Metroid Prime Hunters

:"Prime Hunters" redirects here. For the role in this game's multiplayer mode, see Prime Hunter.
 is a first-person adventure game for the Nintendo DS and a side story to the Metroid Prime trilogy set between the events of Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. It was developed by Nintendo Software Technology Corporation, a Redmond, Washington-based first-party developer for Nintendo. The game was preceded by Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, a demo included as a pack-in (now discontinued) with the DS launch in all regions except Japan. The final version was released in North America in March 2006, in Europe and Australia in May 2006, in Japan in June 2006, and in South Korea in December 2007. Metroid Prime Hunters supports the Nintendo DS Rumble Pak (except the Korean version), which was bundled with Metroid Prime Pinball.
==Plot==
This game's events follow those of Metroid Prime.
Beyond the bounds of the Galactic Federation's controlled universe lies the Tetra Galaxy, where the now-extinct Alimbics once ruled. The region under the Alimbics' reign was and is still known as the Alimbic Cluster. The Alimbics ruled with much force, but were also efficacious in their decisions. One day, however, all of the Alimbics suddenly disappeared without any warning or explanation, leaving behind many relics and ancient, valuable objects, some of which are quite powerful.
Now something in the Alimbic Cluster is eerily communicating with powerful bounty hunters and other intelligent animals, telepathically uploading a message. "The secret to ultimate power resides in the Alimbic Cluster" is the sentence that played back mysteriously in the minds of hunters Sylux, Spire, Noxus, Kanden, Weavel, and the feared Trace. This simple message tempted many to make their way to the Alimbic Cluster, frantically and violently, to reach their own goal of obtaining an unknown source of ultimate power. Some want power for their own doings, others seek it for a more noble cause like saving their people. But it seems that all of them are willing to take each other out to gain this mysterious power. The Galactic Federation sends Samus Aran a Mission File, asking her to discover more about this mysterious message. Her mission: "Discover the truth about this mysterious message, to protect against a potential threat, and to keep the Alimbics' ultimate power from falling into the wrong hands."
Samus arrives at the Celestial Archives, a space station that holds a wealth of information regarding the Alimbics, most of it lost due to age and lack of upkeep. Samus first encounters Kanden here and fights him for one of the artifacts that will allow her to reach one of the guardian chambers.
After collecting the first three artifacts, she encounters her first Boss in the game, a bio-weapon named Cretaphid which resembles a totem pole with multiple cannons running down the shaft. After defeating it, she receives her first Octolith, a key to the "Ultimate Power." A timer kicks on and Samus is forced to backtrack through the entire station to her Hunter Gunship.
After escaping, her Gunship scans the Alimbic Cluster and allows her to explore three more worlds: Alinos, the homeworld of the Alimbics, Vesper Defense Outpost, a remote defense and weaponry station, and Arcterra, a frozen world. On each world there are two Octoliths and at least one Affinity Weapon. Samus must find these weapons in order to open some special doors, which will allow her to find more Artifacts. For every Octolith, there are three keys to be found.
During her journey, she finds more information regarding the long lost Alimbics and their history, recorded mostly through things called Datashades, which are visible only through the Scan Visor.
Once she has collected all of the Octoliths, she must return to Alinos to activate the Alimbic Cannon, which allows access to the Oubliette. This structure holds the long-dormant and extremely dangerous Gorea hinted at throughout past logbook entries. When she gets to the Oubliette, she sees all of the Hunters firing their signature weapon at Gorea, only to be defeated and have their special abilities absorbed by the creature. Gorea then attacks Samus. Once defeated, it will enter a second form if Samus has shot the Colored Panels on the walls in the proper order with the correct weapons. If not, the station blows up before any of the Hunters, Samus included, have a chance to escape.
If she does activate the nodes, then a second battle with Gorea takes place in the Oubliette's main room, where Samus finds the only weapon capable of harming Gorea, the Omega Cannon. Upon defeating Gorea, the Oubliette begins to fall apart in a series of explosions. Samus and the other hunters are believed to have escaped the destruction of the Oubliette. After the final explosion, Samus, in her Zero Suit, is seen floating in a vision, encountering 3 Alimbic beings that present her with a wave of gratitude. When this vision is over, Samus is returned to her Hunter Gunship in her Varia Suit. The game concludes with Samus's Gunship flying off into space.
The events of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes follow in the timeline.
== Characters ==
* Samus Aran - The player controls Samus, the Galactic Federation's most valued bounty hunter. Having proven herself on missions to Zebes and Tallon IV, she is sent to the Alimbic Cluster to investigate the ultimate power.
* Kanden - An Enoema experiment gone wrong, Kanden was created to be the ultimate soldier. To prove himself as the finest hunter of all, he now seeks the ultimate power. The player first faces Kanden in the Celestial Archives.
* Spire - The sole remaining Diamont. He hopes that finding the Alimbics' ultimate power and solving the mystery of their lost race will help him solve the mystery of his own. Spire attacks the player in a courtyard on Alinos.
* Weavel - Weavel is a cybernetic warrior is part of a Space Pirate special unit. Badly injured in a past battle with Samus, his body was reconstructed and fused with a power suit. Now Weavel has left his post to visit the Alimbic Cluster in search of the ultimate power. It is unclear whether he intends to deliver it to the Space Pirates or keep it for himself. Weavel tries to stop Samus from leaving Alinos.
* Noxus - A Vhozon bounty hunter from a proud and reclusive race. He is determined to get the ultimate power first to prevent it from falling into the hands of the unworthy. The player encounters Noxus in the midst of a fight with Trace on Arcterra.
* Trace - A hunter who is a Kriken, one of the most hated and feared races in the galaxy. His quest for the ultimate power consumes him, and his every thought is bent toward bringing supremacy to the Kriken and honor to himself. He is first seen fighting Noxus on Arcterra, and returns when Samus tries to leave.
* Sylux - Sylux is a resourceful tracker, and a deadly sharpshooter who harbors an intense hatred for the Galactic Federation, and for Samus for assisting the Galactic Federation in the past. Samus fights Sylux in the Vesper Defense Output, and he also calls in his ship, the Delano-7.
==Development==
Metroid Prime Hunters was developed by Nintendo's Redmond-based subsidiary Nintendo Software Technology (NST). It was led by the game's director, Masamichi Abe and the lead technical engineer, Colin Reed. The team for Hunters was composed of thirty people, which Abe noted was larger than the development team of most other games for the Nintendo DS. Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe came up with the original idea for the game.
Retro Studios, which developed the mainline Prime games, was unable to develop Metroid Prime Hunters because it was already working on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Therefore, Tanabe contacted NST with the idea, and let them develop it instead. NST developed the game instead of Nintendo themselves because they wanted the division to influence Hunters with Western ideals, styles, and presentation. NST had much creative freedom at the start of development to explore gameplay and story ideas.Interview: Richard Vorodi, Shinesparkers, 2020-08-06. Retrieved on 2020-08-06.
While developing the game, most of NST's efforts were focused on its multiplayer aspect because of its first-person shooter gameplay, and to take advantage of the Wi-Fi and voice chat capabilities of the Nintendo DS. One of the game's designers, Richard Vorodi, noted that "the hardware kinda dictated [their focus onto the game's multiplayer mode]." Wanting to introduce a new element to the Metroid series, Abe created several new Bounty Hunters after he realized that the game's multiplayer mode and the new bounty hunters could both be implemented seamlessly into the game: "We had this idea early on and thought that would be a good way to introduce [Hunters] and [the new bounty hunters] to the gameplay and take advantage of that in the multiplayer." Metroid Prime Hunters includes several references to previous games in the Metroid Prime series: her Gunship is from Metroid Prime, while her Varia Suit is from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. The developers decided to add them because they wanted to show that the technology has evolved, and they also wanted to include something that was instantly recognizable to those who had played previous games in the series.
The game was first revealed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) convention in 2004. An early demo, titled Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, was included as a pack-in game with the Nintendo DS when it launched in 2004. After the demo was released, the game's controls shifted from a control stick method to stylus aiming. When Nintendo received negative feedback at E3 2005 about the game's lack of an online feature, the company announced in August 2005 that the game's release would be delayed to give the developers time to implement Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection support. After the game's release was delayed to give NST time to implement the multiplayer feature, the developers took the time to make more changes. The game's framerate was reduced to make the graphics move more smoothly. The game's visuals were improved; a developer added reflections to the Morph Ball — other developers admired the effect, and added it to other parts of the game. Vorodi said the delay was a blessing in disguise.
NST collaborated with Retro Studios to design the game's art and characters to make sure that they fit into the overall Metroid series. Other than providing art and audio assets, Retro had very little involvement with the game's development.Interview: Bryan Walker. Shinesparkers. May 6, 2022. Retrieved May 6, 2022. When asked why Metroid Prime Hunters was placed between Prime and Echoes chronologically, Reed noted that the game was not influenced by the story of either game, so there were no continuity issues. He described Hunters as a side story to the Metroid Prime series.
When designing the multiplayer stages, many of which are also present in the story mode as rooms, the developers focused at first on color palette, choosing colors that would look best on the Nintendo DS screen. They tried to make the stages have dual use in single player and multiplayer modes, because time constraints did not allow them to create brand new components for either mode. They also attempted to make the maps circuit-based, eliminating "friction points" so that players could keep moving. Some stages were designed for story mode first, and some for multiplayer, but every space was built with some sort of gameplay idea in mind.
Hunters is the first Metroid game to use pre-rendered CG cutscenes; it would later be followed by Metroid: Other M. These cutscenes were designed by Silver Ant, a Malaysian CGI studio that was paid large sums of money by NST. When Shigeru Miyamoto discovered this, he reprimanded NST's budget manager and severed ties with Silver Ant, who removed any references to their Nintendo work from their website. The cutscenes cost more to produce than if they had been rendered in-game.Kiwi Talkz. #122 - Richard Vorodi Interview (Metroid Prime Hunters, Game Design, Lore, Darksiders III etc.). YouTube. January 29, 2022. Retrieved August 16, 2022. (starts at 12:20 and 19:10)
Through a partnership between Nintendo and HMV, British players could partake in a Hunt Is On Tournament on Saturday, May 20, 2006 in Birmingham, London, Edinburgh and Manchester in the United Kingdom. The prize was an all expenses paid trip to Seattle to meet the developers of Hunters at Nintendo Software Technology.
==Gameplay==
Metroid Prime Hunters plays similarly to the past Metroid Prime games in that it also focuses on exploration and upgrading abilities, but also has a stronger focus on shooting. The major upgrades Samus can get in single player are all weaponry, most already wielded by the other Hunters. In multiplayer, these weapons serve some traditional purposes similar to the weapon selections of other FPS titles; in single player, they are more often used to solve puzzles as find the weakness of various beasts that the player has to eliminate.
Metroid Prime Hunters is the first game in the Metroid series to feature in-game uses of Samus's gunship besides saving and restoration purposes, which is later expanded on in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The game was also the first to have Samus explore multiple territories across the reaches of space, and it introduced sub-weapons to the Metroid series.
Metroid Prime Hunters is the second game in the Metroid series to have multiplayer and the first to ever have online multiplayer. In multiplayer, the player can choose between all of the Hunters seen in single player, though most are locked until that particular Hunter is defeated in a multiplayer match or single player for the first time.
Metroid Prime Hunters is also somewhat more simplistic and, in terms or level design, linear than the main Prime games. Samus only has two visors, the Scan Visor and the Combat Visor, and there are no suit upgrades other than Energy Tanks, Missile Expansions, Universal Ammunition Expansions, and the Affinity Weapons of the other Hunters. As the gameplay requires using the touchscreen to aim and the L or R-trigger to shoot, the controls are more akin to a PC FPS rather than the old Metroid Prime control scheme. Some of its game mechanics are exclusive to this game: Samus takes damage if she lands from a high fall, instantly dies if she gets crushed or falls into a bottomless pit instead of only losing a small amount of health, she has a single double jump in the place of the Space Jump and the explosions of some of her attacks can hurt her if she's too close.
==Multiplayer==
In a multiplayer game, there are twenty-six maps that can be played, most of them based on areas of the single player game. There are several game types, including the typical death-match mode, dubbed "Battle", a Capture the Flag style game aptly named "Capture", two King of the Hill type modes called "Nodes" and "Defender", and a mode with limited lives available called "Survival". There is also "Bounty", where all the players are hunting after a single Octolith, and "Prime Hunter", a Juggernaut-styled game mode. Multiplayer is limited to two to four players. Two teams of two can fight each other in most game types, or there can be a two on one handicap game. Not all maps are available for every game type and some become slightly altered depending on which mode is played. Multiplayer mode can also be played single-player by adding bots (AI-controlled opponents). Multiplayer is only possible locally since the shutdown of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service. The multiplayer mode's online play is absent in the Wii U Virtual Console version of the game.
All of the Hunters seen in single player are playable in multiplayer, and each gains special attributes for their Affinity Weapon -- for example: Samus's Missiles have a homing ability while the other Hunters' do not; Sylux's Shock Coil restores the user's health, etc.
==Areas==
*Celestial Archives
*Alinos
*Vesper Defense Outpost
*Arcterra
*Oubliette
==Bosses==
*Cretaphid
*Slench
*Fire Spawn
*Arctic Spawn
*Gorea
==Creatures==
:See also: List of creatures in Metroid Prime Hunters
The creatures in Metroid Prime Hunters are a mix of traditional Metroid and Metroid Prime enemies, like the Zoomers and a more challenging variety of new enemies like the Guardians. Strangely, there are no Metroids in the game; instead, there are creatures known as Quadtroids, which, while similar in appearance and attack, are not genetically related. On closer inspection, one will notice that there are only a select few types of creatures, and most of the creatures that appear in different environments are variants of others. There is an obvious recurring theme of interstellar creatures such as Blastcaps and Ithraks who are able to migrate from planet to planet and even inhabit artificial space stations. Most creatures in the Alimbic Cluster, both biological and artificial, are not native to their current environments; they are mainly migratory entities who stowed away on space vessels which later visited these places.
==Trivia==
*Hunters is the only Metroid Prime game without an adjustable difficulty mode.
*The Trocra was originally intended to be a Power Bomb, as evidenced by its file name "PowerBomb_Model", although this idea was scrapped for unknown reasons.
*Hunters is the only Metroid game where Samus constantly remains in her Varia Suit and never finds any additional suits.
*Hunters and Super Metroid are the only games in the entire Metroid series where a special ending is unlocked by doing something other than completing the game within a set time-limit or by getting 100%. In this case, it is unlocked by shooting a series of panels in the final level to fight Gorea's true form, fulfilling the Alimbic Prophecy.
*Hunters is the first Metroid game to allow the player to control characters other than Samus (albeit only in multiplayer mode).
*Hunters is the only game in the Prime series that allows the player to scan objects or creatures in another room or area without entering it first. It is likely a bug due to DS' system limitations.
*Unlike other Metroid Prime games, the sub-weapons in Hunters do not change the shape of the Arm Cannon when they are active, though the coloring changes for each. Also, the new weapons do not have the word "beam" in their names, and they cannot fire any Charge Combos.
*Some music in Hunters appears to be based on existing themes from Metroid Prime: the theme of Alinos contains similar beats to the Chozo Ruins theme, the Arcterra depths theme is based on the Phendrana Drifts theme, and the theme of Gorea's second form is a remix of Metroid Prime Battle. It is worth mentioning that Kenji Yamamoto had no participation in the music creation department, which was led by Lawrence Schwedler from NSTC.
*Hunters has the most interchangeable weapons of any other game in the series.
*Samus has the Boost Ball upgrade from the start of this game, but its only utility is in moving faster due to the lack of Spinners or Half-pipes and the fact that the Boost Ball does not damage enemies.
*Hunters is the first Metroid game that does not let Samus upgrade her suit aside from Universal Ammunition Expansions, Missile Expansions, Energy Tanks, and all of the sub-weapons.
*Hunters is one of the four Metroid games that does not have Ridley in it, along with Metroid II: Return of Samus (although he was added to Metroid: Samus Returns), Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime: Federation Force and Metroid Dread. Apart from a Pirate Trooper in the introduction cutscene and Weavel, this game also has no Space Pirates or Metroids (though the Quadtroid is a similar enemy), making it the first game to not feature any Metroids (later followed by Dread).
:*Richard Vorodi stated that there are no Metroids in Hunters because the game was a departure from past titles in which "she was more of a detective for the Federation", whereas in Hunters the mission is a "sucker punch" and Samus is fighting for her life. He did add that there were easter eggs in the game (presumably alluding to things such as the mention of Aether in the War Wasp Logbook entry).
*Hunters is also the only Metroid game to have a (non-canon) ending where Samus dies. Vorodi called this a "water cooler type moment" and said that "Sometimes delivering the unexpected really allows an audience to connect with the story."
*Hunters is the first Metroid game to have a menu that displays a player's records, including: Gorea Phase 1 Time, Gorea Phase 2 Time and Total Game Time. It is also the first to keep track of how many enemies a player has defeated during the single player game (only bounty hunters and Guardians however), which is seen again in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in the data records.
*Hunters is one of two Metroid games to allow players to access any cutscene from the single player mode without having to replay the game, via the Movies feature. Metroid: Other M has this feature once again, under the name "Theater Mode".
*Hunters is the only Prime series game that has no direct indication of Phazon's presence.
*Hunters and Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt are the only Metroid games to have lobbing weapons: the Magmaul/Battlehammer and the Electro Lob.
:*Hunters is also the only Metroid game that features weapons Samus can fire that are capable of bouncing off walls, the Judicator and the Magmaul, and features the only sniper weapon: the Imperialist.
*Metroid Prime Hunters is the only game in the Prime series that does not feature a hint system.
*Hunters may have originally been intended to take place after Metroid Prime 2: Echoes as evidenced by scanning a War Wasp; the scan reads "The royal jelly of the War Wasp queen is so highly valued that hives continue to be harvested on Aether in spite of a shocking death toll." This is chronologically inconsistent with the official timelineas the only offworld species known to have visited Aether before Metroid Prime 2 was the Space Pirates, who were keeping their Phazon extraction operations there a secret. Alternatively, this may imply contact between the Alimbics and Luminoth before both civilizations were devastated.
*To market the game, Jones Soda sold bottles with the label featuring Samus as she appears in Hunters. Additionally, the game was playable in 2005 during the Nintendo Fusion Tour.
*Hunters has the least to do with the Metroid series' main plots of any of the games, especially the Prime series - as stated before, it has no Metroids, but it also lacks familiar enemies and features very little continuity between the Prime series.
**The game's demo, Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, features a Survivor game mode that contains holographic renderings of Metroids.
*A pirated copy of Hunters was found on a computer in Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, suggesting that he or someone with access to the computer played the game.Daniel R. Miller, "Osama Bin Laden was apparently a gamer, pirated Final Fantasy 7, New Super Mario Bros, more", GameZone, 2017-11-01.
*Hunters is one of only two Metroid games where no Metroids are fought, the other being Metroid Dread. However, Hunters includes two enemies similar to the Metroids: the Petrasyl, which resembles a Metroid larva, and the Quadtroid, which latches onto Samus and can only be removed by a Bomb.
*Vorodi has expressed support for an updated remake of Hunters on more advanced hardware.
==See also==
*List of rooms in Metroid Prime Hunters
*List of items in Metroid Prime Hunters
*Metroid Prime Hunters/Credits
*Dig
*Grave digger
*Samus Aran Crystal
*Metroid Prime Hunters - Know Your Enemy
*Gallery of merchandise
==Gallery==
Nintendo Entertainment Summit 2004 MPH screenshot 1.jpg|Early screenshots from the Nintendo Entertainment Summit in 2004.Nuyens, Jason. "Nintendo Enthusiast Summit 2004". Nsidr. November 10, 2004. Archived from the original on May 7, 2020. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
Nintendo Entertainment Summit 2004 MPH screenshot 2.jpg
Mph cover jpn.jpg|Japanese box art
Mph card jpn.jpg|Japanese Game Card
MPH - 3DS HOME Menu icon.JPG|Nintendo 3DS HOME Menu banner depicting a Game Card with the icon from Hunters.
Metroid Prime Hunters Wii U Virtual Console startup screen.png|Wii U Virtual Console startup screen (Japanese).
Metroid prime hunters ds.jpg|Nintendo World Store Nintendo DS
Mph movertest.png|Unused block models in "MoverTest_Model.bin"
MPH Japanese guide book.jpg|Japanese guide book
===Print media===
DavidSherret 2427 mini poster metroid.jpg|Nintendo Power Vol. 193 poster.
DavidSherret MetroidPrimeHunters Poster 2.jpg|Poster variant.
NP198 Hunters preview art.jpg|Nintendo Power Vol. 198 ad.
NP202 poster.jpg|Nintendo Power Vol. 202 poster.
NP203 P64.jpg|Nintendo Power Vol. 203 ad.
Metroid Prime Hunters - Japanese promo poster.jpg|Japanese promotional poster.
File:MPH promo flyer.png|Promotional flyer.
Album Nintendo (México) 0023.jpg|Pages from Álbum Nintendo, a special 2007 magazine published by Editorial Televisa in Mexico.
Album Nintendo (México) 0024.jpg
JP Other M Guide 172.jpg|Nintendo Official Guidebook for Metroid Other M, page 172.
Club Nintendo Año 25 Nº 07 (Chile) 0045.jpg|Page in Club Nintendo (the Chilean Nintendo magazine) about the re-release on Wii U.
===Commercials/Promotional video===
====Nintendo Acción====
Nintendo_Accion_163_0000.jpg|Pages from issue 163 (June 2006) of Nintendo Acción.
Nintendo_Accion_163_0002.jpg
Nintendo_Accion_163_0037.jpg
Nintendo_Accion_163_0042.jpg
Nintendo_Accion_163_0043.jpg
Nintendo_Accion_163_0079.jpg
==References==
==External links==
*Official Metroid Hunters website (archived from the original)
*Title at Moby Games
*Title at Gamefaqs
ru:Metroid Prime Hunters
Category:Games
Category:Prime Series
Category:Nintendo DS
Category:Virtual Console