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What if there was a new Metroid Prime Hunters?


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Metroid_Prime_Hunters_all_characters.jpg

From left to right: Weavel, Spire, Noxus, Samus, Sylux, Kanden, Trace

 

 

Ah yes, good ol' Metroid Prime Hunters.  One of the early standouts of the Nintendo WiFi Connection and a pretty fun little shooter to boot.  Even though the game had its shifts away from that traditional Metroid experience it still kept enough of it to stand out as an interesting experiment all its own.  Each of the other six hunters came with their own signature weapons and, not to be outdone by Samus, had their own morph ball-like equivalents called alt forms. Hunters wasn't the first attempt at a multiplayer Metroid but it was definitely the most developed one.  The previous attempt being a rather low key addition to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes where the only character was Samus and alternative Samus palette swaps for the other players.  It was a nice tease of what could be, but little more than that.

 

So, let's suppose 14 years after the original DS release they made a new Metroid Prime Hunters.  What more would you like to see from it?  What ideas might you have for new characters, match types or anything else?

 

Hunter

Adam Malkovich (Federation Soldier)

 

Spoiler alert; Adam is dead.  Though you probably already know that if you've played Metroid Fusion and/or Metroid Other M.  But in terms of chronology he is now a digitized intelligence having had his mind uploaded into a computer.  Having a cybernetic body that his mind can reside in and still reflect look of a Galactic Federation soldier (or even his Platoon 7 getup from Other M) this is one way they could have a GF character in the game and still design an alt form for them in order to maintain similar functionality as the other Hunters.  Or they could just throw continuity out the window, have Adam back in full glory, and simply have the practice of maybe some characters not having alt forms but balancing out that drawback with another function exclusive to those type of characters.

 

Match Type

Players work together to eradicate all of the Metroids on a given map.  It basically takes the premise of Metroid II and makes a cooperative match type out of it.  Players can be "downed" by Metroids that attack and feed on too much of their energy requiring another player to assist them.  If all players are downed or are killed, they lose.  Different maps represent different difficulties which may introduce more advanced stages of the Metroid biology. 

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That’s basically what Federation Force was.

 

The thing about Hunters is that it came out during a time when Metroid was still an A-list franchise. Even if it wasn’t your cup of tea, you could safely ignore it and take solace in the fact that Corruption was coming out a year later.

 

But now, with the franchise still recovering from the damage that Other M did to the brand, and Prime 4 being delayed, it’s probably not the best idea to make another game with such a heavy emphasis on multiplayer.

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22 minutes ago, purple_beard said:

I think that in some circles Metroid is about as close as Nintendo has gotten to Halo.  The Metroid lore could lead to an excellent FPS kind of game.  FPS kind of fits with MPH.

It's odd, because my original issue with Hunters is that it was too much like an FPS when I feel like Metroid has enough unique about it that it could do multiplayer but in a way that was distinct.  I think Metroid Prime Hunters approached that well enough and with some tinkering could have a style of game that leans more to that side of things.  I definitely agree it has the lore behind it now that would probably lend itself to that.

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There's always bringing back the game's wi-fi for NSO if MPH got a port or something, because the game itself from 2006 is fine and otherwise holds up pretty well. But another game like it would be risky until we see MP4 out and actually breaking sales records. They know they have to play it safer for now after FF power bombed.

 

Still confident enough regardless that whatever we get with MP4 and beyond will give us more for the series than the 2010's did as a whole. The worst/dark days are behind us.

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1 hour ago, Kezay said:

It's odd, because my original issue with Hunters is that it was too much like an FPS when I feel like Metroid has enough unique about it that it could do multiplayer but in a way that was distinct.  I think Metroid Prime Hunters approached that well enough and with some tinkering could have a style of game that leans more to that side of things.  I definitely agree it has the lore behind it now that would probably lend itself to that.

 

I kind of hear what you are saying, but with all the characters in play they could go that way.... or maybe 3rd person shooter ...WIFI multplayer options on different planets or whatever.....

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6 hours ago, Tyranogre said:

That’s basically what Federation Force was.

 

The thing about Hunters is that it came out during a time when Metroid was still an A-list franchise. Even if it wasn’t your cup of tea, you could safely ignore it and take solace in the fact that Corruption was coming out a year later.

 

But now, with the franchise still recovering from the damage that Other M did to the brand, and Prime 4 being delayed, it’s probably not the best idea to make another game with such a heavy emphasis on multiplayer.

Disagree that Metroid was ever an A-List franchise for Nintendo. As soon as Yamauchi retired, Nintendo basically dropped everything that wasn't a top seller and relegated them to other companies or to obscurity limbo. That's why Yoshi, Wario, Metroid, etc. haven't seen a normal game from Nintendo R&D/EAD since the early 2000s. F-Zero didn't even make it that far since GX was by Sega, although that's a bit different since they actually produced something on par with the series.

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I forgot Yamauchi retired around that time. So that was the point Nintendo started becoming more typical capitalism in how they handled their IP's? Explains a lot for me with all that in perspective...

 

Even if Metroid was never an A-list for them which I suppose you're right in the grand scheme of things, it still had plenty of fire in the early 2000's, but appears that was all just a perfect storm of multiple teams working on and experimenting with the franchise at the time. At first I thought the series' momentum merely died due to Other M's divisiveness and critical failure, but seems to me now there wouldn't of been another game for awhile regardless even if OM had been more successful amongst the fandom. The other creative minds behind the series were likely burned out awhile too after the Prime trilogy, even with other characters like Sylux on the mind. Multiple factors during the 2nd hiatus led to me realizing though that Metroid unfortunately wasn't one of those IP's big and successful enough to warrant keep having multiple games pushed out like that, despite its potential and usual quality. I'm glad the years of fan rallying eventually led to MP4 and some things, but unless Prime 4 breaks series' records with the Switch install base when it's out, best put a damper on something like hopes for an MPH successor kind of multiplayer game.

 

Oh, and yeah, F-Zero got the worst end of the deal, followed by Star Fox.

Edited by Ridley Prime
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Yeah, as cool as Iwata was, it was the consolidation of Nintendo's various R&D teams under the EAD name that seemed to have led to the neglect of many of their flagship series. Wario and Metroid in particular were the domain of R&D1, and the GBA Metroids were the last ones developed by them. Second party titles were overseen by the SPD team, although they also worked on a few smaller series internally there as well, like WarioWare and Rhythm Heaven. and with the current restructuring after Iwata's death, guess which other series was left out to dry

Let's not fool anybody on the "capitalist" narrative, though, because Yamauchi was as brutal a businessman as there ever was lol. Lots of books written on their crazy pre-2000s history.

Edited by Pichi
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4 hours ago, Pichi said:

Disagree that Metroid was ever an A-List franchise for Nintendo. As soon as Yamauchi retired, Nintendo basically dropped everything that wasn't a top seller and relegated them to other companies or to obscurity limbo. That's why Yoshi, Wario, Metroid, etc. haven't seen a normal game from Nintendo R&D/EAD since the early 2000s. F-Zero didn't even make it that far since GX was by Sega, although that's a bit different since they actually produced something on par with the series.

 

So,

 

Warioland Shake It on Wii didn't count?

Yoshi's Crafted World and Woolly World don't count?

What is considered a normal game for Metroid?  The GC era got the Prime trilogy.  They probably wanted to move the series into 3D (vs 2D) gaming at that point seeing as the last game was on the SNES.

 

The wildly held rumor is that F Zero never sold enough or had a noticeably declining sales trend that they never went back to it because people voted with their pocketbook on that one.  That said, I though those two GBA FZ games came out post FZGX.

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2 hours ago, Ridley Prime said:

*****

Oh, and yeah, F-Zero got the worst end of the deal, followed by Star Fox.

On the F Zero side I wouldn't say it got the worst deal, but close to it.  It got SNES, N64, GBA, and GC iterations but then it seemed like it stopped cold turkey.  The rumor was the sales trend in the franchise kind of made it look like there wasn't an interest in the franchise anymore.  That said, I think the series needed one more shot and probably ought to have piled on the trend to have a beginner/helper mode like they have done with some recent games to ease/help with the games difficulty.

 

On the racing game end, I think they gave a bitterly cold shoulder to Wave Race.  The N64 game was legit and they surpassed it with the CG one.  How they didn't milk that game for motion controls with the Wii I'll never understand.  And I think it could be an online racer with ease.

 

What happened to ExciteBike/Truck/Bots?  The Wii reboots were great.  I didn't mind the change in formula to the trucks and bots style game.  I mean, the Bike had the NES, N64, and Wii games that were all good.  And it scored a track in Mario Kart 8 but not a game out of the series. for WiiU or Switch yet.

 

Star Fox seems the most puzzling to me though.  Maybe the sales trending down got them too, but I kind of blame Nintendo for that one as it felt like after SF64 they just kept trying to remake that game every time.  And then to bring it out of the closet for the WiiU with that odd control scheme because, according to them, they were waiting on a new idea to bring it back felt kind of cheap.  Star Fox has the cast of characters, locations, and set up that they can easily move this game series forward.  Online aerial combat, a RPG again (SF Adventures), going for another plot instead of rehashing SF64...  Ubisoft actually showed promise they could advance the series with those SF missions from that game they did recently (name escapes me now).

 

Honestly, I am really surprised Kid Icarus hasn't gotten a new game in a while.  That series seems like it would be ripe to mine in the current gaming landscape.

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Back to the original topic: if there were a new Hunters game I wouldn't mind seeing it lean more toward a team-based, abilities-driven multiplayer experience, a la Overwatch, Paladins, Apex Legends, etc. rather than a straight up shooter like Call of Duty. I think these days I'm much more interested in an FPS that gives different experiences with each character rather than just changing what gun you're using. And the original Hunters was already a little like that, and they could push the idea further.

 

I'm also always interested in co-op game modes in shooters, so I'd definitely be down for a Metroid II-style "eradicate the Metroids" game mode. I could also be interested in something like an asymmetrical mode, like one player is Samus and four or five other players are hunters, and they have to work together to take down Samus who is significantly stronger or can respawn or something.

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@purple_beardI think Mario Kart's pretty much a black hole for any other Nintendo racing series. Why bother with another F-Zero, Waverace (now that I loved), or anything when Mario Kart sells more anyway? Now we got a mobile game for it even which insultingly has a better character roster and things than the last mainline game.

 

And yeah, it was the decrease in sales for Star Fox too. Though to be fair, SF Assault tried a solid non-SF64 approach, but with the shortcomings of the ground combat and some things, it was a concept ahead of its time. I blame Miyamoto for the motion control scheme of SF Zero though, as I felt Platinum did an otherwise solid job with the game for being a SF64 reboot. Like F-Zero though, Star Fox is one of those series now that Miyamoto can't bother to bring back unless he can think of some kind of gimmick with it, and he was never big on story with games, which was why he basically just redid SF64 which was his/Star Fox's magnum opus... And you're thinking of Starlink for that last part, but yeah, them never utilizing the online potential of Star Fox didn't help either. That's something made for co-op/online. Another 3rd party produced game with minimal Miyamoto influence is your best hope, or you'll just get another SF64 rehash.

 

Far as Kid Icarus, I don't know. How much did Uprising sell? Sakurai did very well in revitalizing the IP, but seems like another one of those niche series that comes and goes.

 

7 hours ago, Pichi said:

Yeah, as cool as Iwata was, it was the consolidation of Nintendo's various R&D teams under the EAD name that seemed to have led to the neglect of many of their flagship series. Wario and Metroid in particular were the domain of R&D1, and the GBA Metroids were the last ones developed by them. Second party titles were overseen by the SPD team, although they also worked on a few smaller series internally there as well, like WarioWare and Rhythm Heaven. and with the current restructuring after Iwata's death, guess which other series was left out to dry

Let's not fool anybody on the "capitalist" narrative, though, because Yamauchi was as brutal a businessman as there ever was lol. Lots of books written on their crazy pre-2000s history.

 

Oh yeah, I know Yamauchi himself wasn't perfect either. Kinda petty at times, even. Couldn't handle the fact the N64 hardware wasn't able to handle 3rd party games the way devs wanted and threw a fit. Him and his badmouthing was sorta the reason Nintendo lost relationships with other companies/3rd parties for awhile which it took Iwata to slowly mend, but even then...

 

Having Rare at the time was what saved the N64 from being an even worse performing system after that shitshow, giving the system a fairly stellar library with their games. Seriously, without Rare, the 64's library would've been pretty dry due to Nintendo's large loss of 3rd party support at that point, with only their few in-house produced games and not much else.

 

Back to Metroid though, Other M still sold well over a million at least thanks to the Wii install base, which by the series' standards was still pretty good far as sales, but again, because it wasn't an A-list franchise for Nintendo, you still saw its soon to be neglect with all those other factors coming into place... With how insular Nintendo became and felt with Metroid and other such series at that point, I doubt they even paid much attention to the schism and negative impact that Other M caused for the franchise, though with that said and back to what Ty was saying, Metroid's still in the process of recovering from the brand damage caused by 2010, and will need all the goodwill it can get from a solid mainline game or two before something more spinoff-y like another multiplayer focused game becomes a viable option.

 

2 hours ago, Pichi said:

i think an arena shooter type game would be much nicer for the fact that overwatch like FPS are everywhere now and a revival of an old IP would be nice for a revival of old multiplayer styles as well

 

And yeah, this. Not everything needs to be another Overwatch, even though I do see the potential in that for Metroid with its characters, but now I'd kinda rather see a revival of more old school arena type shooter combat if anything, with how long it's been.

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27 minutes ago, Ridley Prime said:

@purple_beardI think Mario Kart's pretty much a black hole for any other Nintendo racing series. Why bother with another F-Zero, Waverace (now that I loved), or anything when Mario Kart sells more anyway? Now we got a mobile game for it even which insultingly has a better character roster and things than the last mainline game.

 

 

I mean, Mario Kart is a legacy spin off franchise the sells systems and games and it involves its own mascot.  None of the other racers are legacy franchises involving the company's mascot.   But, Wave Race was viewed solidly on both its games and F Zero had solid support as well.  I think they missed the boat on a Wave Race 3 for Wii with motion controls, I think that game would have been huge.  Arguably, I think FZ with motion controls of the Wii could have been good too.  I mean, online racing, customization options, ect... both have that built right on in.

 

I am going to agree that MKT is slowly getting a more inspired kart and character roster than 8 but I think I see what is going there with that.... its going to be a testing ground for Mario Kart Ultimate.  Who works, who doesn't, who gets the buzz, which new characters fit (like Monty Mole for instance)....   Also Smash Ultimate is probably making Nintendo figure out a way to do Mario Kart Ultimate.... because a full blown MK game that is home and portable with that kind of game gimmick draw would do crazy numbers.

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27 minutes ago, purple_beard said:

 

I mean, Mario Kart is a legacy spin off franchise the sells systems and games and it involves its own mascot.  None of the other racers are legacy franchises involving the company's mascot.   But, Wave Race was viewed solidly on both its games and F Zero had solid support as well.  I think they missed the boat on a Wave Race 3 for Wii with motion controls, I think that game would have been huge.  Arguably, I think FZ with motion controls of the Wii could have been good too.  I mean, online racing, customization options, ect... both have that built right on in.

 

I am going to agree that MKT is slowly getting a more inspired kart and character roster than 8 but I think I see what is going there with that.... its going to be a testing ground for Mario Kart Ultimate.  Who works, who doesn't, who gets the buzz, which new characters fit (like Monty Mole for instance)....   Also Smash Ultimate is probably making Nintendo figure out a way to do Mario Kart Ultimate.... because a full blown MK game that is home and portable with that kind of game gimmick draw would do crazy numbers.

 

Diddy Kong Racing could've done with a successor as well. Even with Rare gone, they could've delegated a sequel or something to another company I felt when DKR was another solidly received racer that wasn't Mario Kart, but the usual negligence happened I guess.

 

It should or may as well be "Nintendo Kart" at this point tbh. I hope you're right though.

 

32 minutes ago, purple_beard said:

Back to MPH though..... should they go down a road to make it tie in to the Metroid universe?  Like be some sort of story line tie in or should they go for a direct spin off kind of game?

 

That depends on your preference I guess. All the games at large (mainline and spinoff) have shared a singular timeline, but a game or spinoff that's independent of it would allow for more creative freedom.

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If Metroid Prime Hunters is to Metroid, I would want Metroid Prime Hunters 2 to be its Super Metroid.

 

 The adventure mode would be a similar retread while still having many differences. Usually I think of Hunters 2 beginning near a Galactic Federation base where the recently secured Omega Cannon is being researched. Samus Aran comes on scene due to distress signals coming from within the base. Throughout the corridors and open testing areas within the base, there is plenty of death from scientists to security personnel. The Scan Visor will allow Samus to analyze those bodies as well as review the last moments of the fallen (displayed and able to scan above a corpse, free-floating like the Alimbic Lore but has the appearance of the "spirit" when hunters/Guardians "die" in the original). These moments will reveal a successful Kriken attack on the base to steal the Omega Cannon in order to better ensure their invasion of the Alimbic Cluster for the expansion of the Kriken Empire. Having the Omega Cannon back out in space, outside of an established base, attracts more than Samus's attention. 

 

 Samus arrives to the Alimbic Cluster to see Kriken warships annihilated above the planet Arcterra. Her gunship informs her that the last known trace of the Omega Cannon's energy signature was from a central ship before the signature went cold. Again, there is death with Kriken bodies and limbs mangled around and in the ship as Samus does her investigation. Some bodies will be free floating in space, and the scanning remains similar to that at the Federation base. The Krikens were attacked, but not by a known entity. They were caught off guard by the attack, which Samus learns started within the central warship in the chamber presumed to have held the stolen Omega Cannon. After exiting the chamber, Samus gets a telepathic message, "The secrets to ultimate power lie in the Alimbic Cluster," followed by a gunship transmission notifying Samus of activity on Arcterra including an energy spike similar, but weaker, to that of the Omega Cannon. Samus travels to Arcterra to investigate...

 

 Basically, rather than Octoliths, in the sequel it's the divided body of Gorea, the heart of which is the Omega Cannon. Gorea's body is spread throughout the Alimbic Cluster and appear more as major suit upgrades to Samus Aran than part of a hostile entity. These suit upgrades have benefits for traversal within the most extreme environment conditions within the cluster and expand Samus's range of upgrade abilities through combos. For example, the Avoldivr Suit Upgrade would allow Samus to have enhanced Boost Ball capabilities if she goes into Morph Ball while holding a Volt Driver charge. When the Boost Ball has been triggered, Samus can chose where to launch herself and the boost acts like a miniature ball spark allowing her to clear specific obstructions/debris within narrow, confined areas that may be too dense for or out of reach of a normal Morph Ball Bomb. 

 

 The lore behind the suits in relation to the Alimbics would be that they are references to members of the Alimbic Order of Elders and the Alimbic technologies that they specialized in. Gorea would be using its victims to entice and manipulate the universe to seek out and reunite its body. Could Gorea do that itself? Yes. Gorea wants to be entertained though by increasing the opportunity and scale of the tragic competition in the Alimbic Cluster. I'm not sure if I would add new playable characters beyond the original cast, but I would definitely like to see many new races and some familiar (Luminoth, Bion race, Bryyoian, Phrygisian, etc.) fall victim to the new lure of power. The Alimbic Cluster should be full of mystery, death and destruction. 

 

 For multiplayer, in the current landscape, I want more of the same from the original. I don't think today's approach to multiplayer shooters is that engaging and it is too reliant in my opinion on RNG elements. It would be nice to bring back action that's almost purely based on an individual player's skill level. Changes that I would make though would be too limit alternative form use, remove the Death Alt and add in melee combat. The availability of alternative forms would be denoted by the alternative form symbol for each hunter which would be placed to the lower right side of the HUD. It would work as a meter. If it depletes all the way, the alternative form will be on a short cool down. The meter depletes slightly faster than it regenerates. 

 

 Melee combat would not be timing based aside from timing a melee strike when an enemy or player is in very close range for single player and multiplayer respectively. If a hunter's affinity weapon is selected when a melee strike is successful, the melee can go into a strong combo with the weapon. The strong combo would be activated by quickly firing the affinity weapon right after a melee strike. Strong combos are not cinematic sequences and will be brief. The transition between doing a melee attack and firing a weapon is quick, making less powerful combo opportunities possible as well. 

 

 Less of the maps will be directly from the single player, instead a majority will be inspired by the fallen, non-playable hunters found in the single player and offer a glimpse into what their worlds/locales are like. These maps could feature new upgrades, environment features and/or obstacles exclusive to the specific map. There would be seven maps that are tied to the backstory of the playable cast. Samus would have a Chozodia inspired map, Sylux Cylosis, Spire Mondreus, Noxus Vho, Kanden Sinister Laboratory, Trace Kriken Empire and Weavel would have a jungle Brinstar inspired map.

 

Those are some of my ideas for a sequel. I would probably be more excited for the potential of a remake though. 

Edited by IU
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