The Research Entrance is, as its name suggests, the entrance to Glacier One. It is a room located in the Phendrana Drifts on Tallon IV in Metroid Prime. It is a large room containing many pillars, wires, metal walkways, and a few crates, with an upper metal-floored level. When Samus enters this room, a Sentry Drone appears and sounds an alarm. Shields rise, the doors lock, and Space Pirates attack; these must be defeated to unlock the doors again. On later trips, the Space Pirates are replaced by Shadow Pirates, and the doors do not lock.
After Samus acquires the Thermal Visor, the room becomes very foggy, likely a tactic the Pirates employ once they know Samus has breached their compound to prevent Samus from seeing the Shadow Pirates. Interestingly, whenever Samus opens the door to this room after obtaining the Thermal Visor, one Shadow Pirate can always be seen standing in place in the center of the room, with its cloaking field offline. As if caught off-guard, however, the Shadow Pirate will soon notice Samus's nearby presence and immediately activate its stealth gear before engaging in combat.
Connecting rooms[]
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- Specimen Storage (via Purple Door)
- Map Station (via Blue Door)
- Hydra Lab Entryway (via Purple Door)
Inhabitants[]
- Auto Defense Turret
- 4 Space Pirates (first visit only)
- 5 Shadow Pirates (subsequent visits)
Scans[]
- Security bioscan lock
- "Force Field accessible only through Space Pirate bio-imaging. Impossible to breach."
Development notes[]
Metroid Prime live action commercial
The commercial in which the room appeared.
There is an unused layer in this room, "3rd Pass - Elite", which spawns an Elite Pirate. This likely would have occurred on a third visit to the room, after Samus had encountered the monstrous Pirates in the Phazon Mines. Elite Pirates are also present on unused layers in Research Lab Hydra and Control Tower. The Elite Pirate's movement is limited to the ground floor. It cannot move up the low ramp, except by being pushed or if using its melee swipe to move upward. It stops its movement at the base of the tall ramp leading to the second elevation and cannot be pushed up it. It will also not claw swipe its way upward, meaning it will simply stare at Samus if she is at a certain spot on the tall ramp or higher.
Anthony Garcellano redesigned this room for Metroid Prime Remastered.[1]
Trivia[]
- This room appears in footage used in Prime Evil, the live-action Metroid Prime commercial. Footage included featured Samus walking along the foggy walkways in the game, which was recreated in live-action as part of the Frigate Orpheon, although no such area appears there in-game.
- Oddly, during the Pirate encounter here in the GameCube version of Prime, if one single Space Pirate is killed by the Phazon Beam (via hacking), the doors immediately unlock, even if there are remaining Space Pirates.
- It is possible to enter this room for the first time after obtaining the Thermal Visor via Sequence Breaking. Doing so will have both standard Space Pirates and Shadow Pirates occupying the same room. The Shadow Pirates are not bound by the cutscene in this room and will continue to move towards Samus's initial position while the cutscene plays.
Gallery[]
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.png "Research Entrance Post Thermal Pirate (Floor).png (541 KB)")
References[]
- ^ Kiwi Talkz. "#147 - Anthony Garcellano Interview (Metroid Prime Remastered, Tony Hawk, Film, Crunch, Art etc.)" YouTube. February 28, 2023. Archived from the original on March 2, 2023. Retrieved March 23, 2023. (starts at 8:39)