We celebrated Metroid Prime’s 10th Anniversary a few weeks back, but it appears the game still has some secrets.
The good folks over at Metroid Database have translated an interview with Retro Studios from a March 2003 edition of Nintendo Online Magazine that somehow fell between the cracks for the better part of a decade.
You can read the interview in full here, but an area of particular interest is the genesis of Prime from being a potential first-person shooter into being a “first-person adventure.”
From the very beginning, we recognized that Metroid games are, above all, about exploration. While shooting is an essential component of this game, you can’t say it’s the focus. We made this way of thinking the base for making this game. Thinking about what the player would do in the world we were creating directed the majority of the game design choices we made during the production. The moment we decided to concentrate on adventure instead of shooting, we started calling this a “first person adventure game.”
Check out the full interview, and poke around Metroid Database while you’re at it. You won’t regret it.
