Shaktool's view
Art:
The art in Metroid Prime is excellent. The creature concept artist did take many liberties with the design of classic characters, which often worked well, actually. The new Chozo statues look great, in my opinion. The Chozo ghosts were kinda scrawny and hard to make out, which was probably on purpose, though I would have liked them to be a little more imposing. Samus herself looks much better than before in almost every way. The armor is much colder and shinier, which makes her look bad-ass. The only problem I have with her is her proportions. Her left arm, her legs, and maybe her waist are way too scrawny. The armor should be thicker than that. Also, her shoulder pads should be a little smaller.
The Space Pirates look very different. The normal Pirates look scarier than before, which is a good thing, though I wish they had the lobster claws from before instead of hands. The Beam Troopers, on the other hand, just look silly. The pointy helmet and the lack of a face is kinda hilarious. The Omega Pirate and Metroid Prime also had pointy heads, which was one of my few complaints about them. One cool thing about the Beam Troopers, though, was that their legs had two knees, which is something I often give to many of my scary or elegant creatures, and I appreciate that. I think, in the sequel, I would like to see many different kinds of Pirates, but I would want all of them, with the exception of Kihunters and maybe some other oddballs, to have lobster claws and faces that resemble the ones in Super Metroid. Other than that, I really like the way normal pirates look in Metroid Prime, and I would like them to look rather like that in the sequel. I wouldn't mind seeing more metal-clad ninja pirates too, and get rid of the pointy heads!
The appearance of the areas worked out rather well, I think. There are plenty of unnatural structures in all Metroid games, not just Prime, so one could not blame those for any new feel. All of Tourian, Hideouts I and II are built by Pirates in Metroid One, and the item rooms are built by Chozos, presumeably. I would like the areas to be more evil, though. All Metroid games up through Super had black or almost black backgrounds, but the only way to accomplish that in 3-D is to have a thick, black fog, which is silly. Making the lighting darker might be neat, as long as the player has a thermal visor or X-ray visor handy and it is easier to see with those than in Prime. The areas should be even less geometric than in Prime, even the artificial areas. I would also like to see more surfaces that are black with neon lights or tubes on them. Those always look cool. I don't mind the areas with open skies too much, though I do think they should cut down on that a little, unless they make the game take place at night time. Night skies are always foreboding.
Music:
The music in Metroid Prime is inevitably compared to Super Metroid's music.The music in Super Metroid was uniformly great, while the music in Prime, no matter who you ask, had high points and low points. Some people disagree with me on this, but while some songs stink, I think there are a bunch of songs that SURPASS Super Metroid quality from Metroid Prime. Namely, the Save/Credits theme, the Ram Wasp Boss theme, the title theme, and even the Space Pirate battle theme. The latter starts to sound better the more you hear of it. Well, it did for me.
Some people complain about the techno in Metroid Prime. Often, it does not work for me either. The boss fights with loud, fast-paced techno were grating on my ears, such as the themes for the Chozo ghosts and the adult Sheegoth. Some of the smoother techno, though, I think works well. The music to the ice caves around the Gravity Chamber is great to me, if a bit repetitious.
I think some cheery music is not entirely out of place in Metroid. The Brinstar and Hideout I music in Metroid and both Brinstar themes in Super Metroid were relatively happy, and those are some of my favorite tunes. Somehow, this cheery music emphasizes the foreboding scenery, and I would like to see more of it.
The biggest problem I have with Prime's music is the choice of instruments. I want to hear some brass and strings. I do NOT want to hear anything that grates my ears.
Gameplay:
Customizable controls are a must. FULLY customizable, or as close as you can get. There should even be an option to combine the fire and lock on buttons into one, and you would disengage by tapping the C-stick to look in a different direction.
I would like the ability to combine beams again. However, I do like the ability to switch between them at will. I do think they should not have forced players to use certain beams against enemies so much, but the only Beam that I would never use if enemies and doors did not require it is the Wave Beam. All the other Beams are rather well-balanced. I'd use Power Beam on lots of weak, quick critters, the Ice Beam on any tough enemies that I want to pass by, and the Plasma Beam on everything else. However, you could... combine... the combining and switching, so that whenever you press a direction on the C-Stick, you would turn on or off that beam, but would not turn off any other beams you have on. The more beams you have on, the slower you fire rate or something, but if you turn them all on, the power will be amazing.
I think more über-awesome power-ups should be added. The Boost Ball is fun, like the Spring Ball was, but rather mild, compared to the likes of the Shinespark and Screw Attack. The Shinespark could be implemented rather easily. The R button could be used to stop Samus while she is running, since you would stop when you press R anyway, then you can hold it down and aim, then press B (or whatever is jump) to fly. If the R button is no longer used for aiming, then perhaps one of the free buttons could be used to initiate it when Speed Boosting that would have a different function besides crouching when standing still.
Bombing for secret passages is a staple of Metroid gaming that was all but replaced by the scan visor in Prime. Using the scan visor kinda feels like cheating. However, if they had made more use of the Thermal and X-Ray visor, which they should in the sequel, then I would be perfectly happy.
The Wall Jump and Screw Attack would also be great additions, though they would not work well without a 3rd person camera. The wall jump might work, but since the Screw Attack pulls out the camera anyhow, you might as well have a full fledged third person camera mode when not a ball. That would make many people happy, myself included. I'm not saying the whole game is third person, you just have a third person camera you can switch to at any time. It should be like the camera in Zelda. That would solve these problems.
-Shaktool
Well, that's certainly a lot to digest, but it's so well expressed that I think some things definitely deserve a reply. I agree with your assesment of the art, but though most changes did work well I, like yourself, still think the classic elements should be included. Not all the space pirates need to look alike, so why not add some of the frail lobster-clawed pirates in some areas. And maybe the statues in the old games represented warrior Chozo (they were holding weapons, after all) which would explain their bulkier appearance. I simply don't think the changes in Prime sholuld become definitive, though it's hard to deny almost everything looks great.
It's true that other Metroid games also had constructed areas, all the way to the original, but they were either hidden deep within the caves or somehow felt melded into them. I don't mind the technology in Prime, but I do believe a greater focus was needed on the organic part of the environments.
The music is one thing that is very difficult to defend. I believe that it kills the atmosphere too often. While it's true that some of the music in past Metroid games was upbeat, it never felt out of place. I just don't feel the same way about Prime. And I will point this out about your examples: of the songs you mention that surpass Super's quality two don't play during the game itself, and the others are battle songs, which are some of the more appropriate tunes in the game. None of the tracks play during the bulk of the game, namely the exploration.
Your gameplay suggestions are very interesting. Using the R trigger for the Shine Spark is certainly a good idea that could work very well, but I still think that a crouch move would be a good addition to the game. And while combining the beams the way you mention might be interesting, it runs the risk of complicating the gameplay, especially since I have a hard time seeing people use less powerful beams when they can all be combined unless Retro does a majestic balancing act.
And since you bring it up, I'll address the first person vs. third person argument here. My view on it is that it really doesn't matter. Now that I've played Metroid Prime I'm completely certain that true Metroid games can be done in this perspective. I also believe that a third person Metroid game could definitely do justice to the series, but the game needs to be designed from the ground up for one perspective only. Being able to switch seems like a good idea, but it could complicate level design since the designers must take care to make the game playable from both perspectives. Such camera problems are supposed to be the reason they picked first person in the first place. Not only that, but different views would probably require different control schemes for each, something that I'm certain no one at Retro wants to try to implement. One has to remember that most of Metroid involves exploration, shooting, and jumping, and first person is the best choice for two of those three elements. Zelda and Mario practically require third person, since your main weapon in Zelda is a sword and Mario is mostly about jumping. The first person in Zelda is used for the weapons you have to shoot, which again emphasizes how it's the ideal perspective for shooting! In addition, I think that just about every move in Metroid, save for the two you point out, could be well implemented in first person, and creativity may yet bring those two back. In short, I think both perspectives have their advantages, and either of them would work well in Prime's sequel.
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