Design doc brings ton of information, concept art on rejected “Metroid 1.5”
Single Player Scenario:
• Find a way into the nightclub un-detected; the criminal’s bodyguards will be patrolling heavily around the building.
• Systematically take out all of the criminal’s bodyguards. (Cannot go in guns blazing because of the possibility too many civilian casualties, one civilian dies = mission failure)
• Once inside the nightclub, locate the criminal (Possible use of X-ray visor to see the criminal’s true self, could possibly be in disguise.)
• Once the criminal is located, capture him/her by any means possible, remember, the federation wants this criminal dead or alive.
If all conditions are met for this mission, it is considered a success.
Multi Player Mini-games and Scenarios:
• Riot Squad! : A riot is taking place inside and outside of the nightclub, up to 4 Bounty Hunters have to go in and pacify the rioters. (The Rioters are some sort of generic type of enemy that will come in waves) The winner of the mini game is the Bounty Hunter with the most kills at the end of the game.
• Control Point! : A timed mini-game where up to 4 Bounty Hunters have to activate control points on the map, (go up and scan them) in order to control the most points and get the biggest score. Basically, its death-match with areas of control, similar to “Domination” in UT. The winner of the mini game is the Bounty Hunter
• Protect the Celebrity! : A controversial Android Pop-Star has finished a performance in the nightclub, and needs to get out of the spaceport alive. The Pop-Star has had numerous death threats, as well as a maniacal fan-base. Your job as the Bounty Hunters is to protect the Star at all costs and get him/her/it back to its manager’s ship, which is orbiting off world.
• Object Race! : A timed mini-game where up to 4 Bounty Hunters must race through the Night club, its sub structure (morphball travel), and surrounding areas to acquire as many objects (TBD) as possible before the timer runs out. A simple race/treasure hunter style of game with no killing other players involved. Although, the weapons each bounty Hunter has in their possession could be used to knock back a player away from an object, freeze a player, knock an object out of the way from a player, or pull an object towards a player.
• Bottle Blast! : Hundreds of bottles are lined up along the bar, each Bounty Hunter will have a chance to destroy as many bottles as they can in one minute. The bounty under can use any weapon or technique available. The winner is the Bounty Hunter with the most destroyed bottles at the end of the game.
Morphball Diagram:
The Above illustration shows a cut-away of two levels of the nightclub. On the interior and exterior walls of the nightclub are air vents that can be blown apart with a morphball bomb, once the screen is blown away, the player now has access to the air-vents which will push the ball up though different levels and areas of the building. To switch things up a bit, especially in multi-player mode, we can have the air vents work on a timer basis or a switch basis, so when some are active, some aren’t.
Closing Comments:
So this is pretty much what I think we could crank out in a year, A Smaller Adventure with expanded mechanics and a few new ones thrown in. The beauty of spaceship design is that a lot of corridors and hub rooms can be reused over and over again, with minor variation; it also lends itself well to our room/door/hall layout. Plus, we can make the world denser by exploiting the super structure of the ship using morphball mechanics. Even though the idea of an AI gone mad has been used before in games as well as films, I feel that we could put a unique twist on it. And by allowing Samus to use only certain abilities in certain parts of the game, we can get a fair amount of replay value by offering the player different solutions to a single problem. This I feel would satisfy gamers who completed Prime and are hungry for something more with a few new mechanics and ideas thrown in.
With the addition of the co-op multi-player components I have noted in the previous paragraphs, I feel that we would still have a game that feels like Metroid, albeit the feeling of Isolation would no longer be there, at the expense of the multi-player experience. However, I think the by unlocking the additional multi-player modes, after the actual game is completed, it wont detract from the experience. Unlike Time Splitters 1 and 2, we can keep the player focused on the main portion or adventure of the game which is what Metroid is all about.
