Metroid Dread has been every Metroid fan’s dream game since rumours of it leaked out roughly a year before the DS Lite’s launch. The rumour was that it would be a 2.5D Metroid game going back to the classic style of gameplay that it leant it’s name to. While many fans would still love to see this hit a DS or the 3DS even, I think it would be far better suited to the upcoming WiiU and may even be able to move systems like few other titles could.
It’s certainly worth noting that this is all just me speculating. Unfortunately, nothing has been heard of Project Dread for a while. Sorry if I got anyone’s hopes up. That said, if you thought there was news, see what you think of the following.
Nintendo’s focus with the Wii U is a return to the Core Gamer. The same can be said of the 3DS now that the company has arguably over-saturated the casual console market. That being said, one of Nintendo’s most hardcore games of all time has to be the original Metroid games on the NES, Gameboy and SNES. Their sprawling world maps meant the game could take months to get through with secrets hidden throughout and special rewards given for those willing to beat it through to 100% item collection. This Metroid and Castlesvania style of play, lovingly called MetroidVania, has all but died out, to the lament of its legion fans. The best recent offering of this style of game came a year ago to Xbox Live Arcade. Shadow Complex, a brilliant Metroid-inspired game that lit up the hearts of the classic MetroidVania fans, sold quite well. While CHAIR, the devs behind Shadow Complex, have taken some time out to work on Infinity Blade and Infinity Blade 2 for the iOS platform, there’s still a possibility that it will get a sequel.
One of the later level design drawings for Shadow Complex, drawn out on paper like the original Metroid designs were. To say it was inspired by Metroid is a slight understatement.
I personally hope Nintendo beats CHAIR to the MetroidVania play-style punch with a new Metroid though. As grand and engrossing as Shadow Complex was, it doesn’t boast near the nostalgic appeal of Metroid.
The new WiiU controller, the tablet/slate/controller hybrid we’ve all seen, would be perfect for a Metroid title. The standard suite of buttons is available allowing all the usual controls from the prior 2D games to return, with the second thumb-stick making way for a more flexible aim for Samus, after years of only being able to face in 8 directions to shoot. Above all, that wonderful touch screen would allow the player to always have a large map of the nearby area visible. Rather than having to pause and come out of the action, the player would always be able to glance down and see the rooms around them. Rather than just having a tiny 3 by 5 grid of map on the main screen, the Wii U controler would allow for a much faster way of exploring those huge cavernous areas the series is famous for.
The Power Suit, Samus’ armoured Exo-skeleton in Super Metroid, allows the player to switch on and off certain functions to give different beam variants. This was mostly lost in the newer games, with Fusion on the GBA ignoring it entirely and the Prime Trillogy allowing you to switch between 4 beams on the fly. With the tablet controller, however, this gives another chunk of easy access to the player. Imagine it; you’re caught in a firefight and suddenly realize a different beam would work wonders on this enemy. Rather than pausing, you can prod the touchscreen with your thumb a couple of times and be back to killing without even taking a hit and even continuing to fire your last weapon.
This unpaused approach may seem like a dangerous move for a player to take. That said, doesn’t that sound thrilling? Suddenly, you’re fumbling for the right weapon so you don’t loose the last half hour of progress, you’re dodging shots while tapping a screen at the same time. It may sound like it’s taking you out of the experience, but in reality it’s just making the fight even more real for you. You’re fearing for Samus’ life like she realistically would be. Not in the Metroid: Other M “Let’s cower before this enemy I’ve killed plenty of times before” kind of way, but in the “heat of battle, panicking” kind of way. There’s always the option of such a feature only appearing on the ‘hardcore’ difficulty, however, I think it would be a great twist on the gameplay of the 2D series so far.
The older fanbase of the Metroid games have been asking for a return to a Console based 2D experience for some time. I’ve always liked the idea of a portable version of the old Metroid games and I don’t think this would be any different with Dread. I love being able to take this sort of long game anywhere I’m going so I can sink time into it when I’m traveling or out with nothing going on. The WiiU’s other unique ability is that you can swap your gameplay onto the tablet screen at any time. While Nintendo has confirmed that you will have to stay tethered (albeit likely wireless) to the console, you won’t be able to travel while playing, but this does add a degree of flexibility around the house which would be a welcome experience. There’s always the possibility that Nintendo might do something clever with the 3DS in this regard as well. A free 3DS app that comes with the WiiU version that lets you take your save with you, maybe? (Nintendo’s “Transferring”?)
I said this could be Nintendo’s Killer App in the title, but it’s rather uncommon for a “killer app” to not have multiplayer these days. I don’t know if I can personally think of a good way of integrating an enjoyable multiplayer experience into this title. A simple, boring method would be to just have an arena based death-match experience, but where’s the uniqueness of that idea? I don’t think every game should have a Multiplayer component forced into it. Were it my choice, I wouldn’t have multiplayer in this game at all. If Nintendo were to create a solid single player Metroid title for the WiiU, I would be queuing up at launch, happily waiting for this stopgap console rather than mumbling and moaning that it’s actually just another current gen device. That is the power that certain Nintendo franchises have over their consumers. I personally hope they decide to exploit it.
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Is it just me, or is the Wii U seeming like a questionable direction for Nintendo to go? I’m particularly concerned that the touch screen is supposedly not multi-touch. Ah well. Metroid is still awesome.
It does. I only hope they actually manage to make it work out. A multi-touch screen would have made much more sense. That said, I don’t know how well it would work considering how much it sounds like they’ve been struggling so far… :/
@ Jiminey – You don’t need “multi-touch.” Trust me. Multitouch requires it to be like the iPhone/iPad touch screen instead of being capacitive like it is. The touchscreens today, although nice, vibrant, detailed and vivid are NOT as good as the old capacitive is other respects. They aren’t as precise and don’t really allow for the use of a stylus. In order to have games where you can draw with the included Stylus, it needs to be capacitive like the 3DS’s and this means it cannot be multi-touch. Besides, everyone complains about the iPhone and iPad not having buttons. Now that we have a screen WITH buttons, why ask for more touch response?
As a side note: great article.
@wampdog29
Thank you. :)
I hadn’t even considered the stylus as input. You could plan a route out by drawing a line on the map to guide yourself and have that line display in the 3×5 map on the main screen. So many possibilities! D8