Metroid Prime Hunters

Metroid Prime Hunters
Metroid Prime Hunters
Developer(s)	NST
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS
Release	2004 (demo, included with the Nintendo DS), 2006 ; March 20, 2006 - North America ; May 5, 2006 - Europe ;
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Template:Future game

Metroid Prime: Hunters is a first-person shooter adventure game for the Nintendo DS. Part of the Metroid series, the first details of the game emerged at the annual Electronics Entertainment Expo (E³) show in 2004. Development was completed near the end of February, 2006 by NST, and it will be published by Nintendo and released early this year (March 20, 2006 in North America). Hunters is notable for being the first in the series to offer online play, as well as being the first Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection game to feature voice chat. It has been said that Hunters was designed to have a greater appeal to hardcore gamers, featuring an abundance of multiplayer options and many elements seen in existing multiplayer first-person shooters.

A demo of the game, Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, was included as a pack-in with the DS on its launch on November 21, 2004 in North America, (it has since generally been replaced by Super Mario 64 DS) Australia and Europe. It was not included with the Nintendo DS in the Japan launch of the platform.

In August 2005, Nintendo announced that Hunters would be delayed until early this year (March 20, 2006 for North America). The delay was to give the development team time to implement support for the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. [1]

This game is set at some time between Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

Overview

Metroid Prime: Hunters is a first person shooter, the graphical style and gameplay of which emulates Metroid Prime. It has been confirmed that, although there will be a single-player storyline, it will be almost as detailed and puzzle-centric as the gameplay in the other Prime games. Hunters is designed to be played using the touchscreen as an aiming control; however, it is possible to play the game without using touchscreen. It supports both local wireless multiplayer (Multi-card and Single-card) and online play. Also, Metroid Prime: Hunters will be the first game in the Metroid series where players can play as a character other than Samus Aran. Hunters has been noted for its precise 'dual stick' style control system, whereby the player uses the stylus to look around, (double tapping the movment area allows the character to perform a jump) the D-Pad or the four face buttons allows the player to move and strafe, and the shoulder buttons are used to shoot. Weapons can be changed using specific Touch Screen icons.

Story

In the most distant reaches of space, beyond the territories controlled by the Galactic Federation, is the Tetra Galaxy, once home to a mighty race known as the Alimbics. An advanced civilization, peaceful, prosperous and powerful, the Alimbics maintained stability over the region forcefully but judiciously. They reigned over a vast region known as the Alimbic Cluster. One day, perhaps thousands of years ago, perhaps tens of thousands, they simply disappeared, leaving behind artifacts, all scattered across the Alimbic Cluster, all protected by a lethal arsenal of the Alimbics' most advanced weaponry.

Today, for the first time in centuries, the long-dormant Alimbic System is stirring, delivering strange tidings. A telepathic communication originating in Alimbic Cluster, has downloaded into the brains of some of the most exceptional beings in our galaxy. The message translates into a thousand different languages on a thousand different worlds. But the message always is the same: "The secret to ultimate power resides in the Alimbic Cluster."

This message has intrigued and enticed some of the most formidable bounty hunters in the galaxy to make the long journey to the Alimbic Cluster, each of these great warriors motivated by a different reason. Some desire power for themselves, or for their planet or people, while others simply have a relentless desire to hunt, or to kill, along with a fierce determination to prove themselves the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. Now, it's a race against time to see which bounty hunter will triumph over the others, who will discover the secret behind this promise of "ultimate power."

The Galactic Federation has heeded this strange, suspicious communication as well, and has called for the help of Samus Aran. Her mission: to discover the truth about this mysterious message, to protect against a potential threat, and to keep the Alimbics' ultimate power from falling into the wrong hands.

There will be five different explorable planets in this game.

According to an interview, the player can visit the Galactic Federation in between missions.

The other bounty hunters can reach artifacts before the player (or even steal them from you) depending upon the A.I.'s calculations and predictions for the said rival to escape and have success; the rivals can also travel to another planet to try to escape. In effect, each game will be different for each player because the way the player acts in a game will affect how the A.I. acts. If Samus Aran encounters her rival Bounty Hunters, she will engage them in a fight for the artifact and they will either win and escape, or lose and be forced to hand the artifact over to Samus.

Multiplayer

Overview

Metroid Prime: Hunters will feature local single-card play, multi-card play and online play. Hunters' online multiplayer mode does not have any restrictions on maps, gameplay modes or options available, as Mario Kart DS did. Therefore, the online experience will be similar to local multi-card experience. However, multiplayer modes will only support up to 4 players, despite common expectations of 8-or-more-player capabilities.

Game Modes

In the March issue of Nintendo Power, the modes of mulitplayer were revealed. All 7 of these game modes will be playable both online using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and offline locally.

Battle: A standard deathmatch against the clock. Kill more hunters than anyone else within the time to score victory.
Survival: Everyone has a set amount of lives. The hunter left standing wins.
Bounty: Collect the octolith artifact and deliver it to the drop point to score points.
Defender: Finding the hidden zone and staying in it will net you points.
Prime Hunter: Kill an enemy to become the prime hunter, a super-powered state where your life is constantly depleting, and you need to kill enemies to restore health. Watch out, because if somebody kills you, they become the new Prime Hunter. The person with the longest Prime Hunter status wins.
Capture: A game of Capture the Flag. As teams, raid the opponent's base for their octolith. If both artifacts are in one base, you score points.
Nodes: Similar to king of the hill. A set point limit is set, and the first to reach it wins. Score points by staying within a node long enough to claim it (a small bar loads, indicating the time left to stand). Then move onto the next node.

Arenas

Information from the official website have revealed that Hunters will feature over 25 maps (as confirmed in a recent developer interview), a few of which have been displayed. Some of the revealed maps include:

High Ground: A bright outdoor canyon-like map, with sandy pillars and walls. There is a relatively clear view across the map, with only twisting canyon walls obstructing your view.
Headshot: A map with multiple floors and vertically separated paths. There is a tall, cylindrical main room where all paths meet. May prove to be a good sniper map.
Sanctorus: A snow and ice-covered map. The featured clip showed combat inside of a heavily-damaged building, with destroyed columns littering the map after an apparent ceiling collapse.
Subterranean: Another snow-themed level, similar to Sanctorus. This one features outdoor combat on and around temple ruins. Very little of this map has been revealed.
Council Chamber: Consists of a few underground temple-like structures with many narrow dirt tunnels connecting them. There is magma flowing through some areas, giving it a magmoor caverns feel.
Celestial Gateway: A dim arena lit by some bright holographic computer screens. Consists of a very tall, open main room with multiple levels, and a few smaller rooms around it.
Data Shrine: There is a large, circular arena in the center with some paths that wrap around the outside edges. Appears to be a highly modified version of Trooper Module, from First Hunt.
Ancient Vestige: This map appears to be in the game- as it is shown on the front page of the flash portion of the official website. This is a map based on the motif set by the Chozo area of MP1, and appears in the Metroid Prime: Hunters demo.

In a recent review on the G4 TV show X-Play, images of 6 more maps was shown very briefly:

Alinos Perch: A sandy map, looks a lot like High Ground.
Sic Transit: Some sort of space station interior, with assets similar to those of the E3 2004 demo.
Transfer Lock: Temple-like map, with a background-image suggesting it is set in the middle of a huge desert.
Combat Hall: Similar to the First Hunt map Ancient Vestige. It could be the map shown at the start of the Hunters flash-site, although there are notable differences in the lighting.
Processor Core: Looks like a huge, tall room with a large pillar in the middle, small bridges connecting it to sidewalks on the walls.
Ice Hive: A map that looks like a snow-covered base interior. According to a developer interview conducted by GameSpot at E3 2005, this is possibly the entrance to an old Alimbic territory.

Options

In Hunters, you will be able to set radar usage, weapon selection, teams, friendly fire, and bots (with difficulty settings) before every multiplayer match, online and off.

Hunter's License

NST recently announced a stat-tracker called a "Hunter's License," which records an extremely large amount of stats, including things such as how long you've walked, how many shots you've fired, and how many people you've killed with the morphball.

These stats are also tracked at NintendoWiFi.com and MetroidHunters.com.

Chump Meter

As a disconnector-counter-measure, NST has added a Connection History feature as a part of the Hunter's License that keeps track of your disconnect percentage, commonly referred to as the "Chump Meter." This stat is available for everyone to see and use to decide who to battle.

Voice chat

The game will be the first Nintendo DS game to offer voice chat before and after matches by using the DS' inbuilt microphone, although not during gameplay [2]. The chat function will only be enabled during the prematch in a lobby, or in the postgame in the same lobby. According to Nintendo's policies, only friends with registered friend codes will be allowed to chat. Voice chat is enabled by holding the X button and you cannot talk while someone else is talking.

Single-Card Play

Single-card mode will allow you to play with up to 4 players with only 1 game card. Players compete as differently-colored Samuses on a (single) basic map. Available options and gameplay modes have yet to be revealed.

Characters

Hunters is the first Metroid game to feature bounty hunters other than Samus Aran, which all are playable, each with their own background story.

Samus Aran, protagonist of the Metroid series.

Noxus, a Vhozon bounty hunter searching for the treasures to use them for justice. Morphball form: Vhoscythe. Noxus has the ability to change into a rapidly spinning top that can damage enemies.

Sylux, a sharpshooter who hates the Federation and Samus Aran for unknown reasons. Morphball form: Lockjaw. He can morph into a small hover craft, but can deploy blades that travel along beams of light in this form.

Spire, is the last Diamont, a silicon based species. He believes finding this treasure will help him solve the mystery of what happened to his race. Morph ball form: Dialanche. He can morph into a fast moving spiky boulder. his "bomb" as it were is to rotate the rocks that make up his form, exposing his magma-like core

Trace, a Kriken undergoing his adulthood rite of exile to search for a planet that the Krikens can invade. Morph ball form: Triskelion. He can morph into a three legged creature that can become almost completley invisible. His attack in this form appears to be to launch himself at the enemy and slash.

Kanden, a failed supersoldier experiment. Completely insane, he searches for the treasure to prove himself as the finest bounty hunter. Morph ball form: Stinglarva. He can transform into a worm-like creature whose tail section detatches, seeks out enemies and explodes on contact.

Weavel, a cyborg Space Pirate assassin, who suffered near fatal injuries in Brinstar when Samus was there. It is unknown where his loyalties lie. Morph ball form: Halfturret. He can separate part of his body to use as a turret, while the other half can walk free and jump or slash with its sword.

Weapons

Metroid Prime: Hunters features more weapons with more diverse functions than any previous Metroid game. A weapon is equipped by tapping it's icon in the touch screen. There are three weapon icons on the touch screen; The first icon is the Power Beam, the second, the Missile Launcher, and the third being one of several special weapons.

Weapon Affinities

Some weapons have an affinity to a certain hunter. Affinities offer firepower bonuses to hunters weilding their respective weapons. For example, if Spire were to weild the Magmaul, his charge shot can set enemies on fire, whereas it wouldn't with other hunters.

Power Beam

The Power Beam is the standard weapon. Has unlimited ammo and a very fast rate of fire but is the least powerful of all the weapons. Tapping the leftmost of the three weapon icons will equip this weapon.

Missile Launcher

The missile launcher occupies the middle weapon icon, which also displays the amount of ammo this weapon has. Specific details on the weapon, such as whether it will be chargeable, are uncertain. It is needless to say that it will be much more powerful than the Power Beam, and will feature "splash damage" that can hurt or kill enemies in close proximity to the explosion.

The Missile launcher is Samus's affinity weapon. Samus's missiles are the only ones that have homing abilities, and explode with more power.

Special Weapons

The following weapons will be available for use by all 7 hunters, each having an affinity to a specific hunter. All of these weapons will occupy the rightmost of the three weapon icons, and can be changed with the button next to it. The special weapons are:

Judicator (Shotgun Beam)- Noxus's affinity: Freezes enemies
Magmaul (Grenade launcher)- Spire's affinity: Burns enemies
Volt driver (Power shot)- Kanden's affinity: Electrifies enemies
Imperialist (Sniper beam)- Trace's affinity: Becomes cloaked while using this weapon.
Shock coil (Short-range electricity caster)- Sylux's affinity: Heals health while using this weapon
Battlehammer (Strong shot)- Weavel's affinity: Unknown effect

Metroid Prime: Hunters: First Hunt

Metroid Prime: Hunters: First Hunt is a demo that was included with Nintendo DS systems at the system's launch. It contained three training scenarios:

Regulator, which requires destroying all enemies inside a set course.
Survivor, where you must destroy as many enemies as possible without dying.
Morph Ball, where you must find the end of the course while collecting markers for points.

A multiplayer mode is Multi-Card for two to four players, meaning every person in the competition requires their own game card. The three arenas available in this mode are:

Trooper Module
Assualt Cradle
Ancient Vestige

Weapons

The primary weapons in the demo include:

The weapons system works differently in this demo than most games; there is an ammo meter that all weapons, except Morph Ball Bombs (these allow at most three to be set at a time; a few seconds after detonating, three more are available), use. Also, Missiles and the Electro Lob are found throughout the course of the training or multiplayer level, if they are available in that respective level.

Secondary weapons, or pickups, include:

Ammo
Health
Double Damage

Hidden movie

Template:Spoiler When the player completes every single player mode successfully and with a high score, a video is unlocked, which shows Samus crouching in the bottom DS screen, the top screen showing a Space Pirate hanging from the ceiling, about to launch a surprise attack. Just before the attack is launched though, a blast destroys the Space Pirate and causes Samus to turn to see the cause of the shot. As she turns, the screens reveal three figures, wearing Samus-like forms of armour - one is equipped with an arm-mounted scythe, another with a smoking gun (the source of the shot) and another with a blockier weapon. The camera focuses on the centre figure, placing reference on its visor, a twisted version of Samus' own. These three creatures have now been revealed as playable characters in the actual Metroid Hunters game. The video finishes with the feed line "The Real Hunt Begins" and a weblink to the game's site ([3]). The video can then be watched at any time by tapping a glowing dot on the main screen. However, on other versions of the demo cartridge, the three armored figures do not appear. Instead, Samus herself fires the shot. The screen then cuts to "The Real Hunt Begins", then fades.

Demo Glitches

There are a number of glitches in the Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt demo game card.

In Regulator mode, if you are quick and shoot the Metroid just after you enter the room, you will get the points but the Metroid will still stay there. You can use this glitch to get higher than the highest possible score (46,240).
In Survivor mode, go to the area with the blue computers. Jump up onto the grate and slowly walk up. Face towards the pillar. Jump between the pillar and the wall. You will find yourself in the starting area without any textures. Be careful not to step off the edge! This also works in multiplayer mode.
In Survivor mode, from the start, turn left. Follow it along and when you come out at the big open area, look for the computer console with the blue energy bar on the top. Jump on the console and walk along it towards the morph ball icon (although you cannot use it in single player mode). There is a gap. Walk forward but stop underneath it. Try to walk forward (away from the main wall) and you will fall through the wall and die.
If you lay a bomb in Morph Ball mode, then exit Morph Ball just after the bomb detonates and pops you upward, you will go extremely high. You can use this to quickly get on top of the levels. However, it may not be a glitch, but a flaw in the demo engine's physics.

Screenshots

Incompatible versions

The version of the demo supplied with European or Australian DS's and the North American version (which was the version that people who ordered the DS through the Nintendo Stars Catalogue received) are incompatible for multiplayer play. One cannot play with a North American demo against a European/Australian demo.

External links

References

Nintendo Power - Volume 201