Topic: No Metroid for Nintendo 64

So just having a random thought and figured someone might know more than me on it. There has been a Metroid game released for every Nintendo console since the NES, except for the Nintendo 64 (& Virtual Boy). Throughout the lifespan of the N64 we saw the release of some of our favorite Nintendo franchises brought into 3D. Zelda, Mario, Donkey Kong, Star Fox, Kirby, even Yoshi had his own game and and Earthbound game was, at some point, in development. So... what happened to Metroid. It seems like a long way back now, but for the gamers like me who started with the original Metroid and followed Nintendo through their console cycle, I distinctly remember thinking "When will they announce the next Metroid"?

Any thoughts?

Wasn't it something to do with Gunpei Yokoi's death? I recall reading that there was a game tentatively titled Metroid 64 in development, even if just in pre-production, but Yokoi died in 1996, so I'm guessing that stopped things in their tracks.

I don't know for sure but that to me seems like the likeliest situation.

I think with everything going into the third dimension, they found it hard to put 2 incredible games justice by making it 3D. Im glad they didn't, and they waited for the masterpiece Retro Studios created. If there was a Metroid in 3D for the N64, I reckon that would be where it ended for 3D outings.

@Aviator

Exactly. They just couldn't come up with a worthwhile experience that was different enough from their previous work. I agree that the break was a good one.

If you look back at the N64 era, all the franchises were taken to the next level. Maybe even a couple of levels. I mean, seriously, the jumps were just other worldly. Just have a look at some of the jumps from the last game in the series on SNES to the first on N64: ALttP -> OoT, SMW & SMRPG -> Mario 64, Starfox -> Starfox 64. I mean, we are talking major major evolution in those franchises. Not major evolution from crappy games, either. Some of those games I just mentioned for the SNES are still considered some of the best ever created. Super Metroid was (and still is) considered one of the best of all time as well.

I'm sure I can't speak for everyone back in the N64 era, but I was desperately waiting for a Metroid 64. But the thing is that I wanted a Metroid 64 much similar to Super Metroid. It was unconscionable back then to even DREAM of the Metroid being in First Person. Nintendo didn't want to do a "re-hash" on the N64 era, and couldn't find that new "thing" that fit Metroid.

I reckon this is also what may be holding Starfox, Pikmin, and Kid Icarus. When Nintendo makes a good first party game, it is always by accident. They never try to make a good first party game. They try to make it great. And that's why I believe Metroid 64 never saw the light of day.

The Metroid franchise wasn't selling very well.
While Super Metroid was praised by critics and generally liked by everyone who played it, not enough people actually got their hands on it.
More and more people got a hold of Super Metroid and loved it, and the fanbase started to grow, then finally they decided to plan a new Metroid.

That's basically how I understand it.

Edit: From Super Metroid's wiki page:
Super Metroid was released by Nintendo in Japan on March 19, 1994, in North America on April 18, 1994, and in Europe on July 28, 1994.[13] The game was later released as a Virtual Console for the Wii in North America on August 20, 2007, in Japan on September 20, 2007, and in Europe on October 12, 2007.[14] It was given near-universal acclaim, receiving an aggregated score of 96% from Game Rankings, making it the website's 9th highest-rated game.[1] When the game launched in Japan, GamesRadar noted that it was released "at the wrong place, at the wrong time". Struggling against more commercially popular games, such as Donkey Kong Country in 1994, along with the launch of the PlayStation and Sega Saturn video game consoles, Super Metroid sold poorly in Japan. With the help of strong marketing from Nintendo, Super Metroid sold better in North America and Europe. However, all three games in the Metroid series up to that point did not reach the level of commercial success that both the Mario and The Legend of Zelda series reached, leading Nintendo to stop creating new games for the series, until the release of Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion on the Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance, respectively, in 2002, eight years later.[5] A year after the game was released, Nintendo placed it on their Player's Choice marketing label due to its critical success, despite its poor sales.[15]

Wow, that explains a lot. Does anyone think that a Metroid 64 game would have been fairly similar to what Other M is (gameplay wise)?

Metroid wasn't very popular then, It was the Prime series that made the series one of nintendo's most well known franchises.

This. He died in '96 or '97, shortly after the failure of the Virtual Boy and during his involvement with Bandai and its Wonderswan (IIRC.) As the creator, I think it was one of the major factors, along with its lack of commercial success.

Nintendo didn't know what to really do with Metroid at the time. Gunpei Yokoi's death did affect the series, but even if he didn't die it was still a mystery to Nintendo how to make a 3D Metroid game. How would the secrets be hidden in a 3D environment? How could you fit a (traditional) Metroid-style structured game in a 3D space without an enormous amount of bugs/glitches? No one has really gotten this right. While Retro Studios did reinvent the series as a first person action-adventure game, they didn't make a traditional Metroid game in a 3D world.

A think you're about 10+ years too late on this topic. Anywho, they were gonna make a Metroid game for the Nintendo 64, but it got I think either cancelled or pushed to the Gamecube, where it became Metroid Prime.

Here's your answer to your question:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7975324253607394386&a...

Metroid fans at least got SUPER SMASH BROS. on the N64.

Super Metroid wasn't popular? Then how did it get a Player's Choice release?

A year after the game was released, Nintendo placed it on their Player's Choice marketing label due to its critical success, despite its poor sales.[15]

According to VGChartz (which some have said is not accurate but it's my only frame of reference so whatever):
Super Metroid sold 1.42m copies worldwide
A Link to the Past sold 4.61m copies worldwide
Super Mario World sold 20.61m copies worldwide

My understanding is the Metroid games were never that popular in JAPAN.

Metroid 64 was supposedly in develpment for the N64 Disc Drive, but obviously never was completed.

Well we DID get Zero Mission and Fusion right at this time so the heck with a N64 version lol, they are the two best in the Metroid franchise!

1.42 million is pretty bad for a Nintendo game.

Edit: 49.1m SNES consoles have been sold worldwide. That means that only 2.9% of SNES owners actually bothered picking up Super Metroid. Not exactly stellar performance for a first party title.

I think you're being way too critical of its sales. There are other NIntendo games that sold worse than that. Didn't Yoshi's Island only sell like 500k in the US? Maybe it went on to sell more, but I remember reading that when I first started talking in forums in '96 and now I can't find a source (although this person talks about the sales of the game, though it's all technically hearsay).

I guess the break from the series until Fusion was nice, and I love all of the newer games. But let me tell you, if this were the N64 era and they released a screenshot of a new Metroid 64, I would die. I would still be excited for something like that even now, if it were released on WiiWare as a retro game or something. I pictured what Metroid would be like on N64 a few times back then, and always thought of a third person game with lock-on like Zelda, and jumping. Not jump attacks like Link, but regular jumping. I also desperately wanted N64 to gain some ground with "mature" gamers back then, and a Metroid 64 could have helped that. And I also wanted the lock-on targeting concept to be further developed, but it never really was outside of Zelda.

And while the entire prime series was fantastic for the most part, I do prefer Nintendo's Japanese approach to the series. It's just more colorful, the stories are better (why was there another Samus clone in Echoes after we already had the Sa-X in Fusion?) less like generic sci-fi. Like the somewhat generic space pirates in the Prime games, not that they're brilliant in the Japanese games or anything, they're just more anime-like and indicative of the style differences. Other M has that more colorful look and the story seems to be going back to the original backstory. Of course, Other M could go either way, but I'm just saying it has the more Japanese approach that I like. Of course, it's kind of different from the rest of the series too, so maybe it's not the best example, but there are still a lot of similarities. And it [i]is[i] an evolution that involves the newer games, so it's not going to look like Super Metroid. I'm not downing the Prime games, as I own them all, plus Trilogies, and I liked all of them a lot. But there's just something I like about the Japanese games and seeing them do a 3D one on N64 would have been amazing to me.

N64 got Jet Force Gemini.

A Sci-Fi Metroid-like 3D experience
much better than all Metroid Prime games.

I was suprised as well that metroid wasn't on DSiWare's PictoBits!