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Preview  Metroid Prime
- By Ryan Eid [Senior Editor]


Joe Mackie's Hands-on Impressions from E3 2002
I was concerned about the way Metroid was shaping up, but it’s safe to say that Metroid Prime was the most impressive game on the show floor. It was nearly perfect, and has now become my most anticipated game for the GameCube. The demo was brief; a single level was playable. Still, the game appears to be near completion, as many different gameplay elements were in place.

The demo begins as Samus disembarks from her classic starship. She is outside of what appears to be some sort of research facility. After hitting a few switches the gates open up. Once inside, Samus discovers that some sort of battle has already taken place. Objects and furnature are scattered about, as well as the corpses of some space pirates.

It isn’t too long before Samus encounters a survivor. Of course, it’s a hostile alien that immediately begins to fire. The battles go quickly, even when the enemy is a prone, wounded alien. Simply hold L and Samus will lock on to the target. This does make it a bit difficult to lead the target, but perhaps there are certain techniques that I didn’t grasp in the brief amount of time I was able to play.

The demo continues, throwing several more aliens at Samus, some of which are not so wounded. Nevertheless, her powerful blaster easily destroys them. The game throws a few simple puzzles at her, which involve basic maneuvers such as turning into a ball, hitting a switch, or timing something correctly. There was very little classic Metroid-style platforming, but considering the perspective, this is likely a good thing. In a nice touch, after defeating the boss of the area, Samus has a time limit to escape the exploding base. It almost brought a tear to my eye.

Surprisingly, the game manages to deliver excellent atmosphere. Exploring the abandoned research lab is downright creepy. There is subtle mist throughout much of the lab, but only when appropriate. It’s obviously not in place to hide pop-up. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear the audio. Hopefully, it really adds to the experience.

In the demo, there were very few weapons. Samus is equipped with her standard blaster, which can be charged to deliver an extra powerful energy shot. In addition to that, she has a dozen or so rockets. Lastly, she can turn herself into a ball. When in that form, she can drop bombs. I’m sure there are more than just these classic weapons, but none were revealed in the demo.

Overall, Metroid Prime is in incredible game. The gameplay is solid, the atmosphere is creepy, and the graphics rival that of any other first person shooter on the market. The only downside is that it’s so far away! November can’t come any sooner.

-E3 2002 Impressions by Joe Mackie

E3 2002:

We've got the 6 newest screens for you, 1 of which can be viewed below, and the the other five by clicking the links.


If anyone was concerned about the graphical quality of Metroid Prime, all fears should be put to rest. This scene looks like Samus has been plopped right in the middle of Rogue Leader, and then some.

A Beetle in info screen
Samus rolled up in a ball
A Busy Environment
A Huge Ant-like enemey
Samus up close

Impressions from the Nintendo Media event are on their way shortly from Joe Mackie, so check back.

- Mike Schneider, 5.21.02

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Spaceworld 2001 Update:

The first three in-game screens of Metroid Prime can be seen below:


Here we have a first person shot with a rather alien-esque weapon. For Metroid purists, it must seem kind of weird seeing a screen like this -- it totally resembles something out of a world like Turok. The whole jungle feel resembles the Turok series on N64, except with even more detail. Plus, you have to remember this game is likely running at 60fps.



The game in its 3rd person view. This screen, at first glance, seems to resemble an environment in Shadow Man. Particularly impressive are the shadows along the building wall, and the texture clarity of the same wall.



My first look at this screen brought back memories of the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time. Like the first shot, the vines and plantlife are the center of the attention within the screenshot, and are definitely what gives the shot its detail and vivacity.


So what has been drawn from these screenshots? So far, although the game is in a first person environment and is fully 3D, all three of the shots reveal a pretty much straight ahead path. Thus, it looks like at least some of the linear feel of previous Metroid games should be preserved. However, regardless of what Retro and Nintendo call it, the game looks awfully lot like a first person shooter. For better or worse, we'll see -- but Metroid Prime is definitely taking steps away from its Metroid roots.

We'll hopefully have more gameplay information for you in the coming days.

-Update by Mike Schneider

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Original Preview:

Metroid has been one of Nintendo's most beloved franchises in the last fifteen years, despite the fact there have only been three games in the series. Although Nintendo opted for Samus to skip the N64, the intergalactic heroine will be making her long-awaited return on the GameCube, courtesy of Texas-based developer Retro Studios.

The game has been widely critisized over the last few months, do to the fact the game has been reborn into a first-person view. While it may not seem possible to recreate the magic that is Metroid in a FPS, Retro and Nintendo insist this is not your normal Doom-style romp. The term Nintendo gave it was "First Person Adventure", which means the studio will be combining adventure-style elements into a first-person universe. Sounds rather ambitious, but with Nintendo peering over the project, anything is possible.

Right now the story is shrowded in mystery. The "Prime" would suggest that this Metroid is a prequel to the first one, although seeing as the original was Samus Aran's first foray with the metroids, that may not make the most sense. Hopefully more on the plotlines will be revealed at Spaceworld, this August.

So why did Nintendo decide to allow the newly formed Retro to develop such a coveted franchise? "They wanted to make a splash" said one former Retro employee. "We had some Metroid fans in the office who were both thrilled and scared. Retro realized it was a great license, but we were also worried about the backlash from making it a first-person adventure game. We didn't want to be known as the studio that ruined Metroid." It was a risky move on Nintendo's part. And apparently, the game was simply not up to snuff for Nintendo for a long while.

Miyamoto himself frequently visited the team to see the progression of Metroid, and other titles being worked on by Retro. "It was like the Emperor visiting the Death Star. He didn't seem to like any of the games very much, especially the racing title, which was probably our best-looking." Miyamoto spent much of his time with the action-adventure game that later became Metroid, and "the impression was that he wasn't too thrilled. Nintendo would come down about three times a year and rip on most of the games, except football, which was under the radar." Since then, Footbal 2002 has been canned as well.

Despite the much maligned Retro team, which has suffered massive layoffs and been forced to put nearly all of their titles on "permanent hold", Mr. Miyamoto still feels confident that Metroid Prime will live up to its predecessor's name. "We really think that the team that is working on Metroid right now is best suited to be working on a Metroid game. We really looked at the gameplay and had lots of discussions about it, and in those discussions we really thought that any game, whether it be Metroid or Mario or anything, it is going to have to evolve and it is going to have to change. In discussions with the team it came up that perhaps the best kind of gameplay for this game was going to be first-person." Although he states this, Miyamoto still insists that this may not be the final form of the game. "That's not final and that's not decided, so don't think that it is first-person necessarily because it might change. At this point the development is going in that direction."

So what to make of all this? It appears that with the aid of Nintendo, Retro may be able to pull off what few people think they can: make a Metroid sequel that lives up to the series' name. Right now though, the game is still in the very early stages. No in-game footage has even been shown yet (all screens are full motion video), and nothing is known about the controls, music, or storyline, either. Don't expect Metroid Prime before Fall of 2002, or possibly 2003. Either way, this is one GameCube title everyone has their eye on.

-By Ryan Eid, 7.07.01.

- 6.26.2002