07-03-2007, 05:42 AM
GamePro: Will Metroid Prime 3 have any online modes?
Michael Kelbeugh: No. 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.
How difficult was it to figure out how the controls would work?
When we first saw the Wii controller, our game director Mark Pacini was really concerned about being able to take all the controls we used in Metroid Primes 1 and 2 - because, really, you use every single button in those games - and morph them into the Wii controller. So we spent a tremendous amount of time making that as seamless and as intuitive as possible. And I think we accomplished that. I think we did a really good job , so that you can pick the Remote and Nunchuk up and not be intimidated.
Did you guys look at control schemes for other first-person shooters for the Wii, and if so, did any of them have an effect, either positively or negatively, on what you guys did?
No. As a rule, we don't look at other games and make any comparisons. We focused on what we think are the best controls for our games and for Metroid Prime fans. We actually started working on this game's controls before any Wii games came out and before we had exposure to any Wii games.
This game was supposed to be out earlier. What prompted the delay, and what did the extra time allow you?
Well, there was never a set date for the game's release, but there was a target date. Mr. [Satoru] Iwata [President of Nintendo] challenged us last fall to make this equal to, if not exceeding, the Zelda experience. And he said he would support it by giving us more time. It was, "Here's the bar. What is it going to take to reach it?" And the obvious answer was, "Well, we're going to need more time." And he agreed.
One of other new things I noticed was when you go into the scan visual mode, you can see Samus' eyes. Was that something that causes any debate amongst the team?
Well, we've always held Samus close to the heart, but that reflection is probably the most extensive view of Samus without her suit on that you're going to see in a Prime situation. But there was no discussion about doing that, it was just one of those things where someone on the team suggested, "Wouldn't it be cool if....?" And since it was relatively painless, we did it.
Corruption has been referred to as the third part of a trilogy, which is something that annoys me. How can the third part of anything be called the third part of a trilogy...until they do a fourth one. But is this the end of a trilogy, and when you started working on it, did you approach it as the end of a larger story?
We knew from the get-go that Corruption was the end of a trilogy. We knew from a design sense and the story that we were putting the button on the Prime franchise for the time being.
SOURCE & REST OF INTERVIEW
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I saw this one coming for sure. We were never guaranteed online support in the first place but we all kept our hopes up considering what an amazing game this could have been with WFC support. The fact that Metroid Prime Hunters has online play and not the final game in the Prime series is definitely going to annoy some fans of the series, including myself.
Wii has yet to have an online First-Person Shooter, and online First-Person Shooters are usually amazing games. It looks like we're going to have to wait until Red Steel 2 is released. I'm guessing, at a long shot, that Red Steel 2 may be released around Christmas time to tie in with the release of its predecessor.
Other points in the interview seem positive. It has been a long time since I have been compelled to play my Wii, since I have no "epic" games to play on it. Back when I hadn't finished Twilight Princess, I couldn't put down the Wii Remote, because I was yearning to find out what the next part in the story was. And that's why I am begging for a similar release date of MP3 in Europe.
"We opted to devote those resources to making a better single-player experience." At least this means that Wii will finally have a game to compete against the imminent release of Bungie's Halo 3, story-wise anyway; another big feature of Halo 3 will of course be the online Matchmaking modes and Clan-matching.
"We knew from the get-go that Corruption was the end of a trilogy." Let's hope that this means the continuation of the Metroid First-Person design, because I would hate to see a spin-off sidescrolling game with the power we know that we have on Wii. But wasn't that another project for DS?
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