Contributing Editor and renowned Metroid aficionado Jonathan Metts answers our questions about Metroid, examining the future of the franchise from all sides.

Story and Characters

After numerous games positioned in the middle of the series timeline, how could Samus's story continue following the end of Metroid Fusion? Must the Metroids themselves be resurrected following their apparent extinction?

Fusion dispensed with the Metroids as an enemy, while Metroid II evolved them into myriad forms that are barely recognizable as being related to the original creatures. I'd say there is a lot of flexibility in how the Metroids are employed in this series, and you could certainly do a better job than the Prime games' token inclusions (though Retro's games did a fair job of reproducing the fear associated with the enemy, if not the challenge of defeating one). Moreover, the idea of Samus fusing herself with Metroid DNA was quite poorly explored in Fusion and could be mined for more abundant and more interesting material in future games.

Samus herself is an enigmatic character and should probably stay that way. Retro's attempts to introduce new supporting characters in Echoes and Corruption are lame at best, with the exception of the Aurora Units. The idea of Samus as a bounty hunter has never truly been explored, and maybe it shouldn't be, certainly not if it leads to bizarre interpretations of the occupation such as that in Hunters. The worlds themselves are the real characters in Metroid, and that's why the first Prime is so successful and so reminiscent of Super Metroid.

Gameplay

Should Metroid stick to the side-scrolling and first-person perspectives that have served it well in the past, or could a third-person 3D Metroid help freshen up the franchise?

On either Wii or DS, the first-person and side-scrolling perspectives could feasibly be combined into a single game, and I don't just mean for Morph Ball mazes. The fan consensus, however, is that a new 2D game is needed, whether it employs sprite graphics or polygonal models. Certainly, a return to the 2D perspective would help to reverse the trend of making the 3D games more like shooters and less like adventures, although Corruption straddled that line respectably. Classic elements like the Speed Boost could probably be implemented into the Prime-style first-person perspective or at least be given a temporary third-person treatment as with Screw Attack (which now includes Space Jump and Wall Jump).

However, the series most desperately needs new design elements (i.e. new suit upgrades) that allow for innovative level designs outside of the concepts locked into the series at the time of Super Metroid. Fusion outright failed in this regard, and although the Prime trilogy does introduce some new abilities, they are mostly centered on shooting things. The most challenging and interesting aspect of the original Metroid trilogy is how to get from one place to another, and the Prime trilogy offered little advancement of that theme beyond some excellent spatial puzzle templates provided in the first Prime.

Structure and Scenario

Has the classic Metroid formula of empowerment and exploration run into an inexorable brick wall of diminishing returns?

The original exploration concept of Metroid cannot be exhausted; the imaginations of those given control over the concept clearly have been. Corruption hints at a revolutionary expansion of the concept but is effectively the same as previous games, with different regions accessed by spacecraft instead of elevators. An obvious and mind-blowing way to push the original concept is by constructing a single, seamless world not unlike (in architectural terms) that of Grand Theft Auto or Half-Life 2. This means you could manually traverse the entire planet if so desired, with no discontinuous teleporting or blatant loading zones. The technology for such a venture is clearly available; the ambition and effort are likely not. I would propose remodeling and re-imagining Zebes for this purpose; it would somewhat reduce the requisite conceptual/artistic design involved and give series veterans a point of reference from which to discover this new type of environment, not to mention epic fan service.

Commercial Outlook

The Prime trilogy's success waned after a promising start on GameCube, finishing with Corruption infamously being outsold by Carnival Games in North America. Could Nintendo's focus on so-called "casual" and "bridge" games for Wii and DS leave Metroid in the cold permanently?

Firstly, don't be fooled by the big numbers for Metroid Prime on GameCube -- a huge portion of those units were given away free with the system in the summer of 2003. I would theorize that the poor sales of both Echoes and Corruption lie more on the shoulders of Nintendo's marketing and PR teams than on those of Retro Studios. The games are immaculately designed and developed, and they are almost universally revered by anyone who plays them. The problem, therefore, is that most people have not played them. Corruption's handling was particularly egregious in how it was pushed towards housewives and random airport travelers rather than the Xbox 360 fanbase who will eventually buy a Wii anyway. Echoes was more a victim of Halo 2 hype and general disinterest from Nintendo of America.

These hardcore games have a large potential audience that must be engaged in a way that Nintendo no longer understands, if they ever did. The otherwise spectacularly successful "Blue Ocean" strategies and tricks will not work on a franchise such as Metroid. This series is intimidating and complex, and all the more rewarding for those qualities, and there is no reason for it to flounder when so many other games thrive in the same sub-market. It simply has yet to be presented to consumers in an honest, direct, and exciting way.

With that, we conclude our look into the future of the Metroid franchise. However, if you have comments, or ideas for future Metroid titles, you can post them in the talkback thread for this feature.