metroid prime - Kotaku

posts about #metroidprime more →
A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
Metroid Prime Team Discusses Their Decade Of Samus, Ponders Series' Future
Metroid Prime Trilogy Lost its 'Damn'
Metroid Prime Trilogy Unlockables Dust Off Nintendo History, Detours
Nintendo: Other M Will be A "Metroid Unlike Anything Ever Experienced Before"
Metroid Trilogy Preview: The Game So Nice, You Can Play It Thrice
Armature Founders on the 'Unsustainable' Business Model
Metroid Prime Devs Eye 360, PS3 for Future Games
Metroid Prime, Now In The Third Dimension
Key Metroid Prime Staffers Leave Retro Studios

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Michael McWhertor
10/21/09

In reply to Clip: Top 10 Gamecube Games
*deleted*
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Edited by Michael McWhertor at 10/21/09 1:51 PM Michael McWhertor was starred

(Zombie) D Mitsuki, Gotta have guts kid!
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
Well the games are great, and that's all that matters. What I love the most about all the time taken is how much of a improvement the games can be sometimes.

I'm not the biggest Halo fan, but the jump from each game was a BIG one. You can see how much work they put into it.
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Sarcasmancer
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
Slow developers like Blizzard and Valve tend to produce great games, but they also seem to flourish when they have a few different IP's to bounce back and forth between. I'd like to see Retro try something new and all their own. Nintendo could really use more titles for mature audiences and I think these guys are the right team to make 'em. I wonder if Silicon Knights is still holding on the rights to Eternal Darkness and if they'd be willing to let Retro have a go at it.
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(Human) Gyaruson
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
"As such, we're not forced to release a game prematurely just to make a quarterly report look better."

Hahaha, nice one Mr. Walker! Suck on that, Kotick!
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Aidan_
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
Having connections to a small development company for a while now, yeah, it's true. Just because a team isn't cranking out the sausage every few months doesn't mean they're not busy. They are most likely ass-deep in something.
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HarlequinRiot
09/22/09

@Aidan_: There's so many poorly chosen words in that sentence.
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Aidan_
09/22/09

@HarlequinRiot: Human Centipede!
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AncientUnknown1
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
He makes a great point. Quality is important, but so is efficiency.
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Cypher19
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
"Valve's Half-Life team has released Half-Life 2 (2004) and two expansions in 2006 and 2007, with a third expected no sooner than next year. Retro's pace puts it behind Bungie but a little ahead of Valve."

Uh, Valve as a studio has, since the end of 2004 (i.e. since HL2's and MP2's release), done the following:
Day of Defeat: Source, Half Life 2: Lost Coast, Half Life 2: Episode One, Half Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Left 4 Dead. All of them have been released for multiple locales. They have also expanded Steam into arguably (or unarguably?) the number one legal digital distribution platform of games on the PC, with many games from every major publisher being served on the service. They also have produced updates for their existing games, such as Counter-Strike, and ported Half Life 2 to Xbox, and ported HL2, HL2 ep1, HL2 ep2, TF2, and Portal to the Xbox 360 as well.

Since 2004, Retro has done the following:
Release Metroid Prime 3 for multiple locales, and port MP1 and MP2 to the Wii (hardly a strenuous task) and ship MP Trilogy for multiple locales.

Retro has done, compared to Valve, jack ALL, and considering the relative quality of Valve's products listed above compared to the quality of Retro's, they're not even in the same league, and should not be compared in any regard.
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excel_excel
09/22/09

@Cypher19: sorry your right in some aspects but the quality of Retro's products is right up there with Vavle's.
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hodayathink wants WWFRD back!
09/22/09

@Cypher19: You forgot about three very important words there: "Half-Life Team". I'm pretty sure there's more than one team at Valve.
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ThisCharmingMan
09/22/09

@Cypher19: I agree with everything you said...except that Retro's quality doesn't rival Valve's. Those Metroid games are top tier titles, that just happen to be on hardware that isn't quite as powerful as anything Valve develops for.
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skaven
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
I remember being blown away by Prime 1 @ its' E3 showing in 2002. We were simply floored by the graphics, sound (the theater rooms were incredible), and the atmosphere.

Then my friend and I got tickets to the private 15 minute showing of Doom 3 on the 2nd day. It pretty much ruined every other 1st person game at the show. Maybe all other games regardless of genre.

But in retrospect, the Metroid Prime games have aged much more gracefully than Doom 3 did. Game play can't even be compared, and I actually prefer the graphics on Prime to D3 after all these years. 480p on prime is just so awesome, I would love to see a re-rendered HD version of the Prime games.
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Techno-Atom
09/22/09

@skaven: But at the same time you can't deny the fact that Doom 3 set the new benchmark for the next-generation of graphics. While in my opinion the original Metroid Prime towered over every XBox game in terms of visuals and style that was in the console war. The PC has always been in a league of its own and comparing the graphics of console games to the PC is like apples and oranges. Having said that, I do believe that consoles are more innovative in their control schemes and how they're actually played.

I still think that Doom 3 looks amazing even to this day. Sure the shadow and lighting is dated and looks a lot rougher than modern games but it was still a blast to play especially if you downloaded the mod to make it coop for the PC or if you were one of the people that purchased the XBox version for the coop mode over XBox Live.
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BrokenIcarus
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
I want Metorid in HD. ;_;
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Showmeyomoves!
09/22/09

@BrokenIcarus: It's called Shadow Complex.
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excel_excel
09/22/09

@BrokenIcarus: Is HD THAT important to you? Why not just use the Wii emulator then to run it in HD
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KaneBaker
09/22/09

@Showmeyomoves!: If anything Batman Arkham Asylum is closer to a Metroid 3D game. It has the whole open world, pick up power ups to get to places you couldn't before theme happening. Rocksteady is pure gold in my eyes.

But Shadow Complex did rock. But it's the old metroid in HD.
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Showmeyomoves!
09/22/09

@KaneBaker: BrokenIcarus didn't ask for a 3D Metroid, he asked for Metroid in HD. If you want 3D Metroid, it's called Metroid Prime.
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KaneBaker
09/22/09

@Showmeyomoves!: Than indeed Shadow Complex is the closest. At least in gameplay. Great game. The atmosphere is very different.
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RealmRPGer
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
Not to be rude, but localization is localization. The graphics developer isn't really involved in translating text to another language. Therefore, I would not call it accurate to list each market release as its own product... especially when you consider that every game does this, so you can effectively triple the number of games any company has done by using this logic.
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gamegrump
09/22/09

@RealmRPGer: Localization is... localization? And when you say, "using this logic" believe me, all companies use that logic. Look on their annual reports, listen in on their press briefings. They talk SKUs.

Each one is a product. Dev and Art is huge, but QA, Localization, and Final-Build are similarly huge. Then add the massive management coordination necessary to keep all of that straight, the distinct packaging, certification processes, external reviews (ESRB), supply chains...

One title on three platforms very much equals 3 three products, three games.
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Showmeyomoves! promoted this comment Edited by gamegrump at 09/22/09 2:44 PM gamegrump was starred gamegrump was unstarred

CTU_Kyoto
09/24/09

@RealmRPGer: You're wrong. The developer is very much involved with the localisation. They may not do it themselves, but putting the localised text into the game isn't a copy and paste job. It amounts to remaking the game to some extent. Multiply by French and Spanish for America, add German and Italian for Europe (as well as French and Spanish for the EU, which are often separate from the US release) and the developer will have to assign considerable resources to implementing and completing the localisations for each territory. Since Retro develop games originally in English, you can also include the Japanese version in that list of languages.
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shadydentist
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
Realistically, nobody makes quality games as slowly as Valve does. And likely, nobody ever will.
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octaslash
09/22/09

@shadydentist: The key word there is slowly. I remember how they boasted about episodic content and how they could release them faster.

It's been 3 years since E1 and the Source engine is aging.
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excel_excel promoted this comment Edited by octaslash at 09/22/09 2:37 PM octaslash was starred octaslash was unstarred

excel_excel
09/22/09

@octalass: As much as I do like Source engine games they are definetly showing their age. Episode 3 is taking. too. LONG.
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ninjaDance
09/22/09

@shadydentist: I dunno. Classic Blizzard (before the Activision invasion--Actinvasion?) could give them a run for their money. They were crazy slow.
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TheWaffle
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
The only studio slower than Valve is 3D Realms. Yeah, I went there.
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wtf_G
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
Their studio size probably has the most to do with it.

Localization isn't specific to just Metroid :P
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excel_excel
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
ahh Retro, you so awesome!
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mjn328
09/22/09

@excel_excel: Their track record is really, really great. I'm always amazed at how fresh Metroid Prime feels, no matter how many times I play through it.
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excel_excel
09/22/09

@mjn328: Same here. The first Prime was just amazing in every way. Easily the best game on the Gamecube. The sequels couldn't match the first game but were still great!

The story I love about Retro is in their early days, when Miyamoto was ranting at them in japanese and his translator simply said 'he's upset'
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Edited by excel_excel at 09/22/09 2:30 PM excel_excel was starred excel_excel was unstarred

mjn328
09/22/09

@excel_excel: I don't think I've heard that one before, but it's good for a laugh. Maybe that was when they were trying to tell him first-person was a bad idea, or after he saw their other games.
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excel_excel
09/22/09

@mjn328: Apparently it was after he saw their other games AND saw the camera problems with Prime having a 3rd person viewpoint.
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alienator303
09/22/09

In reply to A Development Studio That Doesn't Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
"Quality is the first and foremost consideration in everything we do."

so we cut the word 'damn' and removed some gamecube graphical effects and couldnt be bothered to add them to the wii new play versions on the trilogy disk.

now i, *love* metroid before i get hated, im just questioning the time and effort they put in it for the fans, or its just 'its metroid, they buy it anyways' mentallity of nintendo
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Primed
09/22/09

@alienator303: "Damn" was cut from the PAL version, and the Trilogy editions appear to be based off of the PAL versions. I still don't understand the couple missing effects from Prime 1 though...
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mjn328
09/22/09

@alienator303: They also did a lot of work to improve the overall experience of all three titles, including enhanced graphical effects in the original Prime and improved loading times for all three games.
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Suichimo
09/22/09

@Primed: Assuming you're talking about the effects on the arm cannon, those were removed because the cannon was a stationary object on the screen in the original Prime. In Trilogy, with the addition of the updated controls, the arm cannon is no longer static and instead can move freely. The effects on the gun were the same way, they were basically just painted over the arm cannon's position on the screen.
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