Messages

1201

TalkBack / RE:Nintendo Reports Profit Despite Low GameCube Sales

« on: August 07, 2003, 02:38:37 PM »

The thing is, since launch Nintendo has been trying to make sure there are no GameCube shortages (since shortages hurt the N64). So they've been making more than they need. Or, to phrase it another way, the GameCube has been selling less than they expected.

So apparently almost all retailers have an abundance of GameCubes on hand. In the store.

So Nintendo decided that they're essentially ahead of all the work they need to do, so they stopped making GameCubes for a quarter-year.

Then in their quarterly report (which isn't "sell through" numbers like from NPD or Famitsu) they mentioned that they shipped out 3.24 million GBAs worldwide in the last 3 months, and only 80 thousand GameCubes worldwide.

That is a really low number, so investors got worried. And sites reported on it. And assorted fanboys thought it was proof that Nintendo's turning into Sega. And other sites refused to believe that, so they figured that it had to be a typo, and started saying it must have been 800 thousand (which seems to have no basis in fact).

But it may as well have been zero GameCubes shipped, because Nintendo wasn't making any. Because they didn't need to. And that it wasn't a bad thing, but more of a way to wisely cash in on a symptom of a larger somewhat bothersome problem of of the GameCube not being grabbed up as rapidly as it obviously should be.

[Grey Ninja]

1202

TalkBack / RE:Nintendo announces new games, rewards

« on: August 07, 2003, 02:20:26 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Grey Ninja

Quote
Originally posted by: ruby_onix
I thought NOA (and Canada) already had a "rewards" system. Those "Super Power Stamps" and the Power Supplies catalog that comes with Nintendo Power.

I have no idea how many of those stamps I've accumulated over the years.

This is different.  You get rewards based on the number of games that you buy.

Why not just start putting the stamps inside games?

1203

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Official Game Boy Player Discussion

« on: August 07, 2003, 11:51:25 AM »

^^^ Can anyone confirm this?

1204

TalkBack / RE:Nintendo announces new games, rewards

« on: August 07, 2003, 11:46:50 AM »

I thought NOA (and Canada) already had a "rewards" system. Those "Super Power Stamps" and the Power Supplies catalog that comes with Nintendo Power.

I have no idea how many of those stamps I've accumulated over the years.

[Mario]

1205

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Miyamoto and Mikami interview

« on: August 04, 2003, 07:59:33 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Mario
Basically it says Shinji Mikami wants to work on a Nintendo franchise like how Sega worked on F-Zero and how Namco is working on Starfox...

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned yet about how everyone was saying that "Dead Phoenix" looks a lot like "Kid Icarus".

1206

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Why All The "Perfect 10's" These Days

« on: August 02, 2003, 02:40:47 PM »

Quote
A 10/10 in game reviews can mean perfect or top in it's class depending on who reviews it.

I like it better with a "10" meaning it's in the top 20% of anything that can be considered "good".

Then you do that to the different aspects of the game (sound, controls, etc.) and average them out (which is why you get something like 9.8/10, instead of 98/100).

Which would mean that we're seeing more "perfect 10" games these days because everyone's taking the time and effort to make "major productions" out of their games. Games like Castlevania and Megaman used to be the only ones putting out great gameplay, graphics, and great sound, but now everyone knows your won't get away without putting top-notch sound into their games.

No areas are lacking.

Or at least that's how I think of it. I don't really spend much thought trying to figure out what systems reviewers use to rank their games.

[every aspect]

1207

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Why All The "Perfect 10's" These Days

« on: August 02, 2003, 12:55:36 PM »

I think the thing about it is that there's nothing wrong with giving out a "10" to something. It doesn't mean the game is "perfect".

Think about how many degrees there are to rank it with (if you don't get into the decimals). A rank of 5/10 is supposed to be "adequate" (or whatever word you prefer). A 0/10 is supposed to be completely worthless (although I don't know if anyone has ever bothered to make one of these yet).

So there are only about 5 levels of quality. Ranking something as one of the top 10% of all games ever made isn't uncommon. You could even rank a game into the top 20% of good games you could could think are "possible" without too much trouble.

The next thing people usually do to make it more accurate is split up the rankings for the graphics and sound and "fun" and all that, and average them out.

So if your game is top 10% in fun, and top 10% in graphics, and top 10% in sound, then it doesn't have to be "perfect", just really good all the way through.


But the thing is, once you score that 10, people look at it as a "perfect 10", because the number itself is perfect.

People need to look more at the games and less at the numbers. A perfect 10 doesn't mean it's the most fun you'll have in a game, just that it's a "top-notch" game, and more than that, the guys who made it spared no expense in trying to get every aspect of it just right.

[worldwide]

1208

TalkBack / RE:Two-Thirds of America Play Videogames

« on: July 31, 2003, 02:53:09 AM »

I'm pretty sure Sony just announced the PS2 as having put out 53 million hardware units worldwide (as of the end of the first fiscal quarter, which should have been June 30).

This report is American, and says that NPD said it was...

PS2 - 18 million
Xbox - 5.5 million
GCN - 4.1 million

... as of last June.

And that Ziff Davis (the parent company of the guys who make magazines like EGM, OPM, and XBox Nation and GMR) "projects" that the PS2 will still be "dominating" by next June, because it's sure to be...

PS2 - 25.9 million
Xbox - 10.4 million
GCN - 8.2 million

... in America by then.

1209

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Gamecube's memory usage

« on: July 31, 2003, 02:21:39 AM »

The PSX memory cards were 1 megabit (which is a nice round number).

The GameCube's MC59 (the grey memory card) is four times as big, and is 4 megabits (or half a megabyte). The blocks are supposed to be the same size as PSX blocks (but with an index of some sort taking up 5 blocks, instead of 1 block on the PSX).

The GameCube's MC251 (the black memory card) is four times as big again, and is 16 megabits (or two megabytes).

The PS2's 8 megabyte (64 megabit) memory card is another four times as big.


When Sony made the leap to a memory card that was sixty-four times the size of what they were using, Nintendo just thought (yes, I'm a psychic) that was a pointless waste of money, designed to give the PS2 more inflated statistics and make it look more impressive, without giving people something that they actually needed.

Game save data doesn't increase as you make the graphics better or add more FMV to a game.

But, developers will take anything you give them.

By having two 16 megabit cards, and two 4 megabit cards, you have about the equivalent of fourty PSX cards at your disposal. But, the makers of sports games don't think that's enough. You should go buy another MC251. Or pester Nintendo to come out with the next stage of cards (which would be the, most likely purple, 8 megabyte card). Your games will be more fun that way. You should thank them.


My brother (who has a PS2) was watching me play Metroid Prime back when it came out, and he was stunned when I pulled up the GameCube's memory manager screen. "How can the save possibly be only taking up one block? That doesn't seem possible. It's gotta get bigger as you go farther in the game or something."

1210

General Chat / Am I a Dinosaur?

« on: July 24, 2003, 12:49:05 AM »

Final Fantasy 7 (which doesn't even seem like the "old" days of the PSX to me) seems way to recent for people to seriously call "the good old days".

I'm a gamer since the later Atari 2600 days myself.


One thing that did make me feel old recently was a conversation something someone was saying about Sony "stealing" their controller design from the SNES. Someone else said "How can it be stealing, if they just used the obvious, logical, layout?" (or something to that effect)

Then I started remembering about how the Atari used to have a joystick (a term invented by the pioneering efforts of immature airplane test pilots, FYI) that pressed down bent pieces of metal that were taped to a circuit board, to make connections (I took many of them apart, trying to "fix" them, after me and my brothers wore them out). And the stick was supposed to be operated with your right hand, with your left being used for buttons.

And then Nintendo came out with the NES (Famicom) and the almost-complete modern design for controllers. Crosskey on the left. Start and select buttons made of those rubber things used in TV remote controls in the middle. Similar buttons with hard plastic covers for the more used "A and B" buttons on the right.

Then Sega made their own crosskey, and put it back on the right side of the pad, for their "Master System". And put the "pause" button on the main unit, beside the reset button, like the switches of the old 2600.

NEC came out with their own controller for the TurboGrafx (PC Engine), and mostly copied the NES controller.

Then Sega tried again with the Genesis, but they still made their own version of the crosskey (since Nintendo had completely invented it) which, like the TG-16 and Master System, didn't seem to work as nicely as Nintendo's, but at least were honest. And they also went with a more "arcade style" 3-button layout. Which later changed to a six-button layout.

Then Nintendo came out with the SNES, invented the L and R buttons, and expanded their two-button system to a more comfortable four-button system.

Then Sony made the PSX. They took the SNES design, and made some ergonomic changes (which had been happening since the Genesis). They took the perfect mechanics of Nintendo's crosskey, and made it visually different with a tiny (and functionally useless) brace in the middle, so it looked like four buttons. And they doubled the L and R buttons! And renamed the others (with lousy names, that they seem to be really pround of).

Then Nintendo came out with the N64, with analog, and their "three handed" design (so you could use the analog to replace either hand). Sony added analog to their controller, but couldn't really do the "three handed" thing. So they just gave people double the analog sticks!

Then Nintendo came out with the Rumble Pak, so Sony added rumble to their controller (and made the non-rumbling analog ones pretty rare). And gave people double the rumble motors! One big, and one small, which gave it more depth, and made most people say that the Dual Shock was superior.

Sega evolved their six-button Genesis pad into the Saturn controller, and after the analog revolution they made a funky disc-shaped controller that they gave away bundled with Nights. Which evolved into the Dreamcast controller. Which was spray painted black, had half a tennis ball superglued to it, and became the XBox controller. Which was later replaced by a much better Japanese one.


That turned into a bit of a rant, didn't it? I think that was part of it. I've got all this rant-worthy info in my head, and some little twerp tihnks the world was born looking like it is now! That's what makes me old! I've gotten surly! Sometimes.


Another thing that made me feel old somewhat recently, was when I was first playing Pokemon on my old "original" GameBoy (I was trying to avoid getting the GameBoy Color, since I knew the "Atlantis" would be around eventually). I realized that the majority of the kids that were playing the same game were younger than the system I was currently playing it on. Nevermind the fact that they're younger than me. They're younger than my GameBoy!


Of course, for the most part, the fact that I'm still into videogames and cartoons makes me feel like I'm still a kid. Which really is kind of amazing, when you stop and think about it.

[old]

1211

Nintendo Gaming / Official Game Boy Player Discussion

« on: July 22, 2003, 02:47:04 PM »

Just curious, has anyone tried using the old PSX controllers on the GameBoy Player through the PlayCube adaptor?

Like, one of the ones before the N64 came out, back when they didn't come with analog or rumble?

Those ones are much closer to what the Hori Pad offers. It could just be that the GBP has problems with the rumble, or analog, or something like that.

1212

NWR Feedback / Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide: Stairway to the Destined Duel Review

« on: July 21, 2003, 02:41:42 PM »

Hmm, well, the #1 thing I have to say about the review would be that you reviewed the wrong game.

"Stairway to the Destined Duel" is the GBA game that came after "Eternal Duelist Soul". They are the best Yu-Gi-Oh games made to date (or so I've heard, but I haven't played all of them). But Stairway is like the sequel to Eternal, and nobody should have to just jump into Stairway. Konami should really do more to illustrate that, but then again, they want people to stupidly buy games like "Dungeon Dice Monsters", "Dark Duel Stories", and "Duelists of the Roses". Of course, Nintendo never stopped anyone from picking up "Hey You Pikachu" when they could've gotten "Pokemon Yellow".

Anyways, "Eternal Duelist Soul" is a much better game for a beginner. Even one who's watched the anime a lot (since the anime often uses various "customized" rules, to put it mildly). The game starts you off with weak cards, and all your opponents have weak cards too, and you learn the basics that way. As you get better monsters you can add them to your deck. You get to see how they work, and you learn about them, one at a time. If you cheated, and just tossed a few Blue Eyes White Dragons into your deck at the start of the game (you can do that, with passwords), you would completely wreck the balance of your deck, and probably not be able to play those cards.

If you can, please put down Stairway and try to find Eternal. Play Eternal, and then go back to Stairway and do a follow-up review. Many little Yu-Gi-Oh fans will probably thank you for it.

Just a warning though. When Konami made Eternal, they focused entirely on the card game. Which is apparently why they got it right, and why people consider this to be one of the best Yu-Gi-Oh games. The complaints you had about stuff like "story presentation" are even more pronounced in this game (they were already Eternal complaints that Konami slightly addressed for Stairway). But the game being more playable will probably make up for them. I mean yeah, when someone pulls out a terrain modifier card, it doesn't look like much (brick background changes to something like sand), but you're more supposed to be awed by the devestating effect it can have on your well-laid plans.


Oh and, here's a little bit about the anime. I've heard Yu-Gi-Oh described as having part of the "Incredible Hulk effect", for adolescents. A little kid (Yugi Moto) gets possesed by the spirit of an ancient Egyptian Pharoah (known as "Yami Yugi", or "Dark Yugi") which was trapped inside a puzzle, who's a master gambler (or more precicely "King of Games"), and makes Yugi taller, stronger, oozing with confidence and power, and able to speak with an over-the-top elequence in a much lower voice.

In the anime world, the cards of the "Duel Monsters" game were recreated as vessels for the souls of giant monsters that once served people like the spirit of the puzzle. As a result, some duels are infused with magical powers.

So Yugi and his friends spend most of their time in tournaments, defending the world in ways they don't entirely understand, in over-the-top card matches where they end up drawing cards in combinations that are seemingly impossible.

At first I thought the anime was utter crap. Just a 30 minute advertisement to sell cards to kids. But a friend of mine told me that if I really gave it a chance, it'd grow on me. It was on before DragonBall Z (in Canada), so I ended up watching it a fair bit. And it really did grow on me. Right now, I'd actually say it beats Pokemon and Digimon. And that's before you factor in that I'm kind of tired of those two. If you can appreciate the style and escalating power levels of a show like DBZ, then I'd say the Yu-Gi-Oh anime is a good match.

1213

NWR Feedback / Signature Limits?

« on: July 21, 2003, 12:19:56 PM »

Hmm, any way I counted it, I seem to have had over 400 characters (when I had the opening theme to Lunar SSSC as my sig).

Of course, now it looks to me like KnowsNothing has a sig that's almost 450 characters. Perhaps PGC increased the limit a while ago and forgot to tell us? Or I just can't count.

Ah well. I made a new sig anyways.

1214

NWR Feedback / Signature Limits?

« on: July 19, 2003, 01:07:23 PM »

I think I'm breaking that rule.

It looks like my sig's about 420 to 430 characters.

I guess I should change it...

Oh yeah and, I don't think PGC could limit the amount of lines your sig uses, because my sig just barely fits inside three lines on my computer, but if your screen's smaller it probably takes up six or seven lines.

On Rick's computer, I bet it only uses one line.

1215

Nintendo Gaming / Shenmue 3 to include 1 and 2?

« on: July 18, 2003, 12:44:55 PM »

Before Shenmue 2, Sega was figuring out their new "platform agnostic" stategy, and deciding what series would go where. Sega commented that they felt the Shenmue series would be a best fit on the GameCube. But then Microsoft paid Sega to make it for the XBox, and even paid them to cancel every other version, including the American Dreamcast one.

One of Microsoft's head up's (I don't remember exactly who) recently mentioned what everyone suspected was true. When a company buys the exclusivity of a game, they have to pay more money for it that the maker could possibly have earned on all the other platforms combined.

He mentioned that it's extremely expensive (even when the game is a success, which as far as I've heard, Shenmue 2 wasn't), and that Microsoft wasn't looking to be doing it any more, now that they're semi-established.

Considering that the XBox already has Shenmue 2, and it came with "Shenmue: The Movie" as a kind of recap of Shenmue 1, the only reason AM2 would want to include 1&2 with number 3 would be if it's going multiplatform.

1216

Nintendo Gaming / Official Game Boy Player Discussion

« on: July 18, 2003, 12:24:39 PM »

Asimov - "I was just thinking....now that the GBP is out couldn't developers add like more button functions or analog control or something?"

Cooolcorey - "Yep, it's possible. They can also do online GBA games or use the GBP as a substitue for a GCN-GBA link cable for linkage."

KnowsNothing - "errrm, didn't Nintendo say the GBP CANNOT substitute for a GCN-GBA link cable?"

Bloodworth - "Yeah, they did. There's no reason for it though. It works just fine."

TAYREL713 - "What do you mean it works fine Bloodworth? Do you know something we dont?"

Bloodworth - "I mean we've tried it and it works fine. We're guessing the "warning" should be taken just as lightly as the warning not to use rechargeable batteries in a Game Boy or Wave Bird."


I just noticed this and thought I should try and clarify it. I think Bloodworth mistook the question, or was answering something completely different.

The GBP currently can't substitute for a GCN-GBA link cable. You can't get GCN/GBA connectivity out of just a GameCube with the GBA Player. If you put Metroid Prime in your GCN, and Metroid Fusion in your GBA Player, the Fusion Suit in Prime won't unlock. Even if you do something weird like connect a GCN-GBA cable from one of the controller ports to the Player's game link port.

It's supposed to be completely possible that future games might include that feature, and others (by simply including the GBP's Boot Disk instructions inside a GameCube game). But it currently doesn't exist, so Nintendo says you can't do it.


What I think Bloodworth was commenting on was a line in the GBP instruction book that says you can't hook up two (or four) GBP-connected GameCubes to play multiplayer GBA games. It says you should only hook up one GameBoy Player, and then you can attach up to three regular GBA's.

That's not true though. If you have enough TV's and GameCubes, you can play all the big screen GBA multiplayer games that you want. I don't think anyone knows why Nintendo included that line.


Although I can understand Nintendo not endorsing rechargable batteries, because I've seen my GBA get picky, and refuse some of my cheaper third party GameBoy Color power packs (used through one of those third party GBA adaptors). Even though it's supposed to be all the same voltage, and they work on my GBC just fine.

1217

NWR Feedback / Stop stealing content from other sites ... ?

« on: July 15, 2003, 12:14:08 AM »

The thing is, PGC pays attention to this kind of thing, and they always make sure they're in the clear with the stuff they write.

If you can't prove that what you're quoting is proper, then you shouldn't be doing it. Or at least, not on these boards.

If you see PGC quoting something that was said on another site, like Penny Arcade (for example), it could be because they have an arrangement (and just didn't mention it). It doesn't mean that we have a right to start directly quoting Penny Arcade, here or elsewhere, because we've never met the guys who make Penny Arcade, and don't have that same kind of deal worked out that PGC does.

Plus, there's this legal term called "fair use". It gives journalists certain legal rights. Unless you can prove it applies to you, reporters (like the ones running PGC) will always have the edge over you (or I) in what they're allowed to say (without breaking laws).

1218

General Gaming / Fight on Goemon! (long story)

« on: July 14, 2003, 08:40:54 PM »

A new Goemon game for the PS2 is coming out in English from Working Designs.

It's taking quite a while, because not only did it take a while for WD to arm-twist Konami into leting them release the game, but then SCEA apparently got on their case about Goemon "not pushing the graphics of the PS2 enough", and didn't give them permission to release the game in America, since it would make the PS2 "look bad".

However WD did manage to get it through, and it apparently is coming out sometime now.

Victor Irelard (WD's president) has basically said that Goemon is part of their secret plot to get Konami to start giving up some of their more tightly-held unreleased properties.

1219

TalkBack / Midway Confirms NARC for GC

« on: July 13, 2003, 02:49:58 PM »

The only thing I remember about the original was getting into some red sports car and driving back-and-forth over drug dealers, taking all of their money for what seemed like hours, until until I had enough money for... like... infinite lives... or something like that.

1220

TalkBack / Midway's Arcade Treasures

« on: July 07, 2003, 06:57:57 PM »

Quote
"Now these games can be enjoyed along with extensive DVD content that features the history of some of the top arcade titles and creator interviews,"

Something tells me that "DVD content" means that you can put the disc into your DVD player (or just the DVD player mode on the PS2 and XBox), and you can watch all the interviews and stuff.

Which gives me the nagging feeling that they'll just crop all of it completely out of the GameCube version, and blame it on the "inferiority" of the GameCube discs.

Or include an extra DVD in the case, and whine about how much it's costing them to do it, while completely ignoring any piracy benefits.

Edit: And/or whine about how easy it is to pirate a standalone DVD potentially included with the GameCube version.

1221

General Chat / Official Terminator 3 Disscussion- AWWWWW Ya

« on: July 07, 2003, 04:37:26 PM »

TERMINATOR 3 SPOILERS!

...


...


...


...


...


Yeah, I know I could probably try out that new "spoiler tag" thingy, but now that the movie's out we all know this thread's going to turn into one giant spoiler for anyone who hasn't seen it yet anyways.

Anyways, I saw the movie yesterday. I really liked it.

T2 was the ultimate sequel. But T3 has a slightly different flavor. I kind of liked it that way. It's like, the Arnold-model (I forget the number) Terminator in this movie seemed completely like a Terminator, but more like a younger brother of the Arnold-model Terminator from T2. He seems like the same guy from T2. You want him to be the same guy as the one from T2. He's really close. But he's not the same. I felt that little bit explained the movie for me. Which is odd, because I usually don't go for that subtle "metaphor" stuff.

I thought the movie totally fit into the storyline. And it was even needed to make the story more complete (unlike what a lot of other people have said).

It's like, in the first Terminator, John Connor was a paradox. He was leading humanity's resistance, and supposedly heard about the machines building a time machine to assassinate his mother before his birth, so they raided the facility, and he sent his best soldier Reese through to protect her. In doing so he (knowingly?) engineered his own birth.

Then in T2, Skynet was revealed to be a paradox too. Miles Dyson was designing Skynet using pieces of the failed assassin-Terminator. The future humans supposedly had Skynet on the retreat, and it sent a T-1000 prototype through the time machine in a desperation attempt to kill John Connor, and the humans (presumably after taking the facility) sent a captured and reprogrammed Arnold-model through (since another human might not have been enough). Sarah, the young John, and Arnie took out the T-1000 and eliminated all possibility of Skynet's paradox-origin.

Everyone seems to think that should be the end of Skynet, but how did the paradox form in the first place? The old fasioned way. Through long hours and effort on the part of military designers, of course. Skynet's paradox just made it's creation earlier and easier.

Terminator 3 answered that. it didn't just take the easy way out and say "It's a paradox. Go figure." Of course, what about the John Connor paradox? Well, Skynet already exists, so I'm gonna theorize that Reese (John's best soldier) was formerly the leader of the human resistance, and that he went back in time for some unknown reason (perhaps to stop a machine attempt to assinate his own mother) and ended up involved with Sarah somehow, creating a better leader for humanity, who was then able to eventually engineer his own birth when Skynet used the same tactics on him that they would've used on Reese. Of course that's all fiction, made up by me. Whatever the origin of John Connor is, Skynet has been trying to break his paradox since the first movie.

And for T3, they even revealed another angle to it. T2 fixed Skynet's paradox, but the mission wasn't completly free of timeline corruption. It messed up John Connor's life. He was supposed to live with his foster parents and get married and wonder about his crazy mom, right up until Judgement Day.

After John eventually dies, his future wife (yeah, I just watched the movie yesterday, and I forgot her name) sends an Arnold-model back to make her own paradox (And take out the superflous Terminatrix. I mean, what would've been wrong with another T-1000? Besides the fact that we've seen it before), by forcing herself and the messed-up John to face their role, and just keep the advantage of the elimination of the Skynet paradox. She never intended to let Arnie help them try and take out Skynet. No home runs. Just a good base-hit.

Now everyone's saying that they set up the ending for endless sequels. I don't really think so. Sure, they could personally show you the war in the future now, but they don't need to. They've been talking about it and showing pieces of it for three movies now. That might be enough. The ending looks like a cliffhanger, but it's just leading up to the first movie.

Hmm... that's all I can think to comment on for now.

1222

Nintendo Gaming / New article on Nintendo´s future! Must-read!!!

« on: July 06, 2003, 12:35:00 AM »

I don't think I agreed with anything in that editorial myself.

But, instead of commenting on some of it, I feel like commenting on something else that the editorial brought up.

Quote
"Why are we to develop games for platforms that do not supply appropriate yields? We still support PS2 and Xbox, but Nintendo? No, not in the foreseeable future."
-Rod Cousens, CEO Acclaim

Does anyone else see something absurd about this logic?

It's like:

"PS2? 30 million units? Sure, we'd love to develop for that!"

"XBox? 5.5 million units? Sure, we'd love to develop for that!"

"GameCube? 4.5 million units? I dunno... That doesn't really seem like enough. No, we can't afford to do that."


It just makes no sense to me.

1223

NWR Feedback / PGC Issues

« on: July 04, 2003, 11:20:19 PM »

This would probably be the best thread on the subject.

1224

General Gaming / Metroid Chronology

« on: July 03, 2003, 09:00:50 PM »

Here's a link that says the definitive place that Metroid Prime sits in the timeline.

http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item&id=3572

1225

General Gaming / Metroid Chronology

« on: July 03, 2003, 03:10:53 PM »

Metroid 1 = Metroid (NES)
Metroid 2 = Return of Samus (GameBoy)
Metroid 3 = Super Metroid (SNES)
Metroid 4 = Metroid Fusion (GameBoy Advance)

Retro could've put Metroid Prime just about anywhere in the series, but the official place they picked was between 1 and 2.

Some documents in Metroid Prime apparently refer (I need to play the game again) to the reconstruction schedule of the Space Pirate base on Zebes, which places the game solidly between Metroid 1 and 3 (since it was wrecked in the first game, rebuilt for the third, and the whole planet was blown up by the end of the third).

I think I remember from before the game came out, Retro interviews saying that the game would also have to be set before Metroid 2 if it wanted to have any Metroids in the game (since they were exterminated from SR-388 in number 2).

Personally, I think that was bad logic, and worked some errors into the Metroid storyline. Not the least of which being that I think a grammatical quirk in Super Metroid ruled out the possibility of a Metroid conflict between 1 and 2. (Space Pirate conflicts would be okay. Metroid involvement wouldn't.)

But between 1 and 2 does seem to be the official spot. I'll try and find more proof (beyond the note about Zebes).