Lords of Shadow Devs Pitched Metroid FPS to Nintendo

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/201..._wii_u_and_3ds

One enduring rumour that has quietly been circulating in the Spanish games industry is that MercurySteam, the studio behind Konami's Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series, has been pitching a new entry in the Metroid series to Nintendo. After extensive digging and coordinating with contacts related to the project, we can now confirm this to be the case.

In late May, Nintendo Life learned the company began an effort to expand its staff for the game. As work on its proposal for a new Metroid game was under-way, MercurySteam was hoping to bring in a number of talented new developers hand-picked from other Spanish studios. Hiring calls were posted too as the search widened.

We have ascertained that work on a prototype for this unsolicited pitch was established earlier in the year, and had a full game been green-lit, it was planned to be developed for both Wii U and 3DS. It was being referred to internally as simply 'Metroid', and it has been described as a first person game set in a post apocalyptic sci-fi environment. In their demo, Samus was the main character - as you would expect - but was joined by seven other playable bounty hunters, as well. This is a similar set-up to that seen in the DS game, Metroid Prime: Hunters.

On the whole, I am glad that this did not happen.

Would it of been better than Federation Force? :P

Wouldn't know, Federation Force isn't out yet, is it? But Next Level Games have an exemplary track record with games, and Mercury Steam... do not.

Well I mean the basic game idea..a FPS vs Blast Ball? :P

Federation Force is also a full FPS, Blast Ball is just a tutorial mode in it.

Oh wait, NLG is making MP: FF? That actually gets me a little stoked about it, they clearly know how to make 3DS games fun with Dark Moon being excellent plus having Mario Strikers Charged and Punch-Out! (Wii) shows they have the potential to make a great... whatever FF is at the moment lol.

With what they did to Castlevania, I'm happy this never took place.

Thanks to MercurySteam and Konami, Castlevania is now essentially a dead IP.

Well you're no fun this AM. :P I thought I would of had something with FF. :P

Also is Chronicles worth getting on 3DS or the Wii Shop for $20.

I thought Lords of Shadow was supposed to be decent, or is it one of those games that's good enough as an individual game, but terrible as a game whose title identifies with a series? Or is it just terrible in general? Haven't played it yet.

Jesus, I'm glad that never happened. That sounds awful.

Sounds better than federation force

It's God of War in Castlevania robes.

Good, but not Castlevania. Even as a (what I like to call) "Belmont" game it isn't the best out there (Lament of Innocence is better). I couldn't even get into the game, and I LOVED both Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness, both games people are fairly critical of.

The first lords of shadow was fun but had no originality to it. it ripped off so many games that it doesn't have it's own identity. it was still a fun playthrough and a challenging game on higher difficulties and i enjoyed it more than some of the GOW games. the soundtrack was good too but it sounded too movie-ish?

The second game was just so badly designed. the rat stealth sections and many others made me think who thought this was good idea? the combat is the only redeeming quality about it and even then it's not that good.

So basically they can do good gameplay but when your levels are so boring and painful to go through and the pacing and the way it was designed is so bad then the negative outweighs the positive. that is why it is a mediocre game. also lol at dracula turning into a rat because he can't beat a bunch of thugs and whatever demons and monsters in the game.

I'm glad they didn't do a metroid game. let retro studios or miyamoto do something.

Sorry lol, I'm stoned as **** on painkillers :p

You'd need to buy a New 3DS to play Xenoblade, so really, getting the Wii version on the Wii U is probably for the best. Especially since the 3DS version is also supposed to be inferior.

yea, just what we need, another shitty metroid fps. lets put that last nail in metroid's coffin.

It would be news if Platinum Games pitched "Metroid".

Why are you so mad about a 3DS spin off?

Lords of Shadow was one of my favourite games of the last gen. People saying it wasn't original, i really just don't understand that. I've struggled to find a grand adventure like that again.

After them helping in fucking up Castlevania, MercurySteam are as much as trustworthy as Bioware when it comes to Japanese IP's. I can name only one Western dev that handles Japanese IP's well: Retro Studios (so I'd sooner pick them as much as I want Retro to move on).

Well seeing as how they made Lords of Shadow everything but a Castlevania game, I'm glad they didn't "grace" Metroid with their involvement.

Don't mind him, he's salty about everything Nintendo does in general, because they don't do what some random internet blogger thinks they should do.

To be fair, it's not like Malstrom isn't exactly wrong on some things.

Malstrom is right about some things and wrong about others, no different than you or I.

Fire is correct. Federation Force is a waste of time, & resources. Scratch that, I've seen mobile devs doing much better with less resources. This project would've been better. Though I'd be happier if I never saw another fps metroid.

With games like Prime and Echoes, a new fps would just be downhill from there.....hard to top those.

On a side note, I very much enjoyed Lords of Shadow, I've yet to finish the 2nd one though as it is part of my 360 backlog, but I intend to get to it soon. The gameplay had some issues but overall I was fine with it...I enjoyed the story of the 1 st game and so far I like how the 2nd titles starts out.

Like Dib, I'd take a Platinum style Metroid, or hell, a Prince of Persia style Metroid.

[QUOTE="@charizard1605"]Malstrom is right about some things and wrong about others, no different than you or I. [/QUOTE]

Malstrom has been more right than wrong regardless of your opinion of him. He's more knowledgeable than any game journalist today.

I would rather have a game from Next Level Games instead of MercurySteam, Next Level has some awesome games.

I just want the 2d metrovania games back for the Metroid and Castlevania series.. Look at the success of games like Terraria which borrowed heavily from that type of game.. The last amazing types of these kind of games from either series was the DS castlevania games which were amazingly good.

Unfortunately, those kind of games make me wonder if Metroid would REALLY be welcomed back in this day in age when we got so many alternatives?

Well atleast they got past the archer.

I like to think that Bloodborne is a great Castlevania game (Symphony of the Night style). It has the same horror theming, well designed interconnected level design, memorable and challenging boss fights as well as tight, smooth RPG combat.

Mercury steam is right next to Ninja theory in how much respect I have for them. Federation force looks bad but after what these guys did with Castlevania I'm guessing it can always be worse.

Your blaming them cause you didint like the game? As a castlevania fan I really liked LOS and its take on the series. The blame should be solely on konami for not giving us another entry.

Yeah. I'm blaming them for not making a game I enjoyed. I'm sorry my tastes are different from yours, but I would have hoped for something a little less God of War, and a little more Castlevania.

Why the hell not? People blamed Lucasarts for making The Force Unleashed series. People blamed Nintendo for endorsing Federation Force. People even blamed Capcom for how bad Street Fighter X Tekken ended up being and blamed EA for always online DRM ruining SimCity 2013.

You can blame Konami for not making the castlevania game you wanted, hell I wanted a game a lot like Super Castlevania IV. What can they do? Sales of Castlevania have been complete lackluster and it's no longer a big name franchise as it used to be. Konami did risk on rebooting the game with MercurySteam and LOS is the third best selling game behind Symphony of the Night. Their was nothing Iga could do to revitalize the series, that's how business works. I do hope Bloodstained is good, I really do.

I kind of wish they just let Team Ninja do another Other M like game. It wasn't nearly as bad as people claimed, and those decisions that upset people most likely came from Sakamoto himself, and not by incompetence on part of the developers at Team Ninja. Mechanically the game played fine, despite people complaining about a jump to first person aiming, I didn't take any issue. But, they could do something pretty good on the Wii U with a tablet or pro controller.

Of course it isn't Team Ninja's fault, it's all on Sakamoto that did all the questionable decision that ruined the franchise completely.

Gawd, I wish. Think their Metroid would at least be interesting, and for SURE better than nothing. Criterion were also in talks for F Zero. Imagine if both were made for WiiU? It might be less of a worthless pile of garbage.

Wow... drama queen much?

Sakamoto has been a major part of Metroid, and it's relative success, since Super.

You're being more emotional than Samus was in Other M.

His past experience shouldn't be an excuse for the poor implementation he had in Other M. The game is completely dull compare to Super and just wasn't enticing compared to Metroid Prime.

That's a nice opinion.

Personally, and many share my opinion, I thought it was a good game and a good Metroid game. And was a nice way to get to know Samus more personally.

It's like the people who like Super Castlevania IV or Rondo of Blood, but don't like Symphony of the Night. They are different types of games in the same franchise, and still both quality representations of the IP.

And there are others that also share mine. Only difference is those that share mine is much bigger. Of course I do love Symphony of the Night and Super Castlevania IV, but I do miss the original games a lot. Hell, I can tell you that I did enjoy Castlevania 64

Prove it.

From what I've seen of people here, it's pretty much evenly divided between hate, love and "meh".

Point taken, but still, Other M was a commercial failure and reviving the Metroid Franchise is now a difficult chance

It would be welcomed back with open arms if executed properly. There are tons of Metroid-esque games (many made by one person, if not more than a few). It amazes me that people doubt the appeal of Metroid when it's nigh single-handedly responsible for the birth of an entire genre. Nintendo needs to stop half-assing Metroid out in contracts to other developers and get in touch with what made the series so renowned in the first place. Don't mistake poor execution for lack of interest, which is exactly what you (and many others) are doing.

Well I'm glad this didn't happen. Considering they turned Castlevania into some generic action game to appeal to the masses. They probably would have done the same to Metroid.

Commercial failure? It sold MAYBE a couple hundred thousand less copies than all three Prime games. Metroid has NEVER been a commercial success for Nintendo. It baffles me how they still justify it's existence financially.