Unless you're the type of person who carefully analyzes a game's credits upon completion (we only know one such man), you probably don't know who Mark Haigh-Hutchinson is. His most recent achievement is the titles in the Metroid Prime series, where he served as senior engineer and created the camera system for the game. His other past projects include Zombies Ate My Neighbors (who doesn't love this one?!), Paperboy and Star Wars: Rebel Assault.
Mark passed away on Tuesday at the age of 43 due to pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.
As gamers, our focus is often on playing games and not the subtleties that go on behind the scenes. If we only knew about all those details, though, we might be shocked to find out how something like the Metroid Prime series almost never came to be.
Retro Studios president and CEO Michael Kelbaugh recently talked about the Prime arc at the 2007 Montreal Games Summit. In the conference, he explained the pressures of having his (at that time) rookie studio pick up such an important franchise, and how Miyamoto was influential in taking the series from third person to first person.
PAL gamers-- welcome to 2007! Oh, that doesn't work, because it implies that it's later than 2007 here and just now 2007 where you are. Okay, let's back out and start again.
PAL gamers-- welcome to August of 2007!There we go-- burn. Of course we're kidding, and it's all done with love for our Fanboy friends in Euroland. The point is that the Metroid Prime 3preview channel is now available in your region. Chances are you've already watched all of the videosfeatured on the channel, unless you've been avoiding spoilers. But now you can watch them on your Wii via a somewhat different interface!
Much like Super Metroid, just because you're getting it a bit later doesn't mean it's not awesome. Go enjoy some videos!
Not only were Retro trying to make a great game in Metroid Prime 3, they also set out to prove that the Wiimote could be a viable control method for not only the FPS genre, but on the whole, apparently. And, if we had any say in the matter, we'd say they did an excellent job on both counts easily. But, it's not like they didn't run into their fair share of problems.
"When we went to Japan and first saw the controller for the first time I got really concerned because there weren't a lot of buttons," says game director Mark Pacini. But, that didn't turn out to be an issue, as most will agree the game controls wonderfully.
So, do you think Metroid Prime 3 proved that the Wii's control method is a viable solution for genres outside of minigame compilations? Or, do you think that Retro just doesn't settle for anything less than the best in what they do?
We wish we could be strolling around the halls of Retro Studios, trusty camera in hand to capture all of the wonderful things that happen within its walls. But, no, we have to settle for watching GameSpot's video tour instead.
We're not too crazy over this Metroid Prime 3: Corruption commercial, but we suppose it gets the job done. To us, the "Wii would like to play" approach just doesn't fit the game's atmosphere, its loneliness and oppressive environments. Also, when was the last time you played a Metroid title with dozens of people, young and old, behind you and craning their necks to get a better view of your Morph Ball clumsiness. We would hazard a guess at never.
Thankfully, the two movies from last night's Corruption preview channel update make up for the flavorless advertisement. In addition to throwing light on Dark Samus's relationship with the Space Pirates, the videos also offer a glimpse of a hectic battle between Samus and a group of enemies in a mine. Head past the post break to watch both clips.
With the third and final Metroid Prime title coming in just a week, we're being blitzed with previews from all directions. GameTrailers's extended hands-on impressions, embedded above, builds up the hype without spoiling too much of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption's story. The six-minute clip examines the first-person adventure's graphics, controls, and token system, lauding each point at every corner. If you're still craving some new preview footage after all that, the video site also has a variety of gameplay movies, as well as a comparison between Corruption and its GameCube predecessor, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
Nintendo also updated its Metroid Prime 3: Corruption channel with two new clips. The first video documents the aftermath of a Space Pirates attack on Galactic Federation ship Valhalla, whereas the second clip has Samus knocking down her enemies while in Morph Ball mode. You can watch both of them past the post break. The next two movies, Dark Samus and Mine Battle, will show up on the preview channel this Thursday.
True to its word, Nintendo updated the Metroid Prime 3: Corruption channel with two new videos. Since they're streaming clips, you won't have to go through the download process again to grab them. Seeing this implemented so seamlessly made us a lot less annoyed with the steps we originally had to take to pluck the preview from the Wii's Shopping Channel.
Like the last two clips, the first video provides a few details pertaining to the story, background info on the malfunctioning Aurora Unit in this case; the other movie, more focused on gameplay, shows Samus Aran in her Spider Ball form, navigating a series of winding rails and tracks. The Aurora Unit's resemblance to a certain previous antagonist has us tingling. Yes, tingling! The next two videos, P.E.D. Suit and Air Assault, hit the preview channel this Thursday.
Possibly the best thing about Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is that it's inspiring Nintendo to release Metroid and Super Metroid on the Virtual Console. The Metroid series has pretty much been masterpiece after masterpiece (and also Hunters). We probably won't be indulging in the VC releases, since we own the NES, GBA, and Gamecube releases of Metroid and a well-loved SNES Super Metroidcartridge, but any time one of the classic games is made available for a new generation of gamers, it's great news.
What's your favorite Metroid game? We play through Super Metroid at least once a year, but nothing beats the original for pure, immersive atmosphere. But maybe you prefer one of the first-person games?
Building up hype for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption's August 27th release, Nintendo has declared our eighth month as the "Month of Metroid," releasing a downloadable preview channel for the FPS/adventure title. As shown in the video we've embedded above, you can grab the preview from the Wii Shopping Channel's WiiWare section for free. Two streaming videos should be included with the download -- one a lengthy trailer, the other demonstrating gameplay -- as well as two hidden artwork samples. More videos will be made available this August 13th.
Also on August 13th, as we predicted, Nintendo plans to bring the original Metroid NES game to the Virtual Console for 500 points. Super Metroid fans can expect to see the SNES classic appear this August 20th, priced at 800 points. Coinciding Wii releases with their complementary retro titles seems like an obvious sales stratagem; we wonder what took Nintendo so long to catch on? Anyhow, we can't wait to see what else Nintendo has planned for this Metroid Month.
Using a Firefox browser workaround, intrepid Virtual Console fans can occasionally get a peek into the future of Nintendo's retro gaming plans (and the dripping irony is not lost on us). Aiming their black-hatted crystal ball at Nintendo's U.S. VC servers, their recent exploits have today turned up images of the start screens for both the original Metroid (already available in Europe) as well as Super Metroid.
Could Nintendo be priming these titles to coincide with its release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption later this month? Don't you know it!
Yesterday, we discussed what other games you might be interested in, but today we thought we'd get back to one of the heavy hitters -- specifically, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. We know a lot of people are disappointed with some of the development decisions (like no online multiplayer), while others are excited for this game like no other. Where do you fall in the spectrum? Do you think this is a purchase for you, or perhaps a rental ... or might you skip it altogether?
Nintendo fans, rejoice. Metroid Prime 3 is going to be the best Metroid Prime game yet. It's been burdened with the enormous task of fulfilling Nintendo's promise of providing unsurpassed FPS controls through the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Surprisingly, Metroid Prime 3 has more than delivered in this near-final E3 build. Not only do the controls work exactly as we'd like them to, Retro Studios has surprised us by fleshing out the Metroid experience with its most ambitious story yet.
Long-time Metroid fans will appreciate the game's opening moments. We're taken inside Samus' trademark space ship. Have we ever been here before? Interfacing with the ship through the Wii Remote certainly felt exciting, allowing players to control Samus' ship -- something we can't remember ever doing in the series' history. Players will touch various panels within the ship, and pull a lever, providing a simple facsimile of piloting a real space ship.
As you dock your ship in a battleship, you'll meet a small army of NPCs. Imagine our surprise when they referred to Samus' previous exploits, fully voiced. In the game's opening moments, Samus will be able to interact with characters that feature full voice acting, seemingly a rarity in modern Nintendo-published efforts. We appreciate the series attempting to connect Corruption to the previous Prime games, but we have to admit that the heavy-handed nature of the story caught us a little off-guard. Watching the Galactic Federation talk about the conquest of the Space Pirates made us think we were watching Halo 2, not a Metroid Prime game. However, Metroid purists need not worry: Samus still goes on as a mute.
The ironic thing about this video is that YouTube isn't the best as far as quality goes. Still, you can kind of get a picture (if you don't already have one) of just how improved the graphics are in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption compared to the previous title. And who can complain about more Metroid content?! Not us, and, we hope, certainly not any of you.
Sure, we wouldn't take the Soup Nazi's claim that Samus' latest jaunt will not include Wi-Fi multiplayer as truth, but when Michael Kelbeugh, the main man over at Retro Studios, says so, then we kind of take it as fact. And, that's exactly what he said in an interview with GamePro recently, dashing hopes here at Wii Fanboy Estates that the small delay the game has received was so that online multiplayer could be tweaked.
So, why no online multiplayer in a game that is begging for it? Mikey K. (it's alright, we're BFF) says it's so the single-player campaign can be the best it can be, stating "It's something we talked about early on, but we only have so many resources. We opted to devote those resources to making a better single-player experience." We're sure the single-player portion of the game will rock our socks right off our feet, neatly fold them and place them in our top dresser drawer, but we don't think it'll be so good we'll be thanking Retro for not including online multiplayer.
Unless you're the type of person who carefully analyzes a game's credits upon completion (we only know one such man), you probably don't know who Mark Haigh-Hutchinson is. His most recent achievement is the titles in the Metroid Prime series, where he served as senior engineer and created the camera system for the game. His other past projects include Zombies Ate My Neighbors (who doesn't love this one?!), Paperboy and Star Wars: Rebel Assault.
Yesterday, we discussed 
