Reggie Muppet

It'll be interesting to look back on the E3 reaction to Metroid Prime: Federation Force this time in 2016, when the game's landed on 3DS and initial negativity has subsided. We don't yet know whether the game itself will be fun, for one thing, but it'll be worth assessing whether attitudes soften, as they did after many had rebelled at the reveal of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker over a decade ago.

We shall see, but Nintendo of America's COO and President Reggie Fils-Aime hopes that'll be the case - he used Wind Waker as an analogy shortly after E3. The topic of the Next Level Games title came up again in an interview with Mashable, and Fils-Aime took the step of directly acknowledging the wave of dissent from online fans.

What the fan at home saw was something in the Metroid Prime universe that they weren't expecting. The reaction has been negative. There's no sugar coating it.

This is an example where fans who aren't able to get their hands on the game may be at a bit of a competitive disadvantage. Everyone who has played what we are showing regarding Metroid Prime, they've come across really pleased. My ask is that fans trust us.

Nevertheless, he's returned to his line focusing on Nintendo's driving for 'transformation', highlighting previous statements from Eiji Aonuma that he's shaking up core foundations in The Legend of Zelda for Wii U. Changes and new approaches look set to be a common theme.

We're taking our great IP and transforming them and making them new again — making them fresh and appealing for the fan who feels they know the franchise. But we're giving them new things to enjoy.

...We believe that in order to propel the franchises forward, we have to be the ones to constantly challenge the paradigms, challenge the conventional wisdom, challenge what we thought was the essence of the particular franchise, and a particular form of gameplay.

It'll be interested to see fan reactions to Federation Force when it's out in the wild, even in demo form. E3 impressions have been limited to the Blast Ball minigame so far, with only the Treehouse team demonstrating the main game. The 56 second trailer from the Digital Event (now beyond 70,000 Dislikes on YouTube as opposed to 7400 Likes) was also poorly conceived, giving viewers a very brief, unclear look at the game.

The question is, are you happy to show trust and give this a fair look when it arrives next year?

[source mashable.com, via mcvuk.com]