Topic: Retro Working on Star Fox + Metroid Crossover Game for Wii U?

[Ian Sane]

I wonder what Ian Sane will have to say about this rumor whenever he logs in and reads it.

I missed this and then when people were mentioning it in another thread I thought it was some in-joke I wasn't privy to.  I never thought it was an actual rumour!

I can imagine F-Zero crossing over with either of these franchies but a Metroid/Star Fox crossover seems too weird.  It's like Metroid is somewhat serious and Star Fox is pretty goofy and F-Zero is somewhere in between so it can fit in either one.  But Metroid and Star Fox are the extremes so their styles clash too much.  But then Howard the Duck and Spider-Man are in the same universe, so the strangeness of this is not unprecedented.

I don't really think Star Fox and Metroid have very compatible gameplay though.  Really their only common element is that both take place in space.  Metroid and Zelda would actually make a better crossover both in terms of gameplay and graphic style (Hyrule could merely be on a planet with only "primitive" technology that has not yet been discovered by the Space Federation; surely Star Trek has done this bit before).  I like Star Fox as a purely action game and Metroid as a non-linear adventure game.  So how to you combine these?  The Guardian Legend is a rare example of that sort of crossover that works.  Though another issue is that different types of games require different skill sets.  I'm good at adventure games but suck at twitchy shooters.  To get anywhere in the Guardian Legend I have to use codes to give myself extra energy or I would never get through the shooter parts.  Meanwhile my brother loves action games but has no patience for titles that require him to think (hee hee, I kind of insulted him there).  I know these are both Nintendo franchises so there is going to be a fair amount of crossover fans but when you combine two unrelated genres, you risk making something that neither fanbase likes or has the skills to complete.

I trust that Retro would make it as well as anyone, provided Nintendo doesn't shoe-horn waggle into the damn thing.  Still you get the feeling from such an idea that the most thought put into it was "hey these both have spaceships!"  Miyamoto thinking "these both have foxes" is the whole reason Star Fox went off the rails in the first place.