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Metroid. It’s one of Nintendo’s most beloved franchises. The series, originally thought up by one of Nintendo’s greatest innovators, Gumpei Yokoi, contained a perfect mix of action and exploration, and were enjoyed by many. The games starred Samus Aran, a female bounty hunter, in her quest against a group of Space Pirates, and an alien life form called Metroids. These Metroids had the ability to suck the energy out of any life form. Samus was called into action three times to defeat these creatures (Metroid, Metroid II: Return of Samus, and Super Metroid) and in the final game, the Metroids were seemingly wiped out completely. Fans of the series were eagerly awaiting a new installment of the franchise, but though it was often rumoured, a new game never came to be. Then, at Spaceworld 2000, during the unveiling of Nintendo’s new system, the GameCube, a demo was shown, featuring none other than Samus Aran. Rumours quickly spread of a new version of Metroid for GameCube, and these rumours were eventually confirmed. The game, officially announced as Metroid Prime, is being developed by one of Nintendo’s newest 2nd parties, Retro Studios. The game has gone through a somewhat difficult development cycle, with employees arguing over the style of the game, and even getting fired along the way. There wasn’t too much revealed at E3, aside from a couple of teaser movies which were FMV, though there is rumours that part of it was real-time. The movies may not have shown much, but they did show that Retro could recreate the atmosphere of the series, and possibly do the series justice. Little is known about the story, but it was revealed that the game is a prequel. Since the game takes place before the original Metroid, all of the problems of the Metroids being wiped out have been solved. The possibilities are endless, and I’m sure Retro will come up with a great story that keeps the spirit of the series alive. It is heavily rumoured that the game takes place in a 1st person perspective, which makes many fans of the series very angry. It does drastically change the series, but the fact of the matter is that most 3rd person 3D shooters aren’t very good. Though it is very likely the game has made a change to 1st person, I’d like every body to note this quote from a Retro employee when asked about the subject at E3: *Don’t believe everything you here about Metroid* Gameplay is definitely the biggest problem facing Metroid Prime. It will be difficult to recreate the unique jumping style of Metroid, and considering that a huge part of the Metroid series is jumping, this problem should be number one on the list to fix. Many basic gameplay mechanics of the Metroid series will be hard to pull off in 3D, but I think most if not all of them can be done. You can expect the graphics to be great, considering the GameCube’s power. You can expect to see all of the neat graphical effects that the GameCube is capable of, such as real-time lighting, bump-mapping, and anti-aliasing. The movies at E3 showed the games general graphic style, but since it was FMV, you can expect the final product to look slightly different. Retro Studios seems to have captured the essence of the original games, and hopefully they’ll follow through. Sound is also a critical part to Metroid Prime. Sound is very important in creating atmosphere for a game, and it helps to set the scene. With the movies shown at E3, we heard a brief sample of what’s to come. The sound samples were excellent, and they successfully brought back the musical style of the other games. The theme from Super Metroid was even included in one of the movies, which was music to my ears. Retro Studios definitely has the resources to pull this game off. They’ve picked up many talented programmers, some of which helped to create Half-Life, Quake, and Turok. With all this talent, Retro should be able to make this game great. You should also know that Nintendo is constantly looking in on this game, and the legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto is personally looking over the project and giving his insight. Nintendo is doing whatever they can to insure this game lives up to the Metroid name. Despite the problems, this game definitely has a lot of potential. After all, it is one of Nintendo’s most cherished franchises, and I’m sure they won’t release it until it’s perfect. You can expect to see something more about this game at Spaceworld, possibly even a playable demo.
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