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mingu-baristagamer · 7 years

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About that Metroid Prime 4 announcement...

Yes, I know this is vastly late, but bear with me, since I’ve wanted to say all this for a while now. But really, I feel that what I have to say here not only applies today, but will apply up to the release of the game. Let’s go on with this so I can knock it out real quickly and you can return to your daily Tumblr browsing. I know that some of you have some rather good things to look at. I’m looking at you, Sherlock and Mycroft shippers.... let’s keep going.

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Of course, once the trailer started, no one was really sure what this game was going to be, because it showed a bit of space, and nothing else really. My initial thought was actually Starfox because it’s one of the few Nintendo series that got love recently, but once the music started, I honestly knew for sure that this was Metroid. And then that 4 came into view, and I was actually in hysterics, because I knew for a fact that this was the announcement for Metroid Prime 4. I know right? That logo comes in view and - wait, it seems familiar - and then the subtitles comes up that it was now in development. Are Nintendo really going to - oh, yep. They are. That’s it. Somehow, that 40 second teaser was enough to satisfy every Metroid fan, or was it. I’m not so sure, so let’s take a look at a couple of points.

1. That logo looks vaguely familiar.

Before I get stuck into my first point, let me warn you that there will be a lot of back and forth to cover, because while I have a lot to cover, there is only 40 seconds, and I have already been told a lot from these brief moments. Let’s get started with the most obvious sign and one of the reasons why I am anxious about this game’s release window: the actual logo they used. I mean, the 4 is new, we all saw that, but the actual words Metroid Prime are not. Let’s go back ten years, when the final game in the trilogy was released. This is the logo that came with it.

Look familiar? It should, because that is the exact logo they used for the Prime 4 teaser. If you can ignore the fact that the ‘Prime’ has been enlarged and moved a bit, and the ‘Metroid’ shrunk, it’s clear that this was a rushed job probably to get the trailer for the Spotlight at E3, and which leads to my overall point.

2. No Retro Studios?

Another thing that makes me worry as a Prime fanboy is the fact that Retro Studios, known for creating the perfect trilogy ten years prior, are not involved in Metroid Prime 4 at all, and that a new team is working on it. While this is mostly fine for me, I’m all for a new team to work on the games, but has it worked for Halo? The results are pretty divided there. I just hope that the new team takes this new game into a different yet familiar direction, and not into Other M territory. And furthermore, what are Retro Studios working on? Must be a big new IP for Nintendo. This is about the new team, so if the results of Mass Effect Andromeda is any indication, this could be a sign of trouble, unless the new team is actually quite capable of doing their jobs to the best of their extents. Because this game has to get the official Nintendo Seal of Quality, right?

Oh, that’s right. Retro Studios basically said they were done with the Metroi series after Prime 3, so that’s fine. Yep.

3. Series Seller?

Let’s be realistic here, a large reason Nintendo kept this project on the ground is probably due to the fact that Metroid has never been a huge seller for them. Sure, the sales are alright overseas though nothing special, but in Japan, Metroid is actually not very highly regarded, so I suspect that low sales and interest in the franchise is what led to Nintendo trying a new direction for this series. And that was Other M. That game was received fairly well by critics, but it got probably the harshest response from fans over the world,which probably contributed to Nintendo pulling the franchise back. And yet despite this response, Nintendo apparently saw there was a need for the series to continue from fans. Let’s be straight here, either this is Nintendo actually continuing the series because there’s something new to do with it, or because they want t win some fans back to sell the Switch? Probably the latter.

4. Development, yes. but how long?

This is probably the most critical point I will make today, because let’s be realistic, the quick teaser was amazing to see, but that’s all it was, which kind of leads to my big point here. The logo, the new team, the selling point, it screams out to me that maybe this announcement was made too soon? Sure, we know that it’s in development now, and that’s great, but really, what we want to know is, how long has Metroid Prime 4 been in development for? Seeing the logo made in such a worryingly lazy way makes me think that it hasn’t been in development for very long, like they’ve only just started and we won’t be seeing the game for a few years yet. Worst case scenario is we’ll get it in 2020 - and it won’t be shown at all next year. Really, the only reason I think they showed this announcement this year at all, is because they knew fans were quite antsy for the new game, and they had to make this announcement the night before in Adobe After Effects.

It sounds like there was a catch 22 situation with this announcement that they had to consider, and there were two options. Either they would not announce it until they had more to show, and that would satisfy the fans much more, but at the same time they would lose a lot of fans because nothing was shown at E3 this year. Or they could announce it now, let fans know that yes it is coming to the Switch, and that would make everyone excited, but then that’d mean the wait is very long. And obviously, they went with the latter, when they could have so easily gone with the former. But really, going with the latter would not have hurt them at all, because look at what else was shown. We have a new Xenoblade Chronicles, a new Fire Emblem Warriors, and a new Sonic and Mario for this year. And to top it off, they had Yoshi and Kirby games for next year with actual gameplay. There was also a Pokemon announcement in there somewhere, which was directly before the Prime 4 announcement, so it feels weird that there’s two empty announcements between a mishmash of full gameplay reveals and trailer. And the same for Pokemon can be said here - the announcement feels like it was in response to the Pokemon Direct, where a sequel to Sun and Moon were announced for the 3DS, as well as Pokken DX for Switch.

5. Samus Returns!

I apologize for the literal wall of text that I made with the last point but the reason I did that is that it was the most substantial point I had to make, and really it tied into the next one I have, which is the further announcement that Samus Returns is coming to the 3DS, You heard that right, an official Nintendo remake is coming. And yes, it is a remake on Metroid 2: Return of Samus - which actually recently saw a fan remake released some time ago. Now, this is a bit problematic for me to talk about, because I honestly don’t want to anger the fans of that remake. Which... probably doesn’t matter anyway since there are already some salty people that wish to boycott Samus Returns. Why? Because that game is apparently not good enough for them, and that Nintendo should feel bad for doing this to a fan who spent ten years making a game based on content that Nintendo owns, and they have every right to DMCA or C and D, and make their own remake of. Those fans have nothing to be angry about - Samus Returns looks like it’s had a lot of work go into it, so that probably means it’s been in the works for some time, maybe even before the fan remake came out. T those fans, I saw please pull the sticks out of your asses, and be happy that Nintendo are giving one of their long dormant game series a reboot and a new game. It doesn’t matter that AM2R is free and can be downloaded right away, Samus Returns if an official product, and it should be supported as well.

They probably won’t listen, but that’s exactly my point. What if this 3DS remake is Nintendo’s way of gauging just how much interest there is in the actual Metroid franchise? It never sold very well, and the 3DS has 66 million users, so it stands to reason that they hope to see strong sales so they can decide how much Prime 4 gets in terms of development and funding. Which is a bit sad, but I’m excited for Samus Returns as well, and I’ve already preordered it. But honestly, it’s amazing to see Samus finally returning.

6. Story for Metroid Prime 4?

Finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel! I’m almost done, but I wanted to speculate a bit about how Metroid Prime 4 will be done. Federation Force was pretty much almost ignored by fans, but it did have an important after credits scene with Sylux and a little Metroid egg, which stands to reason that this could be the story for Prime 4. Even if it isn’t, there was also the post credits scene for Corruption, which featured Sylux’s ship. I might be certain that Sylux will be involved in Prime 4, in one way or another. Exciting, huh?

Well, that’s it for this long LONG post. Please leave a heart, comment me your thoughts as well, or even message me if you want to discuss~! Thanks so much for reading, and I will see you in the next review.

OH, and I am planning to make this a video as well, let me know if that is a good idea.

#nintendo #metroid #metroid prime #metroid prime 4 #e3 #announcement #samus aran #federation force #corruption

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