Topic: Metroid Prime 4: The Long(er) Wait

Nah

Nope

Evolve/Battleborn

indeed

new area with tougher challenges using pre-existing items and gameplay ideas

That's a ridiculous comparison and you know it. Those are clearly multiplayer-focused games.

Metroid was never a multiplayer game.

But Metroid Prime was! 3 times already.

It started with 4p local deathmatches in Metroid Prime 2 Echoes.

It went on to Metroid Prime Hunters: a full-fledged online-multiplayer with gamer ID card, voice chat, etc. It was a really great sci-fi first person shooter that easily held up with the Halos, if it wasn't for the DS only.

Metroid Prime: Federation Force took the online multiplayer away from versus and into co-op, and tied some sports into it (Metroid Prime Blast Ball).

I think Metroid Prime 4 should have a versus online multiplayer similar to MP Hunters because then it has the sales potential of a game like Halo, Unreal, Doom, Quake, GoldenEye, Battlefield. If you ask me, it should have been in Metroid Prime 3 Corruption already. Big missed opportunity not bringing over MP Hunter's online modes to the big screen. MP4 can also have online co-op and online sports modes on top of that, as I think there's still potential left in the Federation Force & Blast Ball formula as well.

This has the potential to turn into a really popular eSports game for Switch, next to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, ARMS, Splatoon 2, Pokémon Tekken DX, Pokémon RPG, and Super Smash Bros. Deluxe.

Splatoon. Smash Bros. Mario Kart 8.

Except that wouldn't feel very Metroidy. Metroid is all about exploring areas for items to open up further areas to explore. Not having some sort of new item to collect just wouldn't have the same feeling.

For a Metroid game, I want a pure single player isolated experience without any multiplayer. Nintendo already have a fair amount of IPs that explore esports (Splatoon, Smash, ARMS, Pokemon, Mario Kart). I really don't think they need another game (especially Metroid) to explore esports, it's another franchise that I would like to keep single player - just like the mainline Zelda games.

Well I think the multiplayer wouldn't be part of the story. Obviously we'll all like the game just as much or as little without multiplayer, it would just be a nice bonus like when I could mess around in Echoes killing my friend with the morph ball canon's animation.

@Bolt_Strike @kkslider5552000 A better example than those five: Bioshock 2. It's another atmospheric first-person single-player game, and its multiplayer was meatier than Echoes'. People still complained it felt 'tacked on' due to the nature of the series, and I don't think it did much to expand the lifespan of that game sales-wise.

@MarcelRguez However the consoles which had Bioshock 2 also had the usual FPS of the time (e.g. CoD, Battlefield, etc.). Switch has no FPS games, it doesn't even have CoD.

@Grumblevolcano Honestly speaking, I think that's irrelevant. No game has to compensate for the shortcomings of its console's catalog.

I mean, the multiplayer, if any, doesn't have to be expansive. No levelling up, acquiring new gear, rank or any kind of "progression" if they so choose. All I'd ask is that is that it is at least somewhat tied to the main story, the primary focus of the game, and a selection of hunters to use (something like Federation vs. Pirates may be better off as it's own game).

And the cooperative part could be something as simple as a survival mode. It'd be neat to experience something like the Marines trying to survive on Aether. Or any of the Luminoth's stands at their temples.

I'm opposed to that, if Metroid Prime 4 has multiplayer it should be at least as expansive as the one in Metroid Prime Hunters. If it's anything like Prime 2 it won't hold up. It didn't hold up even back then.

@SKTTR What I described is basically Hunter's multiplayer in a nutshell (modes notwithstanding). Good at the time, for a Metroid game and on the DS, but of course most first-person shooters, particularly ones more dedicated to multiplayer have far surpassed it since then.

If they do multiplayer I hope they give it actual attention. Preferably by a completely different developer at Nintendo. I always enjoyed that they did that for Bioshock 2

I likely wouldn't use the multiplayer elements in Prime 4, but in this day and age it would be foolish for it to not be an option. A decent multiplayer mode would make the game far more attractive to both fans and non-fans.

I had yesterday off, which meant I spent some time (well, okay, over three hours) playing through more of Echoes. Rather than writing a book, I'll just list the finer points.

• I finally ran into some Bloggs. Despite what I read earlier in the thread, they weren't really that bad. I dislike Grenchlers far more.
• The Alpha Blogg wasn't inherently bad either, just annoying because I burned through a lot of missiles at first due to poor timing.
• The Boost Guardian took 3-4 tries. I think that thing exists solely to troll the player. Part of the problem with this fight was the lack of safe zones.
• The Grapple Guardian wasn't nearly as bad, just a long fight since, like normal Grenchlers, this thing was hard to hit on the back and wouldn't stay still for long.
• I currently have two of the Torvus keys.
• I reached 60% of my logbook scans.
• Seeker missiles are awesome.

@Tyranexx Oh, so you got to that room. It's pretty cool when you get the seeker missiles.

Moreover, I really loved the descent into Torvus hydro-something where you can't jump back up the ledges. You have to keep going deeper, around the boss arena until you finally find the chamber and get ambushed by the beast dwelling there. That's one of my favorite boss fight settings in all of Metroid.

Yeah, I don't get the complaints about Bloggs either, they're pretty easy to deal with as long as you're alert and you know how to dodge.

I had trouble with the Alpha Blogg my first time too, but I had the opposite problem, instead of firing my missiles too early I was dodging too late and ended up getting hurt. You have a very short window to hit him with missiles and dodge. But once you get the timing down it's not that bad a boss.

Well, don't say I didn't warn you. Yeah, one of the things that makes the Boost Guardian so aggravating is the lack of light spots in the battle, there's no Light Crystals or Light Beacons whatsoever so you're just taking constant damage throughout the fight. But that actually isn't the only fight where that's true, there's another fight like that later in the game but it's far easier. The other factors here are the lack of health pickups, you only get 4 Ultra energies, and they only spawn when he goes into Boost Ball form and rams the pillars, which he can do at any time meaning you're at the mercy of his attack pattern to get them. The other factor is how little time you have to damage him, he loves going into Boost Ball form a lot and you can't damage him in that form, you have to wait for him to stop Boosting and then go into puddle form and drop bombs until he reverts to Ing form. So yeah, in general you're just taking a lot of damage in the fight, not getting a lot of opportunities to heal, and not getting a very long window to damage him back. Not a very fun fight for sure.

I think I know which one you're missing, and it's pretty well hidden IIRC. Check the Hydrodynamo section, there's one in that area that you probably didn't find. The other two are fairly obvious.

I think the boostball guardian was actually nerfed in the trilogy version.

@Aurumonado It's an easier fight because of the spring ball ability. Not sure if they nerfed the Boost Guardian's damage output, I've seen mixed info about that and never checked it myself.

@DarthNocturnal Even taking that into account, I've seen people claim it's been nerfed. I doubt they're right, but it wouldn't really be a surprise.

Now that I'm actually researching it, I can't find any real evidence of nerfing the numbers. I do remember beating him first try on trilogy and 3rd - 4th try on the GC original.