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Fun Club Should Metroid 6 Be 2D Or 3D?

3D or 2D?

  • Total voters
    143
SpaceGodzilla

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The last time they tried to make a more traditional Metroid game 3D it ended in "polarizing" results, so should the next mainline entry try 3D again?
 
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I'm okay with the series' main pillars being 2D sidescrollers and 3D first-person titles. Have no real desire to see a shift from that.
 
I voted 2D because it's hard to imagine them risking it again and I think they can still stretch their legs with the 2D format, but honestly it seems boring to say Other M makes it impossible for them to make a decent third person 3D game
 
Dread was the best-selling game in the series and a GOTY nominee; frankly it'd be kinda absurd if the follow-up to that decided to go 3D

Besides, that's what the Prime games are for. Retro nailed how to translate the series into 3D, so let them just keep doing that while Sakamoto and Mercury Steam stick to 2D
 
Metroid should stick to 2D gameplay for main installments. Prime exists for the first person 3D experience and I don't think there's much value in 3D shoulder camera-style gameplay for these games. A big part of the Metroid experience is clearing the game under a certain time limit after the first couple playthroughs and you just can't easily get that same experience in 3D; both Prime and M:OM omitted the time clear targets for the games because it simply doesn't work well.

At it's core, the problem really comes down to movement; 3D movement is a very different beast from 2D movement and will pretty much always be more deliberate than the fast-paced gameplay that you can achieve in Metroid games once you're familiar with the movement mechanics. Even the games with clunkier physics like Super still let you go through it blazingly fast once you get a handle on how Samus moves and it's remarkably consistent enough that when redoing playthroughs you familiarize yourself to it very quickly.

I am however all for the pseudo 3D style that Dread and Samus Returns have; it's really cool to see a 3D background with 2D movement and it allows for some neat cutscenes. A future Metroid game where the ability to interact with the background is pushed even further could be really fun! Something like Kirby: Planet Robobots front/back screen hopping mechanic would be a neat idea to take the series into.
 
I'd be open to a 3D third-person Metroid game (certainly would prefer that to first person games), but I'd get a different team on it. Keep 2D Metroid as is.
 
2D preferably, there's still a lot they can do with that perspective. Would rather them be more experimental with the traditional Metroid powerups than with the dimensions.
Although a new game building on Other M's 2.5D perspective also has potential. Kind of like a 3D World version of Metroid
 
At this point it doesn't really seem like a question. The original line of Metroid games is 2D (in gameplay/perspective at least), just like "Super Mario Bros." remains 2D even though there are several 3D Mario styles that it coexists with.
 
Always been more partial to the 2D entries but I do really enjoy scanning stuff in Prime.

Between the two I'll go with 2D since I feel that perspective allows for better precision platforming, and that's always seemed like a big part of the games. However I wouldn't be opposed to a 2D game with an option to view environments in 3D, even if it was purely for flavor. Something like Super Paper Mario even could be interesting. Metroid has room to evolve beyond classic side scrolling and Prime imo. Both could coexist though. It seems to be working
 
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While I would be open to another shot at a 3D Metroid game where you can see Samus at all times, I'd prefer if the mainline games stayed 2D. As long as we have 2D Metroid and Prime games, I feel like all the bases are covered. Nintendo themselves have said 2D and Prime are the main styles of Metroid games anyway so I doubt they plan on experimenting again anytime soon. I think once Prime 4 gets released, Prime 5 probably won't take nearly as long to make as 4 did, and Metroid 6 is probably in the planning stages as we speak, so there's a good chance we'll have a pretty steady release of both 2D and Prime games more or less concurrently.
 
Clearly they should take inspiration from Animal Crossing and make it a life sim next time to really shake things up.

It should stay 2D, and it almost certainly will stay 2D. Don't see the logic in going 3D here.
 
I actually voted 3D because I want another take on the Other M type of gameplay (GAMEPLAY!) and camera angles with obviously analog controls and not being stuck in order to fire missiles. Not even mentioning story and direction.
 
For the most part I want it to be 2D. I don't think all games need to move in a 3D space. Having said that, I wouldn't mind they give it another world with better controls. I do feel like there was a lot of potential gameplay wise with other M, but it was really held back by that weird only wiimote constraint
 
0
Stick to 2D

If instead they went 3D - 3rd person, then I think they start getting too close to Prime where the games start to overlap in what itch they're scratching.

Other M came out at a time when 2D Metroid was on ice for 8 years at that point (and Dread didn't move forward on DS) while Retro was finished with the Prime Trilogy and working on DKC. Since they had just the 1 main Metroid game in development they were able to do whatever styles they wanted in the game (2D, 3rd person action, 1st person Prime style) for better or worse.

Also I prefer 2D Metroid games to the Prime series in general too.
 
Keep main Metroid in 2D, Prime in first-person-3D. It would be great to get another branch with third-person 3D but with how few Metroid games we get, I'll just take what they give us.
 
I'd be up for another try at non-first person 3D, but I'd rather that be a separate game with a different team. Keep the main series 2D.
 
We can keep having 2D and 3D (prime) like the Mario games. Time for Zelda to follow the same route (and Pokemon).

Metroid 6 and whatever follows should be 2D.
 
Rampo360 said:
We can keep having 2D and 3D (prime) like the Mario games. Time for Zelda to follow the same route (and Pokemon).

Metroid 6 and whatever follows should be 2D.
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Exactly, the main series should stay 2D, while Prime (and potential spinoffs) remains 3D.
 
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As most have sad, to high risc, to little benefit. It's not like there isn't already a 3d variant, and as if there are many Metroid alternatives (most metroidvanias are more on the vania side of things)

I would compare it to mario and Zelda:
Both have 3d variants that stand as their own(64, galaxy, odyssey, and for Zelda bite/totk) and ones that are more authentic to it's 2d play style (older 3d Zelda's, mario 3d world).

Having that for Metroid would be fun, but unlike those series the benefit of having a third pillar is slim, and even with those it seems they de emphasized it.
 
3D 3rd Person Metroid is tainted by Other M's horrible reception. I can't see it happening.

We'll likely stick with one First person line and one 2D sidescroller line
 
Razgriz said:
I don't think there's much value in 3D shoulder camera-style gameplay for these games.
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Just because the one game that was made in third person 3D was bad doesn't mean there is no value.

Metroid Prime ended up brilliant and made a lot of great decisions to make it work, but frankly a third person game always made much more sense for the franchise, with such a strong central character with an iconic design (IMO the greatest in gaming). The first person games keep cutting to third person for various actions (including everything done in morph ball) and every cutscene for this reason. And the last two 2D games have a bunch of QTEs and actions (eg shooting doors/Emmi with the plasma cannon) in third person 3D for the same reason - we want to see dynamic 3D action with this character.

There's no reason Metroid couldn't have been like Zelda. Other M worked fine perspective wise (apart from, ironically, the first person stuff), its problems are not the perspective, they were a bunch of other bone headed design, story, and presentation decisions, and poor level design.

At this point it's unlikely simply because the templates have been set, but third person 3D is IMO still the most natural fit for the character and potentially works as well with the exploration gameplay as any other perspective.

VintoWin said:
3D 3rd Person Metroid is tainted by Other M's horrible reception. I can't see it happening.
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Yeah that's really it, it's not anything inherent, it's a badly made game spoiling the concept commercially.
 
I guess it depends on what Prime 4 does?

The feeling of the Prime games are based on Super and have never adopted the feeling of agility of the later 2D entries. Plus it's First Person because that genre was overwhelmingly popular at the time.

So if Prime 4 is more of the same, I would like to see an attempt at translation of the modern 2D style to 3D in the mainline or other spinoff series. Implement more traversal abilities than beams and visors.

(And its criminal that suit is not displayed to the player at all times.)
 
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MercurySteam's done a solid job with the series. Assuming they'll be the ones developing Metroid 6, it'll be neat to see them continue to polish and iterate upon their existing framework, should their next game be another 2D entry.

However: I voted 3D. It's been long enough since Other M that I feel ready to see another crack at third-person 3D Metroid. We've had the remake of a 2D classic in Samus Returns, and the brand new 2D entry in Dread, and it'd be exciting to see things go in a different direction. One of my long-term desires for the franchise has always been to see a third-person 3D entry executed correctly. I'll never forget everyone's excitement toward the prospect, back when Other M was first revealed. All these years later, it still feels like a promise that was never delivered upon.
 
D.Lo said:
Just because the one game that was made in third person 3D was bad doesn't mean there is no value.
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Actually my hot Other M take is that outside missile gameplay (which is a shit fit for the game), the gameplay of Other M isn't that bad. It's a Team Ninja romp, with all the good and bad that entails, but constrained on a controller that doesn't work for a Team Ninja game (because Sakamoto didn't want them using the nunchuck). The big dumpster of Other M is really the story (and to be frank it's such a big dumpster that it's dragging everything else down with it).

I'm saying there's no value in a 3D third person or first person mainline Metroid for very different reasons than just "Other M bad" (even if yes, Other M is the forever low point of Metroid as a franchise); you just can't really do the type of physics mainline Metroid needs to "feel" like Metroid in 3D all that well (which Other M also suffers from; the game doesn't feel like Other M, it feels like a Team Ninja game, with its distinctly linear progression, room design more or less entirely existing to make you navigate from one arena to the next and very simplistic rooms that mostly feel like they exist to be varied combat arenas than puzzles/actual environments). 3D movement is much more deliberate, in part because of engine limitations (just look at how easily all Sonic games have technical meltdowns, even the Adventure games, because of Sonics insane physics being something that 3D engines can't handle very well) and in part because the human brain isn't actually that good at exploring 3D spaces in games (which is why most 3D games rely so heavily on you finding your way around with minimaps, pointing arrows and the ever present "enemy radar").

Prime does show a 3D Metroid can work but it very deliberately opted to sacrifice the movement mechanics of 2D Metroid to do so; all the praise for Prime usually comes down moreso to world design and it's combat mechanics (when contrasted against Halo, it's unintentional competitor during that time period). Tellingly, Prime is also very much not build around speedrunning or sequence breaking for faster clear times, only counting your total amount of collected items at the end.
 
I would prefer it to be a 3D third person title, I don't think there are many new concepts for metroid left to explore in the 2D space
 
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Earthbounder said:
Mainline Metroid is 2D.

The Prime series is 3D.
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Other M was hard codified as mainline Metroid in the Dread endings.
Razgriz said:
I'm saying there's no value in a 3D third person or first person mainline Metroid for very different reasons than just "Other M bad" (even if yes, Other M is the forever low point of Metroid as a franchise); you just can't really do the type of physics mainline Metroid needs to "feel" like Metroid in 3D all that well
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This is pure conjecture and opinion. Even the 2D games all have quite varying physics. hence you get recent players calling Super Metroid 'unplayable' due to its floaty physics.

Frankly I think OM matched the 'quick falling' physics of Zero Mission quite closely. And a Metroid that controlled similarly to Returnal would be significantly closer to the 2D games than Prime was.
 
D.Lo said:
Other M was hard codified as mainline Metroid in the Dread endings.
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Fair enough.

Still, I think numbered Metroid games should be kept to 2D (or third-person) so they can be differentiated from the Prime series. My preference is for 2D, though, because it brings variety to the table.
 
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I would take a very iterative sequel to Dread if it means it can come ASAP. Dread really made me starving for more 2D Metroid goodness so I definitely don't think it ends on that.

I think they should experiment with a 3rd person game in the series later tho, just not right after Dread really brought 2D Metroid back.
 
0
Keep the main games 2D and have Prime as the 3D series. I'm not really hankering for an over the shoulder style 3D Metroid experience.
 
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Famicrono said:
I actually voted 3D because I want another take on the Other M type of gameplay (GAMEPLAY!) and camera angles with obviously analog controls and not being stuck in order to fire missiles. Not even mentioning story and direction.
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I'd enjoy this but not at the expense of the mainline 2D series. If the question the thread poses is whether the main series should go 3D then we'd have two 3D lines (assuming Prime continues) instead of the balanced 2D/3D two-pillar approach they have now.

If anything I'd like to see the game you described take the torch from Prime as the next 3D entry while Metroid 6 stays 2D.
 
It’s gotta be 2D. I like having the Prime games being 3D and all the numbered entries being 2D. I’m not opposed to it, but it’s the preference.
 
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I vote for Metroid staying 2D (and Metroid Prime being the 3D series), but I would be okay if the next Metroid used a faux 3D camera, like Kolona does.

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Thinking about it, when a 2D series goes 3D (successfully), it ends up either being a natural evolution that brings out the strengths of the series in a way that was previously impossible, or its own thing entirely. For Zelda and especially Kirby, it was more the former. For Mario and Metroid, the latter. And in both of those cases, there were pretty good reasons for it not being a direct translation. And when we did eventually get 3D Land/World, I'm not really sure if they gained anything by being 3D.

Likewise, I'm not sure if Metroid gains anything from going 3D, and I feel like doing this successfully would have to involve at least one bold move, like heavily redesigning Samus's movement, or using more open environments instead of rooms. It would be extremely difficult to reproduce the kind of movement Dread or Super Metroid has in a 3D Metroid, and what are we getting in return here? I don't think Prime even really gains anything from being in 3D if you don't count the perspective itself, which this game wouldn't have. It's all things that could be done in 2D but wouldn't make sense with the pacing of other Metroid games. Could you imagine stopping to scan every random background object in Dread or something? I suppose you might be able to expand on the combat, but I don't really want even more of a combat focus, every other Metroidvania already does that. I don't think it's impossible to pull this off successfully, but the purpose of doing so feels murky.
 
2D. Style-wise... Sorry Nintendo but Team Cherry(Hollow Knight) looks better and sets more of an atmosphere than Dread. You should steal from their book 😜
 
I think there could be room for a 3d (1st/3rd person or otherwise) new series that isn't prime, even as Metroid 6/series continuation. Especially if Prime 4 (or maybe even a 5) were the last of their series. From a gameplay perspective anyway.

But why bother when the 2d Dread plays so well and it feels like the perfect way to continue the main series story?

For a new 3d title. A non-Prime continuation from Retro, or team made up of people familiar with Prime 4 once its finished up and that would make the most sense. But I don't know that would be Metroid 6. A new subtitle would be more likely. Even if its at the end of the current time line. It also likely wouldn't come out until after 6/or a dread sequel anyway.

I don't really think Metroid is big enough saleswise for a 3rd or new pillar that replaces the 2 current ones when those engines/resources are fresh and could be re-used. And if a new mercury steam/prime 4 game sells even better, that's even more reason to continue those series.
 
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