Metroid 4: Return of Hunters

[Dark Jaguar]

Well, not quite sure what to make of it just yet.  The trailer is very cinematic and story focused, which isn't really what I want from a Metroid Prime game, but it very likely is just a sort of introductory level so I'm reserving judgment until the game comes out and I see some reviews.

But, seriously that weird blue helmet alien at the end is very familiar.  VERY familiar.  I had to pull out my old DS to confirm and... that's the guy!  That's one of the weird aliens from that spin-off Hunters game on the DS!  From the demo that came with all of our DSes, and then was an actual kinda sorta game...

What a weird source for a villain!

[A Black Falcon]

I was thinking about making a thread for this game as well as Zelda, but... after all these years of development, and it's been a long time now, all we get is a pretty vague, under 2 minute trailer?  All I got from this trailer was that yes, it looks like a Metroid Prime game.  It'll have first-person shooting, exploration, scanning, Samus... it's Metroid Prime.  Beyond that, though, we don't see much.  It's also a 'sometime in 2025' game, of course, it's not coming soon.

I guess they did bring back a Metroid Prime Hunters character, and no I didn't recognize it at all -- I barely played more than a few minutes of that game, though it seemed decent enough -- but yeah, I wanted to see gameplay, not some vague story trailer.  Ah well.  Next year I guess.. what a long wait.  Even Nintendo has fallen into the 'bordering on 10 year dev cycles' problem now, clearly.

[Dark Jaguar]

I'd say I'm surprised but... Nintendo was already known for pretty long development cycles compared to their contemporaries over the years.  They aren't Ubisoft, pumping out a game a year for a single franchise.  That said, Metroid Prime 4 is in a different place.  America, but what I mean is remember Rare and the long delays for their games that dwarfed even Nintendo's delays?

Also, recall that Tears of the Kingdom was a game that reused Breath of the Wild's engine in order to speed up development time, and even with that head start, it still took a good long while.

The Switch 2, whatever it may be, is coming out at some point.  Development costs to really take advantage of that hardware are going to go up, but more than that, the hours of work needed to realize it will go up too.  All that resolution will be expecte to get filled with details.  I think it's the details in the models and textures and special effects that are slowing these games down the most.  Have you ever just sat down, exploded a game's files, and just LOOKED at the vast PLANET of textures to be found in today's games?  Artists had to make ALL of that. Every single inch.  Metroid Prime 4 is a rare Nintendo game going for "realistic" style graphics, and that requires lots and lots of detail, even on hardware that's essentially a portable PS3/XBox360.  Even games like Mario Odyssey of all things are being set in a lot of "realistic" detailed locations.  Perhaps all these companies need to step back and ask themselves how important all this detail actually is!  Don't get me wrong, having a game that rich in lavish detail is nice, but it's not necessary.  I think such things should become a "sometimes food".  In Nintendo's case, as I said, Metroid Prime 4 is a rarer example, but Zelda comes close.  I think that's why the new Zelda Prime 2 Echoes is going for such a simplistic design.  They can pump it out far faster than Tears for Fears and still give us some major innovations.