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Keep an Open Mind About the New Metroid

Keep an Open Mind About the New Metroid

Let’s rap about Metroid Prime: Federation Force . This game reveal was probably the most negatively received and negatively talked about portion of Nintendo’s 2015 E3 presentation, which was arguably one of its worst E3 showings in recent history. The live chat throughout the duration of the Federation Force presentation was an absolute roast; no one had a kind thing to say about the game. It didn’t fare much better in Nintendo’s latest Direct. What gives? Why are people so passionately upset by this game?

Without a doubt the hate and disappointment was sparked, and is fueled, by the fact that this is a Metroid Prime game. When you say Metroid Prime, that means something specific to most fans. It’s not like Mario , which could mean a 2D platformer, a 3D adventure game, an RPG, or even a sports game. Fans have been waiting years for a true, next-gen Metroid Prime ; that is, a first-person adventure / shooter starring Samus Aran. When Prime was released for the Gamecube in 2002 it became an instant classic, and every year since then we’ve been waiting for a worthy successor. It was in the midst of this hype, during a presentation that had already turned out to be a disappointment, that we found out that the new Metroid Prime Nintendo was giving us was a strange multiplayer experiment featuring nameless chibi soldiers.

I understand the disappointment, and I’m just as anxious as the rest of you to see another true Metroid Prime game, but what if Federation Force didn’t have the name Metroid attached to it? Instead of hearing Metroid and then comparing Federation Force to everything we hoped it’d be, what if we worked backward from what it actually is? When you do that, you might discover that this game is actually worth your consideration.

Besides Tri Force Heroes and the Monster Hunter games, there aren’t really any action-oriented, online multiplayer games on the 3DS. There certainly aren’t any cooperative online shooters, and the novelty alone should stir your interest. The game’s director has even stated that there are some light RPG elements. When you watch soldiers shooting enemies you can see a scrolling damage counter, and the different loadouts for your character define certain roles for each player – you could even call it a class system.

Keep an Open Mind About the New Metroid

So here you have an online cooperative adventure on your 3DS, a game type that lacked the star-power of a big Nintendo IP until Tri Force Heroes . You’ll team up with three buddies, choose your loadouts, and find mods that define very specific jobs for each depending on his or her playstyle. One person might be the team healer, while another person tanks the bosses. Meanwhile you might have a support soldier in the background providing buffs, debuffs and cover fire while a mage-type soldier provides stuns and AOE attacks using special missiles. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a hell of a lot of fun to me, and the game looks great. Frame rates seem consistent, the art style (though divisive) is different and colorful, and early testers have said that the stereoscopic 3D is the best they’ve ever seen in a 3DS game.

If this game was being promoted as a new IP, I think people would be pretty excited about it. The fact that it takes place in the Metroid Prime universe only makes it sweeter. The director did mention, rather coyly, that the game definitely belongs in the Metroid Prime universe, so I’m willing to be that there are a few tricks up Nintendo’s sleeve. Keep an open mind, friends, and don’t be so rash to make up your minds about Federation Force because it’s not what you were expecting. If you’re willing to be surprised by the game when it comes out, then you just might be.

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