Topic: Suggestions for Metroid Prime series and any upcoming 3D metroids

[mantidor]

" Though you would have total control over camera and aiming, Samus' ability to auto aim is a nice crutch that other first person shooters don't have."

thats because its not a first person shooter. Please, I cant believe this needs to be clarified even among Metroid Prime fans.

The only thing I would really want to see its a more agile Samus, but to be honest I have no idea how this can be acomplished. Everything else is just perfect, Nintendo was right when they forced the first person perspective, imagine trying to go through those corridors in a third person perspective and Samus is getting in your line of view... you couldnt even see if there are monsters ahead, and claustrophobic corridors are a must for a metroid game imo.

[nemo_83]

I believe Reggie recently even called it a FPS.  It is a FPS, get over it.  Your in first person view and you shoot, you shoot a lot.  It is also an adventure game.  It has one continuous world, basically.  You could say FPSA.  But it is a mouth full.  Basically what Metroid is setting, with its adventure elements, is new standards in other shooters like PDzero.  

I agree that with the way they design the majority of the areas in Metroid that first person is the best view point, plus it gives you the visors.  In first person you can platform easier because the camera view never changes, it is always inside the helmet.  There is never some three dimensional object in front of the camera you are trying to slam dunk in virtual 3d space judging distances based on shadows.  It could work, but in Metroid the levels twist and turn, the game is not just a shallow space 3d game.  There are tunnels, spirals, and high platforming.  Metroid is way too focused on jumping for third person, though it would be a nice option, the aiming, the vertical aiming, just wouldn't be the same in third person.  Even if you were using the lock on, you would have to posistion the camera behind Samus' big ass to direct the aiming up.  It just wouldn't work out in my opinion for anything other than checking out the suit in action.

This talk of Halo and third person views has made me think of something lacking in MP.  In other adventure games like Zelda and Fable you have an open world.  I would love to see vast open areas on the surface of the planets in the next Metroid games.  They could creat an entire 3d planet with interconnecting subterrainian corridors.  Halo is stage based, which sucks, but the best stages are open enviroments outdoors.  

Samus is just too slow.  And the whole having to target, shoot, and move with the joystick while trying to pound B button to dash to the side runs about as smooth as Dick Cheney's heart.  With dual analog control along with gyration, Samus can side straff all of the time while aiming, shooting, and jumping without any problems.  When Samus gets upgrades in the game, she should be able to run twice as fast.  She doesn't have to do flips everytime she dodges or anything, she just needs to get her rear in gear when you push the analog stick the whole way.  

[kratos]

I would like to see a return of the speed dash.  Not like the ones in Fusion and Zero Mission either.  More like the one from Super Metroid.  Like when you're walking, holding the "B" button would cause the screen to start blurring and shaking.  Samus' moving speed would increase, and the color from the screen would fade out except for things that can be affected by the dash.  Potential hazards like pitfalls and such would be outlined in red, making the dash a lot less difficult to pull off.  The stop-dash jump could be achieved by simply letting go of the Control Stick and the "B" button.  The energy built up will stay there for a few seconds (indicated by an onscreen timer or bar.)  You could then use this time to say, target special beacons made for dash jumping or manually target and let Samus fly!  Don't kill me....

[Hostile Creation]

Metroid Site

A very thorough Metroid fan site I found today, by coincidence.  Very interesting, I suggest giving it a look; expands the universe quite a bit, in their own way.
They have huge descriptions on tons of stuff.  I've really only played three metroid games, so I'm not entirely sure how accurate all the information is (a lot of it is made up, I know; I'm pretty sure their description of Metroid Prime, for instance, is pretty skewed), but some things in there could provide lots of ideas.  They have a category under biological data named "Enemies of the Galactic Federation", under which are included big bosses like Ridley and Mother Brain, as well as breeds, like the Space Pirates.  One I hadn't heard of previously are called Ki Hunter Pirates.  Not sure how they factor into the game, nor how accurate their description is, but it could have potential.  According to the site, they're highly evolved insects, man-sized, similar to the Space Pirates.  However, they are a hive mind and rely more on their natural abilities.  Just as ruthless, though.  I can imagine a game where an entire planet is overrun by them: Ki Hunters everywhere, everything's destroyed, maybe even (gasp) a few skeletons or corpses lying about (and not space pirate corpses, either), eggs covering entire ceilings of ruined buildings and caves, and you have to sneak and fight your way through it all.  It could be incredibly creepy, very challenging, lots of fun.  Enemy diversty might be a problem, but you could start on the outskirts (good variety) and work your way into the heart of the infestation (Prime became more focused on types of Pirates as they game progressed, and I didn't really mind).  You'd have to work backtracking in, of course.
I dunno, just brainstorming.  Struck me as interesting.  Anyway, cool site, check it out or something.