Making Shadow Complex, and the Super Metroid Influence

[modeps]

It's no secret that Shadow Complex cribs heavily from the 15 year old SNES classic, Super Metroid. Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4119/making_shadow_complex_donald_.php) has an interview up Chair Entertainment's Donald Mustard who talks quite a bit about how they created Shadow Complex and how Super Metroid influenced it.

The things Shadow Complex got from Super Metroid are mostly pretty obvious. But some may not be. Super Metroid doesn't actually stop you for story, but it does tell you a lot of story, cleverly, through its visuals. I think it was more sophisticated than most games in that generation. Was that also an influence?

DM: Yeah. Even long ago when we were doing Advent, a lot of times I'd say to people that I thought the best story ever in games was Super Metroid. And people would be like, "What? What are you talking about? There is no story in Super Metroid." I'm like, "No, you have to understand."

To me, it's almost like the ultimate form of storytelling. It did so much through just the mood, the pacing, and visually what they were telling you that it didn't have to rely on the traditional forms of narrative like dialogue. It had a great story to it. And so we certainly looked to Super Metroid, and we also looked at Fusion a lot -- Metroid Fusion, which had a more traditional narrative -- to see what the evolution of their thinking way and incorporate some of that.

[JazGalaxy]

It's no secret that Shadow Complex cribs heavily from the 15 year old SNES classic, Super Metroid. Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4119/making_shadow_complex_donald_.php) has an interview up Chair Entertainment's Donald Mustard who talks quite a bit about how they created Shadow Complex and how Super Metroid influenced it.

I totally agree with what he's saying. It's frustrating when designers think it's their job to "tell you" the story of a game when it's so much more effective to just show you. Games are about interaction and more often than not I just want the developers to get out of the WAY so I can enjoy it.

The parts in Super Metroid where you would come into contact with alien life... specifically the bird who teaches you how to charge jump were epic elements of storytelling and it's sad that it would be done today with an overbaked cut scene.

[blackzc]

Super Metroid reminds me of how much video games are not so good today. Like lots of people i played that game 10 years before i appreciated it.

[JazGalaxy]

Super Metroid reminds me of how much video games are not so good today. Like lots of people i played that game 10 years before i appreciated it.

I definitely played the original before I could appreciate it. I thought the title screen music was noise when I first heard it. Now I think it's some of the best videogame music of all time.

[RorschachCCCLX]

Shadow Complex failed to impress me, and I love old school 2D side scrollers. it just was rather shallow and the story was lame.

[Feltoar]

I never thought Super Metroid had a good story, which is a fairly reasonable belief to have. There was no character development, little or no dialogue and it lacked several other important story telling devices. I dont constitute a sequence of events a good story on their own, no matter how atmospheric or developed the setting is.

If Epic are looking to Super Metroid for story inspiration its no wonder their own are so lacklustre. I quite like the rich settings of games like Gears of War. But seriously, was anyone moved by that scene with Dom and his wife? Each time I see it I just think "Boom Headshot". Seriously, in the head?

[Vacatakarat]

I never thought Super Metroid had a good story, which is a fairly reasonable belief to have. There was no character development, little or no dialogue and it lacked several other important story telling devices. I dont constitute a sequence of events a good story on their own, no matter how atmospheric or developed the setting is.

If Epic are looking to Super Metroid for story inspiration its no wonder their own are so lacklustre. I quite like the rich settings of games like Gears of War. But seriously, was anyone moved by that scene with Dom and his wife? Each time I see it I just think "Boom Headshot". Seriously, in the head?

The worst trolls come from Australia apparently.

[MADxMrMike]

What made a game awesome like Super Metroid, and many others during those days, was the direction of the game and the atmosphere. Most games back then, even the big ones like Metroid, didnt have near the budget as todays games. So the developers used little things like art direction and sound to set the tone. You took in what they created and you added your on with your imagination. Kind of like a book. I will always remember the first time you touch down on the planet in SM. It was amazing. The music and the rain. I was hooked. Same thing with Links Awakening. The night/rain beginning was just awesome. Good memories.

[Syl]

Super Metroid and Link's Awakening, both being nintendo first party titles, had some of the best budget and resources of any game in the industry at the time they were created.

That said, where shadow complex faltered was that its atmosphere was simply not as engrossing or engaging as Metroid or Castlevania, music is a large part of it, but such a similar look to the rooms was also quite a hindrance. Metroid and Castlevania are made by their music direction and drastically altering color pallet, i wish shadow complex took a better hint of that.

[Anenome]

I never thought Super Metroid had a good story, which is a fairly reasonable belief to have. There was no character development, little or no dialogue and it lacked several other important story telling devices. I dont constitute a sequence of events a good story on their own, no matter how atmospheric or developed the setting is.

- This is more the influence of Nintendo than anything else. Nintendo knows that a game's success is far more about the player / game interaction than the story. Nintendo games are absolute bare-bones storywise. Provide a good guy, a bad guy, a motivation and confrontation, and an ending.

It's proven to be a decent formula.

Still, the best of games combine great gameplay with great storylines. I will cite Mass Effect as having an amazing storyline along with awesome gameplay. The story was so good, it could've been a novel; the whole game felt like a movie, like a videogame adaptation of a movie that was itself an adaptation of a book. I really applaud Drew Karpyshyn, the writer on Mass Effect.

Still, when the story is bad, gameplay cannot redeem it. So, going for a story experience is a risk, a risk that Nintendo consistently chooses not to take. You might cite Daikatana as having a ridiculous story... I know I couldn't stop laughing about 30 seconds into it when the dude jumped on the other dude's sword...

So, to sum up: a great story cannot redeem terrible gameplay, but great gameplay can easily overshadow a lacking story. That's the truth of a Nintendo produced game. And Metroid is just another proof of that. Provide the seed of a story, and knock it out of the park on gameplay.

That said, I know I'm not alone in having always dreamed of the Metroid universe being expanded into something much more like, well, Mass Effect. If you dropped Samus into a story dealing with intergalactic politics and the Metroid and Space Priate menace, you'd really have something. The recently announced Castlevania title is kinda the same thing, the maturation of the title, but for a different game and universe. But I think I'm getting a bit off topic now :P