So looking up the rumors about Retro...
- In 2012, they were rumored to be working on some big Metroid - Star Fox crossover game:
http://paulgalenetwork.com/home/2012/05/...sion-saga/
- Which later on was rumored to have been too ambitious and was cancelled.
- Then more recently rumors about Retro working on Star Fox Racing appeared. This game still has not been confirmed, if it is real.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-...g-spin-off
- The story about why Retro wasn't working on Metroid Prime 4 a year and a half ago when the game was announced with its then-unknown but NOT Retro development team was because Retro was busy.
- Now Retro apparently isn't as busy, and can start on MP4. IS this because Star Fox Racing, or whatever, is nearing completion and Retro can move their planning people and such over to a new project? After all this time I really hope that whatever Retro was working on hasn't been cancelled again, and that that is the reason.
As a result of that cancellation or whatever Retro hasn't published a game of their own since DKC Tropical Freeze in February 2014, almost five years ago now, so I really hope that they're finishing up work on whatever they've been working on, Star Fox Racing or what have you... though seriously I don't know why it w*ould be a Star Fox Racing game when Nintendo should be making F-Zero, but anyway.
Quote:I was pretty worried when they handed over such a major entry in the franchise to them in the first place. Yes, technically they also were behind the two most recent Smash Bros games, but it was led by Sora managing everything.
I was worried about Namco's ability to make a good Metroid Prime game as well, and I guess those worries were justified, now... because Nintendo agreed.
Quote:It's good to see Nintendo is willing to avoid the "sunk cost fallacy" and start over when needed.
Yeah, it must have either been a complete mess of a project, far from completion, or been looking no good. Either way it's good for their standards that they decided to cancel it, most likely.
Quote: You ask some very good questions about Retro, and honestly a big chunk of the old talent that made the original Prime great is working for Microsoft now. (They made ReCore, so, yeah, once again MS snatching up developers and then having no idea how to manage them.) Metroid Prime 3 honestly wasn't all that good compared to the first 2. I mean, it's good, but the change in design meant it wasn't quite the Metroid experience we'd come to expect. Way too much story, and way too much linearity. Hopefully they can walk that back with 4.
Yeah, this is true, we have no idea if a new Prime game would be anywhere near as great as the original; Retro hasn't managed it either, as you point out. The first game is really, REALLY amazing, still one of its generations' best games, but 2 and 3 don't grab me anywhere near as much and never have. And then on top of that Retro has had quite a bit of turnover since then, so hopefully they can manage to make something great... but who knows, it'll be a long time until we see it sadly enough.
On the subject of linearity, I of course have almost never minded it, but I know that being open-ended is an important part of the Metroid franchise so sure, the first games' design is better in that respect I guess. Both linearity and open-ended designs have downsides -- open-ended games can be annoying when you constantly have to backtrack or need to randomly wander around to figure out where in the world you need to go (Prime did a fairly good job of directing you, but occasionally was tricky), for example. As for linearity in this kind of game, I guess if it feels like you're not making any choices but are just following a corridor it also could get dull, if the gameplay along the way doesn't hold your interest.