Metroid Prime Hunters

Metroid Prime Hunters is a first-person adventure game built for the Nintendo DS. It was developed by Nintendo Software Technology Corporation, a Redmond, Washington-based first-party developer for Nintendo. A demo, Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, was first released on November 21, 2004, and the full version was first released on March 20, 2006. Metroid Prime Hunters supports the Nintendo DS Rumble Pak.

Story
Beyond the bounds of the Galactic Federation's controlled universe lies the Tetra Galaxy, where the now-dead Alimbics once powerfully ruled. The region under the Alimbics' reign was and still is known as the Alimbic Cluster. The Alimbics ruled with much force, but were also efficacious in their decisions. Suddenly, all of the Alimbics disappeared, without any explanation as to why, but they left behind many relics and ancient valuable, some powerful, objects. Now, something in the Alimbic Cluster is eerily communing with powerful bounty hunters and other intelligent animals, telepathically uploading a message. "The secret to ultimate power resides in the Alimbic Cluster", was the sentence that played back mysteriously in the minds of hunters Kanden, Spire, Noxus, and some others. The message is in various dialects, languages, and even slangs, but the message always boils down to the above sentence. This simple message tempted many to make their way to the Alimbic Cluster, frantically and violently, to reach their own goal of obtaining an unknown source of ultimate power. Some want power for their own doings, others seek it for a more noble cause like saving ones people. But it seems that all of them are willing to take each other out to gain this mysterious power. The Galactic Federation has called upon their most prized hunter, Samus Aran to discover more about this mysterious message. Her Mission: "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."

Samus arrives at the Celestial Archives, a space station that holds a wealth of information regarding the Alimbic, most lost due to the age and the lack of repair. Samus first encounters Kanden here and fights him for one of the artifacts that will allow her to reach one of the guardian chambers.

After collecting the first three artifacts, she encounters her first Boss for the game, a bio-weapon named Cretaphid, which resembles a totem pole with multiple cannons running down the shaft. After defeating it, she receives her first Octolith, a key to the "Ultimate Power." A timer kicks and Samus is forced to backtrack the entire station to her ship.

After escaping, her ship scans the Alimbic Cluster and allows her to explore three more worlds: Alinos, the homeworld of the Alimbics, Vesper Defense Outpost, a remote defense and weaponry station, and Arcterra a frozen world. On each world there are two Octoliths and at least one "Affinity Weapon." Samus must find these weapons in order to open some special doors, which will allow her to find more Artifacts. For every Octolith, there are three keys to be found.

During her journey, she finds more information regarding the long lost Alimbics and their history, recorded mostly through things called datashades, which are visible only through the scan visor.

Once she has collected all of the Ocotoliths, she must return to Alinos to activate the Alimbic Cannon, which allows access to the Oubliette. This structure holds the long dormant and extremely dangerous Gorea. When she gets to the Oubliette, she sees all of the Hunters firing upon Gorea, only to be defeated and have their abilities absorbed by the creature. It then attacks Samus. Once defeated, it will enter a second form if Samus has fired the colored nodes on the walls in proper order with the correct weapons. If not, the station blows up before any of the hunters, Samus included, have a chance to escape.

If she does activate the nodes, then a second battle with Gorea takes place, in the Oubliette's main room, where she finds the only weapon capable of harming Gorea now, the Omega Cannon. Upon defeating the creature, she is encountered by several Alimbics, who salute her and send her on her way.

The events of Metroid Prime 2 follow.

Characters

 * Samus Aran - The player controls Samus, the Galactic Federation's most valued bounty hunter, who has proved herself in various missions.
 * Noxus - A Vhozon bounty hunter on the hunt for this mysterious power so that he may use it in his fight against wrong-doers and crime, he has walked a very religious and spiritual path.
 * Spire - The one remaining Diamont, who hunts the ultimate power so that he may discover more information about the fate or location of the rest of the Diamont people.
 * Kanden - An experiment for the most powerful super-soldier gone wrong, his mind was destroyed by powerful and complicated defense and combat neuroprograms. He wants this power solely so that he can continue hunting and become more powerful.
 * Sylux - A deadly and powerful bounty hunter who hates, and constantly attacks, the Galactic Federation, and is also a sworn enemy of Samus and has been tracking her for some time.
 * Trace - A swift, relentless bounty hunter from the Kriken race, Trace is currently on a rite of passage and is searching the galaxy for new planets for his people to invade and conquer.
 * Weavel - The Space Pirate bounty hunter's body was destroyed by Samus, and his shattered body was replaced by a cybernetic life support suit.

Gameplay
Metroid Prime Hunters plays similarly to the past Metroid Prime games in that it also focuses on exploration and upgrading abilities, but also has a stronger focus on shooting. The major upgrades Samus can get in single player are all weaponry, most already wielded by the other Hunters. In multiplayer, these weapons serve some traditional purposes to weapon selections of other FPS titles; in single player they serve more to solving puzzles and using a weapon that may be the weakness of a beast that the player has to eliminate.

Metroid Prime Hunters is the first game in the Metroid Series to feature in-game uses of Samus's gunship besides saving and restoration purposes, which is later expanded on in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The game was the first to have Samus explore multiple territories across the reaches of space, as well as introducing sub-weapons to the Metroid series.

Metroid Prime Hunters is the second game in the Metroid series to have multiplayer, and the first to ever have online multiplayer. In multiplayer, the player can choose between all of the Hunters seen in single player, though most are at first locked until you defeat the particular Hunter in a multiplayer match or defeat one in single player for the first time.

Metroid Prime Hunters is also somewhat more simplistic and linear than the main Prime games. You only have two visors - the scan visor and the combat visor- there are no suit upgrades other than the energy tanks, and the weapons of the other Hunters. The controls also lend themselves to a more FPS style game. Using the touchscreen to aim and the L-trigger to shoot, the controls are more akin to a PC FPS rather than the old Metroid Prime control scheme.

Multiplayer
In multiplayer, there are twenty-eight maps that can be played, most of them based on areas of the single player games, in addition to several gametypes, including the typical deathmatch mode, dubbed "Battle", a capture the flag style game aptly called "Capture", two King of the Hill type modes called "Nodes" and "Defender", "Survival", a mode with limited lives available. There is also "Bounty" where all the players are hunting after a single Octolith, and "Prime Hunter". Multiplayer is limited to at least two players or at the maximum with four. Two teams of two can fight each other in most gametypes, or there can be a two on one handicap game. Not all maps are available for every gametype and some become slightly altered depending on which mode is played.

All of the Hunters seen in single player are playable in multiplayer, and each gains special attributes for their Affinity Weapon--for example: Samus's missiles have a homing ability while the other Hunters' do not; Sylux's Shock Coil heals him, etc.

Areas
Celestial Archives Alinos Vesper Defense Outpost Arcterra Oubliette

Bosses
Cretaphid

Slench

Fire Spawn

Arctic Spawn

Gorea

Creatures
The creatures in Metroid Prime Hunters are a mix of traditional Metroid and Metroid Prime enemies, like the Zoomers and a more challenging variety of new enemies like the Guardians. Strangely- and ironically enough- there are no Metroids in the game, instead there is the Quadtroid, which is similar in style of attacking to that of the Metroid. On closer inspection, one will notice that there are only a select few types of creatures, and most of the other creatures that appear in different environments will be variants of others. There is an obvious reoccurring theme of interstellar creatures such blastcaps and Ithraks who are able to migrate from planet-to-planet, and even inhabit artificial space stations. Most creatures both biological and artificial in the Alimbic Cluster are not native to their current environments; mainly being migratory entities who stowed away on space vessels which later visited these places.


 * List of Creatures in Metroid Prime Hunters

Trivia

 * Metroid Prime Hunters and Super Metroid are the only games in the entire Metroid series where a special ending is unlocked by doing something other than completing the game within a set time-limit or by getting 100%. In this case it is unlocked by shooting a series of panels in the final level to fight Gorea's true form, fulfilling the Alimbic Prophecy.


 * Hunters is the first Metroid game to allow the player to control characters other than Samus for a Metroid game (albeit, only in multiplayer mode).


 * Metroid Prime Hunters is the only game in the Prime series that allows the player to scan objects or creatures in another room or area without entering it first.


 * Unlike other Metroid Prime games, the sub-weapons in Hunters do not take on a different shape on the arm cannon when they are active, though the coloring changes for each. Also, the new weapons do not have the word "beam" in their names, or fire any combos.


 * Despite not needing to activate any Spinners or travel up half-pipes, Samus is still able to use the Boost Ball upgrade in this game.


 * Metroid Prime Hunters is the first Metroid game that does not let Samus upgrade her suit aside from Universal Ammunition Expansions,  Missile Expansions,  Energy Tanks, and all of the sub-weapons.


 * Metroid Prime Hunters is one of the three Metroid games that does not have an appearance from Ridley in it, along with Metroid II: Return of Samus and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.


 * Metroid Prime Hunters is also the only Metroid game to have an ending where Samus actually dies.


 * Metroid Prime Hunters is the first Metroid game to have a menu that displays a player's records, including: Gorea Phase 1 Time, Gorea Phase 2 Time and Total Game Time. It is also the first to keep track of how many enemies a player has killed during the single player game, which is seen again in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption as a ship feature.


 * Metroid Prime Hunters is the only Metroid game to allow players to access any cutscene from the single player mode without having to replay the game.


 * Metroid Prime Hunters is the only Prime series game that has no direct indication of Phazon's presence.