Nintendo has a soft spot in my heart, even though they’ve been trying in recent years to piss me off, it seems. Still, when you grow up on the Super Nintendo and Game Boy (we’re talking the bulky one here, folks), it’s a little hard to forget all the fun you’ve had and the many great franchises Nintendo has birthed over its nearly 30 years in the gaming industry.

Of all Nintendo’s franchises, I have most affinity for F-Zero, but that’s another post for another time. The next closest series I love is the Metroid saga, created in the 1980s by the late Gunpei Yokoi. It’s a series that stands out in my mind of being top-notch with every single game that has come out under the Metroid banner. Hell, Super Metroid is still at the top of my Super Nintendo top 10 list and is probably number two or three on my all-time top 10 list, ahead of some other more common choices (eat a bag of dicks, Ocarina of Time).

As wonderful as Ms. Aran's adventures have been to date, I can't help but think that there's still room for improvement in the series as it progresses forward. Hell, Chad and Dyson even fought about this on RetroforceGO! (there was even a special bonus episode on that), so it merits some discussion. There are things I’d personally like to see addressed a little bit more, which is why I’m writing this, of course. Read on and find out where Metroid needs to go from here.



To infinity... and beyond. From the past few releases in the series, we've seen Samus' background fleshed out tremendously. But her future... that's been relatively left untouched. Since there is indeed a linear storyline underlying the Metroid saga (Metroid, Metroid II, the Prime series, Super Metroid, Fusion), why continue dwelling in the past? The story post-Fusion provides with a wonderful opportunity to expand the series:

Samus, sensing the danger of the X parasite aboard the space station, decides to plunge it into SR388 and eliminate two threats at once. However, this probably at the same majorly pissed off her employer, the Galactic Federation, which wanted to study the X parasite. One would assume they won't take this lying down and are determined to hunt Samus down, which sets up the premise that Samus is, for once, on her own.

"But how will the beings of the universe view our resolve? I doubt they will understand what we did...the danger we barely averted. They will hold tribunals and investigations. They will hold us responsible. Adam understood this, and he spoke to me in my anger..." -Samus Aran, Metroid Fusion ending

I don't know who would be her major adversaries in the game, but the Galactic Federation certainly would be one of them. However, there would also need to be some kind of threat so she can save the galaxy from something and get the Federation off her back. As long as they can take this cliché and make it so it’s not a complete cliché, I’ll be happy.

This kind of story, though, would be a good way to get Samus into many different environments and maybe many different planets. This, in turn presents the next developer with a blank canvas to work from to create new puzzles, new level designs, and to try and make things unlike anything we haven't seen before. One of those ideas could be...



Samus actually doing her line of work - bounty hunting. It'd be awesome to actually see her jumping from planet to planet, trying to lie low, while all the same time, becoming a freelance bounty hunter. Heck, even give her a few other bounty hunters to rival her for the bounties (and don't kill them all off like you did in the past), and we might have something interesting here. Each bounty could provide a piece to the ever-growing puzzle of who the main antagonists in the game are, up until the big reveal of whoever (or whatever) is behind the current madness in the Metroid universe.



New upgrades, new suits, new fun stuff… without some of the old. Yes, yes, I know, Metroid games do put new upgrades into their games all the time for all kinds of good times… but do we really, really need the same stupid scenario at the beginning? You know… Samus fights first boss, then explosion happens and she loses all her wonderful power-ups, leaving her usually with her blaster cannon and not much else. I know it’s standard fare to get more stronger throughout the game by finding more items… but does that mean you have to start with everything and lose it all?

This long-time Metroid fan thinks it can be changed, or at least tweaked a little bit. Metroid Prime 3 chose not to go exactly that route, and I actually kind of liked it. You didn’t get stupidly stripped down right at the beginning, and you still became a stronger Samus in the end.

As for new weapons, one of my ideas is a magnetic grapple beam. Sure, we’ve now seen the grapple beam become able to latch onto things and rip them away, but what about a magnetized one that lets you grapple onto magnetic surfaces? Why limit yourself to simply grapple points? It can be used as a way to open up new areas to explore, to give the game a more natural feel, perhaps. And it can also be used to manipulate magnetized objects. That’s just one idea of a handful I have, and I’m sure more can be thought up that fit in the Metroid universe.



Keep it split between 2-D sidescrolling on the handhelds, 3-D first-person on the consoles. Sorry, Dyson. I know you are not of a fan of the Prime series, and I’m not siding with Chad because he’s my best friend forever, but 3-D first-person Metroid is here to stay on the consoles. With the Wii remote and nunchuk set-up, things feel even more natural than they did when we were clunking around Tallon IV with out Wavebirds or Zebes with those special turbo controllers that let you slow down the game to make the boss battles a bit easier.

But all is not lost. 2-D sidescrolling Metroid is not dead. In fact, I’m hoping it will return in full force to the DS with the next handheld Metroid game, as Zero Mission and Fusion proved to be just as engaging as their console brethren. They can bring back those huge sidescrolling maps (as seen above) that we’ve all come to love and need to get through the damn game.

There’s still room for crossover, though, so don’t despair. A 2-D console Metroid can work on WiiWare. Hell, I’d even expect one in the future. But for the foreseeable future, if the consoles stay 3-D first-person and the handhelds stay 2-D sidescrolling, everyone gets something they want. Besides, Prime Hunters didn’t really do much for me with the first-person perspective.

Lastly, and most of all, keep it in Retro Studio’s hands. Their three Prime titles have been nothing short of incredible, and I’d like to see them keep working on Metroid alongside other ideas. The key here is to make sure they don’t turn into the Metroid-only team, though.