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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Metroid: Samus Returns is FANTASTIC so What's Next for 2D Metroid?

 

What should Metroid 5 be?

2D 38 26.95%
 
2.5D 40 28.37%
 
3D 25 17.73%
 
4D 38 26.95%
 
Total:141

I will start off my saying that I am happy my name is relevant to this post.

I hope Metroid 5 is now being worked on by MercurySteam. Hopefully they can make many more great game for Nintendo. I also hope MercurySteam will partner with Nintendo just as Next Level Games became a partner with Nintendo after Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. Though I do hope MercurySteam's next game turns out better than Next Level Games's Federation Force.



Games I have Finished

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A few things I would be interested in for a new entry:

  • I have not played Samus Returns yet, but the new abilities introduced in this game seem like great additions. The melee counter is a great concept, and things like the free aiming and Aeion abilities could work depending on a new game's design.
  • At some point, new games should try to avert the whole "lose all old abilities" trope that plagues Samus. Thus far, I think the main aversions have been the longer range shots, which had to be found in the original game, and Prime Hunters let you start with basics like the Morph Ball and Missiles. But in all seriousness, I feel that some of these abilities need to become part of the basic moveset available from the beginning of the game. Maybe a combination of the basic arm cannon, charge shots, missiles, morph ball, and athletic abilities like the power grip?
  • The timing of the game within the series matters. If it takes place after the events of Super Metroid or Fusion, then the Galactic Federation is going to have to play a role, likely as antagonists. Although I personally would be interested in that sort of story, story isn't what I'm looking for in Metroid. Meaning that something earlier in the timeline might work better. Especially if we want Metroids to be involved.
    • If a game is set latter in the timeline, such as after Fusion, then we need to consider how fights against the Federation could possibly work. Would they resemble some of the fights against other bounty hunters in the Prime games? Would they basically be the stand ins for Space Pirates in Super Metroid and Zero Mission?
  • Sequence Breaking is not something I would use very often, but should be included. Breath of the Wild should have convinced Nintendo that this is not something to be avoided. Maybe half of the upgrades in the game could be technically optional? Alternatively, a lot of the old tricks from across the series should be brought back. Let us skip the Morph Ball jump by using bombs, tank our way through high temperature sections, and beat the major bosses in reverse. At very least, include something like wall jumps, even if they're never needed.
    • What other kinds of challenges can players choose from? Can the game somehow encourage players to get 100% completion or play Low % Runs? Would having lots of alternate endings suffice?
  • Perhaps more of an emphasis should be placed on hunting down creatures, sort of like in Samus Returns. Could an area be designed so that we have to track down a boss encounter for a while before finding them? They could be running around in an unscripted fashion, possibly wandering between a few boss arenas. And we could then have to track them down, possibly using environemtal clues. Perhaps certain locations would offer different pros and cons, or maybe we'd be able to lure the monster to an ideal arena. Expand on the concept of Hunting.
    • Remember how in Super Metroid, that one boss could be beaten easily by using the grappling beam to connect it to the electirc surface? What if every boss had one of these, but you had to explore around to figure out how to do it?
  • If we fight Ridley again, he should be able to clearly escape from Samus. No need handwaving another death.
  • The next time we fight Kraid, I want him to be freaking enormous! Make him as big as the largest single room in any 2D Metroid, or a couple of times taller than his Super Metroid appearence. Throw in a normal Kraid fight beforehand if you want to pay homage to Super Metroid.
  • The system in Metroid Fusion where you get new abilities via the Mega Man method is interesting. The boss fights could even serve as indirect tutorials on how to use the new abilities, like evil versions of those critters in Super Metroid. This would also be a good excuse for the inclusion of any radically different power ups introduced.

 



mZuzek said:
MTZehvor said:
I'd say the answer should largely depend on what exactly they want to do with the game, because both the Prime games and the 2D titles are better at different things. If it's going to focus on the teaser image that you get after 100%ing the game, however, I think I'd lean towards a first person Prime title. Prime's emphasis on atmosphere from a first person perspective and the ability to scan lore would both be very useful for a game that would probably be extremely atmospheric and focus heavily on background knowledge.

Eh, it's too early to tell. I personally feel like the Metroid 5 coming out of that image is a more narrative-driven one with the story being very active rather than passive, and out of the Metroid games that have tried to do that so far (Fusion, Corruption, Other M) I think the best one was easily the 2D one.

The issue is, with a storyline like this, there's going to be the need for a lot of passive storytelling to explain how we got here (i.e. what caused this group to rebel in the first place, what they have been doing since the the SR-388 masssacre, who that leader is and why he chose to slaughter the elders on SR-388, etc.). On top of that, players would probably want some insight into Chozo culture altogether; this would be the first time we've actively seen the Chozo in the series and the game will probably need to go to some effort to explain some of the mysteries behind the species. I don't see this as something that a game can accomplish without quite a bit of text, and I think Prime style scans would be a superior way to get info across as opposed to bringing back Adam and having explain stuff to us again.

Something of a minor point, but I wouldn't really consider Prime 3 an example of an active story, either. Most of the scans are dedicated to events that happened before the events of the game, and while the three other hunters do constitute more active characters, they're basically removed from that role as soon as they're corrupted and basically just used to establish how serious of a threat Phazon is.



mZuzek said:
Volterra_90 said:

About Samus Returns, I haven't had the opportunity to play the game (sadly, I sold my 3DS a while ago, and I still regret that choice, but it's late now ). But I heard that there are teleportation rooms in the game? I mean, that doesn't make the game feel more linear? It's what kept me worried about it. I mean, Metroid games is about backtracking and find new paths with your new adquired power-ups. Also, how does the 3D feels in this game? I'm about to buy it with a friend who still has the 3DS, and we're definitely thinking about it.

Yeah, the game has fast travel but it's quite limited in that you can only fast travel from a teleport station to another teleport station, and there are actually only a few of them around. You see, the game is quite linear (and rightly so, because Metroid 2 was linear and this is still a remake), which is why the fast travel system is important - since you're usually only going deeper and deeper into the planet, it'd be pretty pointless and annoying to have to go all the way back to a much earlier area only for that one collectible you couldn't get (you never need to backtrack for key items). That is not to say it doesn't feel like Metroid, because each individual area kinda works as a little Metroid world on their own, and really they are all quite big, actually (the world map is huge for a 2D Metroid). In the end, the general flow of gameplay here flows more like a Fusion than a Super or Zero Mission, though without all the dialogue and story-telling.

About the 3D effect, it's great - like, seriously, really great. Probably the best I've seen on the 3DS, though admittedly I haven't seen much.

That's nice to hear. About the linearity of the game, I wasn't familiar with Metroid II because I found it pretty hard to me to get into, so I thought it was similar to Super Metroid/Zero Mission in the way the world is designed. If Metroid II is more linear, it makes a lot of sense to put fast travel, because if the world isn't connected enough, the game would get pretty tiresome. Also, what are the changes if we compare it to the original? It seems that the length was improved, so I guess some extra levels are in the game?

About 3D, I've only enjoyed it in Zelda ALBW. But if it's well used, in a 2D game it could be awesome to see.



mZuzek said:
Volterra_90 said:

That's nice to hear. About the linearity of the game, I wasn't familiar with Metroid II because I found it pretty hard to me to get into, so I thought it was similar to Super Metroid/Zero Mission in the way the world is designed. If Metroid II is more linear, it makes a lot of sense to put fast travel, because if the world isn't connected enough, the game would get pretty tiresome. Also, what are the changes if we compare it to the original? It seems that the length was improved, so I guess some extra levels are in the game?

I'm not sure about how much has been added, because even though I've played Metroid 2 quite recently, I actually don't remember much. Samus Returns might have entirely new areas (I think at least one, probably), but the original areas were so hard to distinguish I'm not even sure. The map was changed dramatically and so has the way the areas are connected, so there's barely any resemblance at all, with me only being able to pick out a handful of in-game locales from the original game (and AM2R, which was far more faithful actually).

Nah, I don't know. There's plenty of areas, and I think at least one entirely new one, but most notable is just how big and developed they are, unlike the originals which were pretty basic. There's also at least one new boss, though I won't go into too much detail there of course, and some of the newer power-ups introduced in Super and the Aeion abilities (which aren't optional at all, they're quite important). The only notable Metroid power-up missing here is the Speed Booster, sadly, but they did introduce a sort-of replacement for both it and the Shinespark in a way (nowhere near as cool or iconic, though).

Cool, I heard lot of praise about the remake. But I thought this was gonna be more faithful in level structure and so, but it's nice to see they make some changes to the game, and that they're great. The fact that there's one new boss excites me, I hope it's some pretty iconic boss for some WOW effect XD. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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I disagree completely.



spemanig said:
I disagree completely.

Care to elaborate? I'm actually quite interested in hearing both sides about this game



spemanig said:
I disagree completely.

You're a writer for the site, maybe you can come up with a response article.



I personally think the most likely outcome is that we get a Super Metroid remake on switch 1 or 2 years after prime 4.



Bet with Intrinsic:

The Switch will outsell 3DS (based on VGchartz numbers), according to me, while Intrinsic thinks the opposite will hold true. One month avatar control for the loser's avatar.

VGPolyglot said:
spemanig said:
I disagree completely.

You're a writer for the site, maybe you can come up with a response article.

Someone else is doing the review actually! tho i considered writing a critique. We'll see!