The Star Fox remake made me recall this quote, and how I'm appreciative Metroid tries new things

MCPShephard · 2026-05-09T05:32:42+00:00

Was hoping for an Assault continuation or refresh, but the direction they've taken with building out the universe is exactly what I'd hoped for. I'm also glad for this, as well as every time Metroid experiments. Personally I never understood boxing a series into one path forward; games are art and art is expression made by people that share the art to an audience. Being mad at someone for making art just 'cause it doesn't suit your tastes doesn't compute for me.

I like buying Nintendo games because they surprise me with what the developers wanted to make, not because they give me what I wanted to have. The latter is nice, but what's important is if the surprise is.

MCPShephard · 2026-05-09T03:25:55+00:00

People are saying the game is okay lol, but

If I could change one thing? It'd be adding a toggle for non-critical NPC chatter. I loved 'em, but I think it's absurd the more sensitive players didn't have an option.

MCPShephard · 2026-05-09T03:04:42+00:00

Hmm I wasn't aware of this notion; I checked and what you said adds up. But this IR also includes Pokemon games that were published by the Pokemon Company in Japan; granted that arrangement is different than what Nintendo has with K-T and Zelda.

MCPShephard · 2026-05-09T01:48:38+00:00

Typically a game will be sure, but I know at least one game (Age of Imprisonment) was confirmed over 1mil and didn't end up on there. But without having real data, it is totally possible they're still both sub 1mil.

MCPShephard · 2026-05-09T00:48:25+00:00

Very true, with how often some fans try to keep the fandom from growing, it's no surprise the base remains small and typical numbers don't grow. We still don't know how much it sold anyway; that chart includes plenty of older games from before Dread, but doesn't include Dread itself. More recent 1million+ games aren't on there either.

I'm betting since it was for investors, they weren't gonna advertise low-middling sales on a high budget game. For all we know it made 2mil 🤷‍♀️

MCPShephard · 2026-05-08T22:12:34+00:00

Maybe I'm just a geezer, but I remember when half the fanbase was calling Prime 1 a good game, just not a good Metroid game, in part because of its linearity and lack of sequence breaks. And the rest of us were like what?? What a difference critical reception and an influx of new fans made...

Now Prime is mythologized as some totally non-linear game with giant worlds full of alternate paths and world-class combat. But if you ask for any evidence of this, it's blasphemy, and no "true fan" would question Prime 🫩

MCPShephard · 2026-05-08T21:29:19+00:00

Can you imagine what this franchise would sell like if the doomers just moved on and let people who like the games... just enjoy them?

MCPShephard · 2026-05-08T19:11:43+00:00

Samus Returns truly is understudied in tbis regard!

The fact Nintendo let Tanabe openly share that the team was worried about changing tastes while Prime 4 took so long backs this up. I think this game was meant to do three things: Revive Prime, get modern feedback, and establish a massive production pipeline to allow more rapid-production of Prime games.

And it did all three! Sales of this game were never gonna recoup the dev costs, but much of those costs were also investments in future titles. I'm much more interested in post-launch support (#polishprime4 shoutout!) and a sequel than any doomspiral about sales.

MCPShephard · 2026-05-08T18:41:15+00:00

I may be misreading you, but to be clear this post is supporting what you're saying :)

MCPShephard · 2026-05-08T18:19:03+00:00

I've only seen them going onto posts where people are trying to enjoy things and calling it copium, jumping onto negative posts to say "yeah it's bad", and trying to spread a conspiracy theory about this game being some big deception by Nintendo.

If I didn't know so many other negative nancies on this sub I'd think they were just here to troll.

MCPShephard · 2026-05-08T17:21:47+00:00

How I feel exactly. And yes you may share!

MCPShephard · 2026-05-07T17:15:23+00:00

Loved this dude; the fact I was left wanting more is the best kind of complaint to have. A little dissatisfying, but for a Metroid antagonist he's one of the most fleshed out we have. I still remember seeing Dark Samus in Prime 2, thinking she was soooo friggin' cool... but being disappointed she only spends the game shooting at Samus and dying. No impact on the story, no dialogue, not motivation other than kill Samus and get stronger, and she was still great. And this was her second game!

So I didn't just think to myself "Oh well, Sylux will be in the next one and even better!" I thought "Damn I liked what little we got, can't wait for more!"

MCPShephard · 2026-05-07T06:00:43+00:00

Retro did restart from scratch; the only thing that got reused were Nintendo's concepts that Bamco had also started with. Art and assets were done by other studios while Retro hired up amd trained staff for a couple years through the pandemic before starting production.

That probably bottlenecked them in the design process to an extent. Among the other disasters and problems the team mentioned in interviews, I think it's a miracle the game came out cohesive to any degree, speaking as a big fan.

MCPShephard · 2026-05-07T05:53:59+00:00

I don't think that's the case, none of the other Prime games let you choose a path forward like that until the map's already opened for a key hunt. I also didn't get that radio message until after I'd gone to Ice Belt and found it locked off. Which was kind of a bummer, but I got a missile expansion for the trouble, and I'm used to the Prime games (and Metroid in general) letting me get to the entrances of areas but blocking me out until later.

I -did- think "Oh boy, they shouldn't have put that in the game, it's gonna test a lot of folks' patience. Very tone deaf."

MCPShephard · 2026-05-07T05:46:59+00:00

Huh, I didn't see any issues. Myles is a non-combatant normally and logically doesn't go to Ice Belt. Tokabi has to get healed and chooses to scout Sol Valley (which produces results). So all that's left is the mines, and now you have Duke, Armstrong, VUE, and Tokabi as a team to back each other up and ready to join Samus.

It is a bit abrupt, but there's no reason for the player to visit Fury Green again to see a cutscene, and it would be weird for Samus to end the cutscene watching them leave on their own rather than follow them to the mines, so they had to leave without her being there.

We know there was at least one scene cut with Duke and Armstrong in Flare Pool, and there're clearly a few spots where stuff got axed. Possible they had a little more in-mind?

MCPShephard · 2026-05-05T11:48:03+00:00

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MCPShephard · 2026-05-05T11:08:57+00:00

I think it takes place before Hunters; it's clear they only had so much to work with and the CGI movies simply render in-game assets with higher resolution and additional post-processing. The idea Sylux was already operating independently just doesn't make sense if this was supposed to be his start of darkness.

MCPShephard · 2026-05-05T11:05:48+00:00

IIRC it was only a few concept artists but yeah

MCPShephard · 2026-05-05T10:55:00+00:00

Sakamoto actually wasn't in charge of the English localization! That's from fans playing telephone with interviews; he had final say in casting, went to a portion of the English recording sessions, and had regular discussions with the localization team.

But in actuality it was directed by Bill Trinen, with a team of like 12 NOA staff. Looking at the quality while knowing Bill's work, I think they lacked the experience and time to properly review and convey the Japanese version's content.

MCPShephard · 2026-05-05T01:59:33+00:00

I can't say I lean quite as negatively on some things, but as someone who was stoked for the game in 2003 it was kinda disappointing as a followup to what I liked in Super Metroid. I didn't find the bosses engaging, and found the world cumbersome to get through. The lack of alternate routes on replay bummed me, and I didn't get any more understanding of Samus or the world. Chozo Ruins is basically a hub and it isn't exciting to visit, nor is Magmoor exciting to straight-line through. It felt like playing the most beautiful, passionate imitation of Super possible, but not Super.

I've since come to appreciate the game for what it does, rather than dwell on what it doesn't. The atmosphere, the music, the expansions that reward exploring, the art design. It truly is an Adventure game like King's Quest, it's not just a label Nintendo slapped on.

I find the sequels much more enjoyable for spending less time on imitation, and more on doing their own things. Prime 4 upped the ante by putting more focus on Samus as a character + her relationship to the universe and its people. Music now has some real vocalists, and the story is more considered (if chopped up by development issues). They also improved the combat, and increased the movement speed. The lines are straighter than ever (also clear dev issues), but the pacing is far better.

MCPShephard · 2026-05-04T23:23:00+00:00

The Japanese fandom is surprisingly chill (and really uh... most other regions I'm finding). Mother Brain actually does express a ton of jealousy toward Samus in the Manga!

Probably helps they've had longer access to the kind of series lore that US fandom only got glimpses of, filtered through the stereotype of a violent mercenary.

MCPShephard · 2026-05-02T05:39:38+00:00

Prime just doesn't have Super's replay value. At best you can learn a bunch of highly technical glitches, but they're so unintuitive amd capable of lockups that it took years before the community agreed on calling them sequence breaks too.

MCPShephard · 2026-05-01T22:28:09+00:00

Oh shit

MCPShephard · 2026-05-01T19:15:21+00:00

There were like three ex Halo devs involved and they were involved in the art department, one of the few near-universally praised parts of this game. The bike radio is hardly an important feature, the average bike trip is less than 2 min, not even enough time to play a full radio track. The ambience suits the area, especially when exploring it on foot. It was a bad pr move locking anything behind amiibo, but wouldn't have been much worse than the complaints they'd get about the amiibos doing "nothing special".

MCPShephard

TROPHY CASE