Previews

Hunters Prepare for new Metroid

Head-to-head multiplayer is the focus for Metroid Prime Hunters

Hunters Prepare for new <i>Metroid</i>
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DS
| Metroid Prime: Hunters

When you got your DS, you also got a copy of Metroid Prime Hunters First Hunt, which is a demo of the main Metroid Prime Hunters game, Nintendo is working on and is due for release in October. More a taster than a proper experience at least First Hunt gives you a couple of single player levels as well as some four player multiplayer and a rolling morph ball level. But there’s plenty more to come.

Based around seven classes of bounty hunter, each out to discover powerful relics from an extinct warrior culture, the main thrust of Metroid Prime Hunters will be wi-fi deathmatch. Unlike other DS games, it won’t be using the global Nintendo Internet system though, just the local DS wi-fi connection. One good thing about this however, is that you’ll can share one game cartridge between four players.

Each of the different hunters has their own special weapons and fighting style - such as stealth, melee and sniper. Of course, there will be Samus, the original star of the Metroid games. Other revealed characters include a spiritual being called Noxus from the proud and reclusive Vhozon race, rock-based creature known as Spire, who is the last surviving member of his kind, while the evil joker in the pack is the supposedly unkillable (we’ll have to see about that!) experimental soldier Kanden.

According to Richard Vorodi, one of the game’s designers, there will be a deep single player experience as well.

“This time the game isn’t about Samus trying to find parts for her suit; she is looking for relics of an alien species that has disappeared, and she's not alone,” he told the Nintendo Europe website (check out the full interview at www.nintendo-europe.com - registration required). “The other games were claustrophobic, and focused on powering up to get through. This game is about being powerful and being surrounded. The tension plays back and forth between sometimes being the hunter, sometimes being the hunted.”

Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.