That was it. I asked him if he had any final words for the world before my feast began. He quickly shouted.

“ROCK ON CHICAGO! ROCK N’ ROLL WILL NEVER DIE!”

Swwwwwishhhh. Sllllitt. Whhhhhhp. Gulp. Burp.

That’s all she wrote.

Last updated: 08/26/2002 by Mike Suzuki

Nintendo recently demoed some new levels and gameplay elements of the highly anticipated Metroid Prime at the company’s Fall Gamer’s Summit in San Francisco. Although the demo was fully playable, Nintendo chose to allow the press to look but not touch, leaving the actual gameplay to NOA’s Chris Campbell. The results were still extremely impressive and excruciatingly tantalizing. Still, this is more than the general public has seen so I’ll spare the whiny Skywalker impression and get on to business.

The 4 new areas shown included an icy outdoor environment where Space Pirates had built over Chozo ruins, an indoor temple like environment complete with ½ pipe, a space observatory (occupied by those pesky Space Pirates again), and a snowy arena for a boss battle with Thardus, a rock creature. Each environment looked great showing off great texture work, impressive architecture, excellent lighting effects, and impressive atmospheric touches such as ruins frozen under an icy lake and parasites running under the floor on the space station. The new screenshots only capture a small fragment of the game’s overall beauty. As you may have read elsewhere, Metroid Prime is shaping up to be a visual delight.

Of course, graphics are only a part of a great game; gameplay plays an even greater role. Fortunately, it seems that Metroid Prime will excel in this area as well. The new demo continued to show interesting gameplay elements that defy the norm of most first-person games. Of course, this shouldn’t be surprising as Nintendo has continually stressed that the game is not a shooter like most first-person games. Doubters may roll their eyes at that statement and dismiss it as public relations BS, but those words continue to ring true each time I seen Metroid Prime in action.

One of these new techniques shown is the double jump. Traditionally, jumping in first-person games has been problematic at best. Often, a player would need to look almost straight down to accurately land a jump. This does not seem to be the case with Metroid Prime. Double jumps were used to traverse high platforms and pillars fairly easily without really having to look down at all. However, without having tried this hands on, its difficult to say how much player skill was required to execute these jumps. They certainly looked easy enough. Hopefully, EAD passed on some of the ideas from Super Mario Sunshine about creating jumping challenges in 3d that require some skill but are quite fair. I definitely got the feeling that the double jump slowed Samus’ jump ever so slightly to allow for last second minor corrections from the player (not too dissimilar from a certain water-pack wearing plumber). If I’d gotten to try it first hand, I’d be a lot more sure. Oh well.

A second new technique from the demo is the versatility of the morph ball (Maru Mari to the old school gamers). Actually, this covers a few new gameplay mechanics, but they are all somewhat related and also stress the importance of being able to roll into a ball. Before the demo, I had concerns that rolling into a ball would be more of an homage to the older games and not be a critical gameplay element. After all, the E3 demo only required Samus to morph to squeeze through a tight passage or two and to activate a few doors. It didn’t seem like the ball was much more than a fancy crouch move and a special key. Fortunately, the Gamer’s Summit demo dispelled those concerns. As I mentioned earlier, one of the new areas featured what was essentially a half-pipe. The area made a new and extremely clever use of the morph ball in which Samus was required to roll back and forth in the half-pipe to gain enough height to reach a magnetic strip where she could use the spider ball. From there, she could follow the strip horizontally across the walls and acquire a missile upgrade. The whole sequence helped show one of the merits of making Metroid Prime a 3d game as this sort of challenge could not be done in 2 dimensions.

Another example of the game properly utilizing the morph ball technique hearkens back to the classic 2d Metroid games. At one point in the demo, Samus rolls into a small hole in the wall to encounter a passage that requires some intelligent bombing and rolling to traverse. Here, the game shifts into a 2d view to allow the player see through the wall and give a better idea of where Samus should bomb and roll. Perhaps it’s not the most innovative use of the ball, but it gets the job done and makes solid use of the ball.

Other examples of the necessity to use the morph ball technique include rolling on magnetic strips with the spider ball to reach new areas, rolling into slots located on floors and walls to trigger doors or platforms, and spinning inside a slot in the ground to manipulate a winch. While some of these uses aren’t as exciting as the half-pipe, it seemed quite apparent from the demo that rolling around as a ball will be a prominent gameplay mechanism just like in previous Metroid games.

Scanning is a gameplay mechanism that was introduced in the E3 demo, but this new demo emphasized just how important this feature will be throughout the game. In addition to general gameplay hints, background information, and computer activation, scanning was also shown to be an important part of combat. Using the scanner on an enemy can provide Samus with important information that would make a battle easier. For example, scanning the Parasite Queen boss from the E3 demo reveals a weak point which can then be targeted with the combat visor. With this knowledge, the Parasite Queen can be defeated in only a few charged shots. Also, scanning both of the new bosses in the demo with different visors helped reveal weak points which could be exploited for easier victories.

One other new minor gameplay technique is the charged draw. When defeated enemies leave power-ups behind, Samus can charge her beam up, walk near the power-up, and the power-up is slowly drawn to Samus. This technique makes it a little easier for Samus to collect power-ups and seems like a nice little touch to speed up a routine task that the player will likely have to do a lot throughout the course of the game.

In addition to showing off some great new gameplay elements, the Gamer’s Summit demo continued to exude a superb sense of style. The developers at Retro seem to have crammed many many visor related effects into the game. In addition to the face reflection, splattering parasite guts, and condensation effects seen at E3, the new demo showed off water washing down the visor after Samus jumped in and out of a pool of water, an energy discharge as Samus is hit by a gun turret, and video noise/interference in the visor display as Samus approaches an obstacle that generates a dangerous amount of electricity.

To round out the demo, some impressive cut-scenes were used to show introduce an area/boss and to show Samus acquiring new suit upgrades like the Spider Ball and the Wave Beam. The cut-scenes with Thardus (the rock creature) were particularly cool. As Samus enters the snowy arena, a small rock flies up from the ground behind Samus to distract her. After she turns around to examine the small rock, it is apparent that the small rock is just a deception as many more larger rocks emerge from the ground behind the bounty hunter’s back to form the actual boss. The rock creature Thardus stands ready to battle Samus. Of course, with a skilled player helping Samus out, Thardus is reduced to a pile of stones. After the smart use of different visors, several volleys of charged shots, a lot of quick speed dashes to the left and right to avoid incoming rocks and ice beams, and some more quick dodging of a rolling Thardus through fog summoned by the boss during the battle Samus is victorious and the Spider Ball is hers. Another cut-scene kicks in showing Samus acquiring the Spider Ball (with the obligatory classic music) and as Samus heads off to continue her adventure, a small harmlessly hits her from behind; a small gesture of contempt from the defeated boss.

After the E3 demo and this latest demo at the Gamer’s Summit, it is quite apparent that Metroid Prime is shaping up to be a must-have title. While certain elements of its 2d roots may end up getting lost in the transition to 3 dimensions, there is a definite sense that the game is a Metroid game. Many of the gameplay elements and ideas have made the transition seamlessly and other new and exciting elements seem to be waiting. The scanning, smooth jumping, charged blasts, and extensive use of the morph ball seen in the demo prove this. Additionally, the design ethic of exploration and re-traversal has been a key focal point for Retro. The heavy use of the different visors and morph ball illustrate a focus on exploration and discovery. The intelligent placement of magnetic tracks in areas that Samus first passes through without the Spider Ball hints at how the designers are integrating the need to backtrack and discover previously unreachable areas into the game. All in all, Metroid Prime is coming along quite well and while purists will continue to scoff at the notion of Metroid played from the 1st person perspective, one should recall the wonders that Mario 64 offered in that series’ move to 3d. True, some of the elements from the 2d games may be lost and the 3d game is not quite the same, but with a focused and capable team of developers behind it, the game becomes something new and wonderful while retaining many elements that warm a gamers nostalgic heart. Metroid Prime is on track to do just that.

Last updated: 07/13/2002 by David Trammell

The most notable blank that playing Metroid Prime has filled in for us is definitely the control scheme. Surprisingly, the control scheme has more in common with the N64 incarnations of Zelda than other first person shooters.

In typical Nintendo fashion, the control scheme was apparently not customizable at all, but it worked surprisingly well despite this. The analog stick moves Samus forward and turns her left and right. There are currently no strafing buttons, however, the game works very well without them because it has lock-on targeting. The L Button is used to activate targeting (as it is in the new Zelda game), and while targeting is activated, you can use the analog stick to strafe around the object or enemy that you're targeting. The A button is used for firing at any time. If you hold the A button, the arm cannon will begin charging a shot. Missiles are fired with the Y button. Pressing Y once opens the cannon while subsequent presses fire missiles. Pressing A at any time closes the arm cannon for normal shots. The C-stick is used for switching between beams (each direction holds one beam). B is used for jumping in normal mode, and while targeting B can be used with the analog stick for doing quick jump/strafes to the side (again, just like in Zelda OoT). Pressing X at any time rolls you into a ball (A drops bombs in this form). Finally, R can be held for free looking, and you can press L while free looking to target any interesting objects or enemies that are out of your normal field of view.

The visor system works as previously suspected. The D-pad selects the visor that you want to use (one visor is associated with each of the four directions just like weapon selection with the C-stick). In the E3 demo, the Scan Visor and the Combat Visor were available. The Combat Visor works just as advertised; it's the visor you're using whenever you're able to fire. The Scan Visor allows you to examine any object or enemy in depth by holding the L button (targeting button) for a few seconds. This can reveal information about the object, or in the case of switches, it will activate them. If you attempt to fire your gun while in the Scan Visor, the game automatically reverts to the Combat Visor. The game will also feature an X-Ray Visor and a Thermal Visor. The X-Ray Visor seems to paint the environment in white and blue shades; the footage that I saw didn't appear to reveal any hidden passages at that particular location, but it looked really cool. The Thermal Visor seems to work a lot like the Visor in Soldier of Fortune 2 (PC); that is, normal environment structures are very difficult to see clearly (it all just sinks into a sea of blue fuzz), but anything that gives off heat glows with an intense shade of red. Unless there is a toggle button to flip to a new set of visors (and/or weapons) the game cannot feature more than the four visors I just mentioned.

E3 patrons who examined the Metroid Prime demo carefully also found a few other things worth mentioning. The Space Station (or Space Ship) contains many biological specimens in giant glass tubes and niches in the walls that you can scan at will. One of the specimens was none other than Ridley who made an appearance in the first and third Metroid titles (check out N-Sider for the Scan Visor description). Additionally, Nintendo Power revealed that Kraid would make an appearance as well (issue 157 page 58).

PGC staff impressions of the E3 Metroid Prime demo can be accessed from our impressions page or from the links below. Metroid Prime will be released on Novemeber 18th which is the same day that Metroid Fusion (GBA) is being released, however, the developers do not intend to support any connection between the titles.

David's E3 Impressions

Jonathan's E3 Impressions

Rick's E3 Impressions

Daniel's E3 Impressions

Last updated: 05/21/2002 by David Trammell

Significant new information about Metroid Prime was revealed today at Nintendo's pre-E3 press conference. Peter MacDougal introduced Metroid Prime as one of three games that Nintendo is aiming squarely at mature gamers (although the exact rating is still pending). The video showed beautiful footage of Samus exploring and fighting on a "crippled spaceship" and a planet that press materials identify as Tallon IV. Previous information indicates that a fragment of the exploded planet Zebes hurled through space landing on this planet (which was previously named Taron according to IGN Cube). The new footage first showed Samus in her suit without the Varia (small shoulders, lighter yellow color). This is opposed to almost all footage of Metroid Prime so far which has shown Samus in her post-Varia configuration (very large shoulders, orange tint). Standing out the most were a few examples of Samus rolling into a ball and using bombs to propel herself into small tubes. From there, she quickly rolled through the tubes (some of which contained branching paths). Upon exiting a tube, she quickly rolled out of the ball in mid-air landing on her feet. It looked very cool. Towards the end of the footage, an "Alpha Metroid" was identified by Samus's "scan" visor. An Alpha Metroid is the first stage of Metroid development, and it's the image that most are familiar with (a small jelly like creature with fangs and spherical collections of maroon colored matter in the center). This implies that the game will contain other phases of Metroid development as well (the second game in the series introduced the various stages of Metroid mutation, but they haven't been seen since). The manual for Metroid II had great artwork for the various mutations, and some of the creatures in previous footage may have actually represented Metroid mutations (it's a bit hard to tell for sure though). The Alpha Metroid was in a glass tube as if it were being researched... until it broke out of its glass prison and latched onto Samus's visor. Samus was fighting quite a few monsters in the footage such as bipedal humanoid creatures and a tunnel full of small creatures swarming the walls and ceiling (much like the original footage shown at Space World 2000). The crowd at the press conference went completely wild as the video closed with "She's back." The grappling hook was notably absent from the new footage.

According to information in a Nintendo press release, the game will feature secrets that must be uncovered after advancing in the game and finding advanced items--a feature prevalent in previous Metroid titles. Additionally, it vaguely mentions the use of different visors such as combat visors and scan visors with the promise of other visors as well. The visor that revealed the name of the Alpha Metroid was probably the scan visor. The Wave Beam and Freeze Beam will be making a return along with other unnamed weapons and items from previous games in the series and new ones too. The press release lists the number of players as one making Metroid Prime a single player only adventure. Finally, we finally have a specific release date of November 18, 2002. Just six months more.

Last updated: 05/22/2001 by Jonathan Metts

Bits and pieces of info on Metroid Prime showed up during E3, not to mention new footage (but no playable demo or official data) for the game.

First and foremost, Shigeru Miyamoto, during his big interview with N'gai Croal, was heard saying that Metroid Prime was nearly shown playable at E3. We don't know why it wasn't...perhaps too many bugs, or inhibitions against revealing too much at once? Anyway, Shiggy's comment is good news for anyone worried about the game's progress.

Being interested in the progress of "Retroid", as many people are now calling it, the Planet GameCube staff was on the lookout for anything we could find on the show floor. We tried to corner Retro Studios employees whenever possible, but most of them wouldn't say a word about it. One employee did offer some encouraging words though, saying that the game is progressing well. When asked about IGNcube's reports of it being a "first-person adventure" game, the guy advised us to not believe everything we read on the Internet, and that IGN is not always the most credible source of news. (Hey, he said it, not me!) It's interesting to note that while the new Metroid Prime video footage did include a couple first-person shots (including red targeting reticle), most of it used a third-person perspective to show off Samus. Unfortunately, it's impossible to tell how much, if any, of the video was of or even analogous to real gameplay.

Finally, we asked this unusually talkative (but still guarded, mind you) Retro fella when we could expect the game. He said they're not rushing it, and would keep working until they get it right. Must be nice to be a second-party!

Last updated: 05/15/2001 by Max Lake

While we may not get to see how Retro’s Metroid for GameCube plays this week at E3 (though there are rumors to the contrary), it looks like we have a name and a premise. PGC did a story yesterday covering numerous URLs strangely being registered for variations “Metroid Prime” & later IGN Cube had a story of its own, which we covered here. Essentially, in a meticulous display of security (including gag names & fake emails spread across numerous states), it seems Nintendo itself has registered the domains, suggesting that “Metroid Prime” will indeed be what the GameCube Metroid game will be called. Either that, or there’s something a lot weirder going on.

Let us thank Millhouse (who mailed PGC with the info along with posting on the board) who is responsible for discovering the name and sharing it with us, and the world!

IGNCube took the name discovery a step further; citing a source close to Retro, they reported that the game will likely serve as a prequel to the entire Metroid series & simultaneously implied that the true “Metroid 4” would be for the GBA.

So this would confirm that we’re getting Metroid Advance before “Metroid Prime” for GameCube. It also gives Retro a whole new aspect of the Metroid franchise to explore. Mother Brain is still alive and a notorious intergalactic criminal. Samus Aran has yet to encounter the Metroids and may encounter an early evolution. It’s also possible Retro will explore more of Samus’ bounty hunter aspect—and what kind of bounties she was hunting before the Metroids started sucking the life outta her.

Metroid Prime (if that is indeed the name, as it looks to be) is wide open and ready for Retro Studios to make a name for themselves. With Nintendo overlooking things closely, we are very hopeful things will turn out alright.

We’ll let ya know the real name, details and have whatever we can get on Metroid just as soon as we hit E3. When we get there, Samus will be there three times over! Metroid Prime, Metroid Advance and Smash Bros 2 should all have Samus Aran in it. BLAH-DOW! It’s about time this gal made a comeback!

Last updated: 05/09/2001 by Max Lake

It’s time to update the Metroid preview again, which unfortunately means there’s more bad news to report. Last night, IGNCube reported that Metroid would not be playable at E3 2001. Only a “teaser” video will be shown the contents of which would not be shown. Ironically, some of our sources were letting us know the same thing though were not quite as conservative…

“Mediocre” is the word we’ve heard. In the middle of last month, the following appeared on Fatbabies, posted by a frustrated Retro employee:

Three programmers got FIRED a couple of Fridays ago because they sucked. They WERE on the RPG team. Let me say this, RPG sucks a big knob and should have been the only game to get cut. When we'd go into our tech demo views in the theater, they (RPG) would constantly show the same shit work while other teams progressed at a rapid pace. RPG is Steve Barcia's deformed baby. Steve Barcia and his lameassed project should have been shitcanned and thrown in the street. Instead, two very sellable projects got shelved and 17 or so people got laid off. The programmers that recently got fired, GOT FIRED. They didn't get laid off due to lack of work. There's plenty of that to go around at Retro. We've been working 60 hours a week, mandatory. And will continue until sometime in May. It's been this way for almost two months. I, along with a mass majority of others are getting fucking sick and tired of it too. These worthless programmers got FIRED because they have held up the progression of this LAMEASSED RPG game. It's only a matter of time before Nintendo shitcans RPG and tries to recoup their losses from Metroid. Metroid looks alright, but it ain't nuthin to write home about, so we'll see. As far as the art talent that is here, it's not as great as others would lead you to believe. It's mediocre at its best.

Despite the extra time and work being done, Metroid is still reportedly too unpolished to be anywhere near playable in time for E3. A disappointment to be sure, though it is probably better we aren’t playing it.

One alleged source for problems at Retro has come to light. Rumor has it that early on, Retro Studios attempted to build a single game engine that could be tailored to be the backbone of any genre. A very ambitious goal & one that did not work. If this is true, it might explain why so many of their projects were cancelled.

When we started this preview, we speculated that Metroid might be one of the high-profile launch titles for GameCube. Since then, almost all news surrounding the game has been bad.

It could be a long time coming – easily the “Goldeneye” of the GameCube – a title we’ll wait on bestowing until we experience its final quality. We’re sure that Nintendo will make Metroid worth waiting for and wish Retro all the luck in making Metroid a good game.

We hope that the "trailer" shown off at E3 is worth waiting for and holds as much promise as the SpaceWorld footage that started this preview.

Last updated: 04/11/2001 by Max Lake

Earlier today we ran a story concerning more layoffs at Retro Studios, though if you’ve been to our forums lately you might have caught some news concerning Retro Studios and some alleged insider information.

Thanks to certified Forum Nut, ArifAnwarCappy, the PGC forums have been informed on a behind-the-scenes look that comes from the latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. The issue of EGM had an interview with George Harrison and weaves the interview into some information from a source within Retro.

What follows is the original post from ”Rockman X”, taken from the N-Sider forums, which reproduces an account from this month’s EGM.

Take it away Rockman:

I will take my hatred for this ultra-biased-poorly-written-and-geared-fully-toward-the-casual-PSX-gamer-shoddy-excuse-for-a-gaming-magazine to the grave and I look happily forward to the day my subscription expires. That said, the purpose of this post isn't to slam EGM (though it probably should be). By some fortunate glitch occurring this month they actually have some good pieces of Nintendo news (mostly new info on old topics) and being that we are all starving for every last morsel we can get, I'll share them with everyone lucky enough to have not wasted $4.99 on this issue.

First off they have a short interview with George Harrison (Nintendo's Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications, not the Beatles guitarist......old joke, sorry). It was all rehash (sometimes I wonder if Nintendo reps rehearse these lines and repeat them during each interview) but, as though we weren't sure enough of it already, he hints further at Dinosaur Planet and Eternal Darkness being moved to the GC in this quote:

quote:

--------------------

EGM: Are games like Dinosaur Planet and Eternal Darkness still coming for N64? Or have those changed at all?

GH: They're still in development. I guess we won't really know until E3 where they're going to show up. They're exciting games, but they're games that were also very large. That causes a challenge with Nintendo 64 in terms of a reasonably priced cartridge. So I think we'll just have to wait until E3 to see.

---------------------------------------------

As I said, old news. Hang on, it gets better.

Apparently, EGM has a source within Retro Studios (it seems everyone has one of those these days) to provide some very unsettling quotes about the company. Here's a rundown of their very informative "Saving Samus" article, focused on the current first-person Metroid chaos (most of this appears exactly as it's written in the magazine, everything in quotes is from the "reliable source"):

As previously thought, Metroid 4 started as an "adventure game starring three female leads". This early project faced an uphill battle from the beginning, with setbacks caused by a sub-par game engine created for Retro's four games. The engine "had to be rewritten from scratch as the game progressed and development was further hampered by inadequate development kits". To speed up development so that the game would be ready for the GameCube's launch, Nintendo asked that it be redesigned as a first-person game since third-person games are typically harder to fine-tune. Retro's designers fought the change, but lost.

Months after the game was up and running as a first-person game, Shigeru Miyamoto visited Retro in April of 2000. The source states "It was like the Emperor visiting the Death Star. He didn't seem to like any of the games very much, especially the racing title, which was probably our best-looking." Miyamoto spent much of his time with the action-adventure game, and "the impression was that he wasn't too thrilled. Nintendo would come down about three times a year and rip on most of the games, except football, which was under the radar." Then, just weeks before SpaceWorld 2000, Nintendo decided to crown Retro Studios with the Metroid license and the action-adventure game was transformed; "They wanted to make a splash. We had some Metroid fans in the office who were both thrilled and scared. Retro realized it was a great license, but we were also worried about the backlash from making it a first-person adventure game. We didn't want to be known as the studio that ruined Metroid."

SpaceWorld was fast approaching; "It was crazy because Nintendo wanted a bunch of movies showing Metroid off. Retro scrambled to come up with Samus running down a hallway -- it was created very quickly. Just a movie, no gameplay." With all the distractions, technical hurdles and redesigns, Metroid fell behind. "I doubt it will be out by the system launch, even if GameCube is pushed way back."

Attempting to meet the launch deadline, Retro took action to free up resources for Metroid. In January, Thunder Rally (which "looked cool but lacked substance, though it could be a great online game if Nintendo knew what they wanted to do with it"), NFL Football 2002 ("It definitely had promise. The game was coming together and was finally on track"), and an action-oriented game that "Nintendo never seemed serious about" were put on "permanent hold". Many of the staff from fooball and TR were reassigned to Metroid and Retro's fantasy RPG ("Typical Dungeons & Dragons stuff that wasn't looking very good. The CEO [Jeff Spangenberg] is a big RPG fan, so that's one reason why that survived. The car game was in much better shape and made more sense market-wise.").

But it's not all bad news. There's still plenty of time for the projects to improve, Nintendo has reaffirmed their support in the studio, and the source had some glowing comments to make about the reassigned people; "Some of the artists and programmers moved over were really good and should be able to help both projects quite a bit. And they know that they're being watched and that Metroid has a huge following." Geogre Harrison mentioned that "(Metroid) will have to go through Nintendo's stringent 'Mario Club' testers before it hits the market, it will not be released until it's as good as it needs to be." He also added "I think maybe [Retro] is an untested studio, but not untested individuals. The track record of some of the people in the studio is very attractive to us." Retro Studios refused to comment.

There you have it. Old news, but still the most detailed chronicle on the evolution of Metroid 4. The source also provided EGM with a new screenshot straight from NFL Football 2002 (!!!!!). Don't get your hopes up: it's about an inch big and simply shows some sort of in-game menu, with minute amounts of the field, stadium and sky showing in the background (it you must know, the menu said Redskins 28, Vikings 35, start of the 4th quarter).

…

--RockMan X

It sounds like there were a few Retro projects we didn’t know about. Like, is the racer Miyamoto cancelled the “car combat” game or something else entirely? Also – an adventure game with 3 female leads that was morphed into Metroid? Ya gotta almost feel a bit sorry for Retro Studios...

You can see the forum thread where we got this info from and share your thoughts on Metroid and Retro Studios right here.

Thanks to RockMan X for saving us $4.99 and ArifAnWarCappy to bringing it to Planet forums! (Naturally EGM & N-Sider get props for providing the info & not getting salty at Rock & Arif for their swiping & sharing!)

Last updated: 02/24/2001 by Max Lake

All the tears and death threats may have been in vain Metroid fans... IGNCube now announce that Metroid will actually be a First Person Adventure not shooter. Although the game will have the look & trappings of a FPS, Retro Studios are working to include different angles for jumping, bombing, grappling. Supposedly, this will be accomplised by an optional third-person view that will allow for actions typical to Metroid but not usually found in First Person shooters. It seems the third-person view will not be controlled by the player, but will be triggered automatically if an area / puzzle calls for it. Could make for some innovative gameplay, with Retro seemingly believing that the mix in styles will help make the 3D Metroid successful.

An anonymous source close to the project disclosed the following to IGNCube:

"I think [the Metroid team] has a good chance of skipping by some of the pitfalls of the FPS genre. They've got some really innovative ideas for jumping, targeting, movement, and camera."

PGC's "secret staffer" Rick Powers has let it be known that he's spoken to a few of his pals at Retro who are confident the NGC Metroid will make fans of the series quite happy.

So, all that concern for nothing. Some of us might owe Retro an apology... ;)

Last updated: 02/20/2001 by Max Lake

The backlash from the Metroid FPS news is insane. Some fans are getting a bit over passionate, even for Nintendophiles! Currently, there are:

Of the more passionate crowd, there is already a call for petitions to rebel against this development. This knee jerk reaction is somewhat understandable, though considering no one has seen a screenshot, played the game or seen how it will work it seems far too early to cry for blood.

Last updated: 02/17/2001 by Max Lake

A news bit even more shocking than the fact a new Metroid game is coming has hit like a bombshell. It seems that big changes are happening at Retro Studios. Retro apparently laid off several staff and cancled two of its five NGC projects (a Football game & "ThunderRally" a vehicle-combat game a la Twisted Metal). Remaining staff has been assigned to higher priority titles, like Metroid.

The real "big" (bad?) news is that Metroid will be a First Person Shooter! Say it ain't so!

The "Retroid" team has had attempted to make the game a third-person shooter, the decision to make the game a FPS came from Nintendo.

The news is pretty heavy - though at least we now know why this odd tidbit kept coming up. Perhaps we should have seen this coming; Retro's staff includes people who were involved with some of the best FPS games of all time, Quake 3 Half-Life, Turok and Thief to name a few... Keeping this in mind, it would seem that if Metroid is to be a FPS, it will be one of the best to date. Still, it won't be the Metroid sequel that many were hoping for...

Last updated: 01/19/2001 by Max Lake

This week's rumors of a possible Metroid game for GBA has gotten Metroids in our minds… And made us realize it's high time to update our preview for the Metroid game that has been confirmed… (Well, kinda). We say "kinda" because, in an "official" sense, no GameCube games have been announced-at least not by Nintendo. Even after the demos shown during Space World 2000, Nintendo cautiously pointed out that the games didn't actually represent games in development, yadda yadda… Nevertheless, word

somehow got out that yes Metroid was coming to NGC and yes Retro Studios would be doing the development. Aside from this happening, the game "officially" wasn't confirmed and Retro Studios, much like Nintendo's other second-party developers, were expected to keep Metroid's progress (let alone its

existence) a secret.

Then, during November 2000, Retro began posting "help wanted" notices, enticing solicitations with blatant allusions to the next Metroid. Essentially:

"Wanna work for the company rumored to be developing Metroid for Nintendo Gamecube?"

Soon after, Retro Studios Website posted a Metroid-themed page, putting a call out for all talented individuals on a Metroid-themed page, titled "Retroid" with Samus Aran at the top (an awesome looking Samus at that), standing proudly beside the notice.

"Retro Studios is looking for additional senior level programmers to help us create the game everyone's anticipating for Nintendo's Gamecube… " Click here to see what the page looked like. Shortly after the "Retroid" page was discovered, it disappeared without a trace. What does it mean?

A) Retro was swamped with applications, adequate enough to fill the positions

B) Upon noticing the page (a very roundabout but public confirmation of Metroid NGC), Nintendo made Retro take it down.

C) Both of the above.

We've also been collecting various reports that are even less encouraging. Rumor has it that Retro have certainly not gotten its Metroid project off on what James Brown would call "the good foot." Apparently, Nintendo have already clashed with Retro about the direction the new Metroid would take. We don't know all points of contention, though allegedly the issue has proven frustrating for both parties and Shigeru Miyamoto is evidently monitoring Metroid's progress with good reason.

One alleged problem was that Retro originally envisioned Metroid's transfer from 2D to 3D by making the new game into a First Person Shooter (FPS). Fortunately, Nintendo disapproved of the idea and scrapped it. Part of this rumor was believed to have stemmed Metroid getting confused with another game Retro is working on, which is an FPS. Still, from what we understand, save for Nintendo's intervention, Metroid would be heading in a very FPS-direction right now. Disturbing, but it's bubbled up enough to make us believe that this -or something similar- went down. The good news is that this happened awhile ago & we haven't heard anything since that would cause us to believe the project is not currently on track.

In Retro's defense, a FPS aspect to a 3D Metroid would make a lot of sense, like for blasting creatures flying overhead or

targeting your grapple beam. However, if it were confined to the FPS genre, it would cease being Metroid. Elements such as exploration, bombing the floor underneath you, doing super jumps and many other things that define the Metroid series just aren't conceivable in a FPS.

What's more, we don't envy anyone who has to update a 2D classic to 3D-especially a game such as Metroid which combines shooting, exploration and an almost frightening ambience. Many fans of the series insist that the only way to do justice to the original Metroid games is to keep the new game locked in 2D, yet this would seem to be a tragic waste of the GameCube's awesome capabilities. The transfer from 2D to 3D isn't always pretty; although Shiggy had fantastic success in translating Mario and Zelda into 3D, Konami has yet to deliver a quality version of fan-favorite Castlevania in 3D. One wonders how Retro will fare with this endeavor and can only hope for the best. No pressure Retro, we've only wanted a Metroid sequel for nearly seven years! (Yike! That's a long time!)

With Retro recently (& publicly) expanding its Metroid team and rumors of bad-blood flying, one must question the state of development Metroid for NGC is in. Despite our eagerness for this new Metroid, it seems increasingly unlikely that the game will be ready in time for NGC's launch. In the long run, this is probably for the best; as important as Metroid is, it would be criminal for the game to get flubbed up by rushing it. Regardless, we expect to see the game in some form at E3 2001-hopefully what we're shown will put all fears to rest.

The most recent development on the Metroid front is that word of a Metroid title for Gameboy Advance has slipped out into the public eye. We're not sure whether or not the game is actually in development, is a remake of an older game or an all new title, let

alone whether or not it will connect to Retro's upcoming NGC game. Still, the possibility of a "Metroid Advance" is very exciting and seems to be the perfect solution for those craving a return to Metroid's 2D ancestry. Wait n' see? Guess we have to.

Last updated: 08/30/2000

Nintendo's Metroid series has long been a fan-favorite, featuring Samus Aran, infamous galactic bounty hunter & the original female video game badass (Lara who?). All throughout the N64's lifecycle, fans clamored loud & long for another installment in the Metroid franchise. These pleas seemed to be ignored, until just recently that is! In the spring of '99, Nintendo made Samus a playable character in the N64 mascot fighter, Super Smash Bros. in an effort appease Metroid-fans. It was definitely nice to see her again, but it wasn't enough and we demanded more. Nintendo is finally heeding these cries and have confirmed that the lovely Metroid-killah herself will appear in a brand new adventure for Nintendo GameCube! Nintendo 2nd-party developer, Retro Studios, will be designing the game and will definitely be working hard to not to disappoint fans of the series.

Nintendo confirmed the game (and Retro's development role) shortly before its SpaceWorld show. During which, they previewed a demo, showing Samus in action. The demo takes place in a futuristic hallway; Samus runs as aliens swarm after her, chasing her down the hall. Then, Samus turns as her arm cannon opens up, preparing to fire and BOOM, purple plasma fills the screen, ending the demo. It was short, it was beautiful, it was enough to make the crowd attending SpaceWorld go buck wild.

When we last saw Samus Aran, she had destroyed Mother Brain, who in turn had destroyed what was believed to be the last of the Metroids. Samus barely escaped in her space ship just before the planet, Zebes exploded. With Metroids & Mother Brain seemingly destroyed for good, Samus set out for a new bounty. So what will happen in the next game? It is unknown whether Samus will encounter new enemies, or if her longtime, life-sucking foes will have somehow survived to threaten the universe again. We're definitely interested to see what Retro decides to do, though we're not too worried either way... We're just glad Samus is back from the dark reaches of outer space!

The Metroid demo shown at SpaceWorld 2000 reportedly does not represent what Retro's final game will look like, yet it looks like a pretty strong indication that the game will be in 3D. This will come as a disappointment to many old-school Metroid fans, who were hoping to the 2D roots of the series. We're confident though that Metroid will make the transition to 3D just as successfully as Mario & Zelda. Additionally, there's always a chance that a 2D Metroid might appear for GBA at some point in time… Especially now that Nintendo knows just how popular the series is.

There's also little reason to be concerned that Metroid series (created by the late, legendary Gumpei Yokkoi) is in the hands of a US developer. Retro aren't chumps. Even if they were Shigeru Miyamoto is keeping a very close eye on Metroid & checking up on its progress several times a week. Even the most minimal involvement from Shiggy can help improve & shape a game's development. Rest assured, Metroid is in good hands and will rock GameCube.

Although reportedly in early design stages, Metroid is tentatively scheduled to appear as a launch title for the GameCube. The Planet will keep you posted on any development whatsoever on this eagerly anticipated title.