Some Possibilities for a New Metroid Game

[Fahxy]

So, I've been contemplating this for a while. Metroid: other M had some genuinely good ideas in it, but was flawed fundamentally. There was no exploration except some badly hidden missile expansions, and the game was extremely linear, not things I am looking for in a metroid game. Also, the battles were easy and imprecise. In metroid, I expect to have to use good accuracy and strategy when I fight, and in this game I needed neither. All the aiming was done for me, you could automatically dodge any attack, and I found this extremely dissatisfying when I was looking to sink my teeth into a good metroid game for a few days. That is not to say that everything was bad: The graphics were done extremely well, and I'd love to see another game in the series with such attention to detail. Now, we can't have Other M:2, because that would leave many (though possibly not all) fans very dissatisfied. However, we cannot merely go back to another entry in the prime-series' style: By the last of the primes, though a very good game, you could definitely see the formula aging and how the developers were starting to run thin on ideas.

So the question remains, how could we improve on the series? we need a new direction on almost all fronts. How should we resolve these problems? Well, I have a couple ideas that are kind of interesting. One is yet another change in perspective. Other M's change in perspective alotted us more action than was possible in the Prime games, but it forsook (is that a word?) all of the precision and strategy found in the excellent prime games. So, we could find a happy medium. For example, we could have a metroid game with an over-the-shoulder perspective, similar perhaps to the one found in Resident Evil 4, which was a game with an interesting blend of exploration, scary atmosphere, and not-quite-zombie shooting action. For pete's sake, this game even answers the lack of scanning in Other M: in RE4, you found scattered about in the game world little memos left by characters of the game that gave you bits of background story and information, similar to log updates found by scanning in Metroid Prime. This shows how an excellent gimmick (btw: Gimmick is not actually derogatory. It merely means something innovative or unique. It has been merely warped by self procaimed "hardcore gamers") like scanning could be implemented into an over the shoulder game.

However, another issue is the storyline. Where is there room in the metroid storyline? My answer: right at the beginning.This game could entail Samus' training while a soldier in the galactic fedaration. She would still have the awesome Chozo suit, as clarified in Other m, but maybe she didn't have all of the upgrades that she's found over the years. Maybe we'd get to toy around with some neat Fedaration machinery before she found the big guns. Also, another cool thing that could happen is that possibly we could actually drive Samus's ship. THAT WOULD BE SO FREAKING AWESOME, I WOULD BE THRILLED! Sorry, I had to kinda let that out there. I don't even have to explain how great that would be, I'm sure you can imagine it yourself.

So, what do you think? could any (or all?) of these ideas benefit the metroid series? Could they actually be worse? What about any ideas you've had? Speak up, I'm interested to know!

 

[Zorato]

I HIGHLY disagree on when you said Metroid Other M was EASY! Try playing it on hard, then tell me how easy it was. Second, Precise is the exact opposite when I think of say super metroid and metroid 2 and fusion, missle spam is a powerful thing. I think we need other M combat and finishers, and prime world size and exploration. Here one thing you didn't say was wrong with Other M, NO HEALTH PICK UPS! I hated that.

 

[Fahxy]

Honestly, I really did think that it was too easy. As long as you had good timing, you never had to be damaged by an enemy. Also, the melees made it too easy to do insane damage to an enemy. Also, at least in the 2D metroids you mentioned, you actually had to aim, unlike in other M. However, what I really wanted was someone to analyze the ideas in my article. Does anybody have anything to say to my article, or perhaps ideas of their own?

 

[Shadao]

I perfer that they make a sequel to Fusion. The story left on a cliffhanger and I wanted to know where Samus is heading. The possibilities are endless. I do agree for Prime/Other M fusion type of gameplay. And I think the Wii U can provide that with the screen on the controller as first person view while the TV shows Samus in a third-person view.

Btw, I also want a flashback of KL-2.

 

[ironknuckle1]

I like some of your ideas and I think an over the shoulder metroid game would be great but I dont want to lose scanning it was one of my favorite parts of the prime games especially the ability to use multiple visors. I think that a great idea would be to use the Wii U's tablet as a first person perspective/ visor perspective while onscreen we see the third person perspective. Another thing would be to gain complete control over samus's ship such as what was shown in the Wii U minigame Battle Mii at E3.

 

[blackice_cc]

Well, I pretty much agree with everything you said about Other M. I hope they don't make a game in that vein again. It had potential, sure, but the way it ended up, it took out a lot of the main elements of Metroid, and replaced them. It didn't work out so well.

As for the over-the-shoulder perspective, I'm a little hesitant to embrace that as the future of Metroid. Sure, it worked alright for RE4, but in my limited experience of that game, it's a little slower paced than Metroid: the best way to deal with enemies in that seems to be to stay calm and aim carefully, whereas in Metroid, it's less about accuracy and more about hammering your enemies with as many shots as possible before they hit you, and dodging out of the way when they attack. If they made Metroid over-the-shoulder, the control would have to be tweaked a lot from RE4's setup. I'm sure they could do something, I just would hope it works out as well as first-person did.

You know, I think they could pull off scanning fine for over-the-shoulder, and they wouldn't have to turn it into finding random documents around that you can read: just have a first-person view down on the table, while keeping the normal view on the screen (as others have mentioned already). You could "look around" using the gyroscope, and then scan things without interrupting the gameplay with a perspective switch. I would prefer it that way, myself. Then you could get information on enemies and objects just like in the Primes, instead of just having lore.

To controlling the ship: yes yes and YES. That would be really awesome. Occasionally, when you're flying somewhere, you could run into a squadron of space pirates and have to manually pilot your ship to take them out. Another thing I think would be cool: maybe you could use your ship for reconnaissance over the various planets (at least, I hope there's more than one planet.) To balance it out, the space pirates could have lots of anti-aircraft turrets around that you would have to take out from the ground before you could fly over most areas. I would love that.

Really though, I don't think there would be many issues with the storyline. They could easily stick something between Other M and Fusion, between Metroid II and Super Metroid, or between the original and the Prime series; not to mention the most obvious spot - after Metroid Fusion. I'm guessing that's where they'll go. Fusion sort of ended in a cliff-hanger, with Samus waiting for the federation to arrive, knowing that she's gone against their orders and not having any idea as to what they'd do with her. The story could go pretty much anywhere from there: the federation could banish Samus to some outer corner of the universe full of hostile life forms for her to fight; they could attempt to banish her, fail, and have her become an outlaw; they could realize thier mistake and welcome Samus as a hero, and then promptly go send her out on another misson; etc. Maybe those aren't great ideas or anything, but you see what I'm getting at. The possibilities are limitless.

I do like your idea for a prequel, though. It could open up some interesting new story possibilites, and could give us more of a background for Samus. I really wouldn't mind if they fleshed Samus' character out a bit too, but only so long as they don't make that the main focus, like with Other M. It could also open up some interesting new gameplay elements: like you said, perhaps she wouldn't be quite so much of a juggernaut, not having all of her experience and abilities, which could mean you'd have (A) to be more careful, as each individual enemy might be more dangerous to her, and ( a lot of different, maybe not so good, but still new, equipment to work with. The only problem is, to do a game like that, they'd have to further stray away from the "I'm completely alone in a hostile environment" feel that the older Metroid games had. It seems that the series has been losing that for a while now: with Metroid Fusion, you always had Adam (the cyborg computer in Samus' ship in that game) telling you where to go; likewise, in Metroid Prime 3, you had the biocomputer thing (whatever it was caled) serving the same purpose; then, in Other M, they went even further, and gave you a full squad of people that you occasionally had to work with. Even so, in all of those games, you had portions where you actually felt alone. If Samus was a Galactic Federation soldier, she probably would be part of a squad at all times. I myself kind of miss that feel, and I wish they'd make a retro Metroid just like some of the older 2D ones. Still though, that alone doesn't make your idea bad: there are enough other, good things about it to more than balance that out.

Anyways, that's just about all I have to say. Good thing too: my post is pretty lengthy as it is.

 

[ironknuckle1]

Well, I pretty much agree with everything you said about Other M. I hope they don't make a game in that vein again. It had potential, sure, but the way it ended up, it took out a lot of the main elements of Metroid, and replaced them. It didn't work out so well.

As for the over-the-shoulder perspective, I'm a little hesitant to embrace that as the future of Metroid. Sure, it worked alright for RE4, but in my limited experience of that game, it's a little slower paced than Metroid: the best way to deal with enemies in that seems to be to stay calm and aim carefully, whereas in Metroid, it's less about accuracy and more about hammering your enemies with as many shots as possible before they hit you, and dodging out of the way when they attack. If they made Metroid over-the-shoulder, the control would have to be tweaked a lot from RE4's setup. I'm sure they could do something, I just would hope it works out as well as first-person did.

You know, I think they could pull off scanning fine for over-the-shoulder, and they wouldn't have to turn it into finding random documents around that you can read: just have a first-person view down on the table, while keeping the normal view on the screen (as others have mentioned already). You could "look around" using the gyroscope, and then scan things without interrupting the gameplay with a perspective switch. I would prefer it that way, myself. Then you could get information on enemies and objects just like in the Primes, instead of just having lore.

To controlling the ship: yes yes and YES. That would be really awesome. Occasionally, when you're flying somewhere, you could run into a squadron of space pirates and have to manually pilot your ship to take them out. Another thing I think would be cool: maybe you could use your ship for reconnaissance over the various planets (at least, I hope there's more than one planet.) To balance it out, the space pirates could have lots of anti-aircraft turrets around that you would have to take out from the ground before you could fly over most areas. I would love that.

Really though, I don't think there would be many issues with the storyline. They could easily stick something between Other M and Fusion, between Metroid II and Super Metroid, or between the original and the Prime series; not to mention the most obvious spot - after Metroid Fusion. I'm guessing that's where they'll go. Fusion sort of ended in a cliff-hanger, with Samus waiting for the federation to arrive, knowing that she's gone against their orders and not having any idea as to what they'd do with her. The story could go pretty much anywhere from there: the federation could banish Samus to some outer corner of the universe full of hostile life forms for her to fight; they could attempt to banish her, fail, and have her become an outlaw; they could realize thier mistake and welcome Samus as a hero, and then promptly go send her out on another misson; etc. Maybe those aren't great ideas or anything, but you see what I'm getting at. The possibilities are limitless.

I do like your idea for a prequel, though. It could open up some interesting new story possibilites, and could give us more of a background for Samus. I really wouldn't mind if they fleshed Samus' character out a bit too, but only so long as they don't make that the main focus, like with Other M. It could also open up some interesting new gameplay elements: like you said, perhaps she wouldn't be quite so much of a juggernaut, not having all of her experience and abilities, which could mean you'd have (A) to be more careful, as each individual enemy might be more dangerous to her, and ( a lot of different, maybe not so good, but still new, equipment to work with. The only problem is, to do a game like that, they'd have to further stray away from the "I'm completely alone in a hostile environment" feel that the older Metroid games had. It seems that the series has been losing that for a while now: with Metroid Fusion, you always had Adam (the cyborg computer in Samus' ship in that game) telling you where to go; likewise, in Metroid Prime 3, you had the biocomputer thing (whatever it was caled) serving the same purpose; then, in Other M, they went even further, and gave you a full squad of people that you occasionally had to work with. Even so, in all of those games, you had portions where you actually felt alone. If Samus was a Galactic Federation soldier, she probably would be part of a squad at all times. I myself kind of miss that feel, and I wish they'd make a retro Metroid just like some of the older 2D ones. Still though, that alone doesn't make your idea bad: there are enough other, good things about it to more than balance that out.

Anyways, that's just about all I have to say. Good thing too: my post is pretty lengthy as it is.

Your idea of recon I think is GENIUS! I have always thought that the planets in the metroid series seemed a little small. I mean look at MP2. You are supposed to be saving the entire planet but it seems that you are only given a small part of what seems to be an overwhelmingly large planet. I think that you should be able to explore all sides of the planets you traverse to and not just the small area where their is an immediate problem.

 

[Fahxy]

Ah, I am truly sorry, I did not elaborate well enough. I did not mean to say that we should ditch scanning, I was merely giving something of a precedence for the finding of log entries. I totally agree with you, blackice, scanning could easily be fit to an over the shoulder perspective with the second screen and built in gyroscope. Also, I was not saying that the pacing for the game would be the same as Resident Evil 4, as they are from two totally different genres (though they have a few similarities), so they would obviously be paced differently. Resident Evil 4 is of the survival horror genre, so it is paced kind of slow. In Metroid, an Action Adventure game series, Samus would likely run or jog, and she also has the benefit of endless ammo and a chozo-enhanced suit of armor which augments her abilities, so she would likely be dodging and running around the battlefield a bit faster than poor Leon, whom tends to have to slowly back away from large hordes of the undead slowly aiming for their all too small noggins to conserve his precious ammo. However, I have an answer to the issue of how to incorporate solitary adventuring (which I really prefer and think it added mounds to the stellar atmosphere of the original Prime game). Basically, we all know that the Federation is a crew of understaffed individuals with sucky weaponry and stingy generals that will spare none of their men to aid those they employ (aka samus) when in overwhelming odds (not that they would help that much, as we see in the beginning of MP2). So when a possible sighting of a space pirate cruiser is reported to the federation, what do they do? That's right, send rookie Samus on her very first solo mission to see if the rumor is plausible. So when she gets there and is ambushed by a fleet of Space Pirate ships (da da da DA epic space battle) and her communications on her ship is ruined and her warp drive (screw you, Solo, Samus can to the Kessel Run in a millisecond in her shnazzy Chozo battleship!) is destroyed beyond repair (she still can fly between planets in the galaxy though, otherwise it would be boring), she is effectively alone. *pats self on back* Also, John Malkovich should be Adam Malkovich. Who doesn't wanto to see Samus's hero as a crazy old white haired dude running around blasting baddies in his late sixties? My other choice would be Christopher walken. Or Jackie Chan. As he appeared in The Drunken Master: Long haired and wasted. All right, I'm truly sorry, I'm just getting tired. Still, try to get the image of Jackie Chan slurring, "Hanny Objekshunsh, Llllllaad-dy?!" whilst rocking out in a Federation suit out of your head.

 

[blackice_cc]

And I also did not mean that the pacing would be slower just because it was over the shoulder. I was saying that they'd have to tweak the controls and the overall setup quite a lot from what RE4 is like. I'm sure they could do it, but not having played very many over the shoulder games myself, I don't know what exactly the limitations are on it, or if it would work well for a faster paced game such as Metroid.

As for your other story ideas, that does sound kind of cool, but when you look at it like that, I think I'd just prefer a sequel to Fusion. We already sort of know a little bit about Samus's time as a Federation soldier thanks to Other M's cut-scenes, whereas we don't know what's going to happen to her after Fusion, and frankly I'm more curious about the latter.
But... Jackie Chan as Adam Malkovich? I'm not even sure I can imagine that...

 

[Fahxy]

Yeah, you need a bit more of a somber person as Adam.... Well, one could probably do okay with Russel Crowe, but only if you assume that Other M didn't exist and a short black haired dude did not save life, the world, and everything so that dolphins could continue to secretly be smarter than humans untill the next chapter in the Metroid universe, the events of Hitchiker's guide to the galaxy, and call himself Adam. However, onto a more important subject, go to Wikipedia and type in Third Person Shooter. That's codename for over-the-shoulder-perspective amongst some circles. There's a really diverse batch of games in there. They've got everything from RE4 to Gears of War to a couple more recent games in the Ratchet and Clank series. Honestly, the reason that RE4 can be so slow sometimes is the other genre that it occupies, Survival Horror. You are constantly forced to go back and search every corner of the room you passed through earlier just to find precious ammunition, because you aren't going to survive El Gigante's intimidating cross-eyed stare without it. Also, the game made you walk as the normal movement speed to make you pay more attention to details. So that slowness is more attributed to the survival horror sub-genre than, say the action adventure genre that Metroid is ussually filed under.