Metroid Prime Hunters Update -- VoIP, Single- and Multiplayer Hands-On

REDMOND--At a press event today in Redmond, Washington, Nintendo finally took the lid off of Metroid Prime Hunters, its anticipated DS first-person shooter starring the one and only Samus Aran. The game shown today bore little resemblance to the First Hunt demo that was initially packed in with the DS hardware when it launched last year. The near-final version demoed today showed a fully realized FPS that took smart advantage of the DS's touch screen and showed off the recently announced VoIP functionality.

Metroid Prime Hunters, which started as an E3 demo, is set to soon hit your Nintendo DS.

The day kicked off with a presentation by Mr. Yamashiro, president of Nintendo Software Technology, who got his start as a programmer on SNES F-Zero and more recently was director of Wave Race Blue Storm for the GameCube. NST was established in 1998 and has produced seven games across Nintendo's platforms including the GBA, N64, GC, and the DS. The developer has a staff of more than 50 members working in Seattle, and they collaborate with Nintendo Japan luminaries such as Shigeru Miyamoto. They have recently been joined by Mr. Abe, who worked on the Pikmin series, and it is now the most international group of all of Nintendo's teams.

Yamashiro noted that Metroid Prime Hunters started life as an E3 demo that was created to show off the hardware. However, with the impending Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, the developer opted to delay the game's release to take advantage of the upcoming service to create a stronger product more in line with what user feedback was calling for in the wake of the First Hunt demo that was included with the DS.

Yamashiro ceded the stage to game designer Richard Vorodi, who gave an overview of the single- and multiplayer experience. Before diving into specifics, Vorodi offered insight into the team's vision for Prime Hunters, which was that the title was designed to offer a hardcore experience that was cool and true to the Metroid mythos. The Metroid legacy had a direct impact on the six new bounty hunters that were introduced.

The demo included a look at the game's intro, which featured a montage of the six bounty hunters: Sylux, Weavel, Noxus, Trace, Spire, and Kanden. From there, the main menu offered a look at the two game modes. The single-player game--which Vorodi noted was slightly shorter than Metroid Prime for the GC--will offer a slightly different spin on the typical adventure. Unlike in the other Metroid titles, Samus won't be getting jacked and losing all her gear. Instead, you can plan on using a fully powered Samus. Your mission is to collect crystals called octoliths that are spread out throughout the galaxy. The unique items are relics from an ancient civilization that have been transmitting telepathic messages to bounty hunters far and wide. The single-player game will send you out on a hunt for mysterious crystals that will take you out of federation territory and into the fringes of space. For those keeping score at home, the game takes place between Metroid Prime 1 and 2. Fans will notice that Samus will be piloting the ship seen in Metroid Prime but sporting the armor seen in Echoes.

Hunters will pit Samus against six deadly bounty hunters.

The opening level, Celestial Archives, is essentially a tutorial that starts out with you leaving your ship in the hangar. You'll be able to use your scan visor to examine your surroundings and explore the vast space station. As you go about your business, you'll get messages from your ship as it tracks your competing bounty hunters' progress around you. You'll also encounter grunt drones, which are all that's left of the technology in the station. Metroid Prime has the look and feel of a proper Metroid game, so you'll find yourself scanning the area and getting clues as you track down the crystals, as well as venturing through corridors and using your morph ball to creep into nooks and crannies. You'll see that you can earn yourself power-ups, such as missile upgrades, which you can get by wiping out all the enemies in a room. Once that's done, you'll gain access to artifacts that make up pieces of special keys you'll use to get to teleporters that take you to the octoliths.

The demo picked up speed when Samus encountered her first foe, the bounty hunter called Kanden. The action then switched to a chase until we cornered him and got into an old-school boss battle in which we found ourselves dealing with his humanoid and secondary larva form that fires off explosive slugs that partially track you. Once he's taken down, you'll collect the next piece of the artifact you're looking for. The demo ended with Samus heading off in search of the next piece of the key and an impending boss fight before she snagged the octolith. The next single-player area demoed was the planet Alinos, a volcanic planet that featured more classic Metroid-style action, such as using your morph ball and bombs to reach secret areas and the like. In addition, we saw familiar spiky crawlers and flying enemies. The level also showed off an encounter with the next enemy bounty hunter, Spire, whose secondary ball form lets him climb walls and do radial damage.

The gameplay in the single-player demos showed off the basic structure of the adventure, which will basically involve you going to different frontiers (the different locations in the game), solving a handful of linked puzzles that will let you progress to collect the crystals, facing off against your enemy bounty hunters, and taking on bosses. The nice catch to the single-player game is that you can be ganked and have your crystals stolen at any time, at which point you'll have to hunt them down and take them back (if you lose all your crystals your game is done). We're also pleased to hear about the escape you'll have to perform on your way out of a level once you collect the crystal. As in previous Metroid games, you'll have to sweat setting off a self-destructing device primed to go off once you collect the goods, which will force you to haul your morph ball out of there before everything explodes.

Set off the self-destructing device and then roll your way out of there before things go boom.

Following the single-player demo, we took a quick look at the multiplayer experience, which has been beefed up with a host of different modes and options. The mode will let you play on more than 20 maps that are specialized for the different game modes. You'll find three game types, including single card, multicard, and online. Single card will let you play with up to four friends with only one cart by downloading a demo that lets them play with you in a limited game. Multicard will let four players with the game carts play with a full-featured version of the game. Finally, the online mode will let you play in four-player games on the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection and also engage the "rival radar" feature, which will let you leave the game in a sleep mode akin to Nintendogs' bark mode, wherein you'll be able to gain info on anyone nearby that has his or her game in the same mode. The feature will let you check out their stats and progress in the game and label them as rivals that you can take on in online matches.