Metroid Prime 3: Corruption E3 Interview

[Everlost_MI]

PlanetGameCube (http://www.planetgamecube.com) has posted an interview (http://www.planetgamecube.com/specialArt.cfm?artid=11594) they conducted during E3 with the various producers and director of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Here's a bit from it...

Pacini: Well, that's because the weapon system is different for Metroid Prime 3.

PGC: How is it different?

Pacini: Prime 1 and Prime 2 are based on weapon switching, which was done on the C-stick. In Prime 3, we went with a system more similar to Super Metroid, which was beam stacking. So the idea is that the player will get additional beams that stack on to their original, which will have different attributes, but they will continue to have their attributes even after they've been stacked. And every weapon that Samus has does that. So beams, missiles, and grapple will all stack.

[EvilBob46]

They said there is going to be a bit less backtracking, and that the overall difficulty will be toned down a bit.

Hardcore Metroid fans might not like these changes, but frankly, I think 80% of people who played Metroid Prime 2 thought the game was frustratingly difficult in certain places, and that there was a bit too much backtracking in both games.

[Nominal]

The difficulty I loved. The backtracking, not so much.

Still, both 1 and 2 were excellent games.

[setrajonas]

That's a pity that they're toning the difficulty down though. It was just fine for me. The only bosses that killed me my first time through either game were the Omega Pirate and the Boost Ball Guardian. I was also a fan of the backtracking aspect. Honestly, I'm not even "hardcore", if by hardcore you mean played the game before Prime. The first metroid game I ever played was Prime.

[automaton]

I've played almost every metroid game and Prime 2 was probably my favorite. I loved how heavily story driven it was. The back tracking didn't bother me that much because really all metroid games required some back tracking.

Mind you, I cut my teeth on the first metroid game on NES where you had to wander around aimlessly shooting at walls and floors until you found random hidden paths that allowed you to progress.

[Syl]

The biggest issue with Prime 2, in my opinion, was all of the damn keys.

If they removed the key's, i'm sure it'd be a far better game. But metroid games are supposed to rely upon "natural" barriers (Those that can be passed by finding upgrades that allow you to pass them) instead of fucking doors with locks.

[SaintArnold]

Metroid Prime was not hard. What happened to the good old days where games didn't have to be made easy enough for 6 year-old kids, the crippled, and the elderly?

[TKO]

Yeah, I liked the games of the good old days. Where things could actually kill you, and you'd be dead. Game Over. Finished. If you were lucky you could restart from the beginning of the level on which you died. Otherwise, yeah, back to the beginning chump. Stop crying or I'll crash and ya can sit through 10 minutes of loading again. >:)

[Morangie]

Hurray for dumbing down great games to please whiners! That said, Retro did a great job with prime 1 & 2, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this.

[CapnBob]

The only problem I had with difficulty on Prime 2 was the third stage of Emperor Ing. Only one weak spot that randomly changed which weapon it was susceptible to, and you could only even hit it while at the apex of your double-jump when you were really close and he wasn't moving and he didn't have his mouth closed. Fuck that. I never beat the game because of cheap shit like that.

[MaiXu]

I played and replayed every Metorid game ... except Prime 2. I could not get into that one. It felt like a really crippled rehash of Prime, the dual-world shit was really annoying, and the enemies were designed to exploit the shitty controls.

That said, I have high hopes for Prime 3.

[mister_slim]

They could turn Metroid Prime 3 into just a soundtrack CD and I'd still buy it. For $50.

[Nessus]

The biggest issue with Prime 2, in my opinion, was all of the damn keys.

If they removed the key's, i'm sure it'd be a far better game. But metroid games are supposed to rely upon "natural" barriers (Those that can be passed by finding upgrades that allow you to pass them) instead of fucking doors with locks.


I agree completely.

Metroid is by far my favorite series (the only game I don't own currently is Metroid Prime: Pinball), and I constantly fear that it will slip further into an FPS.

I'm very glad that the guys at Retro have implimented beam stacking like in Super Metroid for Metroid Prime 3. And you get the Screw Attack earlier on and it will be apparently designed more to be a weapon than in Echoes.

At first I wasn't sure about the game when I heard about it having NPCs and multiple planets, but I think I'll be able to look past that.

I think the only game where keys don't bother me is Zelda.

I hated key cards in Doom 3 so much.

[ChypeFlux]

There's a difference between difficult and cheap.

Some of the bosses felt cheap in MP 1 & 2 due to the fact that they could move so much faster than you could compensate for. E.g., Meta-Ridley.

So, I'd prefer it still be difficult but just make the bosses less cheap. I'm sure others will disagree, but that's fine.

I also liked most of the backtracking...it's how Metroid has always worked (well, more or less).

Anyway, bringing back the beam stacking idea for MP 3 rocks hard. It was one of the many cool things I dug about Super Metroid...

[Wasson_]

in Super Metroid, their wasn't much purpose to "mixing it up" with your beam types. You just combined them all until you got the plasma and then it just shut off your "Spazer" (which is soooeasy to get without the high jump boots ;) )

I hope they add some more complexity than that by giving your beam weapon special properties by mixing them as opposed to your beam simply getting progressively more effective and powerful.

[dena miscreant]

Metroid is by far my favorite series (the only game I don't own currently is Metroid Prime: Pinball), and I constantly fear that it will slip further into an FPS.


I just hope they release a 2D Metroid on DS.

I love the Prime series, however, and still think Metroid is the perfect series for FPS. However, I'd like either the new version to have a 2d game on the side, or a DS 2D metroid, similar to Fusion, for example.

[Stormwatcher]

I don't mind backtracking. it makes sense in Metroid games. It's not some random crap devs put in the game to make it longer.

And I don't think Prime's controls are crap. I like them too.

[Shifteh]

So Samus is stacked now? Sorry, I had to.

Anyway... I'm not sure I'm in the minority here, but I'm curious - did any PC FPS 'enthusiasts' here have a lot of trouble with the controls of the first two? I had more trouble walking around than I would have expected.