Nintendo Throws Out Metroid Prime 4 Work, Restarts With Retro Studios (arstechnica.com)

Nintendo is essentially restarting development on the highly anticipated Metroid Prime 4, saying the game as it currently exists "has not reached the standards we seek in a sequel to the Metroid Prime series." Ars Technica reports: The surprise announcement comes from Nintendo General Manager for Development Shinya Takahashi. He said in a YouTube video posted this morning that current Metroid Prime 4 producer Kensuke Tanabe will begin "collaborating" on the game with Retro Studios, the studio responsible for the original Metroid Prime trilogy. Tanabe has previously worked as producer on multiple Retro-developed Metroid Prime titles.

"The current development status of the game is very challenged and we have made a very difficult decision as a development team," Takahashi said in the subtitled video. "We have decided to reexamine the development structure and change it." "This change will essentially mean restarting development from the beginning, so the completion of the game will be delayed from our initial internal plan," Takahashi continued. "It will be a long road until the next time we will be able to update you on the development progress, and development time will be extensive."

Comments

Re: I never heard of Metroid

[Anonymous Coward]

What rock have you been living under? Or are you just that young?

Metroid Prime was the killer app of the Gamecube/X-Box/Playstation 2 generation. Metroid had much better single player gameplay than Halo, while Halo's gameplay lent itself better to multiplayer and actually had multiplayer. By the next console generation (Wii/360/PS3), it was all about the (online) multiplayer, and Samus all but vanished outside of Smash Bros.

Metroid stars Samus Aran, who is part Lara Croft, part Boba Fett/Master Chief. Metroid Prime is part Tomb Raider, part Halo.

Re:I never heard of Metroid

[LordKronos]

That's a really good question. Who DOES care whether or not you've heard of Metroid?

Cool.

[RyanFenton]

As long as it's less like 'Other M', and more like any of the Prime games eventually - then great.

It's somewhat odd - but when the original creator went back to the series, taking over after the prime series, he really made a mess out of the character and her motivations.

It's nice to see that they seem to be learning that lesson, and putting it more in the hands of ILM, and less in the hands of 'Lucas' himself in this case.

The whole point of Samus was she showed how little gender in a trained warrior should matter, kicking butt in power armor says all you need. Flashbacks to childhood and freezing before a critter you already killed like 5 times is NOT adding to that character, and not anywhere worth taking away gameplay control. And that's just like 1% of the things wrong that debacle.

Ryan Fenton

Re:Cool.

[sexconker]

The characterization in Other M was entirely in line with how the character was portrayed in the manga, which is canon.

Samus has had pretty much no other characterization outside of that.
In the first 3 games you don't get squat for characterization.
You finally start to get something with Fusion.

Metroid Prime is not canonical. Aggressively so, in fact. It was considered to not be a "real" Metroid series. Until it sold well, then they walked that line back a bit. It's now a "real" Metroid series in a different timeline/reality/whatever. In Japan, this is "gaiden" status. It's a spin-off and is not treated with the same respect or held in the same regard as the main thing. Perhaps today's video, which included a shameful "we had to give it to the Americans because we can't do it right" admission means their attitude is changing in that regard.

I'm sure we don't need to get into Hunters or Pinball. Zero Mission was a remake of the original and Samus Returns was a remake of Metroid II.

The only other things we had for characterization were Nintendo Power comics and the Captain N TV show.

The worst thing about Other M was the combat (the dodging mechanic made it pointlessly easy) and "the baby". The "pixel hunt" portions were dumb but I didn't have a problem dealing with them. In terms of characterization, it's the most we've ever gotten for the character in any of the games, by far. It's totally in line with what's canonical for the character. There's no reason to think Samus can't be afraid of Ridley, or shocked to see Ridley again, or shocked to realize that the stupid little bird thing turned out to be Ridley / Ridley's clone / Super Mecha Cyborg Zombie Clone Ridley.

But the Ridley reaction is the one concrete thing people go to all the time when they want to complain about the game. Because the complaint that they started out with - MISOGYNY - was too absurd to gain much traction. People literally complained that it was misogynistic that Samus, when working with a military unit, had to follow orders from her CO (a man) and not just unload with all her fucking weapons. It was a stupid plot device to prevent the use of her full arsenal at the start of the game, sure. But it's better than just starting her with the suit and no abilities (not even the fucking morph ball) every damned sequel. The characterization of her and Adam fits in with canon, and even ties into Fusion. Her reaction to Ridley fits, too.

It all fits, whether you like it or not.

Re:Cool.

[Anonymous Coward]

Because the complaint that they started out with - MISOGYNY - was too absurd to gain much traction.

Whether it's misogyny or not, there's plenty of elements about Other M that don't add up. From how short she is to how she so quickly turned to working with the military unit when she dislikes following orders. In fact, just about everything about Adam Malkovich in Other M comes across as whiny and the way he acts really doesn't jive with the person presented: "The real Adam would have said the same thing about that incident, but he would have softened the blow. He was relentless in his criticism, but he always cared... He was not a machine obsessed with duty. No such compassion could exist in that computer...". Yet in nearly every way, the computer in Metroid Fusion was the more caring and compassionate one than the real Adam in Other M.

I could sort of accept that seeing Adam again she was flustered, but given that she left serving directly in the Federation under Adam precisely because she didn't like how things turned out being left under his command, it seems very confusing she'd be so quick to blindly follow him again. In fact, the very first part seems to indicate she wants to stay precisely because she realizes that she is capable in a way--say, overpowered--that leaves them rather defenseless. So, leaving it to Adam to eventually authorize usage or follow his direction on movements is precisely why so many people died and the whole situation played out yet again how it had in the past. How could she in Metroid Fusion continue to honor the man as some sort of "perfect military mind"?

For Ridley, maybe that fits into the fear of yet more people dying and realizing that as powerful as she is, she hasn't yet to stop Ridley for good? Yet it's Anthony, not Adam, that comes to her rescue to knock her to her senses. And what does Adam do? Self-sacrifice by entering an area to kill the Metroids he presupposes are ice proof--yet the Metroids in Metroid Fusion are not, so it doesn't follow. Instead, it comes across almost as traitorous to debilitate Samus and simply suicide for no reason.

Really, I encourage you to play through Other M and then play through Fusion. Do you simply see Samus growing up a bit (where oddly she seemed grown up in Metroid, Metroid 2, and Super Metroid)? Or do you see there being some gross disconnect in her reaction? You can say all you like the manga was canon, but for as much as the games had any story, it's clear the story in game has a very weird disconnect as if Other M occurred before Metroid even.

Man Nintendo...

[skam240]

Man Nintendo, I love you. Rather than release a pile of crap on us you've chosen to lose in the short term to keep the franchise strong in the long term. Not only is it proper business sense (if you can afford to just scrap a half way done game of course) but it's showing proper respect for your fan base. Sure, it'd been better if the Metroid they've been developing was actually good and we had a more timely release but at least they have the integrity to not feed us garbage.

Re:Man Nintendo...

[sexconker]

Rather than release a pile of crap on us you've chosen to lose in the short term to keep the franchise strong in the long term.

Keep in mind they released fucking Metroid Prime: Federation Farce. They can't care too much.