Sigh, if only Nintnedo would learn. A rumor is going around, initiated by GameDrift that Super Mario Galaxy is to be released later than its promised spring launch. No problem, right?
Wrong. Apparently Nintendo wants to make up for this by releasing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption early; however, that only leads to more problems. It not only encourages the developers to rush, but it also ensures that some features announced previously have been dropped. It’s been a while since a good solid Metroid game (and we need one, to make up for the damage Hunters caused), and everyone true to the series has been hoping that this is the one.
Well, it might not be. The suspicious source also stated that MP3 is set to have online play with Nintendo’s WiFi connection. Why’s this bad? Well, consider the fact that all previous Metroid games have had great story mode, with complete emphasis on single-player, and not one has had a true, decent multiplayer. Metroid Prime fans have turned to other series, such as Halo, to fulfill their multiplayer needs, and have thankfully left Metroid’s single player be. Metroid Prime: Hunters changed all of this. Not that it wasn’t a great game, for what it’s worth, but it wasn’t a Metroid game. It was a guinea pig for Nintendo to test out online capabilities. It was the game to see if Metroid fans would enjoy multiplayer rather than single player. And guess what, they didn’t. It was overall, compared to the rest of the series, an abomination. Its single player was obviously thrown in at the last minute, and wasn’t true to the Metroid tradition. Multiplayer was clearly the main feature here, and that’s just fine, except that’s just not what Metroid is meant to be. Now, we’re hearing rumors about WiFi in MP3, oh joy, and if it’s good enough to go online they must have put some effort into it. And trust me, if they screw up single player again, it won’t be Nintendo’s happy day.
[ Note that this is just a rumor and may not be fact. - Source: http://www.gamedrift.com/Podcast/?p=16 ]
PS: Nintendo reps have told us earlier that there will be no online in MP3, but this ‘rep’ seems to think otherwise…hmm, we’ll see
I’d like to point my finger over to Echoes to shut down the “never a decent multiplayer” thing. I doubt you’ve tried it, but in the good ol’ days before head shot, hackers, n00bs, and alt spammers were around, MP multilayer was awesome.
And MP3 isn’t being released early. In fact, it’s been late for half a year already. The developers probably estimated a Q4 release just to be safe from further delays, and they were planning on a date like this for some time.
IMO, of course.
By: MegaManZ on July 5, 2007
at 7:23 pm
Well of course. The multiplayer in Echoes was not terrible, in fact it was actually fairly good, but it was nothing to be particularly proud of, nor was it anywhere near as complex as, say, Metroid Hunters or Halo–then again, those games were obviously geared toward multiplayer, hence why it is better–the developers have spent much more time on it. A primary reason why Echoes multiplayer now seems so much better than Hunters’ is that it’s much more balanced–take out Hunters’ alt forms and imperialist, then ban all the ‘alt spammers’, the ‘n00b campers’, the glitch abusers, and all the other players who generally abused the game and/or its minor slip-ups. Echoes had none of that, and what little it did have was balanced, rather than one-hit-KO headshots and powerful, fast, and not to mention small alt forms.
When I wrote this article, I was expecting the game to be released in June, and I think you also would agree that date probably would have been too early. Of course, games are always well in development before they are even announced, and therefore I’m sure that by the end of August the game will be ready. At any rate, it’s the last in the trilogy; so it better be!
By: kevind23 on July 5, 2007
at 7:50 pm
Nah, June wouldn’t have been too early – it’s still late, remember. Winter was just a standing date so what did come would be a pleasant surprise than another delay.
And a question: have you ever played Echoes multiplayer? It beats out Hunters easily – the controls all work smoothly, there are NO glitches, and the maps are geared for fun tactics, not triangle bombing or Imp-spamming. The on-field upgrades were all fair, and the Death Ball was random, so no races for it were in place.
Echoes is much cleaner than Hunters, in graphics, maps, tactics – all of it.
By: MegaManZ on July 6, 2007
at 3:00 pm
I have played Echoes multiplayer, and while I do fully agree it is was more fair than Hunters, I have to say that in the end, despite its shortfalls, Hunters was better than Echoes in the multiplayer department. You have to remember that Hunters was a trial for the series to see how players would react to a primarily multiplayer-geared game, compared to the series’ usual strong story mode and lacking multiplayer. I do agree that Echoes’ multiplayer was good, but again, I don’t think it was as good as Hunters’ was, for all it’s worth. However, I have faith in Corruption that its multiplayer will be good enough to hold me over until Halo 3 is released, as well as providing an excellent end to the Metroid Prime series, as far as story mode goes.
By: kevind23 on July 6, 2007
at 3:22 pm
Yeah, the trial failed. Hunters sucked. Lasted a short time, then the hackers, spammers, d/cers and glitchers came.
Honestly, Halo is just a bunch of fanboyism. What I’ve seen in ads and on the televised gaming tournaments looked undoubtedly mundane, like every other M-rated FPS.
Echoes had a decent 1-player but its multiplayer was leaps and bounds better than hunters – not just the fairness – the control scheme was much better. Plus, the Power Beam shots never lagged after you shot 100 of them. The only problem was that it wasn’t online, like the 3 or so GCN games that were.
By: MegaManZ on July 6, 2007
at 4:33 pm