Controvercial, I know. Metroid Prime is one of my favorite games of all time. Retro made it. How can I not want Retro to make another one?

Well first, I think the knee jerk reaction is to think that Metroid is in dire need of Retro right now. After the utter abomination that was the the most recent entry in the series made by it's co-creator, the obvious reation would be to give it back to the guys who made the good Metroid. The three good Metroids.

Well here's the first reason why I'd rather Metroid be given to a new, still capable, studio. As much as I love Metroid Prime, and I LOVE Metroid Prime, it kiiiiiiinda doesn't really feel Metroid like a little bit. That's a weird thing for me to say, because in a lot of obvious ways, it clearly is Metroid. It's a giant world that you travers through caverns and tunnels in a pretty non linear way. It's isolating. It's atmospheric. That's all very Metroid, but there's something different about all the Prime games.

It's one of the reasons why, even if I ignore Prime's pacebreaking fetch quest, I can't say that I like it more than Super Metroid. The atmosphere in Super Metroid, and even in some parts of the underwhelming Metroid Fusion, is different to the one in Prime. And it's not because one is in 2D and one is in 3D. Prime has a distinctly... "space-y" vibe to it. It feels "galactic" or "stellar." I'd even compare it to Star Trek in how its atmosphere can feel. And that's not a bad thing. That works for the Prime games. I love that in the Prime games. But that's not what I feel like Metroid games should typically be. As great as the Prime game's are, they clearly are just a side story. That's why I feel like that vibe works for the Prime games, but I don't want any other Metroid games to feel like that.

Super Metroid on the other hand has a completely different atmosphere. I hate beating a dead horse, but it's partly because it really does feel like the movie "Alien." And don't get me wrong, it doesn't feel like that all the time, and there are many times where I'm exploring and it feels no different from Prime, but that distinctly eerie and unnerving feeling is almost completely absent from the Prime series. I don't want to say that Super Metroid is a scary game, because it isn't, but it does have a sci fi horror atmosphere that Prime lacks.

I think the title screens does a great job of showcasing the kind of atmosphere differences between that of Super and the Prime games.

Super Metroid Title screen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2-eg04TaKQ&spfreload=10

Metroid Prime Title screen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImlQEFqUIcU&spfreload=10

It's not that I don't think that Retro can make a game that brings that feeling back, but I just don't think they will. They have no reason to. The Prime games were rightfully never criticized for taking this element away from the series, but it's part of the reason I feel like we've never gotten gotten a true 3D Metroid game yet. Like Retro made Metroid: The Side Stories instead of Metroid 5. And again, that's FINE. I love the Prime games, but I want that Super Metroid of 3D Metroid, and I feel like we haven't gotten it yet. Unironically, Alien Isolation captures a little bit of that atmosphere. So does Bioshock.

But even the way they portray alien worlds is different. I rarely felt like I was exploring underground alien tunnels in the Prime games. It always felt like it took a more realistic approach to how these worlds would look like. In Super Metroid, it would rain spores and pollen. There would be entire catacombs lined with what looked like bubbles or fish eggs. Prime didn't do things like that in any of the games with the exception of the much more intentional phazon and one time where it rained static electricity. Again, this isn't a criticism, but I don't think Retro will ever feel the need to bring these elements into a 3D Metroid, because their absence in the Prime games wasn't a flaw. They were just two different types of games with two different types of goals, but I want just one 3D Metroid that sets out to do what Super did, just like Zelda U is setting out to do what Zelda 1 did. I just don't think Retro will do that. Not because they're not capable, but because they have no reason to stray away from the design philosophy used in Prime.

This is absolutely not to say that I want Sakamoto touching the Metroid franchise ever again, but I want a new team to try to tackle Metroid from a different POV than Retro did. I want a new team to re-examine what made both Super Metroid AND Metroid Prime great, and apply even more new ideas to bringing Metroid into a more modern era. Little things like why the use of black and blue on the title screen of Super Metroid does so much to ooze that uneasy atmosphere. Or why unvailing narrative through exploration worked so well in Metroid Prime. Or why the movie Alien is such an important referance point to the atmosphere of Metroid. I want a new Metroid that borrows from Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, the movie Alien, and clever ideas from other games to create a game that is a different beast from Metroid Prime and Super Metroid.

Heck, why not make it completely 3rd person this time. If Metroid was originally meant to fuse Zelda with Mario, why not take that to where control, combat, perspective, and exploration is concerned. Make it control like a mixture between 3D Mario and 3D Zelda. A mixture of platforming tightness found in 3D Mario with the Z/L/ZL targeting found in 3D Zelda. With that perspective, they'd even be able to bring back moves like the Speed Booster and the sorely missed Shine Spark. Obviously though, I don't want it to do a shit job at being different like Other M did. I have faith that Nintendo can put a team together that can handle this, as long as it's not headed by Sakamoto or Miyamoto. They could even take members from both the Zelda and Mario teams and get them working together to make this new Metroid. Audio scans could be implemented instead of just readable scans. Omega Metroids could be implemented in a similar way to Big Daddies in Bioshock. So much could be done with new blood that just wouldn't otherwise.

I think the last reason why I don't want Retro to make another Metroid game is because I want them working on other things instead. I really want to see them Make a Diddy Kong Racing Returns. I really want to see them make a "Donkey Kong Planet" aka a 3D Donkey Kong Platformer in the same vain as their Returns series. I really want to see what they could do with an entirely new IP of their own. I think that they could even bring another old Nintendo back and give it new life. Maybe their next project could be Mother 4. I just feel like they've added all they've needed to add to Metroid. And if we're being frank, the quality of the games lessened with each iteration. Prime 2 and 3 were great games, but not as tightly made as the first Prime and I think that even they know that. I think they were tapped out and wanted to bring their expertise to different franchises, and I hope they continue that trend for a while longer before they tackle Metroid again.

And dear God, when they eventually do, it better not just be "Prime 4." That's just as unimaginative as "Galaxy 3."

I do.

I've got good news for you then, I hear they are making Diddy Kong Racing

on a side note, I might actually like Metroid if it was in 3rd person and brought in horror elements. For now, Metroid just isn't my thing...at all.

There are plenty of horror elements in the Prime trilogy.

Metroid Prime 2 is probably the most atmospheric and "creepy" game of the entire franchise. Besides, Echoes has the most references to Alien thus far: 

• The idea of the main planet having a turbulent atmosphere which damages the protaganist's ship is a concept which also appears in Alien when the Nostromo is damaged while landing on LV-426 and has to stay on the planetoid until repairs are complete.
• Samus being sent to Aether to restore contact with the troopers is another concept in Aliens in which Ripley and the Colonial Marines are sent to restore contact with the colony on LV-426.
• The Splinter hive in the Federation Troopers' Ops base and the discovery of the dead troopers caught in webs is similar to the discovery of the Alien hive and cocooned colonists in the colony complex in Aliens.
• The scene where Dark Samus aims at the real Samus when they first meet is, according to storyboards, based on the climax of Aliens.
• The Federation Troopers can be considered similar to the Colonial Marines from Aliens.
• The part where Splinters manage to get on board the Tyr and damage it beyond repair is similar to the scene in Aliens where an Alien boards the first Sulaco dropship and kills the pilots, causing it to crash, stranding the remaining survivors.
• One of the deceased Marines, PFC G. Haley, is described to have lost his sanity during the Splinter attack. This is similar to Hudson, one of the characters from Aliens, who also loses his sanity when all hope of surviving the mission on LV-426 is lost.

Even in Metroid Prime 3 we have the abandonned spaceship Valhalla that was the victim of a space pirate attack. In the ship lurk all kinds of phazon enhanced creatures and the bodies of the victims (both marines and space pirates) tell brutal stories. The metroids leaving behind empty shells of bodies that desintegrate on touch was also a nice addition.

I would like, if they make it TPS this time. To revigorate it somehow.

Like this, and use the gamepad to give us the HUD view from Prime, top notch.

I do

I personally would like them to make it. Retro is one of the best developers under Nintendo and they always know how to create memorable, polished and atmospheric games. It doesn't have to be exactly like Prime, but I do want them to continue with Metroid.

No, just no...

Personally I would like to see them do something original instead of work on yet another Nintendo IP, because that's all they've done since the studio was formed over 15 years ago... Metroid and DKC.

This is what Nintendo needs above all else, fresh new ideas and new IPs from their 1st and 2nd party studios. Mario, Metroid, Zelda, DK, Pokemon etc., are only going to carry them so far from this point on.

It is still incredibly amazing how good the Metroid Prime games look, especially with such weak hardware!