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"Action Adventure" is the only name to refer to a third or first person shooter game in development by Retro Studios in 1998, echoes of which later found their way into Metroid Prime.

Plot
Little is known about the plot other than that it would have had three female protagonists, all of whom wore form-fitting space suits and resembled Samus Aran. The main antagonist of the game is described as a "Neo-Nazi". Other characters in the game included a guard with a barcode on his uniform, a "Ninja Monk" and "BloodMonkey". The game was set on a post-apocalyptic planet in the near future.

Metroid Prime
Contrary to popular belief, the game did not evolve into Metroid Prime in the same way that Metroid 1.5 evolved into its sequel. Shigeru Miyamoto visited Retro Studios in Austin, Texas and did not like Retro's projects, with the exception of Action Adventure. The game's engine was heavily retooled as development went on. According to a source of EGM in 2001, two of the "hot chicks" had been modeled and concept artwork had been done, but little else.

Weeks prior to SpaceWorld 2000, Retro was granted use of the Metroid license, and the decision was made to cancel Action Adventure. Very little of Action Adventure is known to have survived, apart from concept artwork and tech demos, seen below.

Concept artwork
The game only made it as far as the concept artwork phase and it is unlikely that a playable beta exists, if it ever did. The artwork was drawn by Arnie Jorgensen, who left Retro just after the arrival of Andrew Jones.