My body is ready.

Reggie was sighted with Geoff Keighley, executive producer and host of the Game Awards, wearing a Samus t-shirt. A Metroid Prime 4 trailer drop is imminent. With that opportunity, here are a few things I’d like to see implemented in the game. While I’m sure Nintendo and the good people from Bandai Namco (rumoured to be the team behind Metroid Prime 4) will do a fantastic job bringing the series to a new generation, here are some of the things I really wish they manage to do in the final game.

ACTION : ADVENTURE RATIO

The Metroid Prime series is described as a First-Person Adventure game and I want it to stay that way. The series has maintained the ratio of action and adventure masterfully in its three games. Retro Studios made sure the game never felt like a pure shooter but also managed to somehow offer engaging enemy encounters, boss fights and shooting that feels tight and responsive. The best way to express what I want to stay the same is this; I don’t want Metroid Prime 4 to be a series of action set pieces focused on the shooting/killing aspect. I want the shooting to occur during exploration, surprising the player, overwhelming them and eventually, rewarding them for surviving using the responsive systems the developers have put in place.

THE FRAMERATE

All games in the Metroid Prime series so far have had a stable 60 FPS framerate. I really hope this is high on the list of goals for the developers. You could say it’s become as much a part of the series as Samus. Will I hate it if 60 FPS is not on the table? Of course not. But I’ve been spoiled by 3 games already, it’s hard to go back. Rumours of the game running on Unreal Engine 4 show me there is hope for buttery smooth Metroid Prime gameplay on Nintendo’s hybrid. Fingers crossed.

USE THOSE JOYCONS

Obviously I’m expecting the game to utilise HD-rumble in an interesting way, giving you the feeling that your hand is really inside the compartment controlling Samus’ arm cannon. What could change the game and add an additional level of depth and immersion is the use of motion controls in a smart way, like giving us the option for gyro-aiming and pulling shields off of enemies, much like Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on Wii. It wouldn’t hurt to figure out something cool for the IR camera to do, like performing a gesture to unlock doors or manipulate the displays in Samus’ ship.

GO WILD

All in all, I hope the team goes wild. Some people might dislike change but everyone will hate the game if it feels stale and unimaginative. I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised by the new additions to the Metroid Prime series because after 3 games, it’s time to shake things up a bit more. I only hope it won’t be as divisive as Other M.

What are some things you would like to see in Metroid Prime 4? Did you spot the secret message in the E3 reveal?

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I decided to rewatch the Metroid Prime 4 first look trailer again the other day and I remembered something Mick Gordon, composer of DOOM (2016), did in some of his tracks. Basically, he made some tracks in such a way so that when viewed through a spectrogram (which is a tool to visualize the spectrum of frequencies of sound), they show hidden images.

Like this.

That’s when I had the idea to do the same thing with the Metroid Prime 4 first look trailer. So I viewed the trailer’s sound as a visual representation. The first picture was made by recording sound from my speakers. In both pictures, I believe we can see Nintendo has hidden a glimpse of Samus’ face, specifically her left eye (right part of picture) and a hint of the right eye. Oh and let’s not forget to mention the fact that there are 4 ‘pillars’ in the spectrogram. We’ve made the following animation in order to further demonstrate where Samus’ face and specifically her eyes, appear.

The second picture was made by importing the .mp3 from the video into a free online spectrogram. I recommend to move slightly away from you screen and judge for yourselves.

What do you think? Does this look like a hidden message or a classic case of pareidolia?

I don’t know about you but I’ll keep examining the spectrogram in Audacity. Maybe there’s a release date hidden in there. Or an Unreal Engine 4 logo.

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In the summer of 2017, Nintendo surprised its fans with the announcement of two new Metroid games. One of them came out on 3DS that same year, while the next entry to the Metroid Prime series has fans yearning for more information or at least a release window that doesn’t span an entire year.

What we know

We don’t know much about Metroid Prime 4 other than the fact that it’s in development. Nintendo has not shared which team will be developing the game. Is Retro Studios out of the picture? While I couldn’t imagine any reason why that would happen, there are rumours that Bandai Namco, a company with a long list of games using Unreal Engine 4, is behind the development of Prime 4. And those rumours are growing stronger and more credible.

The sources

The first rumour surfaced on Reddit last year but there was no way to confirm it or at least give it some credibility. You can find it here in full. It wasn’t until Shawn Pitman, BANDAI NAMCO Studios Singapore Lead Designer, wrote on his LinkedIn profile that he’s working on a “First Person Shooter/Adventure Exclusive to the Nintendo Switch”, that this rumour started to gain traction. Nintendo themselves famously refer to Metroid Prime as a First Person Adventure series.

This rumour comes as a surprise because Retro Studios, a Texas-based company was behind the development of the first 3 games and their teams are responsible for making the series’ jump from 2D to 3D, such a masterpiece of game design.

If it’s bandai namco, it’s unreal engine 4

Taking a look at Bandai Namco’s biggest games, it’s not hard to deduce that in the case that the rumour is true and they are working on Metroid Prime 4, that it will be developed with Unreal Engine 4. Some other Bandai Namco games using UE4 are:

– SOULCALIBUR VI
– Ace Combat 7
– Dragon Ball FighterZ
– TEKKEN 7
– Code Vein

My thoughts

Personally, it would be very surprising if Nintendo put on of their most anticipated games in the hands of a third-party company. Their previous experiment in 2009 with Team Ninja in the form of Metroid Other M, did not bode so well with fans and critics alike. But if Bandai Namco is behind the project and using Unreal Engine 4, I can’t complain.

What do you think? Is Retro Studios out of the picture? Do you trust Bandai Namco with Nintendo’s Half-Life 3?

Full credit for spotting the LinkedIn page goes to Doctre81, the leaker with the best track record regarding Nintendo games.

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