Metroid Prime 4 will be the first game in the franchise for Nintendo Switch 2, releasing on December 4th. Metroid Prime 2 And 3 They're not on modern consoles so we can warm up to the release of the first new series in 18 years, now a former developer has shared an interesting story about these games.
Destructoid spoke with Kynan Pearson, Level Designer Metroid Prime 2 and senior designer Metroid Prime 3. After these games, he worked with Discord for seven years as a creative director, and is now actively involved in game development as a creative consultant for several games.
Scrapped Metroid mechanics may never see the light of day
We asked Kainan what could have happened in Metroid Prime row. More precisely, what game mechanics were created for previous games, but were ultimately removed from their final versions.
“On Prime 3“I worked on prototypes for a lot of different abilities that never got used,” Kynan told Destructoid.
The Morph Ball is an armor enhancement for Samus that allows her to turn into a small ball and roll through narrow passages and tunnels to get into rooms she couldn't otherwise get into.
Kynan explained that the Morph Ball's canceled abilities were essentially elemental traits. “You'll have an ice ball with a frozen shell of ice extending the circumference of the ball. You can roll it on double rails that when it melts, you'll end up falling through,” he explained. Also removed from the final game was Fireball, which allowed players to ignite the Morph Ball and burn other surfaces to unlock new areas.
Another legacy addition, the Digital Ball, allowed Samus to be projected onto a monitor and the player could control her in a short, side-scrolling 2D segment, similar to the retro version. Metroid games. “The ball would be scanned and then all of a sudden you'd see it projected onto a monitor and you'd roll the ball through configurations, wire to wire, monitor to monitor,” he said, comparing it to Throneit's as if Samus suddenly found herself in a digital world parallel to the standard game universe. Some other ideas, such as a clear glass ball, may never be used again, Kynan said.
“Some of them were really, really cool, but they were just things that ultimately didn't work out for various reasons,” he explained. “They were just cool experiments that never made it into games.”
Metroid can go into the open world with more transformations Samus
Metroid Prime 4 The trailers teased the wide-open desert terrain that Samus would have to cross on a motorcycle. This sparked discussions about whether the game could fit into an open world logic like Breath of the Wild.
Keenan believes Metroid can perfectly support an open world. “It just takes [developers] a sense of understanding and attention to detail to make sure it still retains the elements of exploration, discovery, isolation and empowerment,” he noted, explaining how all of these elements in an open world Metroid games are possible the same way they work in Zelda.
Additional Morphoball transformations like those that were scrapped would be “just one of hundreds of options” to make Metroid The series is open.
“It's really just a format for limiting what abilities you can get at any time,” Kynan said, pointing out the differences between Metroid And Zelda are “nuances in the formula”.
“[Metroid] one hundred percent compatible [with open world] just like Tears of the Kingdom And Breath of the Wild “, he noted. Kainan even suggested that you could literally change the palette. Link in modern Zelda games with Samus, as well as some characters here and there, to create a great open-world Metroidvania if the developers are willing to tackle that challenge.
I want to play this Metroid game that doesn't exist yet.
I have forced myself to play Metroid Prime Remastered because at first I didn't like it, but in the end I liked it. However, while I was listening to Kainan's ideas for creating Metroid series more open, he outlined what I can only describe as Metroid the game I want on my Switch right now.
“One of the things I'd love to see in the expansion is Samus' transformations and the unique and amazing ways she could transform to use new and unique abilities to overcome obstacles and explore,” he said, using Cappy's possession mechanics in Super Mario Odyssey as an example Metroid could follow.
All of Kainan's ideas involve Samus taking on a new form with greater growth potential that comes with limitations. “So if you transform into a Metroid, it will give you the ability to fly, but every time you use the Metroid, it can be frozen,” he suggested.
Other fun ideas are to let Samus be like a centipede that can crawl on walls but is vulnerable to knockback, or let her slow down time but prevent her from running. As long as there were some limiting mechanisms in place, this would open up a world of many solutions to one problem in the world. Metroid. “You can let it be open-ended. You can just solve problems in unique and creative ways based on what feels best to you,” Kynan said.
And Nintendo, according to Keenan, is the ideal company to bring such a complex concept to the world. Metroid. “Nintendo is a completely different beast in terms of game development philosophy,” he noted, explaining how their games allow players to interact with the world through their mechanics in countless ways.
“You can boil down any experience to that. You can have cinematic presentation and storylines that make you think there's a greater meaning behind what you're doing. But if your interactions aren't satisfying, then no other element can fix that and fix the lack of solid mechanics.”
