Metroid Prime Trilogy: Gaming's Citizen Kane?

[Infinity's End]

If you were surprised by the subject too, so was I.
Here's a vid on abc news, done by an IGN editor about MPT.
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8765863

I wouldn't go as far as saying MPT is gaming's version of Citizen Kane, but it's definitely (at least the first one) one of its brightest masterpieces.

EDIT: I will say that MP is also a pioneer, much like how SM was. MP's influence can be seen exceedingly well in games like Half Life 2 or Bioshock and most likely its upcoming sequel, which then leads to other games that seem very similar to Bioshock like Singularity. MP's pure atmosphere was unrivaled for its time. The closest you could say was Half Life. It drew the line where first-person games could go and I guess you could look at MP being one of the "standard setters" of the genre. That genre being first person adventures.

[Emperor Ing]

Though I don't think Prime is as revolutionary to games as Kane was to film, I think that Prime certainly is one of THE masterpieces of gaming, as you put it.

Kane shaped films for good, I think. It's too soon to see if Prime has had as large of an impact, and in the same way, video-games don't really have things like "Citizen Kane"s to shape its course so thoroughly. At least, that's what I think.

If anything, meaningful games seem to be often inspired by other meaningful forms of artistic media... Like novels, etc.

I have heard many books inspiring a video-game, but not many the other way around. Not to disparage games though.

[sockmonkey]

Rosebud.

[Redwing]

Yeah, I feel like videogames are still in a pre-revolutionary period. We have masterpieces, but I don't quite feel that anyone has done anything truly turning the tables to such success as the mentioned film.

[Echoman]

Am I the only one who kinda ...cringed at the IGN guy's attempts to find parallels between Trilogy and Citizen Kane as the video went on?

Not only that but I don't think anyone who never played/heard of Prime is going to be convinced by comparisons.

Still I will say it is interesting to see a discussion of Prime on an ABC news program of all things.

[Lazarius]

Well, let's hope this boosts sales. It seems doubtful, but media recognition as good as this is just what metroid needs to be revitalised.

And yeah, I flinched every time he compared the movie and the game.

[Schrau]

Rosebud.

Was the name of her Hunter-class gunship

[Redwing]

The video clips of Prime that they showed did not seem to support what he was saying. Lots of blowing things up with fire and running. They should have showed more panoramic and exploratory videos.

[CapCom]

Yeah, I have to disagree with the Citizen Kane comparison. There can be games that have a huge impact on other games, but Citizen Kane was expression - how can we use this medium in different ways. Atmosphere is only one small part of that (and the vocabulary of atmosphere in Prime was FAR wider than 'ooh creepy space station OMG zombie jump out!'). To use everything that games can do, you have to be creating a wide range of emotions, and your game has to be talking about something a little more substantial than blowing shit up. You also have to communicate this through gameplay and rules rather than cutscenes and text - those are what film and literature does. I think we're so concerned with games being art that we're inclined to look for art where it doesn't exist and elevate what art is there higher than it should be.

Also, Citizen Kane was very poorly received at the time and only later evaluated as the watershed moment that it was. Metroid Prime's success was doubted completely (and with good reason) and only after it was released was it accepted as the best game of the year. I think about the only game that is really fitting this is The Last Express, which lots of game and media theorists are now going ga-ga over. But I don't think the game has had a wide range of influence. Maybe Heavy Rain will come close, but I don't have high hopes that it will be anything other than an M-rated evolution of the graphical adventure game.

I don't think it will be a single game that does all this. I think it will be a bunch of smaller games, art games, persuasive games, that demonstrate what you can do with the medium. Eventually, these will start to trickle into store-bought games until finally it all eventually comes together in a big budget title and people realize 'Wow, I didn't know games could do that!'

[Quadraxis]

Maybe Heavy Rain will come close, but I don't have high hopes that it will be anything other than an M-rated evolution of the graphical adventure game.

You mean Heavy Rain: Uncanny Valley Adventures?
Seriously, from what I've seen, the characters look like clay figures. It's kinda unsettling.


Oh, and back on topic: This comparison didn't really work. Metroid does indeed seem to have deeper themes of isolation, but I don't think it can be compared to something like Citizen Kane. I doubt Prime is going to change everything we know about video games as an art form. Even if it clearly is a classic.

[Infinity's End]

ROFL!!!

Anthony Birch, an editor on Destructoid.com just did a "Rev Rant" about the vid.

For those not familiar, Anthony, who goes by "Reverend Anthony" on the site, does these rants and has, on many occasions, spoken of the mythical "citizen kane of gaming" and how the industry needs one so desperately, etc. blah blah blah. In fact, once I watched that vid, it instantly reminded me of Anthony's rants. He's even had long conversations with David Jaffe (director of God of War) about it. So this is kind of rubbing salt in the old wound kind of deal. That's why he reacted like this.

It's funny though, I wonder if he got the link from us or if someone passed on the link to him that read it from our site...

[Emperor Ing]

Next on ABC:

Is Super Mario Sunshine the gaming equivalent of The Good the Bad and the Ugly? Find out at 8!

[ChozoBoy]

MPT: Gaming's Citizen Kane?
10.7.09

Recently,

Someone going to finish this news story on the main page?

[-ChozoChild-]

I feel happy that Metroid got a TV spot on ABC but... I don't really see the comparison.
I haven't watched those movies by Citizen Kane, so I can't judge. But I have played through the Metroid Prime Saga.

There was one part of the clip I did like, and that's when he said Metroid Prime was a Masterpiece video game, and it sure is.
That line made me feel very happy.

I hope metroid will get more fans and sales.
I'm still in shock that Nintendo did hardly anything for the Prime Trilogy release. Oh well... ;3

[Infinity's End]

MPT: Gaming's Citizen Kane?
10.7.09

Recently,

Someone going to finish this news story on the main page?

The article is and has been finished for quite some time now. Refresh your page or something?