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Metroid Prime 4 Development changes to Retro Studios


Jedi
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 Prime 4 is gonna be quite awhile now. It’s nice to see it’s in Retro’s Hands again but, this feels a tad bittersweet.

I wouldn’t expect it for the next 2 years. Maybe 3.

Edited by IS Bath Salts HQ
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It's a real shame that they had to start back at square one on the project, but giving development over to Retro Studios is a smart move, handing the series back over to it's original creators. Let's just hope all goes well and that this game doesn't become the next Pikmin 3.

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Just saw this news on my Switch. Wow. I'm mad curious to know what happened behind the scenes and how shit what they have now is that's made them, essentially, cancel the game and start again. Won't expect to see it released this generation. Maybe it'll be a launch title for the Switch's successor.

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It is quite unfortunate it is delayed but it's nice to see there are still those who show humility and respect to their following. Maybe, some particular western developers and creators will follow suit someday. 

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Better to scrap and restart, than to have another Other M on their hands. Then again, after Federation Force, I kind of feel like Other M didn't quite deserve the levels of hate it got, flawed to hell or not.. at least it wasn't something that should have been it's own franchise.

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1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Just saw this news on my Switch. Wow. I'm mad curious to know what happened behind the scenes and how shit what they have now is that's made them, essentially, cancel the game and start again. Won't expect to see it released this generation. Maybe it'll be a launch title for the Switch's successor.

The Switch's popularity is going to give it a pretty long lifespan before Nintendo needs to put out a new console to stay relevant. So if development doesn't hit anymore major snags I think we will see Metroid Prime 4 on the Switch, but still probably towards the end of the console's life. Best case scenario we'll get a dual release on both the Switch and it's successor just like we got Breath of the Wild for both Wii U and Switch.

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I was somewhat anticipating an announcement like this, but it would have been a quiet announcement from a nintendo investors meeting or something. This video is definitely a surprise. We didn't even know which studio was selected for the initial project. Just rumors here or there. I'm anticipating an Unseen64 video about this scrapped project probably before the year is out.

Suffice to say, hearing the project is now in Retro's hands does not fill me with confidence. I'm not about to spew rumors, but the way that company bleeds disgruntled staff makes it abundantly clear they are not the same studio as ten years ago, much less seventeen. What was Retro working on these past few years? No need to ask, it's probably cancelled. 

Forget Prime, the money is still in 2D metroid games. And the only attention we've gotten since Zero Mission in 2004 is a great remake of a bad game on a dying system. I would love to see MercurySteam take up Metroid 5. How crazy would it be if we could get both takes on Metroid at the same time like during the Prime trilogy?

Edited by Glennstavos
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1 hour ago, TheGoodHoms said:

The Switch's popularity is going to give it a pretty long lifespan before Nintendo needs to put out a new console to stay relevant. So if development doesn't hit anymore major snags I think we will see Metroid Prime 4 on the Switch, but still probably towards the end of the console's life. Best case scenario we'll get a dual release on both the Switch and it's successor just like we got Breath of the Wild for both Wii U and Switch.

I could see them purposely delaying the release a few months in order to make it a launch title for the next console. I'm reasonably sure that's what they did with Breath of the Wild.

47 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

I was somewhat anticipating an announcement like this, but it would have been a quiet announcement from a nintendo investors meeting or something. This video is definitely a surprise. We didn't even know which studio was selected for the initial project. Just rumors here or there. I'm anticipating an Unseen64 video about this scrapped project probably before the year is out.

Suffice to say, hearing the project is now in Retro's hands does not fill me with confidence. I'm not about to spew rumors, but the way that company bleeds disgruntled staff makes it abundantly clear they are not the same studio as ten years ago, much less seventeen. What was Retro working on these past few years? No need to ask, it's probably cancelled. 

Forget Prime, the money is still in 2D metroid games. And the only attention we've gotten since Zero Mission in 2004 is a great remake of a bad game on a dying system. I would love to see MercurySteam take up Metroid 5. How crazy would it be if we could get both takes on Metroid at the same time like during the Prime trilogy?

The fact that Samus Returns hasn't given birth to a whole slew of new 2D Metroid games is a great disappointment to me. The engine's there Nintendo, just use it!

Edited by Jotari
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On the one hand, I did like the 3D Metroid games better when they were in the hands of Retro.

On the other hand, I have no idea if they're the same studio they once were.  So many great returns wound up being disappointments, and some studios' continuations only ended up hurting the franchises they owned/developed on.  So I just wonder if it'll be the same kind of game that I loved back in the mid 2000's or if it'll simply be the product of imitating ghosts and disgruntled workers who've long since lost their faith in the industry.

 

Either way, when the game was initially announced, I was definitely not expecting them to release it any time soon anyway - all we had was a title drop and a musical ditty from the first game.  So the fact that they're saying it will probably be delayed until much further down the line really isn't much of a surprise.  I can live without Metroid Prime 4 for a while, I haven't really played much of the series since Hunters, so it isn't like waiting for the next Fire Emblem or Zelda game.

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5 minutes ago, Florete said:

Can Mercury Steam give us another 2D Metroid in the meantime?

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

The fact that Samus Returns hasn't given birth to a whole slew of new 2D Metroid games is a great disappointment to me. The engine's there Nintendo, just use it!

Some speculate 3DS development will continue with more remakes so that Nintendo can still half-heartedly say they're supporting the system alongside the Switch. My top prediction for what that next game will be is a Super Paper Mario port, but my worst case scenario prediction is MercurySteam developing a remake of Super Metroid for 3DS. Bad because that game absolutely holds up today, and bad because it will be exclusive to a dead system. It's already a meme that the only two classic style metroid games we've gotten in the last fifteen years are both remakes, I just want a new game. 

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1 minute ago, Glennstavos said:

Some speculate 3DS development will continue with more remakes so that Nintendo can still half-heartedly say they're supporting the system alongside the Switch. My top prediction for what that next game will be is a Super Paper Mario port, but my worst case scenario prediction is MercurySteam developing a remake of Super Metroid for 3DS. Bad because that game absolutely holds up today, and bad because it will be exclusive to a dead system. It's already a meme that the only two classic style metroid games we've gotten in the last fifteen years are both remakes, I just want a new game. 

I would actually love a Super Metroid remake. I didn't play that game for the first time until around 2015, and it definitely doesn't control as well as later 2D Metroid games. Pretty much everything else about the game is good to go, but it would still be nice to have an updated Super Metroid.

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Anyway, whatever this version of Prime 4 would have ended up being, I'm suddenly very grateful that they decided not to show any screenshots or concepts for the past 18 months. With nothing to really base our hopes on besides the name, I notice people are taking this news quite well. Perhaps too well? Whatever, I'm not about to advocate for negativity just because it feels justified.

I'll just say that as a longtime series fan, I'm more than a little hurt with the lack of care shown towards the classic series. Several times over the past year I've asked for a Metroid 5, only to get a response like "why would they make 5 when they haven't finished 4 yet". Implying that they thought I must have been talking about Prime 5 or that the Prime series IS the main series. Ugh. How is it that we get insanely good indie metroidvanias every year yet nobody ever asks Nintendo to return to those design sensibilities? Like I said before, there's a lot of money in those 2D games. It'd be a win for the consumer and a low risk prospect for Nintendo. Prime 4 on the other hand can absolutely fail. Nintendo may shoehorn some bizarre choice with its controls or the game may be so derivative of Prime 1 that it can't stand on its own merits.

Edited by Glennstavos
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6 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Anyway, whatever this version of Prime 4 would have ended up being, I'm suddenly very grateful that they decided not to show any screenshots or concepts for the past 18 months. With nothing to really base our hopes on besides the name, I notice people are taking this news quite well. Perhaps too well? Whatever, I'm not about to advocate for negativity just because it feels justified.

I'll just say that as a longtime series fan, I'm more than a little hurt with the lack of care shown towards the classic series. Several times over the past year I've asked for a Metroid 5, only to get a response like "why would they make 5 when they haven't finished 4 yet". Implying that they thought I must have been talking about Prime 5 or that the Prime series IS the main series. Ugh. How is it that we get insanely good indie metroidvanias every year yet nobody ever asks Nintendo to return to those design sensibilities? Like I said before, there's a lot of money in those 2D games. It'd be a win for the consumer and a low risk prospect for Nintendo. Prime 4 on the other hand can absolutely fail. Nintendo may shoehorn some bizarre choice with its controls or the game may be so derivative of Prime 1 that it can't stand on its own merits.

Maybe people are okay with this after months of other developers releasing unfinished games, game with flawed concepts and games that lied about miscellaneous stuff.

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And yet another blow for Metroid fans. I do think Nintendo really handled this very classy. They didn't have to explain themselves, they didn't have to tell us they didn't take this decision lightly and they didn't have to apologize. EA would probably just have a press message saying ''game delayed'' and call it a day. Or just release it anyway, right Andromeda? 

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1 hour ago, Glennstavos said:

Like I said before, there's a lot of money in those 2D games. It'd be a win for the consumer and a low risk prospect for Nintendo.

Maybe they think they're too short and low resources to put on cards? And don't want to make quality digital-only games? IDK. But the casual Metroid fan I am prefers 2D over 3D.

 

2 hours ago, Florete said:

Can Mercury Steam give us another 2D Metroid in the meantime?

While they're at it, could they use the same engine for a Zelda XX: Second Adventure of Link? I'd think that would be very cool, we did get ALttP sequel, a modernized and much much improved sequel to the black sheep of the Zelda franchise would be neat. And the MSR engine I'd think would work given the game would be mostly 2D.

(Also that XX is Roman numeral 20. LoZ 16 was SS, since then we have had ALBW, TH, and BotW, so it would be LoZ 20.)

 

4 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

Suffice to say, hearing the project is now in Retro's hands does not fill me with confidence. I'm not about to spew rumors, but the way that company bleeds disgruntled staff makes it abundantly clear they are not the same studio as ten years ago, much less seventeen. What was Retro working on these past few years? No need to ask, it's probably cancelled. 

Weren't Retro responsible for the two critically-acclaimed Donkey Kong Country games?

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1 hour ago, Glennstavos said:

or that the Prime series IS the main series

...Except it has been for nearly 20 years? All the spinoffs bore the Prime name-- Hunters, Federation Force, hell remember Prime Pinball? The only Metroid games released since Prime 1 that haven't had the Prime name are the divisive Other M and Samus Returns.

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I am okay with this.

I will gladly take a lengthy delay if it means having Retro Studios at the helm again.

I hope the rumors that they're rereleasing Trilogy for Switch are true, though. It would be a good way to tide us over and build up hype for Prime 4, like how we got Wind Waker and Twilight Princess HD during Breath of the Wild's delay.

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1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Or just release it anyway, right Andromeda? 

My face is tired because of the accuracy of this statement.

Rather a game be delayed than it be released in a shoddy state.  Too many games nowadays rush for holiday releases and whatnot.

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55 minutes ago, The DanMan said:

...Except it has been for nearly 20 years? All the spinoffs bore the Prime name-- Hunters, Federation Force, hell remember Prime Pinball? The only Metroid games released since Prime 1 that haven't had the Prime name are the divisive Other M and Samus Returns.

In the last twenty years, the Metroid games released were

  • Prime 1
  • Fusion (released the same day/week as Prime 1)
  • Zero Mission
  • Prime 2
  • Prime Pinball
  • Prime Hunters
  • Prime 3
  • Other M
  • Prime Federation Force
  • Samus Returns

Only six out of ten games have prime in the title. And three of those are spinoffs. Pinball has nothing in common with actual metroid games as far as I'm aware, Hunters and Federation Force are...debatably core games. I haven't played the latter but they're shooters with some elements of exploration and depict events pertinent to the Prime trilogy's plot. So I'll be generous in saying five out of six of the Metroid Prime games are core games. But I still don't see what you mean in saying Prime is the main series when it's less than half of the games released even when only focusing on the series history starting with Prime 1.

Edited by Glennstavos
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