Metroid Prime Remastered: Hopes for the Sequels

Playing Metroid Prime Remastered makes you immediately want more, where we have no idea how far Metroid Prime 4 is currently into development. It still could take years to come out, but in the meantime fans and new players alike will certainly be happy with getting remasters of Prime 2 and Prime 3 to pass some of that time.

Naturally, there have been many rumors about this, where I don't want to address a particular one. But I do believe that Retro Studios has been working on remastering the entire trilogy, before they were re-assigned to Metroid Prime 4. They have finished the first game nonetheless, but remasters of the other two titles are either on hold or got outsourced, where it's possible that some of the many other studios involved with Metroid Prime Remastered are now working on them.

But we do know for a fact that Metroid Prime Remastered has been finished since July 2021 (see here) and there must be a good reason why they have been waiting over one and a half years to finally release it. Either they wanted it closer to the release of Metroid Prime 4 or they wanted to wait until the other remasters are taking shape. Of course they also didn't want it to collide with Metroid Dread, but there was no need to wait that long.

In any case, remasters of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption should get the same level of detail as Metroid Prime Remastered. This is a very rare occurrence of a Nintendo title where the graphics are really the selling point. The game is simply a feast to the eyes and anything less for its sequels will result only in disappointment. They could just make remasters with upscaled textures, like it was done with Twilight Princess HD, but they really shouldn't.

Personally, I can't wait to see Agon Wastes or the Sanctuary Fortress with such detailed assets. The atmosphere of Metroid Prime 2 was amazing and the game had a "cleaner" look to it overall, where it would be a good match for the art direction of Metroid Prime Remastered. It doesn't really need much more for the second game in the Metroid Prime Trilogy, except that they should also simplify the menus to not use these rotating data bubbles. While it was very unique, it wasn't very convenient to use...

With Corruption I mainly hope that they will get rid of the credit and Friend Voucher system entirely and simply let people unlock the gallery contents in the same way as in Metroid Prime Remastered. Alternatively, they could turn the Friend Vouchers and some of the gold credits into ingame achievements, but I really wouldn't want to do "Flawless Escape" ever again.

On the other hand, without such a system there would be no real reason to hunt down the Red Phaazoids at all... But they could give you a better reason for this than just some virtual checkmark, where one simple idea could be that each of them increases your resistance to Phaaze.

The bumper stickers for your ship also will probably be removed entirely or at least updated to modern games. Would be cool to have a sticker based on Tears of the Kingdom, for example. But considering that they didn't even bother with the Fusion Suit, this feature is likely not to make a re-appearance.

And then there are the motion controls, where they need to be toned a bit to make the game work properly with a Pro Controller or in handheld mode. The novelty of throwing the Grapple Lasso with your Nunchuk or turning some devices with your Wii Remote got old quickly and never was fully reliable anyway. So, they should be looking at Skyward Sword HD here for how to do all this with traditional controls.

Both titles would also certainly profit from free button mappings. That's one of the few complaints that I have with Metroid Prime Remastered, where the many control options are very good, but not perfect. Just let the people fully customize the controls to be comfortable, where this also adds to the accessibility of the game.

Anyway, it will be nice to have the entire Metroid Prime Trilogy on the Nintendo Switch in the long run, but it shouldn't happen at all costs. They should give these games the same care as Metroid Prime, because they deserve it.

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.

Another Side Story

More than two years ago I mentioned this weird entry about "Another Side Story" on the Japanese Metroid Prime Trilogy site, which was about to come soon. There was much speculation, whether this might be a another e-manga or even a new game. Well, for the longest time nothing ever appeared, but after some months or so they must have added this feature. It's basically just a log book of a Space Pirate covering the events of the Metroid Prime games. Metroid Database now recently translated the whole thing into English. It's not too interesting and it somehow tries to be funny, but the toilet jokes do a bad job regarding this. The only reason, why I bring this up, is to tie up this loose end from 2009.

Metroid Prime Trilogy

You notice a good game, when you don't hesitate to buy it again for another system and have lots of fun replaying it. Metroid Prime Trilogy offers three of those games on one disc. By now I've completed all three games at 100% and unlocked all of the extras with the exception of the Corruption soundtrack and some minor artwork. And allthough I've already played the previous versions of all three games, it was a great experience.

Of course the most important addition is the new control scheme for both GameCube games. In Japan Prime and Echoes are simply part of the New Play Control! series, but luckily Nintendo of Europe and America decided to release the Trilogy instead. The upgraded controls are very simple, it's basically just the aiming via the pointer and flipping the Wiimote to activate the Spring Ball while being in Morphball mode. There are no other big motion controls like throwing the Nunchuk for the Grapple Lasso or interacting with the environment with your Wiimote in Corruption, but that's fine. And the controls make the games much more easier. You don't have to target everything manually, which saves time, and some of the Morphball puzzles get a lot easier thanks to the Spring Ball, best example is the Energy Tank in Transport Tunnel A in the Magmoor Caverns. Overall the difficulty of the first two games was reduced a little, the new "Normal Mode" is more like an Easy Mode. But since I have beaten the games on the GameCube, which was quite challenging for me, I don't mind this as well. This way I could enjoy the second trip through the games much more and I was able to focus more on getting a complete Logbook collection, which I haven't done before. And there's always the new Hypermode difficulty for all Metroid veterans.

If you beat one of the games, your save state for this game gets erased and you start over from the beginning. But all your Logbook entries are saved, so if you have completed your Logbook in your first playthrough, you get a 100% filled Logbook from the start and everything is pre-scanned, which makes replaying the games even more relaxing. And if you've missed something, you just have to focus on the missing parts and not on the other scans. It's basically like the 2nd Quest in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, where you keep your Minintendo figurines and where it's easier to finish your collection. And completing your Logbook can be a challenging task, especially in Corruption. There you have like 10 different, exotic Space Pirate types like the Armored Shield Trooper, that you can potentially miss. Every time you encounter Space Pirates, you basically swap to the Scan Visor first instead of blasting them to Pirate Hell immediately. Or the bosses in Echoes, where every single body part can be a different Logbook entry, can bother you as well. But I don't have to worry that about anymore, because my Logbooks are filled and they stay that way for the next time, when I'm going to replay these games. Nice.

The scans are also important for the credits. Both Prime and Echoes now use the credit system from Corruption for unlocking bonus content like artwork, a complete soundtrack, dioramas, a screenshot tool and extras like the Fusion Suit for Prime and the Ship Bumper Stickers and the Mii Bobble Head for your gunship in Corruption. However, the credit system for Prime and Echoes is much simpler than the one for Corruption. You collect orange credits for beating bosses in Prime and purple credits for bosses in Echoes. Additionally there are silver credits for collecting the Chozo Artifacts and Sky Temple Keys and for completing your Logbook. Completing both games once on any difficulty level is enough to unlock all the bonus content for the games including the Fusion Suit. Unlike for Corruption you're not forced to play through the games in Hypermode again or to trade those stupid, annoying Friend Vouchers (thanks again to RossMadden and Howser1994 from GameFAQs/Gamespot forums for trading with me).

All three games got a global main menu with a nice new music track using the pointer controls similar to the menu in Corruption. However, the ingame menus of the GameCube games and the menu of the multiplayer mode remain the same and don't use the pointer, Nintendo really should have updated those menus too. Additionally an option to swap the menu style would have been nice. The Japanese New Play Control! versions got their own new menus similar to the original menus from the GameCube versions, which could have been easily included. They could have added them as an unlockable bonus and it would have been nice to use the classic style menus, I love the menu and menu music in Prime. But it's not that important, just an idea.

The multiplayer from Echoes works fine, even with a small TV. However, some new leves and online functionality would have been awesome, but I'm happy that they didn't just simply cut it out alltogether.

Overall this is one awesome compilation, definitely one of the best videogame compilations ever next to Super Mario Allstars and Unreal Anthology. If you have missed out one of those games or more, Metroid Prime Trilogy is a must-buy for you. But getting the Trilogy is still worthwhile for someone like me, who has played all three games before. The new controls really add something to both Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and make these games even much better and more enjoyable than they were already.

If you're a Zelda fan and wonder, if you should get this, do it. Zelda and Metroid both share a similar Action Adventure core gameplay. In Metroid you will explore large, coherent worlds and collect new items to proceed into new territories. There are also lots of puzzles and hidden collectibles like Missile Expansions, Energy Tanks and scans, which will keep you busy for a long time.

Metroid Prime Trilogy coming

I've been wondering for a while now, why Nintendo of America and Europe didn't announce Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes for the western "New Play Control!" series. But that was apparently for a very good reason. They decided to bundle those games together with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on ONE single disc, titled "Metroid Prime Trilogy".

Sounds awesome. The games will be started from a hub, that lists all three games and the multiplayer mode seperately. Metroid Prime and Echoes both now use the awesome controls of Corruption including the Spring Ball ability, which should make getting certain items much easier, both now have 16:9 support and thus better visuals and the loading times will be much faster (which means, doors open faster). Also, both games now use Corruption's credit/voucher system for unlocking artwork and other extras. This will be used to unlock the Fusion Suit instead of the GameBoy Advance connection (but the playable version of Metroid will get cut out, since they want to sell the Virtual Console version). And very handy will be a global options menu, where you can set the controls and other options for all three games at the same time. Besides that nothing has changed, which also means, nothing else got cut out. The mutliplayer mode of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes will still be there, though it will only support local 4 player splitscreen and not online multiplayer via Wi-Fi. But that's better than nothing. Also, the difficulty stays the same (except for some ball jumping puzzles obviously). The bad news is, there won't be any new content. No new multiplayer levels or anything.

I'm really looking foward to this, the Metroid Prime games were my favorite games on the GameCube and Corruption's strenght always lied in the awesome and well implemented controls. So, both combined definitely is something worth getting and will raise the enjoyment of the first two games substantially. I was pretty pissed, when Nintendo didn't announce Metroid Prime 1 and 2 for the "New Play Control!" series on the western market, while Japan already got their copy of Metroid Prime. But this definitely settles it. Buying one game will also be cheaper than buying two "New Play Control!"-games, plus you also get a copy of Corruption, which still is a full price game. So, this is pretty much the best deal since "Super Mario Allstars" on the SNES.

It will be released in North America on 24th August and hopefully in Europe soon after. Update: In Europe it's dated for September 4th.

Source: Kotaku.com

Additional info:
Japanese MP2 Echoes site
IGN preview