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Discussion 5 years ago today Nintendo announced they rebooted Metroid Prime 4

Shit, how time flies.
If there is a god, I'll have a stunning, immersive, gorgeous MPResque masterpiece in my hands on Switch 2 this year.
 
Expecting Metroid Dread levels of Metroidvana-ness and shooting vs platforming.

Expecting moment to moment gameplay closer to Doom Eternal with less enemy weakness and ammo management.

Expecting environment size comparable to Prime 2.

Expecting moderate levels of story (maybe comparable to 3)

Expecting a weird multiplayer mode.

Expecting Spring 2025 release for Switch with enhancements for Switch 2.
 
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Joe said:
Kids who were high school freshmen when the restart was announced are now graduates.
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People who were working hard when it was restarted are now retired and can Play Prime Remastered all day. Nintendo it‘s about time, do it!
 
People that were playing mario kart 8 deluxe when the restart was announced are still playing mario kart 8 deluxe.
 
To be a little optimistic: regardless of whether Prime 4 is crossgen or exclusive to Swtch 1, there's a good chance that Retro will start work on MP5 directly on the heels of MP4. It's unlikely that we'll see another such chaotic development. I'm very curious to know who will be the director of MP4 and what direction Retro will take, both in terms of game experience and narrative approach. For example, I can't wait to find out where the game will be placed in the timeline. The idea of Prime 4 taking place in some way before the events of the first Metroid game, for example by involving time travel, would appeal to me greatly. I hope it will be a critical and commercial success, given all the hard work involved.
 
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I remember the exact scene when I heard the news. I was on winter break from college. They did this weird extended break thing that year, but that's another story. Anyways, I had notifications for Nintendo tweets on since I figured a direct announcement was coming soon. I got out of bed, checked my phone, and saw the tweet. I thought to myself, "oh no."

As I watched the first couple of minutes of the video, I was worried Takahashi was about to say it was completely cancelled. The news of development restarting was a relief, but also a little demoralizing since it meant we would be waiting a lot longer.

Since that day, I went through 2019-2021 without expecting any updates about Metroid Prime 4. 2022 was the first year where I felt an update was possible, and then I figured it was very likely in 2023. It still has not resurfaced, but these past five years have reminded me to trust the process and remember that they are putting 110% effort into this project. The day we finally see Metroid Prime 4 is approaching, and it will be glorious.

On a related note, I hope details about the cancelled version come out someday. I'm curious if it was shaping up to be an absolute disaster, or if it was just mediocre.
 
Joe said:
Kids who were high school freshmen when the restart was announced are now graduates.
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I had just started my senior year in high school.

I am now in my last semester of undergrad, about to join the real world. Still no Metroid Prime 4.
Stairouais said:
I expect something that looks and plays as good as Prime Remaster, and I don't think I want anything more than that.
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Eh I'd like the combat to be touched up a tiny bit. I think something akin to Doom Eternal without the cocaine would be neat. Make the combat feel more responsive, but without losing the slower and quiet feel of Metroid Prime. But yeah outside of that, I'm fine with MP4 just being Metroid Prime But Again.
 
Gengar said:
I'm curious if it was shaping up to be an absolute disaster, or if it was just mediocre.
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My guess is that there was no functional game coming together at all. According to rumors, it was an international project handled by teams in different parts of the world, and there was no cohesive design. Likely, Nintendo recognized that this method wasn't working.

The funniest take I saw was "Metroid Prime 4 was probably looking like an 8/10 game and Nintendo wanted a 10/10." Nintendo wouldn't have started the project over from the ground up if it was looking like a good game. You only do that if it's completely beyond repair.
 
Joe said:
My guess is that there was no functional game coming together at all. According to rumors, it was an international project handled by teams in different parts of the world, and there was no cohesive design. Likely, Nintendo recognized that this method wasn't working.

The funniest take I saw was "Metroid Prime 4 was probably looking like an 8/10 game and Nintendo wanted a 10/10." Nintendo wouldn't have started the project over from the ground up if it was looking like a good game. You only do that if it's completely beyond repair.
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IDK, Prime Remastered and Prime 4 immediately started aggressively outsourcing art after the cancellation of the original Prime 4. These projects have not been localized within one area or studio at all.

I'm guessing the more likely thing is that Namco was making a shitty shooter because no Namco dev had quality experience making Metroidvanias or shooters and Nintendo decided it would be easier to recruit shooter devs in Austin (and they've recruited a ton of guys from Battlefield, Call of Duty, GTA etc since they announced Retro was making Prime 4)
 
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Gengar said:
On a related note, I hope details about the cancelled version come out someday. I'm curious if it was shaping up to be an absolute disaster, or if it was just mediocre.
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It’s likely that it was still very early in development when it was cancelled, probably missing deadlines on the roadmap, etc. Probably the early signs of an imminent absolute disaster as you said.
 
SpaceGodzilla said:
love the game and think it's a masterpiece but I kinda hope a sequel 22 years after the original there's notable upgrade in gameplay
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Yeah, of course, sorry I should have precised on a technical standpoint". I do hope that they took a look at what people have been doing in the MEtroidvania genre in the last 20 years.
 
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I'm guessing we'll eventually find out that Next Level Games was the original dev for this game in 2013 and Nintendo urged Tanabe to do a smaller scale project with Next Level first (which turned into Federation Force).

Would love to have a detailed breakdown of the Prime 4's dev history from 2013 onward.
 
At this point, I have astronomical expectations for this game.

Expectations that will be delivered upon.

In spades.

In spades.

#TTP
 
Joe said:
Kids who were high school freshmen when the restart was announced are now graduates.
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Another way of looking at it too is this was all Pre-Covid. So those 5 years of development had 2 of those years with strict lockdowns, and concerns of getting covid, and who knows how the good folks at Retro faired during all of this, plus their family and friends.

I could be wrong on this, but you could probably write a book about the development of Metroid Prime 4. Start at the beginning with the original team up until around late 2018, leading up to Retro Studios receiving the contract (and HOW they got it*), dealing with the effects of covid like everyone else was, their work, and outsourcing of Prime Remastered, the hiring spree, and the eventual announcement, and future launch. Maybe it's not as exciting of a read, but it probably would have some interesting insight into development.





* My personal thought nowadays is Retro was tasked by Nintendo to remaster Prime for the Switch, and this came about around 2018 after they finished work on porting DKC Tropical Freeze to Switch (It is possible Nintendo were only expecting a straight HD port). Nintendo probably knew sometime in 2018 the original Prime 4 team weren't doing as well to their standards, and by this time, Retro were already hard at work with Prime Remastered, and it was looking BETTER than how Prime 4 was looking. Retro ends up getting the contract back, and decides to outsource the remaining work of Prime remastered to other teams, but still kept on as advisors. Covid happens, slowing development for both Prime Remastered, and Prime 4 down, Prime Remastered done around 2021, but sat on for two years for reasons. I also believe Prime 2 Remastered does exist, and should be announced this year. Prime 3 though as much as I want it to be as remastered as Prime 1, think it'll be more of an HD port ala Skyward Sword HD.
 
Shoulder said:
Another way of looking at it too is this was all Pre-Covid. So those 5 years of development had 2 of those years with strict lockdowns, and concerns of getting covid, and who knows how the good folks at Retro faired during all of this, plus their family and friends.

I could be wrong on this, but you could probably write a book about the development of Metroid Prime 4. Start at the beginning with the original team up until around late 2018, leading up to Retro Studios receiving the contract (and HOW they got it*), dealing with the effects of covid like everyone else was, their work, and outsourcing of Prime Remastered, the hiring spree, and the eventual announcement, and future launch. Maybe it's not as exciting of a read, but it probably would have some interesting insight into development.





* My personal thought nowadays is Retro was tasked by Nintendo to remaster Prime for the Switch, and this came about around 2018 after they finished work on porting DKC Tropical Freeze to Switch (It is possible Nintendo were only expecting a straight HD port). Nintendo probably knew sometime in 2018 the original Prime 4 team weren't doing as well to their standards, and by this time, Retro were already hard at work with Prime Remastered, and it was looking BETTER than how Prime 4 was looking. Retro ends up getting the contract back, and decides to outsource the remaining work of Prime remastered to other teams, but still kept on as advisors. Covid happens, slowing development for both Prime Remastered, and Prime 4 down, Prime Remastered done around 2021, but sat on for two years for reasons. I also believe Prime 2 Remastered does exist, and should be announced this year. Prime 3 though as much as I want it to be as remastered as Prime 1, think it'll be more of an HD port ala Skyward Sword HD.
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This timeline doesn't really make much sense as Retro was pretty clearly in crisis in 2018 with the creative director being demoted (before leaving), the lead game designer and lead narrative designer leaving the company in late 2017, and Retro completely restructuring their staffing in 2018 as well (with three mid level people being promoted to the new roles at the top of the company) .

My guess is Retro was given Prime 4 to save the company (so they could recruit star developers from other AAA studios that love Metroid Prime) and that Prime Remastered only came about to have some programmers and artists have something to do while Prime 4 staffed up and completed pre-production. I doubt Prime 4 started full development before September 2021.

I'm basically expecting a Wonder Woman like thing where Wonder Woman was announced to save the Shadow of Mordor studio after the top staff fled to EA to make Black Panther.
 
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ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
I'm guessing we'll eventually find out that Next Level Games was the original dev for this game in 2013 and Nintendo urged Tanabe to do a smaller scale project with Next Level first (which turned into Federation Force).

Would love to have a detailed breakdown of the Prime 4's dev history from 2013 onward.
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No? We have heard 0 information from anyone what was the case
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Federation Force is such a baffling game to make that I have to think it was basically an audition for Prime 4, especially as Tanabe was talking about Prime 4 when promoting Federation Force.
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Tanabe already explained why he wanted to do Federation Force though: he thought it would be cool to have a game focused on the Galactic Federation. And Next Level Games made sense because the studio had been fooling around with a prototype for a new multiplayer Metroid title for years, only pausing on that project when they were pushed to do Luigi's Mansion 2. I don't think they were ever in the running to be lead devs on Metroid Prime 4 considering that they already had a small team gearing up to produce Luigi's Mansion 3 as Federation Force's production was winding down.
 
OctoSplattack said:
Tanabe already explained why he wanted to do Federation Force though: he thought it would be cool to have a game focused on the Galactic Federation.
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I remember it was a very common claim among people outraged at Federation Force's existence back then that it was "a generic sci-fi game with Metroid's name slapped on it for it to sell." That always annoyed me because anyone who paid attention to what Tanabe said would know that it started as a Metroid Prime spin-off right from the beginning. Nintendo is clear when games are repurposed from an original concept to an established IP, so it was just a blatant falsehood that people spread simply because they hated that Federation Force was a thing.
 
OctoSplattack said:
Tanabe already explained why he wanted to do Federation Force though: he thought it would be cool to have a game focused on the Galactic Federation. And Next Level Games made sense because the studio had been fooling around with a prototype for a new multiplayer Metroid title for years, only pausing on that project when they were pushed to do Luigi's Mansion 2. I don't think they were ever in the running to be lead devs on Metroid Prime 4 considering that they already had a small team gearing up to produce Luigi's Mansion 3 as Federation Force's production was winding down.
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I mean, Federation Force was already viewed pretty terribly as of mid 2015 so they were probably ruled out as the dev by mid 2015.

Basically training a close partner studio on how to make a shooter and Metroid game... And then immediately going to a dev with no Metroidvania or shooter experience after that for Prime 4 is really weird.
 
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People who'd never played Bayonetta when the restart was announced have now played Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2, Bayonetta 3, and Bayonetta Origins.

You've done this, yes? Well? Answer me you barbarians!!!
 
Since Prime 4 was announced to be restarting development, The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was announced, teased over several years, and finally released as Tears of the Kingdom, all before we’ve seen anything more about Metroid Prime 4.
 
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