Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Metroid Prime Trilogy Being Updated For the Wii, Due In August

Posted by Soulskill on from the three-for-one dept.

On Friday, Nintendo revealed that the three Metroid Prime games will be re-released on a single disc this August for the Wii. The first two, originally developed for the Gamecube, will be updated so players can "use their Wii Remote to aim with precision." 1Up had this to say of their hands-on preview: "... The heads-up display and on-screen interface elements have been completely overhauled to work more effectively with the standard Wii control setup of remote and nunchuck; swapping visors is a quick point-and-click command, and toggling weapons is similarly easy. Although the control interface isn't perfect — pressing down on the D-pad to fire missiles still grates — it makes the GameCube titles feel much faster and more fluid overall."

7 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Wii Hardware by twocows · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not sure, but I think the motion plus allows for greater precision. At the very least, you could get a wider range of motion (something I felt the game needed).

  2. "Bugs" fixed by Mr+EdgEy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The games will most probably have all of the great tricks fixed that made Prime such an amazing game. Dash jumping, triple bomb jump, rapid fire missiles, and so on. It was great to take the game engine to its limits without technically cheating. Not only that, Prime1/2 had an amazing control scheme, 3 just used the wii remote as a gimmick IMO. For info check. http://www.metroid2002.com/home.php

    1. Re:"Bugs" fixed by solcott · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The games will most probably have all of the great tricks fixed that made Prime such an amazing game. Dash jumping, triple bomb jump, rapid fire missiles, and so on. It was great to take the game engine to its limits without technically cheating. Not only that, Prime1/2 had an amazing control scheme, 3 just used the wii remote as a gimmick IMO. For info check. http://www.metroid2002.com/home.php

      Assuming that the US release of the "New Play Control" Metroid Prime is going to be mostly the same as the Japanese release that has been out for a while (and is easily playable in English by people with homebrew enabled Wii's) all of those things are still there.

      I agree that the controls on the GC versions of Metroid were great, but they were the only first person perspective games on a console I could stand to play, and that was probably only *because* they were Metroid games.

      The infrared aiming done by the Wiimote in MP3 is a lot more "keyboard and mouse" like, and once I got my hands on the Japanese remake of Metroid Prime and patched it to English I've only been able to even touch my GameCube Metroid discs once, and that was to see what it was like playing them with a controller instead of a Wiimote

      What is was like was using a web browser without adblocking/mouse gestures/tabs once you have gotten used to having them. You just aren't able to go back to a clunky stiff and slow product once you have used a better version of it.

  3. Re:Nintendo has perfected the art... by EvilNTUser · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unlike the RIAA and MPAA, they actually update the products when they do it.

    3. Profit

    --
    My Sig: SEGV
  4. Re:Wii Hardware by EvilNTUser · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In my opinion, the Wii remote loses only to the mouse and keyboard in FPS games. However, I agree that it's sluggish. For example, I started having problems towards the end of Mario Galaxy, because I had until then almost completely avoided using the spin attack due to timing issues. I really didn't know how to use it well by the time I needed it, like in the Luigi platform level.

    The remote needs more buttons, really badly. The motion controls should NEVER be used when a button could do the same job.

    The Wii in general is a great concept, but its hardware limitations are really starting to show. The next generation product can't be as reliant on the motion controls or it'll tank. I also hope Nintendo realizes that many traditional gamers bought it for the sole reason of playing Mario, Zelda and Metroid, not because it's actually a good platform for them. Switching to 100% casual would be a disaster.

    Short term, I would personally at the very least want updated hardware with an integrated 1080p upscaler (or even native. Is it possible to lie to the games and render and antialias polygons more precisely than requested?).

    --
    My Sig: SEGV
  5. It's not that bad. by Tinctorius · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I expected Nintendo/Retro to release the revamped versions as separate titles.

  6. Re:Wii Hardware by grumbel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    that beats the crap out of joystick controls in terms of response.

    Not really. Have you ever tried to hit anything on that setting without lock-on? Its near impossible because you constantly oversteer. Its not a problem for MP3 since you lock on all the time, but as a general FPS mechanics it doesn't really work. There is also the problem that you will get into a crazy spin each and every time you have a dialog with an NPC, as pointing to the center of the screen is not easy when you don't have any feedback from the interface.

    So as a general dual-analogstick replacement I consider the Wiimote pretty much a failure. Aiming works very well, but rotation via the edge of the screen really doesn't. Thus one thing I would like to see is a game that makes only use of the aiming part and leaves all the rotation to the analogstick (i.e. classic Doom/MetroidPrime1 control, but you can aim at enemies that aren't in the center of the screen).