How about a metroid game about metroids?!

[Jandy]

With the effort ninty seem to have made with forcing story into metroid like a hammering a wooden cube into the circular hole, why haven't any of them touched on the origin of metroids, or maybe what happened to the chozos? Wasn't Samus infused with their blood and adopted by them?

The prime series wasn't about metroids, it was about phazon. Metroids felt pretty tacked on to me. I haven't played OM but from all the reactions it seems to be forcing the contrived Adam father-figure thing that fusion tried (not to mention the X parasites... The game's called metroid, but hey, why not make the main threat of the game being something/anything other than metroids?). And besides fusion they're all prequels/interquels. That have not even scraped on the *actual* origins of Samus or metroids. If Other M were set to this background (loss of her parents, gaining the suit) then her weak personally would have been a bit more plausible as she'd be inexperienced.

It'd also be a fair get-out as to why she'd start out with no powers. Some people were miffed by her being 'authorised' to use upgrades in OM, and there's only so many times samus can crash her ship or lose them in an explosion or something.

The series is METROID, not Phazon or X parasites or Adam 'who?' Malchovic. They're supposed to be some terrifying bio threat but save for the actual metroid prime creature they've become little more than something to keep space pirates busy.

I'd love the next game to spill the beans on chozos and metroids, and even see the metroid 2 -or even a new- metroid life cycle! They grew because of the radiation on that planet from M2, and because of phazon in the MPs, so their growth what-not is clearly affected by various radiation/energy, like weird blood thirsty tamagotchis. There's limitless creative possibilities that are being ignored for very forced story lines and detours from the namesake of the series.

Thoughts?

[Emperor Ing]

As to why Nintendo hasn't touched on the more story elements, I can only hope it's because deep down, Nintendo realizes that they are incredibly incompetent writers and that any more story would make Metroid deader than the dodo.

I too would like to see the Metroids return and be a threat to galactic civilization. Instead of a lame plot twist of a bad sci-fi anime (Other M's metroids). The series has really sputtered ever since the words "THE LAST METROID IS IN CAPTIVITY" graced TV screens over a decade ago. Way to write yourselves into a corner, guys! There is a way out in that magical radiation changes Metroids into whatever the game needs them to be. That needs to be exploited in the next Metroid game to make them threatening, dangerous, and mysterious.

Fusion gave us the completely uninteresting and boring blurb "Metroids were created to combat the X Parasites!" yes, Sakamoto and co. Way to make the series namesake nothing more than the nemesis to your monster-of-the-week!

I hope the next installment ignores any developments made to the "canon" of Metroid lore given to us by post-Super Metroid games (Prime games notwithstanding).

And I don't really care about "losing powerups." Just start us off with nothing and let us build. That's the fun part. As other m has shown, trying to explain gameplay elements with story just leads to increasingly retarded scenarios.

[spoiler]I am going to blame all of this on Sakamoto's ambitions as a writer, those ambitions being curtailed by his complete incompetence in that regard.[/spoiler]

The series needs to find a stride that it hasn't had since Super Metroid - again, Prime games notwithstanding, because those actually did well.

Fusion was like "uh, here's ADAM, and like, these parasites, ok? Have some locked doors. By the way this game is pointless in the grand sequence of events except to set you up for Other M lol"
Zero Mission was like "hey you wanna play the original Metroid again? Have some pointless stealth too!"
Other M was Other M.

Who would have thought killing the series' main antagonist (Mother Brain), the series namesake (Metroids), and the most important planet in the series mythos (Zebes) would have made it hard to create sequels!

Welcome to the forum, btw. I like the cut of your jib.

[Insomniac By Choice]

Really, Nintendo should have the freedom to make 'Samus Aran: Bounty Hunter' games, and other games like 'Metroid: Hunger,' which could even be someone else with less impressive weaponry landing on SR388 and trying to survive first contact with Metroids, ultimately (we know), failing.

But, you'll never have a Halo game called Master Chief, and Metroid as a series has never sold well enough to think that a game without Samus set in the same universe would do well at all. Compromise couldbe 'Eternal Darkness' style gameplay where you jump back and forth between Samus on the planet in the present (or past) and into some other character with different properties?

Still, a sort of general cyberpunk or otherwise scifi game where Samus has to navigate Galactic Federation colonies, space platforms and the like to track down quarries, open ended in a GTA or Elder Scrolls sort of way where she can take lots of side missions in addition to ones that advance the main plot, would be all kinds of fun. Some of the missions would be dungeon quests similar to typical Metroid games, but the rest could be something new and maybe more popularly accessible for it.

[Doc Scratch]

Make a Metroid game on a planet where the Metroids annihilated a civilization.

You've got ancient ruins and lore, lots of Metroids, and nobody around, the perfect components for a good Metroid game.

[kadosho]

A chapter covering the origins of our favorite aliens. I think that would be a solid idea. And its true that the idea has been missing lately. Since M2, they've become more of a guest star. To tell the truth, I too would love to find out about their creation + corruption. Plus the Chozo's involvement with the galaxy would be fun to pursue. Another thing that made me wonder is what other capabilities that the Fusion suit can evolve from (like our lil buddies).

[Remnants]

Perhaps make Metroids turn into an intelligent threat that can lead itself instead of just another bunch of living weapons that needs to be manipulated by a different group of bad guys. Perhaps reveal a little more of the biology of the Metroids.

For the intelligence part, perhps go with a kind of swarm intelligence of different Metroid species cooperating and acting as a single body that can manipulate things and their environment so that they don't really come off as an anthropomorphic intelligence. What if this swarm had self-awareness as well as awareness of its own biology as well as knowledge of how to mess with the DNA or development of its components and "breed" metroids to carry out specific tasks like going into outer space and investigate other environments to examine its potential for not only habitat but evolution as well.

Stopping to think about it, that might be a little too daunting to flesh out right. Eh...

[VGMStudios]

To be a little fair. Metroid 3 was supposed to be the last metroid game ever made.
So they really didnt write themselves into a corner per say.

But I do agree. The next metroid game should be about metroid.
Though its like that for everything. Zelda games arent about Zelda.

Vgm out...

[HYRUL3]

Make a Metroid game on a planet where the Metroids annihilated a civilization.

You've got ancient ruins and lore, lots of Metroids, and nobody around, the perfect components for a good Metroid game.

This sounds awesome.

To be a little fair. Metroid 3 was supposed to be the last metroid game ever made.
So they really didnt write themselves into a corner per say.

But I do agree. The next metroid game should be about metroid.
Though its like that for everything. Zelda games arent about Zelda.

Vgm out...

If it was supposed to be the end, and they decided to go against that and make more, wouldn't that mean they wrote themselves into a corner?

[kadosho]

Hyrul3, true you do have a point, that interview our humble team unearthed does date M3 "the end". And now we're in the middle, strapped for ideas.
It doesn't make sense why Other M and Fusion propelled to expand the series. If they nothing to go after. There has to be more tales of Samus's adventures in the stars.
Or even the Metroids themselves could become the main star. Kinda makes you wonder why things have been left hanging for so long.

[Emperor Ing]

Because, if Super Metroid seemed to write things into a corner, Fusion wrote things even FURTHER into a corner and built a barricade around itself to make sure it would not leave said corner.

That Sakamoto and co. have been unable to pick up after Fusion has to say something both about their own abilities and about Fusion's plot as a whole.

[Aiddon]

I...don't see why they would need to touch on the Chozo; they're better off being shrouded in myth as I don't really see what they could add to the series. I also believe that they trained Samus, but never really got CLOSE to her, so you can't really say they adopted her. They were more like teachers to her than a foster family. They're Samus' mentors for battle, that's all.

As for the Metroids, if they're gone, they're gone. In Fusion they explained that the species was bio-engineered to be a predator towards the X which is really all the backstory they need and I don't really see how you can get more clear-cut than that. They also explain that the word "Metroid" is taken from the Chozo word for "Ultimate Warrior". Thus it's why they can keep calling the series "Metroid" even though the race is extinct. Plus keep in mind Samus also is now partially Metroid. Now THAT would be an interesting tangent to see if that fusion is affecting her in other ways.

[Doc Scratch]

As for the Metroids, if they're gone, they're gone. In Fusion they explained that the species was bio-engineered to be a predator towards the X which is really all the backstory they need and I don't really see how you can get more clear-cut than that. They also explain that the word "Metroid" is taken from the Chozo word for "Ultimate Warrior". Thus it's why they can keep calling the series "Metroid" even though the race is extinct. Plus keep in mind Samus also is now partially Metroid. Now THAT would be an interesting tangent to see if that fusion is affecting her in other ways.

According to Yoshio Sakamoto, Samus is no longer part Metroid. Absorbing the SA-X restored her original DNA, which is why she can use the Ice Beam again at the end of Fusion. Yeah, I don't get it either.

[Emperor Ing]

As for the Metroids, if they're gone, they're gone. In Fusion they explained that the species was bio-engineered to be a predator towards the X which is really all the backstory they need and I don't really see how you can get more clear-cut than that.

If by clear-cut you mean "completely and utterly underwhelming" then yes, the origin of the Metroids, as Fusion would have it, is pretty "clear-cut."

You don't seem to realize how much Fusion writes the series into a corner regarding everything in the series that matters. The game itself is good, but many elements of its story do not affect the 'lore' in an altogether positive fashion. As Doc points out, the writing as Sakamoto explains it himself, is clumsy and awkward, and is best left forgotten so new games can develop in interesting ways.

[Aiddon]

As for the Metroids, if they're gone, they're gone. In Fusion they explained that the species was bio-engineered to be a predator towards the X which is really all the backstory they need and I don't really see how you can get more clear-cut than that.

If by clear-cut you mean "completely and utterly underwhelming" then yes, the origin of the Metroids, as Fusion would have it, is pretty "clear-cut."

You don't seem to realize how much Fusion writes the series into a corner regarding everything in the series that matters. The game itself is good, but many elements of its story do not affect the 'lore' in an altogether positive fashion. As Doc points out, the writing as Sakamoto explains it himself, is clumsy and awkward, and is best left forgotten so new games can develop in interesting ways.

I don't see how explaining the Metroids as a bioweapon is anything but what it is: their origins, nothing more, nothing less. Seriously, cut down on the hyperbole, it's gotten old.

[Emperor Ing]

What we don't know is more interesting than what we know.

Before Fusion: All we knew is that the Metroids are a mysterious bio-weapon life-form coveted by the Space Pirates and Mother Brain, with immense potential as a weapon and energy source.

Post Fusion: Metroids were created by the Chozo to stop an absurdly-ill-conceived parasite so stupid it nearly got itself killed on every single occasion.

It ties Metroids to one place, SR388 - which was blown up - and to one purpose - to stop the X, which were blown up. Coupled with Super Metroid blowing up Zebes, and the death of all Metroids, their entire significance in the series - which is called Metroid, I remind you - is eliminated. At best they are a "gotcha" or stupid plot point like Other M's "unfreezable Metroids" - which cheapens them and makes it harder to care about Metroids at all. If you can't see how that hinders the development and future of the series, well...

Basically, any new Metroid game has to massively retcon Other M and Fusion to remove Adam from the story, remove most mention of the X-parasite, and make Metroids a new, fascinating, and terrifying threat again. I would not be surprised if Fusion was remade, to better fit it into the larger mythos, fix its glaring pacing issues, and make it so it didn't fuck with the rest of the series. Bonus points if it completely wraps up all Other M threads so we never have to deal with them again.

You know how in the first Metroid Prime, it built up to showing off the first Metroid? You know how it started to build up how much a threat that thing was? And since it was your first time playing the game, and you were probably still a bit shaky with the controls, that miniboss fight was one hell of an experience? And then things got stranger as you saw hunter metroids, and fission metroids, and Metroid Prime? Or even Corruption, a game I don't like, with a bunch of weird grotesque phazon mutations, like hoppers and whatever those weird versions you had to fight with the nova beam.

Contrast that with Fusion, where you saw a bunch of baby metroids, which immediately die, and an Omega Metroid, which immediately dies.
Contrast that with Other M, which tells you there are a lot of metroids, which then immediately die.

Those games go at great lengths to tell us about Metroids, but it doesn't really matter. While I admire Fusion for trying to go in a new direction and introduce a new threat to the universe, it wasn't handled particularly well.