The Future of Metroid in Titles

Last year on Hyrule Blog, we looked at the Future of Metroid at a time, where the franchise was pretty much silent, save for the release of Federation Force, which wasn't received with warm welcomes. Then we primarily looked at Metroid Prime 4 and a potential remake of Return of Samus. By now the latter already has been released and Metroid Prime 4 was announced to be in the making. It's good times for Metroid fans and with that we shall take a look at what else there could be in store in the next couple of years for the Metroid series. This time we will list individual titles and talk about their potential.

Metroid Prime 4

This is already a given. We will be getting Metroid Prime 4 at some point on the Nintendo Switch, maybe already next year. We don't know much about the title yet, other than it will probably focus on Sylux as the main antagonist and that it's not developed by Retro Studios, the guys who created the Metroid Prime Trilogy. Let's go into more detail about Metroid Prime 4 in a later post and move on for now... To titles that may lie beyond the upcoming episode of the Prime series.

Metroid Prime Hunters 2

The original Metroid Prime Hunters was a mixed bag. The singleplayer experience was quite awful, the controls can give you gramps and the Nintendo DS wasn't suited all that well for first person graphics. The multiplayer experience on other hand was at its core really good. It provided an Arena Shooter with unique characters similar to games like Unreal Championship or Quake Champions, set in the rich Metroid universe. And a sequel should focus on this, with better graphics and better controls.

Such a game could follow Metroid Prime 4 on the Nintendo Switch and give Nintendo fans a more adult alternative to Splatoon. Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Bounty, Prime Hunter, Survival, Defender and Nodes could return alongside new game modes. There also could be a singleplayer mode, which focuses on opposing the other hunters yet again, but it would need to be a lot better than the original to please the fans. But such a game could focus on Samus' activities as a bounty hunter and even involve a bounty system - something that Retro Studios had in mind for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, which was ultimately discarded, because according to Nintendo Samus isn't doing her job for the bounty (source).

Chronologically such a game would probably take place some time between Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Metroid Prime 4, so that Sylux can still remain as a playable character, next to Spire, Kanden, Trace, Noxus and Weavel. They probably also would introduce a couple of new hunters for this game.

Metroid Prime Trilogy HD

The Nintendo Switch is known for its many ports, so it shouldn't surprise anyone, if they ever re-release the Metroid Prime Trilogy with updated HD graphics to accompany Metroid Prime 4. For the graphics Nintendo would probably hire an external company like Tantalus, who made Twilight Princess HD on the Wii U. And ideally a Trilogy re-release would be on par with Metroid Prime 4, when it comes to controls and interface, and maybe even add some features here and there. Especially the maps and menus of both Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes could use some overhaul. And let's please get rid of those Friend Vouchers, a rather nonsensical feature that just makes it impossible to complete the Metroid Prime Trilogy these days, unless you have a prepped save file at hand.

Metroid Super Remake

While a HD version of the Metroid Prime Trilogy would be considered a "remaster", there's still the topic of full remakes such as Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid: Samus Returns. Here it would make sense, if they keep remaking the games in order and re-envision Super Metroid aka "Metroid 3" next. Such a remake could happen on the Nintendo Switch and would use glorious HD graphics for the game's environments, enemies and backgrounds, combined with the controls of Samus Returns.

You could argue that Super Metroid doesn't really need a remake, because unlike the Metroid games for NES and GameBoy it already has pretty much everything there is to modern Metroid games. It introduced crouching, Wall Jumps, Shine Sparks and many of the series' staple items, such as Super Missiles, Power Bombs or the Gravity Suit, all that were added to the previous remakes...

However, many of this doesn't really work as well as in the newer games. Switching items is inconvenient, Wall and Space Jumps have a weird timing to them, the Grapple Beam works very stiffly and the whole map screen could use an overhaul. At the same time they could add abilities such as the ledge grab or the Spider Ball.

With an improved input, some new abilities and pretty graphics, such a remake could be received very well. But of course Nintendo would have to be careful with this, because Super Metroid is still a fan favorite and quite the beloved game. Things like sequence breaking and the whole nature of speed runs should stay to avoid disappointments.

Metroid Fusion Remake

Before MercurySteam made Samus Returns, they originally proposed remaking Metroid Fusion. And this shows in the game, where you have the option to play in the Fusion Suit and where an additional ending scene even shows, how the X would have looked like on the Nintendo 3DS. They could just use the same engine and start working on Metroid Fusion next.

But this wouldn't be all that necessary, because Metroid Fusion is much less in need of a remake than Super Metroid is. From today's standpoint it still looks and plays quite alright, so there's nothing really to improve upon other than the graphics. Well, they could try to make the game less linear and turn the SA-X into an actual AI that lives and hunts on the BSL Research Station, which both probably would be interesting. But overall Metroid Fusion holds up quite well.

Another problem is that Zero Mission is pretty much on par with Metroid Fusion, when it comes to graphics and controls, because it was also made for the GameBoy Advance. So, if Metroid Fusion is in need of a remake, then so is Zero Mission, where would end up with a remake of a remake. Let's not go there...

Metroid 5

Enough with all the remakes already! The classic Metroid series needs to continue at some point, where Metroid Fusion has remained as the last part in the story for 16 years now. The game has left off with both the Metroid and the X potentially being destroyed for good. Of course we can't be sure of that, since Metroids have a habit of being cloned by Space Pirates and the Galactic Federation alike. The latter, however, might become a new enemy in this game, in the very least Samus could be confronted by a corrupt part of the Federation.

It's hard to imagine the Federation as the main enemy, though, but Samus Returns also introduced a new potential plot about the Chozo, which could be the topic of a new game.

If you unlock all 10 Chozo Memories, a disturbing "2d" memory is shown, which uncovers a new truth about what really happened on SR388:

The Chozo who created the Metroids on SR388 weren't wiped out by them, but instead locked them under the surface of the planet. When they arrived there, they were greeted by another faction of the Chozo. But instead of receiving help, they were entirely wiped out by them.

This is a very dark scene, even for a Metroid game, and we can only speculate what really happened here. The hostile faction of the Chozo seems to be military and we can see their leader using an Arm Cannon similar to the one that Samus has. Maybe they wanted to make sure that the knowledge of creating something dangerous as the Metroids doesn't spread along the universe. Maybe they had other intentions. Whatever it is, those Chozo might be still alive and become a new enemy for Samus, where the fifth game could run under a theme, where old friends become new foes.

Metroid Prime Hunters Revisited

Not only the Zelda series is currently celebrating 30 years of existence, but also Metroid. And as with Zelda I also want to revisit most of the Metroid games for the 30th Anniversary, some of them even for the first time. And Metroid Prime Hunters is one of these titles, which I haven't touched since my original playthrough. In this case I had never even gotten the 100% rating, because I had been missing some of the scans.

But playing the multiplayer was always a lot more fun, so I never really bothered with the singleplayer mode again until last weekend. As a huge fan of the Unreal Tournament series and Unreal Championship 2, I really like what Nintendo has done with the multiplayer part of Metroid Prime Hunters, where you get a nice First Person Arena Shooter with unique characters. If you can get used to the rather exotic controls of this game, there are seven different game modes and many different arenas to enjoy. And the character design of the individual hunters is absolutely outstanding, they've done in amazing job of making every single hunter unique in both design and abilities. It's all really great.

The singleplayer, however... not so much. It's really just the multiplayer arenas connected to each other with corridors on a series of four different planets / stations. In some cases it's hard to say, what came first: the arena or the singleplayer environment? It's probably a mix of both, but sometimes it can be tough to orientate, because some of the places are entirely symmetrical or just hard to overlook. And this gets really annoying in the escape sequences, which you have to do a total of eight times for no good reason. You can't use any portals in them, so you have to run through the entire place again and you often get involved in fights with either Guardians or other Hunters. There it's easy to lose your orientation and then you might run back, from where you came from. This happened to me in Celestial Archives multiple times and to make things worse, the enemies will just reappear and you have to fight them again... ugh!

There are also lots of cheap deaths. Abysses are an instant kill and while there aren't many in the game, the moving platforms above them can be a deathtrap, if you accidentally jump, which might happen, if you look around with the Stylus (double tapping the touchscreens makes you jump). Or if you get squeezed in Morphball Mode, it's Game Over as well. In the Metroid Prime Trilogy you would only get hurt, but here it's an instant death and there's an entire sequence of blocks that want to squash you... I rarely ever died to actual enemies, it was usually either pitfalls, squashing or timers running out. Sadly, the game does have a Death Counter at the end to taunt you, but I'll settle for the 100% rating and leave it be. No way that I'm going through this mess again.

It's not all bad, though. I do like the focus on collecting the various beam weapons from the other Hunters instead of the usual Metroid power-ups and using them to explore new areas in places that you've already visited. The weapons could have been made a little bit more interesting, because for the most part they just disable force fields of the same color and help you with certain enemies and Hunters, e.g. Spire is weak against the Judicator. I also like, how in the 2nd half of the game the hunters are all free roaming and you can meet them anywhere, which makes the game world feel a little bit more alive and threatening. You're not alone in this Metroid game...

The Hunters are really the star of the game, which isn't saying much, because there is nothing else really. It's the only Metroid game without any actual Metroids (funny enough, the demo Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt did have them, as well as an alternate controls scheme) and besides the final boss there are only two different bosses that get repeated four times in total, where each time they evolve somewhat and become more difficult. But you still keep fighting a pillar and a giant eye ball again and again. The game is quite stale and repetitive.

From what we know Metroid Prime 4 will focus on Sylux and his hatred for both the Galactic Federation and Samus. Federation Force even supports this idea. But I really hope that the other Hunters will return as well and we will get another excellent Metroid arena shooter on the NX. I would love to play a game like this with better controls and HD graphics.