Metroid...Pinball?

[Great Rumbler]

A recent perusal of the Nintendo DS games catalog on EBGames.com revealed a title called "Metroid Pinball DS". It's listed as having a release date of 12/05/2005 at a price of $29.99. Nintendo is listed as the publisher, and the developer is currently unknown. We'll have more on this title as news is revealed, but the premise of a pinball game based on the Metroid universe sounds mighty cool indeed.

Also on the release front, both EBGames.com and Gamestop.com have Metroid Prime: Hunters set for an August release (EBGames lists 08/22, and Gamestop lists 08/01). This is further out than the May/June timeframe we've seen floating around the web for a while now.

Huh.

Planet Gamecube

[OB1]

Thanks for posting this, as I was too lazy to.

Metroid Pinball makes sense... kinda. I mean Samus can turn into a ball and everything... makes more sense than Mario pinball.

Hey as long as it's good pinball who cares. Pinball with remixed Metroid music could be cool!

[Great Rumbler]

Or you could just listen to remixed Metroid songs from Overclock Remix...

[OB1]

...

And what about playing pinball with a samus ball?? HUH??!!! ANSWER THAT WHY DON'T YOU!!!!1111111

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, I saw this earlier today too and was also too lazy to post it... :) Could be good, though. Most of Nintendo's pinball games are good.

[Great Rumbler]

And what about playing pinball with a samus ball?? HUH??!!! ANSWER THAT WHY DON'T YOU!!!!1111111

Quite frankly, OB1, when you get down to the basic details of this whole situation and move aside all the fancy words and techno-babble, it really does make a whole lot of sense.

[A Black Falcon]

Actually, all of the Nintendo pinball games have been great, except Mario Pinball which reviews say is only decent... but still, I'd have hope that it could be pretty good.

[Dark Jaguar]

I thought Mario Pinball was fun from the demo I played a while ago. Don't have it, or any of the Nintendo Pinball games, but yeah they all have been fun.

Metroid Pinball? Well obviously it won't be part of the official storyline (if they actually managed a serious and believable story in pinball form they would manage a miracle worthy of making them storyline gods), but it should be a fun little adventure. I'm imagining some super deformed doll looking Samus morphing into a ball and going against cute versions of space pirates.

[OB1]

Quite frankly, OB1, when you get down to the basic details of this whole situation and move aside all the fancy words and techno-babble, it really does make a whole lot of sense.

...

[Great Rumbler]

Exactly.

[lazyfatbum]

hehe I sent an email to Nintendo a few years ago when Metroid 4 was announced and basically told them my idea for a Metroid Pinball game. I bet i'm not the only person who thought of it though. :D

Hopefully you can still lay bombs and use the more advanced sticky spiderball from Metroid 2.

[OB1]

Yeah a Metroid pinball game could be a lot of fun. And it makes perfect sense from a gameplay viewpoint.

[Great Rumbler]

But from a continuity viewpoint? Likely not.

[EdenMaster]

It's like putting Link in Soul Calibur II, GR. It doesn't need to add the continuity of either series. As long as it makes sense and it's cool, that's all you need :)

[Dark Jaguar]

I really wonder why people think Link somehow fits in SC2 more than Spawn or Heiha..whoever. Link is an elf guy from a totally different planet. How does he fit on a world based on Earth's age of discovery?

[Sacred Jellybean]

Well, he fits in there better than he would in a basketball game, one where a skinny black guy with an afro 3 times his head-size would come up and pat him on the ass to congratulate him for that bitchin' Hylian dunk.

[OB1]

Yeah exactly, Link in SCII makes no sense whatsoever from a continuity viewpoint. Who cares about continuity! Fun is more important.

[EdenMaster]

I really wonder why people think Link somehow fits in SC2 more than Spawn or Heiha..whoever. Link is an elf guy from a totally different planet. How does he fit on a world based on Earth's age of discovery?

Link fits better than the other two because he actually uses a sword and sheild, much like the other fighters in the game. Heihachi uses only his fists (kind of odd in a weapon-based fighting game), and Spawn uses an axe thats made out of his cape (come on now...). True, Link doesn't exactly mesh well with the game, but compared to his other console-only counterparts, he fits the best. It'd be kind of the same thing if, I dunno, you could unlock Captain Falcon in a NASCAR game or unlock Samus' Starship in a space fighter. It doesn't need to add to continuity or even make the slightest sense, but if it at least somewhat fits with what is going on around it, it can work. Same deal with Little Mac in Fight Night.

That's why I was so skeptical about Mario and gang being in that NBA game. They're so out of place, but I eat my words now having seen the sales figures. I still won't be going out to buy it, though.

[lazyfatbum]

Oh for shit's sake.

"Sometime after her mission on the space station where she confronted the "X", Samus realized that the X parasite might still exist on SR388. After touching down on the planet's surface it was apparent immediately that even the basic plant life had been infected with the X. Adam, the gun ship’s computer, relayed the data to Galactic Federation outposts and began studying the X infected plant life. It turns out that even the very air and watering holes contain some mutant form of the X... though it is not lethal and analysis indicates that the X is dormant within the cellular structure of the hosts.

"Why haven't they taken over?"

The ship's computer predicts possible scenarios, one of them catches Samus Aran's attention; It would make sense that the 'X' would slow their integration in order to allow new population of hosts. After all, without fresh hosts the X would eventually die out. Their collective conscious is astounding. I am still a part of them... could I be a part of their collective conscious as well?

The ship's computer signs an alarm; it has detected seismic activity less than 400 meters north of the landing site. A tectonic plate has slipped; the earthquake erupts within a second of the alarm. Before Samus can reach her ship, a ravine opens under Samus Aran's feet, swallowing Samus and her gunship in to the depths of SR388.

Samus awakens to find her self pinned down in the surrounding earth. The ship's computer, still active, evaluates the new surroundings. They are completely engulfed in solid rock. There are, however, faint readings of a large complex directly north... where the earthquake originated. Samus, using her remote arm pad, programs the ship to create a path to the surface, using its forward cannons set to 0.5 % effectiveness... I dont want to start another earthquake. But first, I need to get out from under this grave.

Samus uses her Morphball and slips through the small crevices and pockets in the rubble. Heading north, she finds herself entering an ancient Chozodian city, much of it destroyed, possibly from the recent earthquake. The city, from all appearances doesn't fit with other architecture found on different planets, every archway and doorway is built small, as if for a child.

Before Samus could continue her exploration, she triggers a holographic device, similar to that used by the people of Aether. It is a hologram of a Chozo, perhaps a priest... draped in rags and feeble.

This place, this... facility was designed for the newborn. A place where it can train until it reaches adult life. A life which will eventually lead a warrior's path. I dream of that day. I dream of our future.

When the hologram stops, the 'facility' becomes active, powered by some unknown means. It seems to stretch for miles, built in to the solid rock walls of its confines with no hint of an end.

Samus displays the progress of her gun ship’s trek to the surface from her arm pad... There's no response. She travels back through the tight snaking cave, back to where she ship crashed along side her. The sounds of alarms grow louder as she approaches the small dark den now illuminated with the warning lights of her ship. The reason for the alarm becomes quite clear.

The X parasites have infected the gunship.

The alarms still blaring, the front mounted cannons turn on Samus and fire without hesitation. The ship's landing gears now act as crushing pillars further unsettling the den and the rock as it tries to crush Samus. The earth begins to shake, it started another earthquake. I have no choice but to return to the facility. Samus emerges in front of the facility, the earthquake now raging and chipping away at the super structure, causing rock to fall from its massive ceiling. I cant fit in those doorways, they were designed for a child...

The explosion of rock thrusts Samus in to a giant ornate pillar. Behind her, her gunship charges its cannons. Faintly in the deafening noise, she can hear Adam voice begging her to run. Samus fires some pot shots at the ship to buy herself enough time to take on her Morphball shape and squeeze through the tiny corridors of the giant facility. I only hope this is the way out."


There, a completely believable story line for a neat premise that makes no sense in the context but will work out fine in game play. It took me 7 minutes to type this out and I bet if you guys use your imagination you can come up with better explanations. I mean Jesus, what's the big deal with taking a mascot character and have it in different genres? It's been done since forever.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, it's done all the time... it usually doesn't REALLY make storyline sense, but it doesn't have to. It just has to be fun... leave the storyline for the real games in the series. :) Though having some kind of explanation for why the franchise is in some other genre is good if it's a series that actually has a real story, like Metroid...

[OB1]

Haha, that was pretty good lazy.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah... all you have left to explain is why you're controlling paddles that hit the samus-ball. :)

[lazyfatbum]

Um... You dont use paddles... maybe?

Yeah. Instead, (since the object of the game is to travel back up towards the surface) every level has a pit at the bottom in the middle, just like a real pinball machine. If you fall down this pit, it takes you back one level. On the sides of the pit, at an angle, are glowing pads that use electromagnets. When you touch them, you can press L or R to send an electromagnetic charge in to Samus which will fling her in the direction you were facing.

When you touch one of these pads, you will stick like a magnet but eventually roll off; If you can get yourself in the small dent on the pad, you can stick there and hold down L or R to charge up your Boost Ball capability, flinging you even further and faster.

So basically, it works just like paddles, just futuristic paddles. The pads should also be curved to allow the player to 'aim' the direction of their flight. Or, allow the player to control Samus, atleast when she's on a surface anyway. Just hold the direction you want to go and then hit L or R depending one what side of the screen you're on.

These pads were designed with the idea of training wheels for Samus, to get her airborne and to perform acrobatics to reach higher areas or traverse a harsh environment. Later, when the Chozo build her suit, her jumping capabilities would be dramatically increased and for Samus, it would feel just like jumping off a jump pad, so it's good training for her. Well, it would have been if she were still a kid.

I wouldn't call them jump pads though, Banjo~Kazooie use those. So i'd call them something like "Perpetual Elevation Neutron Isotropism Shells".

*is 4 years old*

[A Black Falcon]

Sounds great... :)

[Great Rumbler]

It would be cool if they would do it that way, but...