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

Eurogamer have updated their previous story about Bandai Namco Singapore working on Metroid Prime 4.

[UPDATE: Since publication I've heard Bandai Namco's Japan studio is also working on the project, with the intention it will now take the lead on its development while Singapore moves to focus on another Switch game]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-02-08-yes-namco-bandai...

@Tyranexx I’ve never played Colour Splash - it’s had a mixed reaction - but I’d definitely recommend The Thousand Year Door. It’s so well written and the gameplay systems - while not incredibly deep - are clever and well formed. The meta aspect of the audience watching and rating your battles is pretty genius.

In a lot of ways it feels like a lost sequel to Earthbound with a Mario coating.

If Bamco Japan is really taking the reigns of the project while Bamco Singapore focuses on "another Switch title" (Ridge Racer?), then I can safely go from cautiously optimistic to genuinely excited.

I don’t think devs get credit for having a bugless, 4K HDR, 999 fps bad game. Because anyone in their right mind would be playing an ambitious one that’s a little creaky at the edges.

@Tyranexx I thought Colour Splash was really good, just to throw in my two cents. And I've played all of the Paper Mario games

I liked Color Splash with the only major issues being about the World Map Bandit Shy Guy (always beat him in time but it's a stupid idea) and the Roshambo Temples.

I agree 100%. I definitely feel better about this now.

The Paper Mario games I want to try the most are TTYD and SPM, but I currently have no way to play the former. It's part of the reason why I would either like to see it ported or at least see GameCube VC show up on the Switch.

Basically from the reactions in this thread (didn't mean to partially hijack it, sorry), I'm getting vibes that I've seen elsewhere; Color Splash isn't as bad as Sticker Star, but the reception of it seems polarized. I'll just have to judge it for myself, I reckon.

Ironically I've had similar thoughts about trying Other M, though in that case I don't own it yet.

@Tyranexx I thought Other M wasn't that bad at all. But I didn't care for the story in that game. It was alright, nothing special I guess, and I didn't have any expectations for Samus as a character.

Apart from the pixel hunting in the game (which was a terrible shoe-horned in gimmick to add motion controls), the gameplay is pretty good. It's like a mix between 2D and 3D Metroid. It works pretty well.

@Octane: Interesting. I may add it to my backlog eventually since there are still a couple of retail copies floating around where I live at the moment. I've heard that the gameplay in and of itself isn't bad like you describe, but that the story is pants.

One thing's for sure, I'll try to go into it with my expectations low.

Yeah Other M is... ok as a game.

My problem with Other M is more of the lost potential. No Nunchuk means combat is so much more simple than it should be, leading SenseMove to be busted beyond belief. Clunky first-person mode. Pretty bad portrayals of both Samus and Adam. A story that rips off of Fusion's story and retroactively makes both that story and Adam worse off.

The sad thing is, all of those mistakes were all built on great ideas. Well, except maybe the first-person mode thing. But still, with how much it squandered on those ideas, it's just so crushing to see.

The first person mode is like the blowing mechanic in DKC Returns. Completely unnecessary, but it didn't ruin my experience either. Though I will say, it did lead to some... interesting fights, having to swap between third and first person whilst juggling the Wii Remote. Given the fact that you're controlling Samus with a d-pad in a 3D game, it works surprisingly well though. But this a weird artifact from the time Nintendo had a weird obsession with having every game completely playable with a single Wii Remote.

I agree with @EvilLucario the most. I would hesitate to call Other M a good game, but it's worth experiencing. In my mind, it's the complete opposite of Color Splash: the gameplay is engaging (it really feels like a Team Ninja game), but the writing and art are bad. I've seen worse, but going from Prime to this was something.

The worst thing about it (after the script) is how it ditches the nunchuck, because it drags the design of the whole thing down. The static camera placements means you can't really hide power-ups in the same way Prime does, so they just sit there, in the obvious spots, waiting to be collected. Maybe if they had mapped the first-person transition to Z, they could have used it as your main tool for exploration, redesigning the rooms with it in mind. Having a dedicated evade button (C, for example) would be a great way to nerf that mechanic too. Or make it more like Monster Hunter/Dark Souls' doge: something you can do whenever you want, but that leaves you open at the end of the animation if you don't time it correctly.

Although I didn't really like it as a whole, I can see it's a good foundation for a more action-oriented Metroid game. There's no way we'll get a sequel though.

The worst part of Other M are certain butthurt defenders of Other M. The story could not hope to be as bad. Which is impressive in a way.

The funny thing is, even after that, I was not clamoring for a new Metroid Prime. I wouldn't have minded it exactly but even if they brought back Prime's gameplay, I wanted something really different with it. But I eventually realized that if Nintendo wasn't going to make a new Metroid Prime, I would never get anything like it at all. Like, I heard this one obscure indie game on Wii U was a bit like Prime, but otherwise I've never heard any credible/consistent suggestion that literally any game not called Metroid Prime is like Metroid Prime. Like nowadays if you want X game, even if the actual game series is gone, there's probably 1...5...300+ devs making something for you. But the last game like Metroid Prime came out in 2007, and was called Metroid Prime 3.

So between all that, and two great Metroid 2 remakes being great largely on the basis of being 2d Metroid games, I'm just happy we're getting a new Metroid Prime. Nintendo, please never stop making them as long as they are even close to as good as the previous ones.

Other M is one of the few Metroid games I'll never actually bother with. I tried a demo of that game but the controls were way too clunky to be usable, and the map is way too linear. Hard pass on this game.

It's a fun game. Not what people wanted though

Yeah, this was the saddest part of how quiet the franchise got after 2010, the fact that there wasn't even a single up-to-snuff substitute. Other games scratch one or two elements of what I consider Prime to be, but nothing really checks all the boxes.

Hopefully Metroid Prime 4 has enough lore from previous games for fans to be happy, but can stand on its own enough so newcomers can enjoy it.

I assume it will, considering the other Prime games did.

Rumour: Metroid Prime 4 Could Have Online Multiplayer According To LinkedIn Evidence

https://mynintendonews.com/2018/02/15/rumour-metroid-prime-4-...

If they do put in multiplayer, I hope they go all in. Metroid, if given the proper attention, could be a great multiplayer game.

However, if that means taking resources from the single player campaign, I'd be against it. Either way, I hope it's more like Hunters than Echoes if that's true.