Series Producer Suggests Metroid Prime 4 'Won't Ignore Casual Players'

DO NOT say the word casual in regards to Metroid Prime........EVER!!!

Oh this does not bode well.

This is hella clickbait

he never mentions metroid prime 4 at all

If Retro Studios is making Prime 4, I'm all kinds of hyped. Seeing what they did with the first three games gives me high hopes for the fourth.

Sticker Star was the fourth game in the Paper Mario series and arguably when it started going down hill. As the name implies MP4 is the 4th entry in the Prime series. Hmmmm...

@Agriculture I dunno... if it’s “works as a twin stick but gyro is faster and better” like Splatoon, I’d be chill with that.

that's an interview about paper mario tho, the title is misleading and it never talks about mp4, just making a example about games looking "core" but not really

a bit of a click bait if you ask me

Perhaps MP4 will be a series of motion controlled mini-games. Seriously though, I do want a light-gun style that utilises the IR sensor on the joycon similarly to a Wii remote in MP3 and Trilogy.

Incoming MP4 too casual controversy lol

If they consider the original Prime trilogy as having appeal to casuals whatever but don't make MP4 a federation force sequel.

Metroid Prime 4 would totally save this Year for me xD

Another one goes to the babies (am I right? am I right?)

Lol: Avalanche of pre-order cancellations incoming!!

But seriously, he doesn't even mention Prime 4. And Nintendo always makes their games so that anyone can play, that isn't a bad thing. As long as they don't dump the game down. Let we just wait and see hey, I still have a feeling they won't dissapoint!

I like the concept of Metroid Prime, but I’ve never been able to play 1st person perspective camera games- nauseating for me.

I’d love a 3rd person perspective option.

If they want to do to Metroid Prime what they did to Paper Mario it doesn't sound good.

If the make Metroid a game to appeal to casual players, then I lose all faith in Nintendo. Metroid is supposed to be challenging. It is probably the most ripped off game template on the indie scene and Nintendo needs to show them all how it is really done. I will be hugely disappointed if they dumb it down. Metroid has always been a game for the core, and one of their most challenging franchises.

@Agriculture Kinda confused. You seem to be implying that it's better for Metroid to use dual stick controls that (I guess) the motion controls used on the Wii... But then you also said it didn't work out well for Nintendo when they focused on niche audiences. The Wii/DS era was Nintendo's most successful in their history, and the casual market they were angling towards definitely wasn't "niche," it was gigantic... also motion aiming with the Wii remote was objectively superior to using an analog stick, which is why NOBODY uses the analog stick to aim in Splatoon when motion is an option.

It's like every little part of your comment spawned a little mystery to solve. Truly an odd, yet wonderful thing to behold.

Tanabe is a name that worries me. His presence in every project is often a bad omen.

I wish for once Nintendo would make a game for us hardcore gamers. You know the gamers that helped shape the company into what it is today.

Catering for hardcore and casual at the same time is nigh on impossible and you end up with a game in the middle that doesn’t really totally please either camp.

These comments scare me regarding MP4...

@datamonkey I agree. I was hoping that Metroid Prime 4 was the first hardcore Nintendo game for Switch.

@BlueOcean So you consider BotW and Odyssey to be casual games, and yet something like the original Metroid Prime to be a "hardcore" game? Why? It's not more difficult. All I can think of is that it's less colorful, lol

Who knows what any of this implies. As far as Tanabe goes, I don't understand the hate - look at all the game credits under his belt. He has not 'ruined' many games or series, save for the directions that Paper Mario has taken since the 3DS...although Origami King seems to right some of peoples grievances, it still ignores peoples main ones (battle system firstmost).

If the Metroid Prime series is 'more accessible', I hope it's only in the ways that MP3 was 'more accessible'. While I found the gameplay quite a bit easier than MP1 and especially MP2, it was still an amazing game, while being a bit more accessible to the average player. Still, I found MP1 had the best balance (I'm a gamer that enjoys hard games, but can't beat extreme games).

@TeslaChippie Super Mario Odyssey is a casual Mario game compared to older Mario games. Breath of the Wild is basically an exploration sandbox game.

@antdickens But if we all thought as business men what's the point?

@BlueOcean I think they're both core Nintendo games by any definition, as much as Zelda NES or Mario 64 were. Is Metroid Nintendo's ONLY "hardcore" franchise in your opinion?

@Cevil Title says "Series Producer Suggests Metroid Prime 4 'Won't Ignore Casual Players.'"

Article gives quote from producer suggesting that Metroid Prime 4 won't ignore casual players.

You sure it's clickbait?

Two more cents, I hope there are difficulty settings like MP3, and I hope multiplayer is re-introduced a la MP2/Hunters. I think both those things make the game accessible to a much larger audience. But WHO KNOWS what direction 4 will take XD. I still trust it far more in the hands of Retro.

@MS7000 Link's Awakening? Super Mario World? Mario Kart: Double Dash? Animal Crossing: New Leaf? Metroid Prime? Smash for 3DS? F-Zero GX?

Nintendo's 4th entries are pretty good!

@TeslaChippie I said Switch games, not Nintendo franchises.

@Dr_Corndog It is very clickbaity - takes the most seemingly controversial line and pastes it as the headline. Instead of being "Brief interview on MP4" or the like.

I just hope that Prime 4 has the perfect controls. I found that the GameCube and Wii versions had almost perfect controls but random stuff spoilt it. Having A as shoot instead of B on the Wii remote for one*

*Yes, I know you could invert the controls to fix it but it literally inverted everything so still wasn't perfect.

I hope it's as challenging as Prime 2 was!

I don't know. Paper Mario (Color Splash) was incredibly easy, to the point that it became tedious to do the battles (especially since there were essentially no rewards either). It sounds like this hasn't changed a lot with Origami King, so I don't see what he means by ''what we’ve done in the Paper Mario series is to put a lot of work particularly into the puzzle solving elements of the games, so that they can also be enjoyed by core users.''

Unless I'm missing the puzzles he's talking about, but there was nothing in that game I'd call an actual puzzle.

@antdickens I mean what's the point in thinking as business men in the comments section of a fan website? It's expected that fans expect different things than Nintendo's shareholders. We all know that Nintendo just want more money 😁. After New Super Mario Bros. Wii's incredible success, Nintendo said that Super Mario Galaxy sales were disappointing.

@Octane Battles and puzzles are 2 different things. Battles are just a matter of excel tables. Puzzles are where the creative work is. Paper Mario games are getting closer and closer to those Lucasart point and click games.

"(hard)core" and "casual" are such idiotic terms in gaming. 🙄
Let's say I play Tetris every day for hours to improve my skills and highscore and play Doom occasionally just for the kick. Am I a core player? A casual? And is Doom suddenly a casual game and Tetris a hardcore game?

@Octane In my opinion, to say that they will be enjoyable for both core and casual games it's sugarcoating the fact that they are turning those titles into casual games.

@BlueOcean Mario Odyssey was stupid easy to the point that the game became boring. One of the many reasons I went from being a Nintendo only gamer after 30 years was that Nintendo just doesn't know how to make challenging games anymore.

@Agriculture
If anything, they should make the controls more like on the Wii. Dual analog controls for 1st person games suck.👎

Just had a difficulty mode "story mode" like every other dev does these days. Casual people problem solved

@MrBlacky Games that require practice and skill are core. Games that anyone can pick up and easily beat are casual.

@Ambassador_Kong the first ending of Super Mario Odyssey is really easy and aimed at casual players, while the true ending is hard as nails, as is getting all of the last kingdom moons.

@Ambassador_Kong I don't think that's true. The problem is that the challenging part is often part of the end-game. And the difficulty ramps up suddenly to a point where it isn't even fun anymore. It needs to be more balanced. The main stuff needs to be harder, and the difficulty ramp in the end game need to be lower IMO.

@BlueOcean Yeah, either that, or like I said, they'll put in some crazy difficult secret boss for the end credits and call it a day. Because ''if you're looking for that challenge, it's there...''. I don't know. I hope they can surprise me, but it would be stupid if they dumbed it down because they think that people can't play games.

What happened to difficulty settings? Nintendo never seems to include those. Literally any other game can be played on a variety of settings from easy to hard, and often with a ''zero challenge mode'' and ''bone-crushing mode'' or something along those lines.

hope prime 4 has epic huge bosses in it,other worlds to explore with new lore to scan,epic soundtrack,and new armor/weapon upgrades too.

@RadioHedgeFund I am fairly sure Fusion was the 4th Metroid game. =P

But my comment was more in reference to the fact that Kensuke Tanabe is the producer for both Paper Mario and the Prime series. It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek since to be fair, he has also been producer on a load of great games too, including the modern DKC games.

Edit: Oof, turns out Prime came out 1 day earlier. Well played!

@MrBlacky Yes, they are stupid terms but they are used to describe games' accessibility. For instance, The Thousand-year Door is "hardcore" and Colour Splash is "casual". It's a simple way of describing games. It's not the way you play them but how shallow and easy or deep and challenging they are.

@Rika_Yoshitake Yep! Really disappointed how often this seems to happen on NL now. They used to run far less misleading headlines.

I think it's worth mentioning that the Switch DOES have plenty of "hardcore" experiences, even if the difficulty isn't right at the forefront. Botw, odyssey, splatoon2, arms, smash, fire emblem, and mario maker 2 can be as hard as you want them to be.

@BlueOcean
Can't remember any "hardcore"- or "casual" games from the SNES-, N64- or GCN-era.

@Ambassador_Kong
Can you give an example for a core game?

@MrBlacky Are you trolling?

Tons of AAA/Indies prove you do not always need to care about casual players. They are not out playing Nioh2 or TLOU or 100 reloads in Disco Elysium - and that is fine.

They can go play RingFit or animal crossing or Clubhouse 51.

Last thing I need is a cartoony water down Metroid to keep casual players involved.

@BlueOcean
What makes you think that?

@MrBlacky Your replies.

Just include difficulty modes with tweaks that make the gameplay easier/harder. Problem solved, everyone plays at their own level of comfort.

I have a really bad feeling about the new Metroid now. Most every time a developer tries to appeal to casual players and hardcore players the game comes out a bland muddled mess that pleases no one, and falls short of the heights it could’ve reached. I wish that developers especially Nintendo would realize this is hurting them.

@BlueOcean
So you and your friends were talking about how "hardcore" or how "casual" this or that game was, back in the Super Nintendo days? 🤔

WELP don’t use Paper Mario when talked about a new Metroid Prime use Botw, maybe Botw2 is gonna end up like what’s happened to Paper Mario...

I wish we had a rough idea on when the game will be released. Even though I have been extremely eager to play it since the first logo reveal, I don't want them to rush it because i expect this game to blow my mind and be better than its 3 predecessors in absolutely every way.

Unrelated: I think my head would explode if they revealed a new F-Zero game the same way: "here is the logo, we shall release it by the end of the century (maybe)"

@Spoony_Tech I have never finished metroid prime 2 because I got sick of getting my butt handed to me by dark Samus. As much as I loved the game and its difficulty, I was frustrated never finished it. An accessibility option like the possibility to turn the difficulty down just for one boss would have been great back then and is part of today's videogame standards. I also remember a fight with ridley while falling to your death, i think it was in prime corruption. It had a time constraint and was annoying as hell, so same conclusion there.

So Federation Force 2 I always wanted to try superman play blast ball.

This probably just means there will be an easy mode and/or hint system available to players that want it, like most Nintendo games have these days. Calm down everyone.

@antdickens Have the fans ever greeted attempts to innovate in Metroid with open minds? The reaction to developing Metroid Prime in first-person is well-documented. Is first-person play "hardcore" or "casual"? I don't necessarily understand the zeitgeist sometimes, so I cannot guess.

(Mind you, I am not certain even now that they were completely successful, given the solutions they used for morph ball and wall jump - but the innovations arising from the view inside Samus' helmet are undeniable.)

I know the reaction here is largely a matter of comments being interpreted out of context and the general famine state around the franchise, which I understand viscerally. I would ask everyone to remember, though, that a core Metroid game is fairly immune to being watered-down, in terms of structure and atmosphere (I am expressly excluding Other M here).

God, I miss Metroid.

I hope he's refering to the difficulty modes that are available in MP3 and MPT and not the design of the whole game.

As long as the casual stuff is an option and you can disregard it in favor of more challenge, casualize away.

@arekdougy If we are to have difficulty settings, I feel the structure of multiple endings should be integrated with them - true ending for Hard Mode, with all the other conditions imposed. (Even at the risk of another series of Dark Aether boss battle nightmares...)

The word "casual" doesn't go well in the gaming community.

@Octane I agree, the difficulty should be balanced throughout the game and not make the game easy and boring with an extremely hard challenge at the end or after the end. Difficulty modes should be added to Nintendo's games but, more importantly, gameplay mechanics shouldn't be dumb just so it can be played and beaten by our grandparents.

@antdickens yeah I appreciate any business has a primary goal of making money and Nintendo are no different.

I just think franchises such as Metroid shouldn’t be messed with just to try and maximise sales. By doing so you are turning it into something it isn’t.

In effect they’re trying to sell a hardcore game to the casual gamer and I don’t think it will necessarily be a good outcome for either.

I mean what's the point in thinking as business men in the comments section of a fan website?

@BlueOcean Maybe you should join us at one of the vigils for Wave Race and F-Zero, then ask that question.

@Agriculture
Call of Duty. Halo. Destiny. Doom.

I think dual stick controls are just about as mainstream as its possible to get. Try re-training the brains of millions to play console FPSs any other way and it won't end well.

That said, mouse/keys utterly destroys any console FPS control scheme.

@MsJubilee Casuals have their games, thousands upon thousand of them. And most of them are "free" on the app store.

I want my games to be made for gamers. Not people who half look at something while they wait for a bus or talk to a friend.

@antdickens I hope you could reign in the clickbait your authors put out, instead.

@Spoony_Tech Are you... serious? Metroid Prime was the game that got me from being a casual player into playing FPS. It's incredibly casual friendly, not assuming you know anything about the genre as it gets you into it.

Looking forward to it, but holding my expectations in check. I am sure it'll be an enjoyable and sometimes jaw dropping adventure, but not expecting that same awe and wonder I got from the first Prime. I remember having Unreal 2 on my new PC at the same time and being in sheer awe of how GameCube managed to impress me with a fraction of the hardware.

Yeah, either that, or like I said, they'll put in some crazy difficult secret boss for the end credits and call it a day. ... I hope they can surprise me, but it would be stupid if they dumbed it down because they think that people can't play games.
What happened to difficulty settings? Nintendo never seems to include those.

@Octane I would be deeply shocked if Nintendo misread the Metroid audience this badly. I mean, from what I can tell, that audience has a very significant contingent of devs - by definition, a "hardcore" group that NCL cannot be unaware of. The special treatment this franchise receives from the company - it reaps far more prestige than sales, yet continues to be promoted - suggests strongly otherwise to me.

@antdickens I'ld say it's a wrong strategy. You can sell more for a moment. But this type of strategy results in two well-known things. Escape of hardcore players to other platforms and why third parties don't make their games for Nintendo.

@datamonkey True, maximising sales is not the best idea in the long run. Metroid is prestigious. Nintendo already earned millions with Animal Crossing this year, not every single game needs to be casual, especially Metroid.

@Rhaoulos I'll make a pact with you and everyone else here. If Prime 4 is released on or after the date Notre Dame is re-opened in Paris, we will rise in rage like Phazon-infected Metroids from the impact crater.

@COVIDberry LOL I want those two.

I'm not saying that this will happen but what worries me is that Metroid Prime 3 already has an easy difficulty setting and that they mean something different like simplifying the gameplay.

Enough talk, show something!

Ah yes, because the casual approach went over so well with Metroid Prime: Federation Force. It was just so well received and everyone loved it. Finally, a Metroid Prime game for everyone except people who like Metroid Prime.

Please... please don't make this mistake again. I know this is a clickbaity article with little connection to Metroid's development but this has me worried.

@COVIDberry @EchoNemesis Exactly.

This reminds me of when Nintendo said that they didn't make a new Wave Race game because you can play Wii Sports Resort instead.

People are overreacting imo. Nintendo games are very rarely ever notably hard (which is what people usually mean when thinking of Hardcore). They focus on accessibility and making a game appealing to all ages, but many of their games offer a lot of room for experimentation and improvement if you want to look for it.

Pokemon for example, while not being made directly by Nintendo, is an easy series, but offers great depth and variety in its battle system that appeal to its more hardcore audience. This is generally the approach they take. Odyssey and BotW encourage similar approaches to movement and speedrunning for the really hardcore out there.

@Ambassador_Kong I agree, it's disappointing to say the least.

@DocRompler Exactly, I don't get this obsession with turning every single Nintendo franchise into casual and fans prioritising profit over quality as if they were shareholders that don't play games.

@DocRompler I adore Metroid Prime. I have the original 3 releases, Pinball, Hunters, the Wii trilogy, Federation Force, and will buy MP4 day 1. Unlike the crybabies out there who are told to dislike something, I actually played Federation Force with some friends through the entire campaign. It was really fun. A far better campaign than Hunters. FF is undeserving of the hate it gets. It's a great co-op game and shows there's great potential for some more multiplayer Metroid spinoffs.

I'm not too worried, the quote makes it sound like it's a design philosophy for all of their games, not just Prime 4. Besides, the term is so vague it could mean literally anything that it's not worth getting worked up over anyway.

Because Metroid Prime games have always had a casual mode, it's called "Normal" mode.

@COVIDberry If they can't release Prime 4 by 2050 (because Macron is full of doodoo and his promises to restore one of the lovely symbols of my country means absolutely nothing) I'd rather Nintendo just give up and work on something else. If a game requires over 30 years in development, it's probably time for a whole studio to retire

the "casual gamer" strategy sounds like what they did with Pokemon Go, and Paper Mario.

@EVIL-C it's nice to see this point of view. I can understand why people were disappointed with Federation Force somewhat, but the co-op play did look pretty fun.

@Agramonte RingFit made me try and exert myself 10x more than basically any hardcore game I've played

@Agriculture All the casuals are playing Fortnite. If they can't handle dual sticks, they should stop gaming all together.

But they could release the Prime trilogy for the casuals (and for us 😬) to practice 🤔

Please add a function to downvote articles on this site... another clickbait article.

Every game company doesn't want to ignore casual players. Period.

Metroid has had Normal/Hard Modes for some time, yes? Then this quip doesn't really tell us anything new, just confirms what was practically guaranteed to happen.

@BlueOcean
What is your definition of "hardcore" and "casual"?

If it pertains to difficulty, then I don't think any Nintendo game can be qualified as "hardcore" since none of their games are particularly difficult.

If it pertains to art style (i.e. realistic vs cartoon graphics), then Metroid may be Nintendo's only "hardcore" game franchise as everything else they develop has a cartoony art style.

Nintendo as a company has always catered to a broad audience of people across the globe, and that's not going to change anytime soon. (In fact, I'd say almost every mainstream game company outside of From Software develops games that cater to a broad audience). This is especially the case with Metroid, which is a franchise that has sold far too little for Nintendo to only cater to hardcore fans of the series.

If Prime 4 doesn't sell significantly more than previous Metroid games (3+ million copies), I doubt Nintendo will even bother continuing the franchise (or at least the Prime games) when they could be spending those development resources to work on far cheaper and less risky projects like Kirby, Yoshi, or Mario sports spinoffs (Tennis, Golf, Strikers, Sluggers), which are games that have sold about as much as Metroid despite being met with far less prestige.

@westman98 Should Nintendo have taken this view with Fire Emblem - say, before Awakening - as well?

Nintendo is doomed

@COVIDberry
Funny enough, Awakening was supposed to be the "do-or-die" moment of the series - if the game sold 250,000 copies or less, Nintendo was going to shelve the franchise.

Fortunately, it sold 2 million copies and revitalized the series, with Fates, Three Houses, and Heroes having all performed very well.

I often see graphic style being mistaken for what defines casual vs "core" games. Call of duty, Fifa, Madden and pubg all have realistic style graphics but are all games that cater to the casual audience.

@arekdougy I've always contended that the Chibi art style initially put people off.
Look what happened with Wind Waker. There were vocal minorities hating on it back in 2002. Today, it's one of the most beloved Zelda titles, and it's visual style is endearing. MPFF doesn't have the greatest artistic direction, and it would not be as fun playing solo, but with friends it's really good. Style-wise, I'm not for or against the Chibi design. It is what it is. 🤷‍♂️

I can see it now: "Metroid Prime 4: Sticker Star"

The game actually takes place entirely in a single, linear hallway like FFXIII, because having too much exploration is anxiety inducing for the kids. Samus also has a quirky, cute, sassy companion AI in her helmet who interjects constantly with commentary and "advanced tips" like how double tapping 'A' will cause Samus to double jump.

I can see it now: "Metroid Prime 4: Sticker Star"

@antdickens @ryancraddock MODS! BAN THIS FOOL NOW

@-Green- And that is great. I have had an exercise bike since college. That is what works for me.

Someone can workout with RingFit and then play Clubhouse 51 on the bus. I can ride my Standing Bike and play Metroid on the bus.

Something for everyone.

Clicked this thinking Prime 4 was actually mentioned or talked about in some way. No mention of it at all in quote, and he only mentions the existing games.

Metroid/Cooking Mama crossover confirmed.

Tentative title:
Metroid: Spicy Chozo

We can gather that the title is a play on the word Chorizo and the difficulty will be .... spicy....yet palatable for the casual.

@TeslaChippie Yes, there are some things that seemingly are contradictions. The Wii was incredibly successful among people who don't usually play video games. However, among people who do play video games there is a mainstream audience and a niche audience.

So the mainstream gaming audience would not like Metroid if it had anything but the normal controls of the left stick is for moving and right stick is for looking. My point is that even though the Wii was very successful, it alienated lots of people by forcing motion controls onto games like Zelda and Donkey Kong.

Finally, Metroid has no chance of appealing to the true mainstream; the people who don't usually play video games, so any attempt at making an intuitive motion interface with the intent of appealing to those people will not work.

In terms of appealing to all groups i feel like the "easy to pick up but difficult to master" approach is my favorite way, as in something which anyone can pick up and have fun but the games reward being "good" at them.

I also feel like control options are vital. For example offering motion and button options, a person new to games would find a shake of the controller easier to memorize than button combinations however to people more familiar with games and controllers a button combination can feel more intuitive or responsive.

As an added bonus I wish it would have Amiibo support seeing we have handful of Metroid Amiibo.

This article is flat out incorrect, LOL, and it's not really a stretch to think of it as clickbait. Tanabe doesn't mention "Metroid Prime 4" anywhere in the interview, and by "games such as those in the Metroid Prime series", it's even possible that's he's only talking about the pre-existing games. 4 could very well be "ignoring casual players" depending on what direction the developers will go in.

You know this could just mean, that they are making a hardcore game more accessible to casual gamers.

I find this amusing, glad after all these super hard 1st party titles finally someone considers ....casuals.

@antdickens No... you're just clickbaiting and this site doesn't need that. You get enough exposure as it is.

This reminds me of when Nintendo said that they didn't make a new Wave Race game because you can play Wii Sports Resort instead.

@BlueOcean I had not been aware of this - 'til I read your comment. I have been reading about this today.... My Hyper Beam charges. My fists clench, ready to unleash the Falcon Punch...

@antdickens have any of you deleted my reply to you?
If so, why? I just said I hoped you would keep your clickbait authors in check, since you're the boss here.
I'm genuinely curious cause I might've not clicked the reply button by mistake, but I'm pretty sure I did.
If I didn't, my bad.

@Damo you really have the gall to ask that?
How in the world is an article titled around MP4, with no mention of it whatsoever in the quoted excerpt, not clickbait?
I get that your super defensive about the site, but this is incontestable.
I'm really tired of this site's shenanigans, I think I'll have to find another one soon enough.

@datamonkey they could handle this pretty easily with either side missions that allow one to grind out and get more powerful.... or just have a few different modes.

@westman98 I explained it above at #58.

@datamonkey I am praying it is going to be as challenging as ever, and just have one of those optional systems like the super guide function in Donkey Kong or Super Mario Galaxy 2, or the hint system in OoT on 3DS. It needs to be a core gamer focussed game.

Can we assume this means it’ll have some sort of competitive multiplayer?

@COVIDberry How could I forget it when Wave Race is one of my favourite franchises? I remember Mitamoyo said that and I just found this cancelled Wave Race game for Wii article:

https://www.nintendoenthusiast.com/unseen64-wave-race-for-wii-was-a-thing-but-nintendo-said-no/

@CupidStunt Prime 3 was already incredibly dumbed down from 2. I have very little faith.

@arekdougy I mean, it's not big news at all, but it is what it says on the tin.

@Damo he was talking about Paper Mario, and only briefly mentioned the MP series. You (NL) have literally put words in his mouth with that headline, as the number 4 never appeared in there.
And let's not even talk about the "newsworthiness" of this quote: he says it's always been like that in those series, so that's hardly news.
If he had mentioned MP4, it would've been.
I'm not saying that what he says will never apply to MP4, it probably will, but if you have to twist a quote to fit what you want it to say, that's clickbait. Case closed.

You and I both know that if the headline were about Paper Mario it would've raked in half the views and comments, just because everyone who sees MP4 at this point is gonna jump on that without hesitation.

At least be honest; I'm really tired of pointing out these things, hoping for a change, only for you to shut me (and others who complain) down.
Try to be a little more self-critical: if people think you're putting out clickbait, even if it's a minority, maybe you should take that into consideration instead of totally dismissing it time and time again, even when we try to be constructive.

But hey, I'm just some random a-hole on the internet so I don't expect to be ever listened to.

Si has anyone seen the reports of a hidden FZero Twitter account?

Why isn't this out yet? It was originally being developed for Wii U, then quickly ported over to Switch after Wii U was declared a massive failure, and yet Switch is now in its 4th year and still no Metroid Prime 4!! Come on! I know they had to start it all over again, but did nothing get done?

@BlueOcean
So "hardcore" vs "casual" is just another term for "deep" vs "shallow" gameplay?

How do you define "deep" vs "shallow" gameplay? Because from how I see it, the terms are very subjective and most games in general can be as deep or as shallow as the player wants them to be.

@hotgamer77
Metroid Prime 4's development was rebooted from the ground up in late 2018/early 2019. Don't expect to see the game until late 2021 at the absolute earliest.

BotW was extremely hardcore... but completely accessible to casual players. My 7 year old daughter played it like Animal Crossing collecting outfits, riding different horses, and building her house.

So long as Prime keeps the things I like, I'm fine with putting in features that appeal to all audiences.

Games should be accessible. I am all in favor of difficulty levels in games. If you want to have to spend 6 hours getting your pixel perfect jump right - you should be able to, but for the rest of us that just want to relax at our own pace and have fun - we should be able to as well

@Damo This is a rule applied to every single Nintendo game so explicitly stating that this "applies to Metroid Prime 4" simply means you want to force a certain opinion from the reader. You could also have said that this applies to Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Pokémon, etc. etc.

"Nintendo’s philosophy on game creation is that we don’t ignore casual players in creating our games."
Meaning: every single game.

A correct title would have been "Nintendo doesn't ignore casual gamers when creating games." Which should be common knowledge by now. And wouldn't have gotten as many clicks.

Based on all of this, this title is 100% clickbait.

Wii era all over again. ANYTIME this company starts doing well. How about this Nintendo, just put difficulty modes in your game from the start.

@Dang69 Nintendo always has done this. Every game has a tutorial of some kind (which is catering to the casuals in the most simplistic way). Or simple level design in early stages.

@Muddy_4_Ever Indeed catering to casuals doesn't mean that it becomes a casual game. It simply means they (Nintendo) want casuals to start playing the game, get good at it and buy more games.

@CupidStunt @rockodoodle yeah both great points!

I suppose we’ll have to leave our trust with Nintendo to make both sides happy! Hopefully we won’t have to wait much longer to see what they’re up to...

@westman98 I provided examples above. I'm not going to explain every single case. The concept is perfectly clear and you aren't new nor innocent.

@Damo I never said it doesn't apply to this game. I said it applies to any Nintendo game. The title is suggesting that it only applies to MP4, since it also applies to all Metroid Prime games before it. And any other Nintendo game.

This title is implying that Metroid Prime 4 will be "dumbed down because of casual players", which is false. And 100% clickbait.

@-Green- But I don't want to speedrun a game to impose a little challenge on myself. The game should offer challenge on its own merits. Like I said, why not include difficulty options. Virtually every game features them these days, and it's a lot more accessible than just one mode.

@BlueOcean
Your comments read like elitist gatekeeping over some desire to keep yourself "pure" from those "filthy casuals".

All games should be accessible to everyone, especially Metroid, a franchise with the acclaim of Zelda or Mario but with sales below that of Kirby or Mario Tennis.

@westman98 That must be your malicious mind. Many people have complained about Paper Mario getting watered-down, simplified and dumbed down. If you hate the "casualised" word so much I can use their definitions, too .

@BlueOcean
My mind isnt being malicious. I'm just calling out elitist gatekeeping when I see it

@westman98 Then you are confused .

I dont care about casual players lol..im hardcore just give me hardcore games dammit !! Lol hopefully prime 4 is like prime 1 and ill be happy. What i really want is a super metroid remake ala metroid 2 for the 3ds.

@antdickens thanks!
My mind isn't playing tricks on me then, lol
It's weird because I don't think it read like an offensive remark, just a piece of criticism.

@Metroidkiller64 Well said! I mean, not every single Nintendo franchise has to become casual now.

When is this game coming out? Nintendo loves talking about Metroid Prime 4, but never actually releases it.

@sanderev I'm down with that. But that's not what I'm saying or seeing lately. Kirby Star Allies sort of kicked off what I'm talking about.

@Octane I agree. A difficulty mode crafted by the developers will almost always be better than whatever restrictions the player can place on themselves. This for example is why Gamefreak's excuse that Pokemon's difficulty is up to the player is silly, because in the end the game (such as its AI, layout, etc...) is still designed to be easy, and no amount of gimping will change that.

I'm just explaining how Nintendo and companies closely connected to them seem to view it. It's also easier for them since they don't have to go through the trouble of creating well-designed difficulty options. Just to clarify, I'm ragging on Gamefreak here because they've directly confirmed in interviews that this is how they view difficulty is handled in their games so they're a prime example.

More reasonable and well crafted difficulty options will basically always be better and should be encouraged of course.