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, which was bundled with Metroid Prime Pinball.

Story
Beyond the bounds of the Galactic Federation's controlled universe lies the Tetra Galaxy, where the now-dead Alimbics once ruled. The region under the Alimbics' reign was and is still known as the Alimbic Cluster. The Alimbics ruled with much force, but were also efficacious in their decisions. One day, however, all of the Alimbics suddenly disappeared without any warning or explanation, leaving behind many relics and ancient, valuable objects, some of which are quite powerful.

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" is the sentence that played back mysteriously in the minds of hunters Weavel, Spire, Noxus, and some others. The message is in various dialects, languages, and even slangs, but it 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 their 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 Alimbics, most of it lost due to age and lack of upkeep. 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 in 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 through 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 Octoliths, 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. Gorea then attacks Samus. Once defeated, it will enter a second form if Samus has shot the colored nodes on the walls in the 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 Samus finds the only weapon capable of harming Gorea, the Omega Cannon. Upon defeating Gorea, the Oubliette begins to fall a part in a series of explosions. Samus and the other hunters are believed to have escaped the destruction of the Oubliette. Right at the final explosion, Samus, in her Zero Suit, is seen floating in a vision that could have been sent by the Alimbics or Gorea. When this vision is over, Samus is returned to her Gunship with what may be a restored Varia Suit. The game concludes with Samus's Gunship flying off into space.

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 similar to the weapon selections of other FPS titles; in single player, they are more often used to solve puzzles as find the weakness of various beasts 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 also the first to have Samus explore multiple territories across the reaches of space, and it introduced 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 locked until you defeat that particular Hunter in a multiplayer match or defeat them in single player for the first time.

Metroid Prime Hunters is also somewhat more simplistic and linear than the main Prime games. Samus only has two visors, the Scan Visor and the Combat Visor, and there are no suit upgrades other than Energy Tanks, Missile Expansions, Universal Ammunition Expansions, and the weapons of the other Hunters. As the gameplay requires 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 MPH Multiplayer, there are twenty-six maps that can be played, most of them based on areas of the single player game. There are several game types, including the typical death-match mode, dubbed "Battle", a Capture the Flag style game aptly named "Capture", two King of the Hill type modes called "Nodes" and "Defender", and a mode with limited lives available called "Survival". There is also "Bounty", where all the players are hunting after a single Octolith, and "Prime Hunter". Multiplayer is limited to two to four players. Two teams of two can fight each other in most game types, or there can be a two on one handicap game. Not all maps are available for every game type 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 restores the user's health, 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 has an attack style similar to the Metroid. On closer inspection, one will notice that there are only a select few types of creatures, and most of the creatures that appear in different environments are variants of others. There is an obvious reoccurring theme of interstellar creatures such as Blastcaps and Ithraks who are able to migrate from planet-to-planet and even inhabit artificial space stations. Most creatures in the Alimbic Cluster, both biological and artificial, are not native to their current environments; they are mainly migratory entities who stowed away on space vessels which later visited these places.


 * List of Creatures in Metroid Prime Hunters

Trivia

 * Metroid Prime Hunters has the most amount of Countdowns out of any Metroid game.
 * 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 (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 change the shape of 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, and they cannot fire any Charge Combos.
 * The music in Metroid Prime Hunters appears to be based on existing themes from Metroid Prime: the music from Alinos takes cues from the Magmoor/Norfair themes from Yamamoto, the Arcterra BGM is based on the Phendrana theme, and the Celestial Archives music sounds very similar to the Frigate Orpheon theme. It is worth mentioning that Kenji Yamamoto had no participation in the music creation department, which was led by Lawrence Schwedler and James Phillipsen from NSTC.
 * Hunters is the first 3D Metroid game on a portable system and has the most interchangeable weapons of any other game in the series.
 * 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.
 * 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
 * Hunters is also the only Metroid game to have a (non-canon) 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.
 * 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.
 * Hunters is the only Metroid game released after the original Metroid that features an entirely new set of weapon upgrades obtained in the game.
 * Metroid Prime Hunters and Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt are the only Metroid games to have lobbing weapons: the Magmaul/Battlehammer and the Electro Lob.
 * Hunters is also the only Metroid game that features weapons Samus can fire that are capable of bouncing off walls, the Judicator and the Magmaul, and features the only sniper weapon: the Imperialist.


 * Metroid Prime Hunters is the only game in the Prime Series that does not feature a hint system.
 * Metroid Prime Hunters is the only game in the series to not have Metroids in it.
 * Tetra is the Greek word for the number 4. The Tetra Cluster has 4 locations (not counting the Oubliette).
 * Metroid Prime Hunters may have originally been intended to take place after Metroid Prime 2: Echoes as evidenced by scanning a War Wasp, the scan reads "The royal jelly of the War Wasp queen is so highly valued that hives continue to be harvested on Aether in spite of a shocking death toll." which is cronologically inconsistent with the official timeline. However this could mean that Aether is a dangerous planet as seeing that the Alimbic have been hinted to trade with the Luminoth.
 * To market the game, Jones Soda sold a bottle with the label featuring Samus as she appears in Hunters.
 * The game was playable in 2005 during the Nintendo Fusion Tour.