Speaking of Metroid Prime speedruns, I love this one from early in the pandemic. Timestamped for my favourite part.
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@connrrr echoes was the first AG speed run I ever saw back in 2013 or 14 or 15…
seems like these guys might’ve seen the metroid prime title and menu screens
warning for uhh tubes and veins and organs and stuff? idk, that stuff bothers some people
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@rootfifthoctave Genuinely appreciate the warning. I hate seeing that stuff.
@treefroggy it looks just like one of these Bionicle guys that fold into a ball!
Metroid Fusion, but instead of being pursued by SA-X, a biological formation of copied DNA, it’s an AI replicating Samus, SA-AI, and it gets her eyes and fingers all weird and scary
It’s pretty funny that Metroid Prime 4 is making good on the tease from the 100% ending of Prime 3 that Prime Hunters character Sylux would be in some sequel down the road. (This time they could have gotten away with “Remember me?”)
It didn’t mean anything at the time that they teased this character’s continued presence in the series in that the character was only a miniboss in the story mode of Prime Hunters, and a slightly different version of Samus in multiplayer, and it doesn’t mean anything now except that the team remembers what they put in a secret ending of a game they made 17 years ago. Did they have ideas about what that would mean for a sequel? Maybe, but I imagine there won’t be much continuity in those ideas as the team has probably changed since then. Seems to me more like they’d settled on the formula of the antagonist character being an anti-Samus, and they needed a new one after the end of Prime 3. Dark Samus returning for Prime 3 already felt a bit like reheated leftovers, so I hope they can get away from that a bit, and that Prime 4 can be its own thing.
The trouble with Metroid is they don’t make them very often, so each one “has to” remind people of what the old ones were like, which makes it all the stranger that they are still narrative sequels to games nearly 20 years old. Nintendo needs to take a more Valve-like approach (maybe a more F-Zero-like approach) to these games: only make one if they’re exploring something new. And maybe they are! They’ve spent 13 years making games that aren’t Metroid—hoping some new ideas work their way in there.
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I don’t know how they’re gonna do this without making it for babies. Maybe I should replay Prime 1-3, but that trailer lacked a lot of the dirt, grime, grit, etc. that Metroid requires, imo. Looking a bit too much like Prime Hunters and etc. spinoffs, like for ages 8-11, playing with bionicles.
Something about dude showing up with two metroids on either side was cringe. They’re pulling a George Lucas when they need to pull a Ridley Scott.
The only anti-samus who I ever thought was cool or scary was the SA-X. All others are lame rehashes IMHO.
Another example of “too little, too late” from nintendo, also when a franchise is dead for so long, we should just let it stay dead. The first decade of clamoring is painful enough, there’s no erasing that. That’s why nothing Nintendo has done with MOTHER-adjacent releases will ever erase the decades of torment we had from the past.
By the time Project Dread finally came out, it was no longer an R&D1 brainchild, it was no longer a cool N64 game, it was no longer a weird 2D Metroid for DS.
#nastynintendo
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Before I jump back into Metroid Prime, I’ve decided to read as many rumors, previews, and scour the Video Game History Foundation for articles. It’s not looking pretty. In May 2001 it’s looking like quite a troubled development…
The Murky History of Retro Studio’s GameCube Metroid
Samus Aran might have been able to survive hordes of aliens and oversized brains, but her most dangerous challenge may be getting to the GameCube in one piece. Reports from sources inside and outside of Retro Studios shine a troubling light on the project that raised eyebrows last summer when Nintendo decided to have their Japanese-born franchise continued by the unproven American start-up developer.
In January, two of Retro’s games were put on “permanent hold”, thus freeing up resources for Metroid: Thunder Rally, a Carmageddon-style racing game that “looked cool,” according to our source, “but lacked substance, though it could have been a great online game if Nintendo knew what they wanted to do with it.” The other was tentatively named NFL Football 2002, and was an action-oriented game that “Nintendo never seemed serious about.” With franchises such as Madden and NFL Quarterback Club slated to appear on the GC and the possibility of NFL 2K2 appearing because of Sega’s emergence as a third party, the market for Football 2002 had diminished. “It definitely had promise,” said someone close to the project. “The game was coming together and was finally on track.” Many of the staff from football and Thunder Rally were reassigned to Metroid and Retro’s other project, an RPG with “typical Dungeons & Dragons stuff that wasn’t looking very good,” said our source.
I wish we could see Metroid: Thunder Rally come to Gamecube! Sounds weird! It’s kind of funny that an unproven studio had so many games planned at once. But I guess it was the new millennium!
Fine, it’s the axe 
Enter Metroid
Months after the game was up and running as a first-person game, Shigeru Miyamoto visited the Austin, TX-based Retro during April 2000. “It was like the Emperor visiting the Death Star.” said our source, who then added, “He didn’t seem to like any of the games very much, especially the racing title, which was probably our best-looking.” Miyamoto spent most of his time with the action-adventure game, and “the impression was that he wasn’t too thrilled. Nintendo would come down about three times a year and rip on most of the games, except football, which was under the radar.” Then, weeks before SpaceWorld in August, Nintendo decided to crown Retro Studios with the Metroid license and the action-adventure game was transformed. “They wanted to make a splash,” commented a former Retro employee. “We had some Metroid fans in the office who were both thrilled and scared. Retro realized it was a great license, but we were also worried about the backlash from making it a first-person adventure game. We didn’t want to be known as the studio that ruined Metroid,” said our source.
The real question is how do the fans feel about this???
I’d play metris
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Dicey times for those plucky young upstarts in Texas! Once they release their debut hit I’m sure their publisher will let up pressure, surely. Definitely
Continuing the long trend of vehicular combat games being underappreciated post Twisted Metal. If I’m reading that right it unfortunately was not a Metroid title but I wouldn’t say no to a Jak X style bounty racing game!
All I picture (and hear) for the last PA panel is:
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I sure hope so! It’s already summer 2001 and the gaming world is getting a little antsy about this new Metroid Gamecube game. Not only was it unplayable on the E3 floor, the video segments featured didn’t show any gameplay whatsoever. Only cinematics of Samus, her ship, and some enemies. Miyamoto has started overseeing it and assures the press that the game is going well. At this point, Metroid fans have a lot more to be excited about with the more traditional Metroid IV coming to the GBA.
Where are the colored bubble doors indeed! Even though most Nintendo gamers were distracted by Zelda’s new cartoon look… there’s now a lot of pressure on Spaceworld 2001 for us to learn more about Samus’s Prime adventure.
According to Miyamoto, Metroid’s development is going quite well (“We are already at the stage of fine-tuning and putting on the finishing touches,” he said), and the game was almost going to be shown playable at Spaceworld, but a lack of sound effects and some remaining issues with the controls made him decide to wait.
All we get at Spaceworld is 10 more seconds of footage but at least we can speculate on the UI elements!
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What is the “Friday” by Rebecca Black of video ga—
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Been reading some more gaming mags, and 2002 is actually a bit better when it comes to the buildup to Metroid Prime. The narrative has totally shifted now that Miyamoto is at the helm of this project.
Nintendo has the biggest exhibition at the Electronic Gaming Expo (E3) but Samus has to play second banana to Mario Sunshine while Nintendo shows off Zelda: Four Swords as the Gamecube’s big gimmick.
Here’s the Metroid E3 Presentation that opened the show, before going into its third party slate with games like Resident Evil Ø:
But after press got their hands on it on the E3 floor, there wasn’t much to be said. It sounds like everyone is way more focused on the release of GTA: Vice City. There’s actually relatively little written up on these upcoming Metroid games during the fall of 2002 despite releasing in November 2002. I guess Nintendo just didn’t give the press all that much until they gave them preview copies at the end of October 2002.
The stuff that’s out there is fun though:
This is the first time I’ve ever wanted to own a Gamecube. Can anyone confirm? What do you actually get to do if you hook up Prime and Fusion?
The fact both Prime and Fusion released on the SAME DAY is crazy. People are much more excited for Prime.
It’s also kind of funny how in 2002 everyone is complaining how long it’s been since a metroid game came out (Super Metroid was 8 years ago). Some things don’t change!
The last time we checked in on Metroid Prime, our concerns with the fan-favorite series going 3D were put to rest by the impressive level that we saw. That was then, this is now, and we’ve explored an additional four levels that have left us crying for more.
Metroid Prime (and to no small extent, Metroid Fusion) is poised to not only rejuvenate, but also reinvent the series that has, for so long, gone missing. Reborn as a first-person adventure, Prime bucks both the preconceptions of what a Metroid game and first-person shooter should be. Focusing less on twitch-blasting (although there’s plenty of that) and more on exploration, Metroid Prime puts you in the suit and brings you face-to-face with Samus’ world in ways that 2D never could.
Although one might be inclined to view Samus’ arsenal as her most important equipment, it’s her visor that plays the biggest role. Through careful use of her combat, scanning, x-ray and thermal visors, Samus can gather all the info she needs to navigate any set of circumstances, whether it be in combat (by spotting an enemy’s weak point) or in piecing together the clues to an environmental puzzle.
Visually, the game is rendered with a staggering attention to detail. Once you land on the Chozo area (which has been comandeered by the Space Pirates), a plethora of visual fireworks bombard you all at once. Cool details like condensation, reflections, splatter, static and short-circuit effects flood her HUD at one point or another. And when Samus fires a charged-shot, the air around the projectile warps. Enemies, it must be noted, are not only deceptively fast, but are also extremely well-animated, with rag-doll physics coming to life when allen Space Pirates tumble from their perch.
While Nintendo is to thank for many of the innovative touches that have gone into the game,
developer Retro gets the credit for pulling it all together so beautifully. As one Nintendo rep told us: “The folks at Retro are fans of the original games. The intent is not to make a first-person shooter, but to bring Samus into a 3D world. To call it [just] a first-person shooter undermines the game.”
-James “Milkman” Mielke
I’ve seen enough, time to jump in!
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An embarrassment of search-action riches on double Metroid release day. Neither stepping on the other’s toes. Both significant additions to what the series can be.
Hot off the heels of Animal Island I had a link cable too. The first unlock is a Fusion Suit cosmetic for Metroid Prime. Its alright, but the gangly look and colors were not as exciting as the already extremely cool Samus we are from the get-go. The second unlock with a complete Fusion file, you can play Metroid NES on GameCube. It’s using the same emulator that Animal Crossing uses for its NES games too. Much like in AC, I don’t want to play NES games with a GC controller if I can ever help it.
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A few words of warning before you think about playing Metroid Prime: You’re going to lose sleep for a couple weeks. Your garbage will not get taken out. The kitty litter won’t get changed. You may even lose your appetite when it’s time to put the controller down for meals, but that’s OK, because the dishes wouldn’t get done anyway. A game this incredible doesn’t wait for when you have some free time- it hooks right into your brain and won’t let go, sucking your life away just like the infamous Metroid alien parasites themselves. You just will not want to stop playing. So after a couple weeks, you’re going to be one tired, hungry, sorry-lookin’ (and possibly a bit smelly) mofo, but you’ll be smilin’ ear to ear like you just won the lottery and the Super Bowl on the same day. Metroid Prime is that good.
Honestly, truer words have not been said. This game is probably a masterpiece. I got reallllly into it, and couldn’t put it down. I was prepared to be very critical of Samus’s jump to 3D but I am a believer. I could kind of tell the pace was dipping a bit once I cleared out the Phazon Mines so I decided to follow a guide for the artifacts and it was actually a really good decision, I had a lot of fun wrapping things up that way.
This game far exceeded my expectations and made me appreciate the whole genre. I am really looking forward to Echoes and Beyond (as well as the 4th game in the series coming in 2025!)
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If you connect a GBA with Fusion inserted and a completed Fusion file on the cart it gives you the original NES Metroid to play. If you have a completed Prime save file then it gives you the fusion suit. No bonuses for Fusion itself unfortunately.
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the game!! I haven’t been following the games we’ve been playing thread but I take it you were playing the remaster? I kinda wish Retro’d had the idea to model Samus without her helmet on Sigourney Weaver the way Bloober did with James and David Lynch for the Silent Hill 2 remake. That was such an inspired idea.
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Isn’t that how you unlock Fusions’s image gallery? Or is that just from beating the game?
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Well now I’m not sure!! I had to look up the MP bonuses and didn’t see any mention of things you get within MF.
Apparently the Fusion gallery is only available in the Japanese version but only requires completing the game once: metroid2002.com
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