Topic: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Preview Available On Wii Shop Channel

[NWR_Lindy]

Downloadable preview contains new trailer with more movies to come; Nintendo announces Virtual Console dates for Metroid, Super Metroid.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=14207

 Many have wondered when the promotional blitz was going to start for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, one of Nintendo's biggest titles of 2007.  Only a few weeks from launch, little has been heard from the Big N about the newest installment of one of its most revered franchises.  That all changed today as Nintendo has posted a new offering on its North American Wii Shop Channel (look for your Wii's blue light to be pulsing), the Metroid Prime 3 Preview.    

Appearing in the WiiWare section of the Wii Shop Channel, downloading the free preview will cost you 70 blocks of your system memory.  Once downloaded, it appears on the Wii Menu as a separate channel.  Starting the preview channel takes you into a Metroid Prime-themed menu that displays four movies entitled Corruption (a general trailer for the game), Bridge Fight (a movie of a bridge battle between Samus and Space Pirates that has been playable at past E3s), Aurora, and Spider Ball (both greyed-out for the time being).  A flashing message at the bottom of the screen promises more movies on August 13th, so one or both of these movies will surely be enabled at that time.    

The movies don't reveal much that we haven't already seen, but the Corruption trailer does have a few new tidbits.  The identities of several new bounty hunters are revealed.  They are Rundas (a smaller, agile-looking silver hunter), Gandrayda (a female hunter in dark pink body armor, seen helping Samus in several cutscenes), and Ghor (a large hunter with a definite "mecha" look, who may be Gandrayda's friend or partner based on the amount of times they appear together).  These hunters appear in several cutscenes, so they undoubtedly play a large role in Corruption's plot.    

Various shots show Samus battling Space Pirates, her boss encounter with Meta Ridley, and another boss battle against a giant named Mogenar.  There are several clips of Samus in her "corrupted" form, as well as several cutscenes of her ship in action.  Longtime fans of the series will be pleased to find that Samus' Screw Attack is fully intact.  The trailer closes with a giant tentacled monster (that looks to be half-creature, half-asteroid) menacingly floating through space towards a planet's surface.  Mother Brain?  We can only speculate.    

In addition to the movies, the Metroid Prime 3 Preview also contains a small mini-game.  The movie view can be minimized, at which point users can hold down the A button to "paint" in tiles comprising an image of Samus underneath.  Uncover enough tiles and a "Reveal" button activates in the top-right of the screen, allowing you to display the entire image.  There are two images so far, with more surely to come.    

The Preview's help function also points users to http://www.metroid.com/'>www.metroid.com, which has finally been updated to include a reference to Metroid Prime 3.  There is no extra content on the website; rather, Nintendo has chosen to instruct players to download the Preview to their Wii.    

This downloadable content marks the beginning of what Nintendo is calling a "month of Metroid" on its online service.  The original Metroid will be available as a Virtual Console download on August 13th, and the highly-anticipated Super Metroid will become available August 20th.  This all culminates in the release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on August 27th.    

Stay tuned to Nintendo World Report as more Metroid Prime 3 information becomes available.

[tiamat1990]

Well this does raise my hopes for demoes...but come one. As a seperate channel? People are already running out of channels!

[UERD]

Is this why my Wii blue light of evil was flashing this morning? (I got the firmware upgrade already.)

[Shorty McNostril]

Where is the WiiWare section of the shop.  I just had a look and I can't find it.  Is it anything to do with being a PAL system?

[NeoThunder]

Quote
Originally posted by: UERD
Is this why my Wii blue light of evil was flashing this morning? (I got the firmware upgrade already.)

YES...

Well, game demos are good but video play will do just fine.....i'm not complaining

[NWR_Lindy]

If Nintendo's going to start doing this, they really need to put out a firmware update that allows you to play stuff off of the SD card.  Otherwise your system memory is going to get eaten up quickly (and who really wants to delete a Virtual Console game that they're in the middle of playing just to make room for a one-off demo?).

That said, there's nothing to bitch about here.  This is more than Nintendo's ever done in terms of downloadable content.  They're slowly moving towards a more Xbox Live-ish model.

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Well, I lose money.  After pacing out the VC releases forever, to me it seems odd to cram Super Metroid right in front of Prime 3.  

[Ceric]

I think Nintendo didn't fully think about all the angles of their scheme.  In actuality most of what is offered in the MP preview channel could have been relegated to one channel with multiple game areas.  The channel could show whichever one Nintendo is currently wanting to promote or even just be a part of the shopping channel.  We aren't going to ever see demos.

[BwrJim!]

A few things to remember.  

(1) not everyone is downloading games
(2) its a box for EVERYONE, even people who are not so adept at FOLDERS.
(3) you can re-download games

  On my side, I only have 9 games downloaded and really from all my friends, they really are just COLLECTING the roms and not playing them that much (They might not realize it but they are).  Myself, out of the 9 downloaded, I only wanted 7 of them.  Sure I want tons others but until I have the time to play them, I just cant justify that extra cost.    I am a hardcore, but I am also over 30 with a family.   So just remember, not everyone is filling up their channels.

Thanks for your time,
Jim

[Ceric]

So these same people who can't click on a channel and then select from another array of channels can't:

Get off of the main Channel screen

Use the Shopping Channel to begin with

Use the Folder Channel

Use Everyone Vote Channel beyond the current polls initial screen

Update their Wii

I seriously doubt they could get it connected to Wi-Fi on their own

I'm sorry but that doesn't hold much water with me.  I know their are people around the world like that.  There are also people who can't read.  Even here in the US, which is a larger population then you may think.  I have the same opinion for all of them, unless they are blind or like, get help and become proficient in basic things you'll thank me later.

[pSYCO-gAMER321]

I really like the sensitivity on the Metroid Prime 3 preview channel. Feels much smoother! Also, Nintendo should do more previews. I suspect that early October/ early November, Nintendo will do  this again with Mario and then Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Seriously, Nintendo should do this more often, but with cooperation of 3rd party developers.

[Ceric]

The Brawl one could just be an optimized version of the site that shows the update as the channels icon.

[Mashiro]

Quote
Originally posted by: BwrJim!
A few things to remember.  

(1) not everyone is downloading games
(2) its a box for EVERYONE, even people who are not so adept at FOLDERS.
(3) you can re-download games

  On my side, I only have 9 games downloaded and really from all my friends, they really are just COLLECTING the roms and not playing them that much (They might not realize it but they are).  Myself, out of the 9 downloaded, I only wanted 7 of them.  Sure I want tons others but until I have the time to play them, I just cant justify that extra cost.    I am a hardcore, but I am also over 30 with a family.   So just remember, not everyone is filling up their channels.

Thanks for your time,
Jim

And this should stop Nintendo from letting people play their games off an SD card because . . . ?

I don't have my channels filled up but if I did I would be awfully annoyed if I had to delete games and then re-download them just to see things like this MP3 channel or purchase new games.

It's a basic function that Nintendo should allow and it's pretty stupid that they still don't let people do this.

[BwrJim!]

Oh I'm not dismissing their faults here, just simply trying to justify their decisions.   After all, the memory in the Wii can only be written to so many times before they start getting errors right?  Until they can find a way to feel safe about piracy, this may be a little ways off.  Piracy will always be here, but you can bet that they will make it damn hard before they offer such functionality.

Now with the Neo Geo games coming, (really wanting some of these btw) I hope they resolve it in some manner.   In my wii, all my games are shoved off to the side as not to clutter up desktop.  just too many things going on.  

[NWR_Lindy]

Quote
Originally posted by: BwrJim!
A few things to remember.  

(1) not everyone is downloading games
(2) its a box for EVERYONE, even people who are not so adept at FOLDERS.

I'm not one of these people, so I don't care about them.  I'm concerned with what I want.

Quote

(3) you can re-download games

I don't want to do that.

Nintendo gave the Wii the ability to read and save to an SD card.  They should let you do something with that space aside from uploading MP3s and photos onto it, because there's really no use for those two functions as they stand.  The ability to play VC games from your SD card only makes sense, and would actually encourage people to download more of them to round out their collection.

I love it when companies make it difficult for people to give them money.

[Mario]

Quote
Originally posted by: Shorty McNostril
Where is the WiiWare section of the shop.  I just had a look and I can't find it.  Is it anything to do with being a PAL system?

I can't find it either. It makes sense though since we aren't getting the actual game anytime soon.

[Jonnyboy117]

WiiWare is next to Virtual Console in the shop channel.  I wouldn't be surprised if the MP3 preview isn't available in PAL, though.

My hat is off to Nintendo.  This is a very good step in the right direction.  They're beaming Metroid into people's homes!

[ShyGuy]

Geez people. Jonny had the first positive comment on this thread. Nintendo does something most of us have been clamoring for and all we can do is nitpick. Buncha Ians, I tell ya....

[Smash_Brother]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ceric
I think Nintendo didn't fully think about all the angles of their scheme.  In actuality most of what is offered in the MP preview channel could have been relegated to one channel with multiple game areas.  The channel could show whichever one Nintendo is currently wanting to promote or even just be a part of the shopping channel.  We aren't going to ever see demos.

I suspect we'll see this MP channel turn into a "what's new in games" channel...and I mean on its own.

The entire thing seems controlled by streaming content which can change at a moment's notice.

Frankly, I like the idea. All this needs to do now is give people demos in addition to streaming videos and it'll be the most popular channel, by far.

[NWR_Lindy]

Quote
Originally posted by: BwrJim!
Oh I'm not dismissing their faults here, just simply trying to justify their decisions.   After all, the memory in the Wii can only be written to so many times before they start getting errors right?  Until they can find a way to feel safe about piracy, this may be a little ways off.  Piracy will always be here, but you can bet that they will make it damn hard before they offer such functionality.

That's what I'm questioning - if they're worried about piracy, why can't they just encrypt the VC data when it gets written to the SD card?  For example, encode it with some sort of 128-bit hash based on the console's MAC address, such that it can only be decoded by a Wii with that same MAC address.  The make the encryption hardware-based to add an extra layer of complexity.  That way the VC games wouldn't work on anybody else's console.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

It's about effing time.  Did Nintendo really have to stick to a schedule of "surprises" in order to get this out?  This scheme could've been applied to Strikers, for example.

Though it's very welcome and relieving to see this sort of thing.  So Matt C. was just a crazy ball of fury afterall.

[MegaByte]

Quote
Originally posted by: Silks

That's what I'm questioning - if they're worried about piracy, why can't they just encrypt the VC data when it gets written to the SD card?  For example, encode it with some sort of 128-bit hash based on the console's MAC address, such that it can only be decoded by a Wii with that same MAC address.  The make the encryption hardware-based to add an extra layer of complexity.  That way the VC games wouldn't work on anybody else's console.

Actually, that basically IS what they do already.  And personally, I think it sucks, especially after having my Wii go bad.

[UltimatePartyBear]

It brought a huge smile to my face when I got the message from Nintendo this morning.  I can't wait to try it out after work.  This is just such a huge departure from the norm that it gives me hope for more to come.

[bubicus]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ceric
I think Nintendo didn't fully think about all the angles of their scheme.  In actuality most of what is offered in the MP preview channel could have been relegated to one channel with multiple game areas.

True, but then they might as well have made another Web site with the usual preview stuff instead. What Nintendo did was create a custom app that works with the Wii system. Users can use the Wii remote to navigate and control the video player and the minigame, and the developers were able to add some special effects that aren't possible (easily) in a Web browser. In order to do all that, though, they had to create a channel. I think it was a great idea, and I think they did fully think about what they were doing.

As for channel limits... 95% (a made-up number, but I'm sure it's around there) of people with Wiis do not have a problem with filling up the channels. There have been around five million VC purchases so far, but almost ten million Wiis sold. If the majority of people were filling up their channels, there would have to be at least forty million VC purchases so far, assuming that enough channels would have to be downloaded in order to fill up the first screen (the seven standard Wii channels, the Internet channel, plus four VC purchases). But if you're actually talking about filling up all 48 channels, there would have to be 40 purchases per console, so there would be 400 million VC purchases if everybody was having problems. Even if, hypothetically, only 2.5% of Wii owners were filling up all 48 channels and NOBODY else was buying VC games except those people, there would be 10 million VC purchases so far.

I'm not denying there will be a problem in the future, but I think that Nintendo isn't that worried about it right now because only a small percentage of Wii owners utilize the Virtual Console. I would hope that Nintendo's software developers will address the channel problem in a future update, but there's no hurry.  The people filling up the channels are a tiny fraction of the ownership population, and just about all of those people are savvy enough to know how to move files to SD cards. Perhaps the majority of the population at NWR is filling up their channels, but certainly not the general public is.

Besides, people are going to delete the MP3 preview channel when the game comes out (if they can figure out how to do it, that is... hehe).


 

[Jonnyboy117]

Once MP3 has been out for a few months, the preview channel should turn into a speedrun showcase.

(j/k...but they could turn it into a tips & tricks thing to help people who bought the game.)