A month later, 35 years will hit one of the most influential series in the history of the industry – Metroid. She became the ancestor of the whole squeal, named in her honor, and along with The Legend of Zelda introduced fashion for nonlinearity, backing and pumping in the framework of classic Action -adventure. Throughout the 2010s, the series stayed in Limbe, but already in October the release of a new, only the fifth in a row of the license plate: Metroid Dread. In anticipation of its exit, we decided to talk about why Metroid went down in history, how it was divided into two subserias and how it fell into decay.
Triple originality
The 1980s were a time of bold experimentation. Actic programmers or tiny developers' teams created games that could be sold in millions of circulations. Genres just began to be tired, and the profession “Gam-designer” actually did not exist: even in Nintendo Everything was done by programmers and artists. Moreover, the latter often did not even imagine technical restrictions on iron, under which the development was conducted. Perhaps this is what allowed the ideas of several new developers in the walls of Nintendo to become such ambitious.
At first they made a two -dimensional shooter about a space hunter in a spacesuit. In those days, even this was not banal: key for the Run-And-Gun genre Rolling Thunder And Contra have not yet come out. But the developers did not stop there: although they had very little time before the project, they decided instead of standard scrolling from left to right to offer the players an actually open world, extending in all four directions, and passing to make a non -linear. IN Metroid There was no such thing as a “level”: the player could go where his eyes looked at at any moment-until the obstacle was met in the way, requiring some kind of spacesuit. Then the goal was naturally formed: to find this upgrade. At the same time, the essence of the collection of improvements was free, and most of the items were optional.
Creatively combining various mechanics (and, of course, using gllesh), it was possible to cut a significant part of the path. Largely thanks to Metroid, speedlers were born
Thus, Metroid, being a shooter in its mechanics (and not an adventure game with a view of the top, like Zelda), shifted the emphasis from the action to the adventure component: the study of the world, backing, pumping. Planet Zebes, according to which our spacesuit was running, was full of secrets that the player had to find, and its inhabitants were not necessarily tuned to the hero-someone did not try to attack, but simply flew or crawled back and forth. And it worked perfectly for immersion in the world of the game: he lived his life, and did not work mechanically as part of the attraction. The action here did not rotate around the protagonist, and this emphasized the feeling of loneliness in the foreign world.
Metroid surroundings also became her hallmark. It was practically a horror; the developers were so hard inspired "Alien" , that one of the few bosses called Reidley. The gloomy caves of the planet Zebes were given to Gigerovshchina, and even the music for the most part was muffled, minor.
Unlike most games of that time, Metroid did not torment the constant deficit of health or ammunition – literally every enemy left behind either the healing or ammunition
In addition to the unusual surroundings and the structure of the game, the developers also surprised five different endings: depending on the speed of passage, the player received different greetings from the protagonist at the end. The fastest were awarded the image of the hero without a spacesuit, revealing the main plot turn of the game: it turned out that the space hunter Samus Aran is a woman.
However, although the concept of the project was outstanding, the execution did not shine. The game was literally collected on the knee for beginner artists, and this is striking. And the design of locations, and the location of secret passages and secrets here does not stand up to criticism. And to focus on such wide open spaces without a card is very inconvenient. So you can recommend the first part of Metroid now only in order to get acquainted with an important milestone in the history of games.
After all, it has already included all the key elements of the genre, which will subsequently name Metroivania: free movement around the world, the search for permanent improvements and new skills of the hero and return to old locations with the aim of opening new ways with the help of freshly accepted skills. Alas, other games of that time did not catch this formula, so Nintendo itself had to develop it. However, she was not particularly in a hurry to do it.
Step back, two steps forward
After all, the second part of the adventures Samus reached the low-power and monochrome Game Boy-and nothing new, in general, said. On the contrary, unlike the absolutely open first part, it was quite linear: until you overwhelm all the bosses on the floor, the next one will not open. In a word, Metroid II: Return of Samus I have not brought anything important, but lost one of the most important components of the first part.
The only reason to remember the second Metroid is its plot. Although he fits in only two lines, his influence on the future of the series is difficult to overestimate.
In the first part of Metroid, the hunter Samus Aran went to the planet Zebes to prevent space pirates from breeding metroides – terrible creatures that can suck energy from any living creature. She defeated all the leaders of the pirates – Craida, Ridley and artificial intelligence called Mother Brain – and destroyed their base. Hurray, the mission is over.
But metroide still exist on their native planet SR388. And in the second part, the samus goes there to finally end them with them. After the last of the monsters dies, a huge queen, another metroide hatch from the egg, a little baby. He circles Samus around, thinking that she is his mother, and she takes him with him.
This act of mercy – the first manifestation of the character of the heroine – was very impressed by Yoshio Sakamoto, who worked as an artist on the first Metroid and completely missed the second. It was Sakamoto who led the development of the subsequent parts of the main line of Metroid, and his interpretation Samus relied in many ways on this scene.
However, in the continuation written by Sakamoto, Samus still did not demonstrate emotions, although on SNES it could already be realized. And the third part itself looked like a remake of the first: Samus brought a metro-metro science to scientists, and then Ridley flew out of nowhere and took him back to Zebes. And there Craid, Mother Brain, and the base of cosmic pirates have already been successfully revived there – and the samus must again clean the same places. AH Shit, Here We Go Again.
I must admit, zebes literally in one cantilever generation was very buried
Super Metroid It is easy to blame for the secondaryness, but this does not detract from its historical value: preserving and increasing all the advantages of the original, it became the first AAA of the Metroidvania, the standard for years in advance. It finally appeared in it, noting both the places visited and rooms with objects; The design of levels for once was a success, the management became convenient, and the locations-colorful and memorable. Finally, a scanner appeared in the arsenal Samus, which allows to recognize secret passages. Super Metroid has become Snes system-a hit that Sega had nothing to answer.
In addition, as the classic expected, it has been preserved pretty well: it can be happy to go through it in 2021. True, the second half of the game nevertheless sags noticeably (especially in underwater segments), and some are not even secret, and the obligatory passages are so sad that the hell will break the leg. At the same time, it was Super Metroid that became the last truly unlinear part of the series.
In the finale of Super Metroid, the baby-metro-metro-player, who was sitting on the pirate grunts, saves his “mother” in the battle against Mother Brain, heroically sacrificing himself
After the third part, the series took the timeout, missing the Nintendo 64, but in 2002 she returned at once with two releases, which were not interconnected in any way. The fourth license plate was engaged in the same Sakamoto, and a new, unknown American studio was responsible for the transition of the series in 3D. No one expected that she could wipe the Japanese nose, but the miracle still happened.
Rebirth
Early history Retro Studios Optimism did not inspire. Its founder concluded a contract with Nintendo, not yet creating a company; Without even receiving girl in the hands of the girl, the little studio immediately began to work at once on four projects. The results of the first year of the existence of Retro were disappointing – but then Nintendo intervened, actually removing the founder from the management of the studio. Siger Miyamoto flew to Texas himself and began to cut the splash. Three of the four projects were unceremoniously canceled; In the fourth, first -person shooter, the legendary game designer saw the potential. Retro employees prepared for the worst received an offer, which was difficult to refuse: to make a new part of Metroid on their engine.
But transferring the game from 2D to 3D without losing the essence of the source – the task is very difficult. The developers initially thought to use the view from a third person, but Miyamoto put a veto on this decision. He also threw ideas to the developers: for example, “what if Samus had a beetle's eyes?". So the helmet of the heroine appeared various visors – filters that allow you to look at the environment differently.
Perhaps the most important of them was the scanner, illuminating all interesting objects in the field of view and issuing information about them. Thanks to him, the level of immersion in the world of the game has grown at times: he allowed the ancient letters of the dead civilization and talked about every representative of Flora and fauna. But his functional role was no less important: he showed all the hidden paths, suggested what exactly needed to open them. Thanks to the scanner, the player always understood what was surrounded and what should I pay attention to. The need to poke in all walls in a row, as in two -dimensional "metroide", disappeared.
And all key features have been preserved. Metroid Prime was the same game about the study of the expanses of someone else's planet, the search for improvements to Samus spacesuits and battles with opponents – but now in a colorful, highly detailed three -dimensional world. The first -person view did not turn the game into FPS: to emphasize that the action here is not the main thing, Retro introduced auto -limit. Even the battles with bosses here were more often a test of quick wits, and not to the speed of reaction.
Prime has become much more linear compared to Super Metroid: important improvements are taken here in strict order. And if the player cannot understand for a long time where the next, the game will helpfully give out a hint
How Ocarina of Time She transferred the essence of Zelda to the third dimension, as well as with Prime, the Metroid series showed the whole world that even with the usual first -person view, games can be made completely different. Metroid Prime has become one of the most highly appreciated games in history and remains relevant and still.
And what is the soundtrack!
Primus needs fixing
Following the stunning success of Metroid Prime, sequels followed. IN Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Samus visited the planet, which had a dark side; there she constantly had to jump between two hypostases of each location. From the point of view of puzzles, this decision was not bad, but it hit the art design very much: the second part came out very gray. And the presence of characters issuing tasks hit the feeling of free research of someone else's planet, not offering anything in return.
The third part did not reach GameCube, but on WII – and she already used a free sight with might and main, which has become much more convenient to manage thanks to the remote control. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has become a great demonstration of the skillful use of a new type of management – both in battles and in puzzles. However, there was almost nothing left of the spirit of the old "metroide" in it. Samus here visited several planets in turn, which is why the adventure lost integrity. And the narrative came to the fore: the Katsenes and the crepted segments, on the one hand, were a curiosity for the series and diversified what was happening, on the other, they did not fit her very much. The third part became the most “blockbuster”, linear and simple in the Prime trilogy.
Wii owners rode a hook on the city flying in the sky long before Bioshock Infinite!
Between the second and third parts, two curious spin-offs for Nintendo DS came out, which I recently mentioned in the list of the best games for the portable platform. This Metroid Prime Pinball, Excellent transference of travel samus from the first Prime to the form of a pinball, and Metroid Prime Hunters, An intelligent multiplayer shooter with a completely shameful single campaign, which is better not to remember. Hunters and Corruption have done a lot to expand the Metroid universe, introducing other space hunters: about any Hunters character could make your own game, and the space for potential continuation was huge.
But Retro (from which almost all Prime developers have already left) took up a rethinking Donkey Kong Country. And the producer of Kensk Tanabe, whom Miyamoto appointed to oversee the series during the development of the first part of Prime, for some reason decided to devote the next game not Samus and not colorful mercenaries, but literally red-haired fighters. And focus on the shooting component. And make fragmentary short missions instead of researching a holistic world. And choose for the game ugly art design with supermode formed heroes. AND…
When Metroid Prime: Federal showed the public on E3 2015, more than 90% of the reactions to the trailer were negative. Fans even created a petition with a request to cancel the game – she collected 24 thousand signatures. Tanabe insisted that the game should give a chance, but she clearly did not deserve it: on the release of Federal Force, she collected miserable 64 points on Metacritic and did not fall into any chart of sales. It was a catastrophe at absolutely all levels, starting with the concept itself and ending with gameplay, which even the cooperative did not save. And this release Nintendo celebrated the thirty anniversary of the series!
This fiasco, however, did not shake Tanabe's position, and he entrusted the development Metroid Prime 4 The “new and talented team”, which, however, did not even call (according to Eurogamer, it was a Singaporean unit Bandai Namco ). On E3 2017 we were shown a logo, and … WHO still there. In 2019, the work of the New and Talented Team was recognized as unsatisfactory, and Tanabe ran back to Retro. I would like to hope that even though they will get something sensible.
Farewell to pixel art
But let's go back to the past, in 2002, when the paths of 2D and 3D parts finally dispersed. The Prime series, even at its most plot-saturated moments, did not claim to have a connection with the old canon: the fans simply decided that since Samus was already familiar with Ridley, but the metroly was not completely exterminated, the events of all the “primits” occur somewhere between the first and second parts. But with the same success, they could be taken to a parallel universe – what's the difference?
But who was worried about the old canon was Yoshio Sakamoto: he was determined to continue and develop the history of Samus. Although it was difficult to continue it: the last metroide died, the cosmic pirates are defeated, and so that they would not be revived again on Zebes, Samus blew up the entire planet. Well then?
And then the popular script "Ancient evil is awakening". As it turned out, the metrolys were artificially displayed on the SR388 planet, because there were terrible X-parasites who not only ate all living things, but also mimicated for other organisms. Having set off on SR388 to find out what is happening there, the samus is infected with a parasite and tolerates the crash. Scientists save her with the help of the cells of the same metroide one, which she brought to them earlier.
So the Metroid series made up the cinema cycle, which at one time inspired its appearance: in the second part, the heroine dealt with the queen of strangers, in the third – she took with her a baby of a stranger who died in the finale, and in the fourth revived, absorbed part of those with whom those with whom with whom Fighted all my life. And was locked on a spaceship, where monsters were displayed. The heroine wants to destroy the ship, and her on -board computer recalls that the federation company wants to use this new wonderful organism as a biological weapon. Parallels suggest by themselves.
Unlike the previous parts, Metroid Fusion Full of monologues and dialogues: Samus acts as a storyteller of this story, and the new on -board computer constantly directs the heroine on her journey through the space station. Because of this, Fusion is absolutely linear: one level goes after another, scripts will start the heroine in the scenes of the chases, the script is in a hurry to reveal turns.
Samus calls the AI-senior Adam, because he reminds her of an officer with his manners, under which she served in the army. Then, of course, it turns out that he literally is an digitized copy of Adam Malkovich – a man who previously sacrificed Samus to save his life. Together, they destroy the space station along with the entire planet SR388 – and thereby challenging the entire Federation. What next? And then almost 20 years of waiting for the sequel.
Despite unusual series, linearity and emphasis on the plot, the audience accepted Fusion warmly: a pleasant picture, convenient management and solid level design played a role. It can be recommended for passage now, but with an important reservation: it will not give you the very game experience for which everyone is in the hands of Super Metroid – or even Prime.
Sakamoto, instead of a sequel, took up prequels, midcels and remakes. In 2003, Metroid manga, revealing a lot of interesting details, came out. It turns out that the samus is orphaned because of Ridley, which is why she has a severe trauma; She spent youth on Zebes, and raised her Choso – that very extinct race, along the ruins of whose civilization we are walking. The manga also introduces Adam Malkovich, shows life in the federation … And the so interesting and important part of the Metroid Laura never comes out in the West. What is doubly ironic, because in Japan the Metroid series does not use a share of the popularity that it has earned in the USA and Europe.
Following the manga, the remake of the first part of the series also comes out – Zero Mission. It is associated with the printed prequel, rare katsets, but the plot of the original, as you recall, is quite minimalist that Western players do not guess about the existence of an additional context.
Zero Mission is such a remake, after which you can not remember the original. Everything became better than everything. Convenient management and new skills from Super Metroid, converted level design, normal battles with bosses, free research of the world in the presence of convenient tips … If you want to get acquainted with two -dimensional "metro", it is worth starting with it.
Cosmodrama
In the second half of the zero, Sakamoto took up his Magnum Opus – the three -dimensional part of Metroid on WII, plot, full of dialogs and Kitszen. She was supposed to become a mid -and fourth in units and tell the story so important, according to Sakamoto himself, that the continuation of Fusion would be unthinkable without it.
In fact Metroid: Other m literally says anything that we did not know before or did not see in the previous parts. The Federation secretly breds metroists at the next space station – Eka Nevidal! Ridley with Mother Brain, just blown up with the whole planet, also returned – well done, scientists! The samus is sad about the dead metro-model, and Adam Malkovich heroically sacrifices himself to save his ward and destroy Mother Brain, along with new, especially dangerous monsters … In general, everything is natural.
Another thing is that here it is presented in katsen, the total duration of which is two hours – in fact, a quarter of the total timing. That is, a rather simple story is presented verbose, with details, with extensive emotional internal Rich Prize Casino monologues, with flashbacks – to the death of the baby, to how Samus served under the command of Adam. Although there is definitely chemistry between the two central characters, Sakamoto is still not so what a scriptwriter.
Just for the script, the fans eventually defeated Other M. They only clung to the fact that they should not have surprised them: for example, to the shock that Samus experienced at the sight of Ridley, to her walls about the baby and that she consciously does not use her skills until Adam resolves it to her. The first and second is easily explained by the fact that before Samus did not particularly show its character (and generally read the manga), and the latter flashed in Fusion, and required a little greater attention to the script and to the relationship between Samus and Adam. The root of the problem is obvious: Sakamoto finally made a living person out of the samus with emotional bursts and not always rational behavior, and the fans painted a completely different heroine in their heads, much more stoic. In the 94th, her meeting with Ridley did not reproach, did you understand.
Following the script of the fans, the linearity of the game also angered … although the same linear Fusion everyone joyfully swallowed. After all, in essence, Other M is a three -dimensional fusion. Equally plot, equally scribbled, only less complexity. She, without a doubt, is not among the best games of the series (the gameplay here is very strange and quite primitive, and the art design is excessively motley), but she clearly did not deserve such a sharp negativity.
And Sakamoto is so emotional that when viewing Kitszen Other m literally sobbed. It is easy to assume what effect the public reviews had: since then he has not touched any game as a screenwriter and director, and for several years he has not returned to Metroid for several years.
But in the mid-2010s, the Spanish studio Mercurysteam , Having shot three parts Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, expressed a desire to make a remake Metroid Fusion. Sakamoto evaluated the developers, but decided to direct their zeal to another remake – the second part. You, of course, already understand why.
Yoshio Sakamoto: Metroid II describes the first meeting Samus and Baby Metroide. This event plays a crucial role in the history of the series, and the best way to tell this story would be a remake again.
In fairness, Fusion could really do without a remake (and Other M with a stretch can be considered it), while playing a miserable monochrome second part now no one would have become no one. True, she needed not only updating graphics, but in a cardinal rethinking, enriching new and diverse content – and Mercurysteam did not really cope with this.
Metroid: Samus Returns I came out ugly, gray, monotonous. In the nameless and faceless caves, Samus fought with the same bosses-metro-rods-and the murder of everyone on a particular floor opened access to the next. The developers added Samus a new skill – parrying – and forced half the enemies to demand its use against them. The adventure failed: the passage of Samus returns was felt like routine work. And it was especially fading it looked against the background of the same fan remake of the same Metroid II – Am2r.
Samus returns
Am2r
After long years of waiting, the continuation of Fusion was still announced on E3 2021. After many years without normal parts, the very existence of Metroid Dread inspires joy – but there are also reasons for fear. Mercurysteam is again engaged in development. The game looks again, to put it mildly, not very attractive. Mechanics of parrying again in the case. The trailer shows us the scene of the chase with the instant death of the heroine – and this is more likely in the spirit of a contradictory fusion and does not look like a classic at all.
And, most importantly, in the 2010s that the series spent in oblivion (neither Federal Force nor Samus Returns clearly earned many new fans to her), the genre of metroids survived the indie scene. Will Dread be able to impress the players who have seen Guacamelee, ORI And Hollow Knight? We will find out already in October.
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