Unless the popular opinion has changed recently, the general consensus is that 2 is the weakest of the Prime series. So yeah, pretty typical. Go ahead and play 3, if you have 2 you can always come back to it later.
that Team Ninja is making a Metroid game, and it will be way better than the Prime series.
I'm looking forward to Other M, too, but let's not say things that are just impossible.
Also, don't skip Metroid Prime 2. I just finished replaying it a couple weeks ago, and it is still awesome. Maybe not quite as good as the other 2, but it absolutely, 100% worth playing.
I promise to be a good Metroid fan and play Prime 2... eventually.
So, what definite elements of the plot to Other M do we know? When I first heard of it, I hoped it was a remake of Metroid 2, but it's pretty clear that is not the case. (Seriously, Metroid 2 needs a remake.)
I know I'm not the norm, but couldn't make it through Metroid Prime 1, and I tried three times. Twice on Gamecube, and once on Wii.
Metroid Prime 3, on the other hand, is sexy and a great game. It messes with some Metroid staples, but I think it's a quicker, better game because of it.
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Olivawgood name, isn't it?the foot of mt fujiRegistered Userregular
It's been around six hours or so since I finished the demo and left Nintendo's dark demo room. It still has me thinking. A lot of things seem uncertain. Will players long for full analog control over movement, or will the levels be designed in such a way that we never even notice once the first hour or so has passed? Will transitioning into first-person and losing movement control be a liability, causing players to fumble around with the controls each time they have to shoot a missile at something? Will I blow up this so-called "Bottle Ship" with a huge-ass power bomb at the end of the game? And what of the dead baby Metroid, which Samus addresses by saying "never again would I encounter the baby?" I'm certainly left with more questions than answers, and at the same time, it's a lot cooler than I was initially expecting. I can't say if it'll "please series fans" or if it'll resonate with people who played and loved the Prime trilogy. The demo just wasn't long enough to come to any conclusions like that. But it certainly left me wanting to know more.
I'm intrigued, particularly by the focus on story and voicework and character depth. Those are not things I associate with Nintendo games! I'm very interested to see how they turn out
Unless the popular opinion has changed recently, the general consensus is that 2 is the weakest of the Prime series. So yeah, pretty typical. Go ahead and play 3, if you have 2 you can always come back to it later.
Edit @ Levi
You mean morph ball
personally I thought they got gradually worse with each entry. Prime 2 was a little too hard, whle Prime 3 was too easy and had the weakest story.
Prime 2 is easily the weakest of the series. That said, once you get past the shaky first third of the game, it improves greatly. Still a lot of flaws though, but it's not unplayable.
Nice, I was right about first person view, just turn the controller at any time. I like that, it's almost like using the X-Ray visor to scan for less-than-obvious passages.
Hrm. The IGN description makes it sound like "Super Metroid for gameplay, MP3 for powerup hunting and boss-weakness targeting"
I... I can live with that. But without shoulder buttons, I wonder how you aim up and down in the side view. Or select your missiles. I suppose waggle wouldn't be too bad for a missile toggle, but I hope it isn't.
Hold diagonal on the d-pad, or not at all, considering there is significant auto-aim. For selecting your missiles, why wouldn't + or - work? It's something you should only need to do infrequently (depending on design).
This part is so much fail. The coolest parts of Metroid and SM were finding the upgrades.
I highly doubt it's totally gone. Obviously at this point in the game, Samus already has an arsenal from the ending of SM, so you deal with "authorization" which is admittedly a bit weak. That doesn't mean new things can't be found. They already mentioned finding more energy tanks and missile upgrades at least.
I highly doubt it's totally gone. Obviously at this point in the game, Samus already has an arsenal from the ending of SM, so you deal with "authorization" which is admittedly a bit weak. That doesn't mean new things can't be found. They already mentioned finding more energy tanks and missile upgrades at least.
At first I was concerned about this but then I realized that it's not too different from what was done in Batman AA and I didn't mind it so much. Except I was always wondering "Dammit, Batman! Why didn't you bust out that nifty Bat-gadget before?!"
Cause he's the god damn Batman, I guess.
edit: Holy crap! I just realized Samus is almost like a female Batman!
I got more than halfway through Echoes but didn't get to the point where you actually get an echo visor. I never got to see Quadraxis and still haven't spoiled myself on it.
People talk about how it gets better after you get the dark suit, and while it is much more easy to survive I thought the game continued to be somewhat of a slog. It's not just Torvus Bog, it's the whole dark world, both in design and how much you have to jump back and forth between tiny enclosed spaces. Every other hallway needs to be light world or dark world.
I didn't get to the part with the echo visor to unlock the sonic gates either, primarily because I just could not find the damned visor to open the locks and continue the game. Wherever it is it's not hidden in a conspicuous place.
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited February 2010
Joystiq's impressions:
There's a lot I want to tell you about the 45-minute demo of Metroid: Other M that I played today, but I know what everyone is wondering and will just get it out of the way: The game is really impressive; it's really fun; it's totally Metroid. It was only the beginning sequences of the game, but if everything Nintendo and Team Ninja have managed to deliver in this short span holds up for the entirety of the game, it's going to be really good. (Also: This is in no way a re-skinned Ninja Gaiden -- just making sure that's said.)
My demo began with the game's opening cinematic, which is fully CGI and recounts the ending of Super Metroid, to which Other M serves as a direct sequel. It sees Samus in a showdown with Mother Brain (realized by Team Ninja as a mammoth bipedal monstrosity with one huge eye) before the bounty hunter awakes in a medical bay wearing her Zero Suit. It's narrated entirely by Samus (as promised, Other M is the first time we hear her voice -- and it's, well, just all right) and leads directly into a tutorial disguised as a "diagnostic" of her armor and recollection of how to kick ass.
The twists on "classic" Metroid gameplay that Team Ninja and series co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto are bringing into play began surfacing the moment I picked up the controller; there's no Nunchuk, just the Wiimote turned sideways, as if playing a Virtual Console game. Standing in a training room, controlling Samus from a third-person perspective, I was instructed by a scientist (situated safely behind a very thick window) to perform various moves.
For starters, the charge shot, performed by holding down 1 and releasing it when fully charged (as you can see in the latest screens, there's now a "charge gauge" underneath Samus' life bar). Simply tapping 1 is for basic shooting, and Samus auto-locked onto enemies around her as long as I made her face in their general direction. This goes for enemies on the ground, in the air, on walls or hanging from the ceiling. Since the movement control is digital, there were times when I felt like the lock-on needed to be a little more pronounced -- I asked if this is possibly going to be tweaked before release, but didn't get a definite answer.
Hitting A (very quickly) switches to Morph Ball mode, while the 1 button drops bombs in this state. Holding 1 charges up a power bomb; I released the button and the entire room filled with a white-hot explosion.
The game is primarily third-person, although as the training session taught me, there are times you'll need to see through Samus' eyes -- to fire missiles, for instance. The switch from third- to first-person is handled wonderfully; I simply pointed the Wiimote at the screen and the transition was near-instant. In this view, holding down B let me freely look around the environment (the context here was that I was trying to find "an old friend" -- a hologram enemy -- hidden somewhere in then room). Moving the reticule over the partially cloaked foe automatically locked on, and pressing A fired off a missile. When not locked on, A fires a basic shot.
With the enemy dislodged, it was time to learn some more basics. Dodging in third-person is contextual; I just needed to press the d-pad in any direction the moment an enemy attacked. Pulling this off resulted in Samus performing a cool-looking evade, aided by her back-mounted boosters. There's also wall-jumping, and it's simplified. I only had to hold towards one wall on the d-pad and repeatedly press 2 to make my way up.
After completing my training, a cinematic began showing Samus tearing across space in her ship. She received a distress signal and decided to investigate. The signal's origin: A supposedly decommissioned space station called the "Bottle Ship." during the landing sequence, the CG seamlessly transition into in-engine graphics, her ship touched down and in moments I was on the ground running -- the running animation looking perfectly true to character and the series.
After being prompted to enter first-person and check out another ship in the landing bay, I learned that Samus was not alone. Making my way down corridors -- both side-scrolling and away from / towards the camera -- I took out some minor (but familiar) enemies before a very cinematic in-engine cinematic kicked in, showing Samus encountering a squad of Galactic Federation Army troopers. Turns out Samus knows a couple of them, and that she'd actually been in the military herself before an "incident" forced her out and into the bounty hunting business.
They couldn't get through a door so, naturally, I got to blow it off its hinges using one of Samus' missiles. The squad proceeded ahead, while I took another route -- blasting more enemies and encountering an interesting yet simple puzzle. In order to exit one of the rooms, I had to go into first-person and lock onto a gate control, shooting it until it was fully "energized." Doing so only opened the gate high enough to slip under it in Morph Ball mode.
Back with the soldiers, I came across what looked like a dead scientist, and a cinematic showed a small pink bug scurry out of his body. Before I knew it, the things were everywhere, climbing the walls and forming a "body" around a giant eyeball. It was time to fight a mini-boss! While the soldiers took shots at the creature, I ran around it (this was a large room) and was able to quickly pop into first-person and shoot its eyeball with a missile. After a couple of hits like this, the soldiers switched to freeze guns and directed me to fire at any spot they managed to ice over. This, again, was first-person, and after a few good hits the monster was finished. Now, this sequence was fun, but showed a potential problem with the third/first-person switching: It's impossible to move, or even dodge, in first-person. The enemy managed to whack me pretty good while I was locking on to it.
Next I learned that, at least for this portion of the game, the abilities and weapons Samus can use are unlocked by a commanding officer -- he actually has to "authorize use of bombs," and so on. No idea if this will extend further into the game, but it's definitely ... different. Speaking of different, so is the map. It's now an overhead "radar" showing the corridors, rooms and the status of doors (unlocked green or locked red). Oh, and the doors ... I didn't have to shoot them to open them; just walk up and they let me pass.
The final portion of the demo had me backtracking in order to get power back online in the station. Along the way, I noted that Samus can hang from ledges, can't seem to walk off of them accidentally and can slide down walls. On my way to the systems room, I happened across what turned out to be a bathroom. I have no idea why it was there, but it showed off another camera trick in the game. In cramped quarters, the camera pulls in over Samus' shoulder and the game controls a bit like Resident Evil 4. Yep. But that was the extent of it. (I also found that, in this view, tilting the Wiimote forward and backwards raised and lowered the camera perspective. I asked, and no one at Nintendo had noticed it yet, so its purpose remains a mystery.)
Once I made it to my destination -- I was told the full-screen map is a work-in-progress, so my only indication of where to head was a yellow arrow that moved along the radar's periphery -- I flipped on the power, only to find out, when the lights came on, that the machinery was blocked by enemy hives. In between shooting flying bugs, I'd switch to first-person and nail the hives with missiles. They eventually stopped spitting out enemies and I got the power on.
Running back to rejoin the commanding officer, I crossed a walkway which gave out beneath me. Dropping 30 or so feet, I ended up in a large room with familiar two-legged enemies. Here I really wished there was some way to lock-on and strafe in third-person. They managed to get my health down pretty low, which is the point at which I realized I hadn't seen a single power pick-up yet. It turns out that, when Samus' health is low, I had to "focus" by holding the Wiimote vertically and holding down A. No idea if this is the only way to regain health. Anyway, having dealt with the enemies, I headed for the end of the room where it looked like I could wall jump back up and continue on. up I went, but quickly realized there was a hatch at the top of the vertical chute. So, standing on the ground, I flicked into first-person view, looked up at the hatch and blasted it off using a missile.
Back on track, I blasted a few more enemies, activated power terminals (which was actual kind of tricky given the d-pad control and how picky the game was about standing in just the right spot) and stood on a save game platform (yep, it still recharges Samus' shields and is pretty quick). Entering the "command room" ended the demo.
So -- whew! How'd it look? Really good and really Metroid. It sounded the part, too, mixing familiar sound effects with a more orchestral score than I'm used to from the series. Most of all, the demo left me wanting to play more, like now. I'd even be fine playing the demo again. A few times. It also had everyone at the event talking: This could be big.
The impressions make me want to get this all the more.
It appears that it's different but it seems to be making them want to play more.
This, this is exactly how I feel. The only thing that concerns me a bit is the reviewer who claims that weapon and suit upgrades are no longer pickups, but hopefully he's talking out of his ass and that's just how it works at the start of the game.
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited February 2010
If it's just major upgrades are given to Samus, I can live with that, as i'm sure there will still be plenty of pickups/additions and backtracking that we know and love in Metroid.
If it's just major upgrades are given to Samus, I can live with that, as i'm sure there will still be plenty of pickups/additions and backtracking that we know and love in Metroid.
It could also be only the initial level. Like in MP3, you start off surrounded by GF soldiers, but after that (aside from one brief part at the end of the Pirate Homeworld), you're on your own.
I mean I can't imagine it being like, "ok Samus, you are now authorized to turn on your Gravity Suit. And turn on a couple more of your energy tanks, too."
I didn't get to the part with the echo visor to unlock the sonic gates either, primarily because I just could not find the damned visor to open the locks and continue the game. Wherever it is it's not hidden in a conspicuous place.
IIRC, you get the echo visor from a boss, so if you're not up to that boss yet, then you don't need the visor yet for normal progression.
Looking it up, you get the Visor in the area after the second Dark Samus fight.
I mean I can't imagine it being like, "ok Samus, you are now authorized to turn on your Gravity Suit. And turn on a couple more of your energy tanks, too."
You can't?
"Samus, we need you to activate the thingwaggle whowhatzit generator on deck six, but the simu-grav generators are offline, you'll need to use your gravity suit."
I mean I can't imagine it being like, "ok Samus, you are now authorized to turn on your Gravity Suit. And turn on a couple more of your energy tanks, too."
You can't?
"Samus, we need you to activate the thingwaggle whowhatzit generator on deck six, but the simu-grav generators are offline, you'll need to use your gravity suit."
If it's just major upgrades are given to Samus, I can live with that, as i'm sure there will still be plenty of pickups/additions and backtracking that we know and love in Metroid.
It could also be only the initial level. Like in MP3, you start off surrounded by GF soldiers, but after that (aside from one brief part at the end of the Pirate Homeworld), you're on your own.
Yea, we can't go with everything they say in these impressions as they are only playing the opening moments of the games.
It very well could just be the opening stuff is being authorized since it seems something has happened that hurt Samus, so they are having her take small steps in reactivating some of her gear.
To be honest the whole "oh no you've lost all your suit functions" thing doesn't bother me as long as they gloss over it quickly. I don't want to start a game with the full arsenal and selection from a previous game. I want to get double jump partway through, unlocking a ton of new areas I saw before.
And I also don't want/need any detailed explanation. It was done awesomely in Prime 1, but I don't need it anymore. Don't even bother explaining it. Samus starts at square one so that the game will be fun, no story explanation needed.
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited February 2010
Here's RMC's impressions from GoNintendo:
Nintendo knew that Metroid: Other M was their big gun for the media summit. They may have dedicated 8 demo booths to Super Mario Galaxy 2, but it was Metroid: Other M that got the special treatment. This game was behind closed doors, and available to those with appointments. If you didn't have an alloted time to play, you weren't getting in. It's very clear that Nintendo is still trying to shroud the game in mystery, but I'll do my best to reveal what popped up during my playtime.
Let's start off with the controls tutorial. You'll be holding the Wiimote in classic NES style for most of your play. You move around with the d-pad, press 1 to shoot and 2 to jump. Hit the A button to turn into a morph ball, and then it's 1 for bombs and 2 for jumping. If you take the Wiimote and point it at the screen, you go into a first-person mode. This allows you to better inspect and area, or even take out foes from a distance. It's completely up to you when you want to use that mode. You cannot move forwards or backwards while using it, but you can spin 360 degrees.
My favorite new move would have to be the quick dodge. Right before an enemy is about to hit you, you can tap a direction on the dpad to flip out of harm's way. Your timing has to be right on the money, so you can't just smash the dpad and wait for it to happen. This dodge move seems to add so much more to the game. It really makes the combat come alive and feel quite visceral. I couldn't stop thinking about how such a little addition made such a big difference, and made this type of gameplay feel brand-new.
I would liken most of the gameplay in Metroid: Other M to that of Super Metroid, and with a little bit of the changes that were made in Shadow Complex. There are major portions of the game that are side-scrolling, but there are also portions where you're running from the front of the screen to the back. Now, all of these screens also let you move in any direction as well. Think of it as a beat'em-up. You could walk left, right, up and down in those titles, and that's what you'll be doing here. There's also a vertical aspect to gameplay, so you'll be ascending/descending elevator shafts and other such locations.
Similar to Shadow Complex, Other M will throw enemies at you from all directions. If you're moving in a hallway that's mostly left to right, that doesn't mean that enemies won't come at your from just those directions. In Shadow Complex, I had some major issues getting the character to aim at the enemy I wanted to take down. In Other M, the system worked absolutely flawlessly. I didn't have to fight to position Samus in a way that she would shoot the enemy I was hoping to gun down. I would just move left or right, and Samus would also take down the enemy I was looking to stop. I can't tell you how much of a relief it was to see how well this worked.
As I said, the morph ball is back, but in my demo time I only saw a few areas that took advantage of it. I rolled through some secret areas to pick up energy tanks and the like, but didn't come across any puzzles to solve. Keep in mind that I played what amounted to a 40 minute demo, and a lot of that time was spent watching cut-scenes. I can't venture a guess as to whether the morph ball will play a bigger part in the full game or not.
As you can tell, Other M is deeply routed in old-school traditions of the Metroid series, but it tries to update them with new twists. One such example that impressed me was how Samus' different weapons and abilities came into play. Instead of having Samus lose all of her weapons, she seems to have all of them on her. The thing is, she's working with a 'military' team that's investigating a strange occurrence, and the commander of the team has to authorize the use of weapons. That means that Samus can only use what is allowed by the commander. He gets the authorization for weapons, and unlocks them for you as you go. They only become authorized when an appropriate threat is detected. It's definitely a unique way of staying true to the old series while having the motive make a bit more sense.
What's the best thing I can say about Metroid: Other M? I was really disappointed when my play time was up, because I really wanted to continue on. I had a 40 minute taste of the game, and it left me very hungry to continue my adventure. There's no denying that this is a very different take on the Metroid series, especially coming off of the Prime trilogy. It's old school and new ideas mixed together, and the outcome thus far seems like a bold step in an interesting direction. I cannot wait to get more time with this title, but that probably won't happen until launch.
Unfortunately, I do have a negative point that I have to rag about. Metroid: Other M is huge on story, and you get to see a lot more into the life of Samus and all that she's been through. I can't tell you how excited I am for this look into Samus' life. In Other M, you get tons of backstory through gorgeous cut-scenes...and horrible voice acting. Seriously, I can't stress how poor the voice acting was. I'd have to say that Samus had the best voice, but I thought the actresses' performance was abysmal. That tells you how poor the rest of the voice cast is. I really, REALLY hope that Nintendo forks out the cash for some better voice actors. I'll love hearing the story no matter what, but things would be so much better if the voice cast was more professional.
my thought on slowly rgaining abilities back. she wakes up with a total system failure. but in order to send her out right away they get her basic weaponry up and running. slowly as her system is repaired she gets them autorized to use
Nope, there's no way they're changing voice actors at this stage of the game.
Seriously every preview for games are always like "well if they make these changes it'll be a great game." Those changes are never made, ever. There's no time or money for it.
Until I hear the voice acting I'm going to keep my expectations in check. There's been times where I've read about bad voice acting but then I heard it and it wasn't nearly as bad as it was made out to be.
Then again, Navi and her endless "Hey! Listen!" never bothered me.
I remember back when Metroid Prime 2 was released, there was a huge hubbub about like 3 characters being voice acted.
It's just the typical reactionary thing. I'm sure it'll be fine as long as it's, you know, good, but Nintendo usually doesn't drop the ball on stuff like that. I'm actually more worried about the story itself, and how much time it's going to take up in the overall scheme of things.
Cherrn on
All creature will die and all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai.
Until I hear the voice acting I'm going to keep my expectations in check. There's been times where I've read about bad voice acting but then I heard it and it wasn't nearly as bad as it was made out to be.
But we've already heard it, she says "time to go" in the e3 2009 trailer. It was awful.
We also have the official site, which isn't as awful but still pretty meh, specially fo the kind of quality you expect from a Metroid game.
Until I hear the voice acting I'm going to keep my expectations in check. There's been times where I've read about bad voice acting but then I heard it and it wasn't nearly as bad as it was made out to be.
But we've already heard it, she says "time to go" in the e3 2009 trailer. It was awful.
We also have the official site, which isn't as awful but still pretty meh, specially fo the kind of quality you expect from a Metroid game.
I thought the trailer was fine and the official site's good as well, so I suppose I will like all this VA and it's complaining over nothing.
Unfortunately, I do have a negative point that I have to rag about. Metroid: Other M is huge on story, and you get to see a lot more into the life of Samus and all that she's been through. I can't tell you how excited I am for this look into Samus' life. In Other M, you get tons of backstory through gorgeous cut-scenes...and horrible voice acting.
Is there a (story) reason why Samus isn't allowed to use all her upgrades and abilities right from the beginning?
Varies from game to game. I assume generally she doesn't bring anything but the Power suit because it's built to have universal compatibility and she can incorporate tech from wherever she is into it.
King Riptor on
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Edit @ Levi
You mean morph ball
Also, don't skip Metroid Prime 2. I just finished replaying it a couple weeks ago, and it is still awesome. Maybe not quite as good as the other 2, but it absolutely, 100% worth playing.
So, what definite elements of the plot to Other M do we know? When I first heard of it, I hoped it was a remake of Metroid 2, but it's pretty clear that is not the case. (Seriously, Metroid 2 needs a remake.)
Metroid Prime 3, on the other hand, is sexy and a great game. It messes with some Metroid staples, but I think it's a quicker, better game because of it.
Jeff Gerstmann had this to say:
I'm intrigued, particularly by the focus on story and voicework and character depth. Those are not things I associate with Nintendo games! I'm very interested to see how they turn out
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
personally I thought they got gradually worse with each entry. Prime 2 was a little too hard, whle Prime 3 was too easy and had the weakest story.
That's not to say Prime 3 was bad, mind you.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
The new control scheme sounds pretty cool to me, but I hope the gear measures up in terms of variety.
Hold diagonal on the d-pad, or not at all, considering there is significant auto-aim. For selecting your missiles, why wouldn't + or - work? It's something you should only need to do infrequently (depending on design).
I highly doubt it's totally gone. Obviously at this point in the game, Samus already has an arsenal from the ending of SM, so you deal with "authorization" which is admittedly a bit weak. That doesn't mean new things can't be found. They already mentioned finding more energy tanks and missile upgrades at least.
At first I was concerned about this but then I realized that it's not too different from what was done in Batman AA and I didn't mind it so much. Except I was always wondering "Dammit, Batman! Why didn't you bust out that nifty Bat-gadget before?!"
Cause he's the god damn Batman, I guess.
edit: Holy crap! I just realized Samus is almost like a female Batman!
This post got it right. It's mostly just the Torvus Bog area that's not up on par with the rest of the series.
edit: and beside, I think that every Prime had at least one circular section filled with Metroids that Samus has to go through.
People talk about how it gets better after you get the dark suit, and while it is much more easy to survive I thought the game continued to be somewhat of a slog. It's not just Torvus Bog, it's the whole dark world, both in design and how much you have to jump back and forth between tiny enclosed spaces. Every other hallway needs to be light world or dark world.
It appears that it's different but it seems to be making them want to play more.
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My demo began with the game's opening cinematic, which is fully CGI and recounts the ending of Super Metroid, to which Other M serves as a direct sequel. It sees Samus in a showdown with Mother Brain (realized by Team Ninja as a mammoth bipedal monstrosity with one huge eye) before the bounty hunter awakes in a medical bay wearing her Zero Suit. It's narrated entirely by Samus (as promised, Other M is the first time we hear her voice -- and it's, well, just all right) and leads directly into a tutorial disguised as a "diagnostic" of her armor and recollection of how to kick ass.
The twists on "classic" Metroid gameplay that Team Ninja and series co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto are bringing into play began surfacing the moment I picked up the controller; there's no Nunchuk, just the Wiimote turned sideways, as if playing a Virtual Console game. Standing in a training room, controlling Samus from a third-person perspective, I was instructed by a scientist (situated safely behind a very thick window) to perform various moves.
For starters, the charge shot, performed by holding down 1 and releasing it when fully charged (as you can see in the latest screens, there's now a "charge gauge" underneath Samus' life bar). Simply tapping 1 is for basic shooting, and Samus auto-locked onto enemies around her as long as I made her face in their general direction. This goes for enemies on the ground, in the air, on walls or hanging from the ceiling. Since the movement control is digital, there were times when I felt like the lock-on needed to be a little more pronounced -- I asked if this is possibly going to be tweaked before release, but didn't get a definite answer.
Hitting A (very quickly) switches to Morph Ball mode, while the 1 button drops bombs in this state. Holding 1 charges up a power bomb; I released the button and the entire room filled with a white-hot explosion.
The game is primarily third-person, although as the training session taught me, there are times you'll need to see through Samus' eyes -- to fire missiles, for instance. The switch from third- to first-person is handled wonderfully; I simply pointed the Wiimote at the screen and the transition was near-instant. In this view, holding down B let me freely look around the environment (the context here was that I was trying to find "an old friend" -- a hologram enemy -- hidden somewhere in then room). Moving the reticule over the partially cloaked foe automatically locked on, and pressing A fired off a missile. When not locked on, A fires a basic shot.
With the enemy dislodged, it was time to learn some more basics. Dodging in third-person is contextual; I just needed to press the d-pad in any direction the moment an enemy attacked. Pulling this off resulted in Samus performing a cool-looking evade, aided by her back-mounted boosters. There's also wall-jumping, and it's simplified. I only had to hold towards one wall on the d-pad and repeatedly press 2 to make my way up.
After completing my training, a cinematic began showing Samus tearing across space in her ship. She received a distress signal and decided to investigate. The signal's origin: A supposedly decommissioned space station called the "Bottle Ship." during the landing sequence, the CG seamlessly transition into in-engine graphics, her ship touched down and in moments I was on the ground running -- the running animation looking perfectly true to character and the series.
After being prompted to enter first-person and check out another ship in the landing bay, I learned that Samus was not alone. Making my way down corridors -- both side-scrolling and away from / towards the camera -- I took out some minor (but familiar) enemies before a very cinematic in-engine cinematic kicked in, showing Samus encountering a squad of Galactic Federation Army troopers. Turns out Samus knows a couple of them, and that she'd actually been in the military herself before an "incident" forced her out and into the bounty hunting business.
They couldn't get through a door so, naturally, I got to blow it off its hinges using one of Samus' missiles. The squad proceeded ahead, while I took another route -- blasting more enemies and encountering an interesting yet simple puzzle. In order to exit one of the rooms, I had to go into first-person and lock onto a gate control, shooting it until it was fully "energized." Doing so only opened the gate high enough to slip under it in Morph Ball mode.
Back with the soldiers, I came across what looked like a dead scientist, and a cinematic showed a small pink bug scurry out of his body. Before I knew it, the things were everywhere, climbing the walls and forming a "body" around a giant eyeball. It was time to fight a mini-boss! While the soldiers took shots at the creature, I ran around it (this was a large room) and was able to quickly pop into first-person and shoot its eyeball with a missile. After a couple of hits like this, the soldiers switched to freeze guns and directed me to fire at any spot they managed to ice over. This, again, was first-person, and after a few good hits the monster was finished. Now, this sequence was fun, but showed a potential problem with the third/first-person switching: It's impossible to move, or even dodge, in first-person. The enemy managed to whack me pretty good while I was locking on to it.
Next I learned that, at least for this portion of the game, the abilities and weapons Samus can use are unlocked by a commanding officer -- he actually has to "authorize use of bombs," and so on. No idea if this will extend further into the game, but it's definitely ... different. Speaking of different, so is the map. It's now an overhead "radar" showing the corridors, rooms and the status of doors (unlocked green or locked red). Oh, and the doors ... I didn't have to shoot them to open them; just walk up and they let me pass.
The final portion of the demo had me backtracking in order to get power back online in the station. Along the way, I noted that Samus can hang from ledges, can't seem to walk off of them accidentally and can slide down walls. On my way to the systems room, I happened across what turned out to be a bathroom. I have no idea why it was there, but it showed off another camera trick in the game. In cramped quarters, the camera pulls in over Samus' shoulder and the game controls a bit like Resident Evil 4. Yep. But that was the extent of it. (I also found that, in this view, tilting the Wiimote forward and backwards raised and lowered the camera perspective. I asked, and no one at Nintendo had noticed it yet, so its purpose remains a mystery.)
Once I made it to my destination -- I was told the full-screen map is a work-in-progress, so my only indication of where to head was a yellow arrow that moved along the radar's periphery -- I flipped on the power, only to find out, when the lights came on, that the machinery was blocked by enemy hives. In between shooting flying bugs, I'd switch to first-person and nail the hives with missiles. They eventually stopped spitting out enemies and I got the power on.
Running back to rejoin the commanding officer, I crossed a walkway which gave out beneath me. Dropping 30 or so feet, I ended up in a large room with familiar two-legged enemies. Here I really wished there was some way to lock-on and strafe in third-person. They managed to get my health down pretty low, which is the point at which I realized I hadn't seen a single power pick-up yet. It turns out that, when Samus' health is low, I had to "focus" by holding the Wiimote vertically and holding down A. No idea if this is the only way to regain health. Anyway, having dealt with the enemies, I headed for the end of the room where it looked like I could wall jump back up and continue on. up I went, but quickly realized there was a hatch at the top of the vertical chute. So, standing on the ground, I flicked into first-person view, looked up at the hatch and blasted it off using a missile.
Back on track, I blasted a few more enemies, activated power terminals (which was actual kind of tricky given the d-pad control and how picky the game was about standing in just the right spot) and stood on a save game platform (yep, it still recharges Samus' shields and is pretty quick). Entering the "command room" ended the demo.
So -- whew! How'd it look? Really good and really Metroid. It sounded the part, too, mixing familiar sound effects with a more orchestral score than I'm used to from the series. Most of all, the demo left me wanting to play more, like now. I'd even be fine playing the demo again. A few times. It also had everyone at the event talking: This could be big.
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This, this is exactly how I feel. The only thing that concerns me a bit is the reviewer who claims that weapon and suit upgrades are no longer pickups, but hopefully he's talking out of his ass and that's just how it works at the start of the game.
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It could also be only the initial level. Like in MP3, you start off surrounded by GF soldiers, but after that (aside from one brief part at the end of the Pirate Homeworld), you're on your own.
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IIRC, you get the echo visor from a boss, so if you're not up to that boss yet, then you don't need the visor yet for normal progression.
You can't?
"Samus, we need you to activate the thingwaggle whowhatzit generator on deck six, but the simu-grav generators are offline, you'll need to use your gravity suit."
doo dee dooo dooo doooooooo
"GRAVITY SUIT UNLOCKED!"
That's uh....not how it happened in Fusion.
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Yea, we can't go with everything they say in these impressions as they are only playing the opening moments of the games.
It very well could just be the opening stuff is being authorized since it seems something has happened that hurt Samus, so they are having her take small steps in reactivating some of her gear.
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And I also don't want/need any detailed explanation. It was done awesomely in Prime 1, but I don't need it anymore. Don't even bother explaining it. Samus starts at square one so that the game will be fun, no story explanation needed.
I want the new game to have the lasso again. That was my favorite new item from Prime 3.
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From what joystiq said, for the intro level, you can't use bombs until your commanding officer authorizes it.
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Seriously every preview for games are always like "well if they make these changes it'll be a great game." Those changes are never made, ever. There's no time or money for it.
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Then again, Navi and her endless "Hey! Listen!" never bothered me.
It's just the typical reactionary thing. I'm sure it'll be fine as long as it's, you know, good, but Nintendo usually doesn't drop the ball on stuff like that. I'm actually more worried about the story itself, and how much time it's going to take up in the overall scheme of things.
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But we've already heard it, she says "time to go" in the e3 2009 trailer. It was awful.
We also have the official site, which isn't as awful but still pretty meh, specially fo the kind of quality you expect from a Metroid game.
I thought the trailer was fine and the official site's good as well, so I suppose I will like all this VA and it's complaining over nothing.
OH BOY!
Varies from game to game. I assume generally she doesn't bring anything but the Power suit because it's built to have universal compatibility and she can incorporate tech from wherever she is into it.