from Zero, like Grip being found in Zero but an Innate skill in Fusion.
I would've also recommended playing Zero before Super, but eh, it's not the end of the world.

Out of curiosity, what was the very first time you discovered Metroid as a franchise?

Played the Zero/Fusion combo cart on a friend's GBA in highschool. He got me into a few things, like Bethesda Fallout and the TES games, because until then I'd largely only been playing Age of Empires/Myth and early Blizzard stuff, or anything I could acquire from Abandonware sites.

 

[Hemorrhoy Rogers]

Out of curiosity, what was the very first time you discovered Metroid as a franchise?

Kiosk at the local Toys R' Us. Enough people played it that somebody had actually gotten to the end of the game too. My uncle had a NES cart of the original game and that was the first time I actually played the series. Didn't get a SNES and Super Metroid until about 97.

The thing is, the switch 2 is expensive, new, and doesn't have a lot of games. If this game was supposed to be a draw in for people to buy the console a lot of people are on the fence about it.
I'm old enough to remember how bad Other M was. Probably a lot of younger people don't remember it, but man. What I am seeing is giving me worse than Other M vibes. I can't see people going out of their way to buy it and the console though unless reputable people actually give it raving reviews.

Yeah. It just figures that the one time I actually manage to get a new console on launch day, it's underwhelming. A friend and I finished Mario Kart World in like 2 sessions and I'm mostly done with Bananza (good game but waiting for a sale on the DLC) so Prime 4 is the only other game I'm interested in for it. Reminds me of when I bought a gamecube for REmake. Amazing game trapped on the wrong system.

 

[Manimal House]

In a way I'm kind of glad they took so long to release this. Thinking about the dive Nintendo has taken in the past 8 years, I've already reached the end of the lengthy stages of greif with Metroid. I was satisfied with Dread and I'd be okay with it being the last game in the series I'd ever play. Maybe that's because I've spent way more time playing the side scrolling metroids than the Prime games, not sure.

Out of curiosity, what was the very first time you discovered Metroid as a franchise?

Watching my older siblings try to beat the NES cartridge in the early 90's. They couldn't get anywhere without the Justin Bailey code and they thought it was a different character. Good times.

 

[Soggy Floppa]

Reminder that Prime 4 is on Switch 1 as well and will also run at 60fps, just with lower res/muddier textures, so you will most likely be able to emulate it a week early when it leaks, at 4k

 

[UERISIMILITUDO]

That is just gibberish. 2D Metroid was a side-scrolling platform. Unless they wanted to keep Metroid as a side-scroller when they made the jump to 3D, things were obviously going to be different.

It was certainly an argument that FPS was the wrong genre to take Metroid into the third dimension. They could've gone with the same approach they used for The Legend of Zelda.

Is the Mario franchise terrible after Super Mario 64 because he is no longer just jumping on his enemies in order to defeat them?

He is for the most part.

It sounds to me that this guy is another sperg like Dobson and Moviebob who was angry at Metroid becoming a FPS game.

I don't remember much of anything except the one point I referenced, but it wasn't a bad point.

 

[Internet-Based Lobotomy]

Prime 3 had NPC interactions and corny dialogue and they treated that as the worst thing in the world back then.

It was valid criticism. Prime 3 had much more NPC interaction than the previous games. Personally I don't think that's a good thing.

I'm old enough to remember how bad Other M was. Probably a lot of younger people don't remember it, but man. What I am seeing is giving me worse than Other M vibes. I can't see people going out of their way to buy it and the console though unless reputable people actually give it raving reviews.

I remember skipping out on Other M because reviewers I watched at the time said it was gay and bad. Maybe I should emulate it just to see.

It was certainly an argument that FPS was the wrong genre to take Metroid into the third dimension. They could've gone with the same approach they used for The Legend of Zelda.

I'm glad they didn't. Samus "doing acrobatics and dodging bullets/platforming" probably wouldn't translate well to true 3D, 3 axis gameplay. In my mind I just see a third person game with camera locking as your character model does flips in your peripheral vision. You can just pretend the same thing is happening when you dash dodge around or jump over attacks. Actually I think Prime captured that style of gameplay very well. It's just you usually go aside instead of over.

 

[TrainWreckWatcher]

Prime 3 had much more NPC interaction than the previous games. Personally I don't think that's a good thing.

It was definitely one of the worst things about it.
It kind of ruined the mystery, ambiance, and style of the games. 2 Had some dialogue but it was very little and felt more indirect.

 

[Toxic BRAAAAP Mask]

Never forget people like this worked at Retro during MP4's dev cycle.

Megan also had an old tweet (now deleted) about how she always believed Samus was trans, so if you don't think this development was pozzed, you might think again.

 

[derapples]

New Japanese trailers dropped. Basically confirms the fed troopers will be with you throughout the whole game.

I think the Metroid game with the best narrative is definitely Fusion. But that game's story worked so well mainly because of memorable set pieces and playing with the player's expectations, IE SA-X chase sequences, the elevator shutting down mid flight, and my favorite the artificial biom's plant life over growing and destroying the station's generator. In contrast, whether or not Prime 4's narrative will be good will be highly tied to if these NPCs are likeable. I'm really not against the idea of more prominent NPCs in a Metroid game, I just doubt anyone at retro has the writing chops to make it work, and it seems the characters will over stay there welcome in some form.

Despite everything we've seen I'm still hoping Prime 4 expands on what worked from previous entries like creating memorable moments like Fusion and having lots of fun lore entries like the previous Prime games. And when I eventually get my hands on the game I'll try to approach the NPCs with an open mind, I don't want to be someone who hates a game before I even play it.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

New Japanese trailers dropped. Basically confirms the fed troopers will be with you throughout the whole game.

Knew it. And they are never going to shut up, whether in a blizzard or a volcano, you will have no true isolation, they will always be in your ear. People saying Prime 4 will be as bad as Other M are definitely Mongoloids though. Until Prime 4 has Samus have a literal PTSD freakout when fighting Ridley to the point where she mentally projects herself as a little girl in a dress crying like a baby - Prime 4 isn't as bad as MOM (lol that acronym). Even I'm not that blackpilled on it, especially since Floppa is correct and the game will soon be emulated.

Reminder that this was like the 5th time that Samus had encountered Ridley (including the Prime games) after his supposed death. Shit was so tryhard melodramatic I'm amazed it was burned to disc. Imagine going from Prime 3 "finish the fight" Samus to post-Super Samus doing that. Don't let recency bias cloud your judgement too much - the GFed troopers seem baked, but Samus herself doesn't seem to have anything wrong with her at this time besides her shitty new red suit. In fact the one coolest shots to come out of these new trailers is Samus just being herself.

 

[The Lawgiver]

Reminder that this was like the 5th time that Samus had encountered Ridley (including the Prime games) after his supposed death.

Reminder other M was supposed to decanonize every game after super metroid (BUT EVEN THEN IT'S LIKE THE 3RD OR SO TIME SHE'S FUCKING FOUGHT RIDLEY)

 

[Lurkerish Kandor]

Samus "doing acrobatics and dodging bullets/platforming" probably wouldn't translate well to true 3D, 3 axis gameplay.

PrimeHack has showed me more hardcore FPS Metroid could absolutely work, but you'd need a team that knows how to make FPS gameplay fun. To me, PrimeHack suffers from combat being boring because having mouse control in these games not designed with mouse control in mind makes you OP as fuck.

But you can totally do FPS games with acrobatics and borderline bullet-hell shit (if you wanna take it that far) - games like that exist, you just need a team that can make it good. Not saying it should be Metroid Trepang2, as much as that would be my jam, but I'd settle for Metroid Halo with slower dodgeable enemy projectiles.

 

[LightDragonman1]

Again, it wasn't supposed to be PTSD but more of a metaphor for how she didn't think feel managed to move on from those events. But execution wise, yes, it was undoubtedly stupid.

 

[derapples]

PrimeHack has showed me more hardcore FPS Metroid could absolutely work, but you'd need a team that knows how to make FPS gameplay fun

With the reveal of the Switch 2's mouse mode I was really hoping Prime 4 would be similar to Dread in that it speeds up and puts a bigger focus on combat while ramping up the difficulty compared to previous entries. Sadly that doesn't seem to be the case.

Until Prime 4 has Samus have a literal PTSD freakout when fighting Ridley to the point where she mentally projects herself as a little girl in a dress crying like a baby - Prime 4 isn't as bad as MOM (lol that acronym)

Speaking of Other M and its sins, I wonder how Samus' characterization will be in this game. Even though its been almost 20 years since Other M, Nintendo still seems like they're very cautious about giving Samus much to say. Samus in Dread felt very safe to me, all her characterization in that game was her being cool and bad ass, which pretty much no one would have an issue with.

My guess is it will be like Prime 3 with Samus being completely silent and only communicate through gestures. Which is honestly a shame to me, I think Fusion proves you can have a vocal Samus and have it work really well. She only actually speaks in the very end of the game but she has lots of internal monologues throughout it.

 

[Lurkerish Kandor]

Samus in Dread felt very safe to me, all her characterization in that game was her being cool and bad ass, which pretty much no one would have an issue with.

I'm one of those people who'd prefer she never speak cuz it helps muh immershun, but that restriction also kneecaps the fuck out of a lot of storytelling possibilities.

So I'm fine with the Dread compromise of having her only speak Chozo, only when absolutely necessary, and instead using body language to get across the personality. The way she behaves in the Kraid fight in Dread is exactly the kind of shit I want in terms of Samus's "character" in Metroid games.

Edit to Clarify: That's not to say I want Samus to be all cocky and sassy and shit - that specifically works in the Kraid fight because Kraid is old hat so of course this'll be a piece of cake.

 

[Calandrino]

Samus have a literal PTSD freakout when fighting Ridley

Reminder that this was like the 5th time that Samus had encountered Ridley

If anything, Ridley should be having the PTSD freakout

 

[Zaryiu2]

I... I know i am setting myself for disappointment but i have waited for so long for this game that i don't want to say and believe it's inevitably awful before it is released and more is confirmed from it directly and not just videos. Edit: To be more clear, i am not optimistic but I don't want to go full doom and gloom either.
Also unrelated but why is this a Prime game if there's you know... none of the stuff that was exclusive to the Prime games after that stuff was destroyed in the end of 3? Yeah i know Sylux is from a spinoff Prime game but what else from the Prime Trilogy or Prime: Hunters is left to make this a Metroid Prime?

 

[Aurora Unit 242]

I... I know i am setting myself for disappointment but i have waited for so long for this game that i don't want to say and believe it's inevitably awful before it is released and more is confirmed from it directly and not just videos. Edit: To be more clear, i am not optimistic but I don't want to go full doom and gloom either.
Also unrelated but why is this a Prime game if there's you know... none of the stuff that was exclusive to the Prime games after that stuff was destroyed in the end of 3? Yeah i know Sylux is from a spinoff Prime game but what else from the Prime Trilogy or Prime: Hunters is left to make this a Metroid Prime?

It seems like at this point prime isnt about metroid prime or phazon but now the term they're using for any first person 3d metroid game.

 

[derapples]

Prime 4's title theme is... decent. On a positive note, all the tracks from the game I've heard have been pretty good. Certainly a step up from Dread's complete lack of any memorable tracks. I wouldn't be surprised if they got Kenji Yamamoto back for the OST.

I'm one of those people who'd prefer she never speak cuz it helps muh immershun, but that restriction also kneecaps the fuck out of a lot of storytelling possibilities.

I definitely get where you're coming from. But since Prime 4 is gonna filled with cinematic cutscenes and talking follow-along NPCs, you're probably not gonna get any of the atmospheric immersion from the previous Prime games. And if that's the case why not just have Samus at least have some minor dialogue so the NPCs aren't talking to a brick wall the whole time. Of course it's not impossible to make that kind of story work with a silent protagonist, Half-Life 2 is an obvious example. But judging from what we've seen of the engineer trooper, Retro's writers are nowhere near the level of Valve's

 

[Großmann]

People saying Prime 4 will be as bad as Other M are definitely Mongoloids though.

There are some weirdos out there that are working overtime to rehab Other M by making its reception and Prime 4’s development into a culture war issue.