[Wii] Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

For those who watched the Nintendo E3 conference, you saw a few glimpses of what the game looked like, but how will it play?

Here are some impressions, as posted at Gamespot:

Quote:

The visuals in the game are looking sharp and staying true to the sleek art direction that was introduced when the Metroid Prime series kicked off on the GameCube in 2002. The most striking feature was simply the scale of the level we saw. The facility, as seen in the intro cinematic, appeared to be a sprawling complex that had seen better days. Upon landing, Samus disembarks and gets a brief status update from soldiers posted to the platform her ship is resting on. Once you're up to speed you head out to do you business. The brief portion of the level we played focused on Samus exploring the installation and taking on enemies.

While the basic action in the demo was the standard Metroid fare, how you got on with it was all-new thanks to the Wii controller. Much like our Tokyo Game Show demo, the game relied on the main controller and nunchuk attachment. We moved Samus with the analog stick while we did our looking and aiming by simply pointing the new controller. The B button shot her primary weapon and, when held down, charged up for a power shot that sucked in nearby items. The directional pad fired missiles. Scanning was tweaked a bit with a translucent reticle coming up that you could "lock" by hitting the C button. When locked onto an enemy you'll be able to perform the same actions you always could. When locked onto an item you can scan you'll have to hold down the A button to initiate it. The Z button initiates your morph ball.

While all of the above is pretty much how you'd expect the control to map out, the grapple beam is a cool use of the controller's unique attributes. In the demo we came across objects that featured the beam icon above them, handy tip off to use the beam. The mechanic for the beam was pretty cool. We had to lock on to the object then fling the nunchuk which caused Samus to fire a beam out at it. Once we had it on our line we used the analog stick to pull it back towards us. Once the debris was cleared we had our chance to engage in some morph ball puzzle solving that was initiated with another use of the controller, simulating Samus' hand manipulating a switch. We "grabbed" a handle, pulled it back, twisted it and pushed it back into a socket with a fair amount of precision.

As far as the visuals go, the game is purring along as smoothly as its GameCube predecessors and benefiting from a nice sheen of graphical effects that enhance the already impressive look. Right now what we've seen is a solid evolution of the visuals and effects from the Prime games on the 'cube, but we expect the game to continue to improve as development continues.

More impressions can be found over at 1UP.

Screencaps from the game will probably be posted tomorrow, as soon as the gaming press can get their hands on the game.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

ign as well.

reading.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Wow, using the grapple beam for offense with the Wiimote is awesome, and even though 1up wasn't impressed, the Ridley fight seemed really cool too.

I hope this makes launch.

- WraithTwo -

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

IGN has some new gameplay videos up.

From the looks of it, turning will be hard to get used to. Hopefully Retro will be able to tweak that a little bit before release.


EDIT:

Quote:

May 10, 2006 - In an interview with the Retro Studios team, IGN Wii learned today that Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will indeed be a launch game for Nintendo Wii. Developed from the ground up for the new platform and its unique controllers, Metroid will arrive alongside The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess offering up a first-party double punch when the console ships this holiday season.

Like its predecessors, the game will not feature an online mode for competitive multiplay -- however, support of the system's 24-hour-connection is under consideration. This would allow Nintendo to push upgrades and additional content to Metroid Prime 3: Corruption owners with wireless connections even when the console is switched off.

Retro Studios also confirmed that Metroid Prime 3 will depart from the light and dark world setup introduced in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and instead feature large areas to explore on multiple worlds. Though Samus will use her new gunship to travel between planets, players hoping to pilot Samus Aran's new gunship may be disappointed to hear that they will not be able to pilot the ship themselves. Travel between areas likely occurs only in cutscene form. That's not to say that the ship doesn't feature a large role in the game, however. Retro hinted at a new visor mode that lets Samus command her ship from the ground. For example, she can use the gunship uplink to blow up obstacles in her way and gain access to new areas.

Though the other visors are still being kept a secret, Retro did confirm that the X-Ray visor will return and play a bigger part in both combat and puzzle solving. Used in conjunction with a new beam that is able to shoot through walls, players will be able to detect obscured enemies and take them out safely.

The developer is also hard at work on polishing the graphics in the game to make it a noticeable step up over the previous titles. Retro has added new bloom effects and much more complex particle systems for even bigger fireworks. The target framerate for the final game is a smooth 60 frames per second.

From IGN

Too bad about no online mutiplayer, but HOT DAMN it's a launch title!

I was speaking idiomatically.

Oh okay. That's it. The Wii is so getting pre-ordered. Happy happy happy. Can't wait to grapple beam things to death.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I so want to jump behind a couch when I play this game.

Nintendo needs to make units that you can throw at a TV screen... bombs, ninja stars, kamehamehas osnap.

FELIPE NO

Was gonna say I just heard this was a launch title...but someone beat me. Hearing too many things today that I can't believe ;p Eagerly anticipating this!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

The game looks average in my opinion, at least graphically. I'll have to try out the game myself.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

The game looks good. Fantastic art direction as usual, and graphics that surpass (if only slightly) the previous two games. Which were gorgeous.

Still, Retro has said that they will improve them, and I expect there to be significant improvements by the time of its release.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'm sure games will develop better graphics over time, developers are just trying to make the launch date. They will have time to play around with the wii's hardware to and see what it can do later (after it's released)

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Am I the only one that's seriously put off by the gun leading the camera in Wii FPSs? When I first heard about it when they were talking about Red Steel, I thought it was a cool idea. However, seeing it in gameplay was disheartening. It just looks, unnatural, which is NOT something I want to see on the Wii.

NO ONE does that in real life, and even though your sight and gun movement isn't perfectly syncronised IRL like in other FPS', it just looks bad. I hope that I get used to this, especially since I'm REALLY looking forward to Prime 3 and the Wii otherwise (some of the ideas they have for Prime 3 look completely awesome, and I'm in love with the idea of new grapple beam functionality). Maybe you'll be able to control the level of "cam lag" like you do with sensitivity in the current gen?

- WraithTwo -

How ya doing, buddy?

I don't know what you're talking about. How else would you manage that, exactly?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by HostileCreation

I don't know what you're talking about. How else would you manage that, exactly?

Well, I have a couple of ideas, although I'm not sure if they're any better or worse honestly. First I believe that a lower amount of camera lag would help immensly. I see Samus getting shot by some off screen creature while the player helplessly stands there waiting for the camera to let him turn around. When pointing off screen the lag should be removed ENTIRELY.

The other option has its own problems. You could restrict the uses of the motion sensing of the analog attachement, by making it your camera. You could look around with the movements of the attachement. It would be sort of like if you could use triple analog controls. This is unappealing because of how complicated it may be.

- WraithTwo -

ADDITIONAL THOUGHT: How cool would a wireless Wii headset be that could detect motion? In addition to normal headset functions and a microphone, it could have allowed you to "look" around by tilting your head in the appropriate angle. THAT would have been intuitive and cool.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by WraithTwo

Am I the only one that's seriously put off by the gun leading the camera in Wii FPSs? When I first heard about it when they were talking about Red Steel, I thought it was a cool idea. However, seeing it in gameplay was disheartening. It just looks, unnatural, which is NOT something I want to see on the Wii.

NO ONE does that in real life, and even though your sight and gun movement isn't perfectly syncronised IRL like in other FPS', it just looks bad. I hope that I get used to this, especially since I'm REALLY looking forward to Prime 3 and the Wii otherwise (some of the ideas they have for Prime 3 look completely awesome, and I'm in love with the idea of new grapple beam functionality). Maybe you'll be able to control the level of "cam lag" like you do with sensitivity in the current gen?

- WraithTwo -

Wii isn't real life. And I don't see the problem, on normal FPS games on a PC, the gun ALWAYS leads the camera.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by INDIGO-1

Wii isn't real life. And I don't see the problem, on normal FPS games on a PC, the gun ALWAYS leads the camera.

I'm sorry, it's just how long the people are sitting there waiting for the camera to shift that bugs me.

- WraithTwo -

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Yeah, it isn't the fact that the gun controls the camera, so much as it is that the camera itself is far too slow. I'm sure they will fix it, though. The game isn't finished and I'm sure if we can notice it just watching they surely must have when they were playing it. Well, hopefully anyway.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Whoa, is that the logo? Sweet classic style. I'm so excited for this. If you ask me, this game is the reason they developped the nunchuck in the first place. I can't wait for this.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

To Indigo, well, not quite. Actually, most fps games, regardless of whether it's on PC or Console, always have the reticle in the center of the screen. Publishers didn't want to immediately do that with FPS games on the Wii because the controller sensitivity would be disorienting. Minute gestures and arm fatigue would make the Wii remote slightly vibrate, causing the reticle (and consequently, the screen) jiggle around, and that's not really the way our eyes percieve things in reality, and aside from that, it would be very nauseating.

Secondly, I'm pretty confident that the control scheme will work out just fine. I'm pretty sure that the "camera lag" is as bad you think it is simply because the players are still getting used to the sensitivity of the Wii remote, and don't want the reticle to go zipping around by going too fast. Ign site editors have said numerous times that while it is very instinctive and intuitive, the Wii remote takes a lot of adjusting due to its sensitivity.

I myself wondered how the FPS control scheme would work out. Before now, the only way I thought an FPS game could work would be similar to Resident Evil 4, that when you wanted to look around, you would have to press a button (the L button, in RE4's case). Confusing? Let me explain differently.

A computer FPS viewport is controlled by the mouse. To turn around in a 360, the user generally moves the mouse either right or left until they cannot move it further, then lifts the mouse off the table (and leaving the ball or optic sensor reading nothing) to reset the mouse position, so they may set it down again and move it further. In the Wii remotes case, sensing is ALWAYS on, so there's no way to reset your position to turn all the way around. So I thought that in order to fix that, pressing a button on the Wii controller would emulate setting down the mouse, and letting go would stop the motion sensors from reading, so you could reset your position.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The easiest way to do this on the Wii is very simple:

If you point the sights left, keep turning. Just keep turning. I read an interview saying that the full 360° turn time will be somewhere in between a Halo-style (two analog sticks) FPS and a mouse based FPS. Which is pretty good.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

There's one thing I haven't quite figured out yet.

Planet Gamecube put up the tidbits of an interview they had with some key developers on MP3:C, and they had this to say:

Quote:

There’s a reason that the E3 demo suggests no method for switching beam weapons on the fly, which was a key feature of the control scheme on GameCube. In Corruption, there is no need to switch beam weapons. They stack upon each other as in Super Metroid, so your beam becomes more and more powerful as you go. This design should also speed up long-distance travel around the environments, because you won’t need to switch weapons back and forth to open doors. The Grappling Beam also has stacked upgrade effects.

So I get that there will be no weapon switching, which was annoying.
But what does it mean when they say 'stacked upgrade'?
Is it that the beams COMBINE into one super beam, rather than as 4 seperate beams?

Most amazing jew boots

I don't think so, it'll probably be simply upgradable. Pretty much like all standard 2d metroid games, there was no point in going back to the other beams because the beam that you have currently was usually the most powerful. I don't think the beams in Corruption will have elemental attributes, if that's what your wondering. It will probably more resemble the classic beams (ie the ice to wave to spazer to plasma, except more linear and stackable).

How ya doing, buddy?

Pretty much. Like in Metroid Fusion (haven't played Super Metroid) you start off with a basic beam that does nothing but hurt enemies. Then you get an upgrade for it, and the bullets you fire look slightly different, and now it can also open a special kind of door. Then they keep adding it throughout the game, until eventually you're firing a beam with 10 different colours and uses.

FELIPE NO

Yeah, I think Grubdog is right. It sounds like leaving all your beam upgrades on in Super Metroid and you have the abilities of all of them at the same time rather than only the ice beam or only the plasma beam (aside from um...Plasma + Spazer, I think). Like Wave + Spazer giving you the 3 wide spazer beams that are able to go through walls...and if you also turn on Ice you can freeze enemies with said beam, plus you'll also have the combined power of each weapon making a stronger beam in general.

Oh, and...yeah, I guess that feature sounds pretty cool. I was never too bothered by the beam switching but I guess this could make things go a little faster, and it is easier to just have them all on at once most of the time.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I like how the game looks no different than the first two.

Jam it back in, in the dark.