Metroid Prime: Federation Force

Metroid Prime: Federation Force
File:MetroidPrimeFederationForceBoxartNorthAmerica.png
Developer(s)	Next Level Games
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Producer(s)	Kensuke Tanabe
Series	Metroid
Platforms	Nintendo 3DS
Release date(s)	NA August 19, 2016 JP August 25, 2016 EU September 2, 2016 AUS 20160903September 3, 2016
Genre(s)	First-person shooter, sports
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Metroid Prime: Federation Force is an upcoming cooperative first-person shooter being developed by Next Level Games for the Nintendo 3DS. The game is a spin-off of the Metroid Prime series, where the player assumes the role of a Galactic Federation Marine, featuring gameplay elements similar to those of Metroid Prime Hunters. It also features a multiplayer mode known as Metroid Prime: Blast Ball.

Gameplay

Metroid Prime: Federation Force plays similarly to the latest handheld installment, Metroid Prime Hunters, which primarily focused on the shooting mechanics within the Metroid Prime series as opposed to the exploration. Like its handheld predecessor, Federation Force incorporates cooperative elements into the core gameplay. However, Federation Force lacks the touch-based controls of Hunters as well as the established scanning mechanics of the Metroid series, which allowed players to analyze their character's surrounding environment and discover secrets.

Federation Force is the first Metroid game where the player controls a Marine of the Galactic Federation. Within the context of the Metroid series, the Galactic Federation is a law-enforcing organization where soldiers are divided into platoons and go on planetary missions, which is how Federation Force's campaign is organized. There will be three planets with approximately ten missions per planet (about sixty total missions). These planets come from previous Metroid Prime games. The game will feature previously-established aliens as enemies, including the titular jellyfish-like Metroids and Space Pirates. However, it will also feature original enemies, such as Goliath Beetles. The environments are diversified, with at least one mission taking place in an icy region while another takes place in a desert.

Up to four players traverse the planets to meet their objective. Unlike the multiplayer modes within Hunters and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, players work cooperatively as a single unit as opposed to competing with each other. Before starting a mission, players can customize their soldier with different weapons and utilities. Some are more offensive, like the returning Super Missiles. Others are more stragetic, such as a healing first-aid device that allows one Marine to hang back and aide his comrades. The different weapons will have weight-based properties that will affect the player's speed and mobility. These mechanics are inspired by the options within classical RPGs.

Federation Force will canonically occur at some point between Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus, like the other Metroid Prime titles. However, it will not have a specific placement among the other Prime games. The young Marine will go through various parts of training and eventually be sent to carry out research missions on three different planets. While conducting these missions it is discovered that the Space Pirates have been creating weapons in secrecy as part of a plot to use them against the Galactic Federation. Although not the protagonist, Samus Aran will be in the game and emphasis will be made on encountering her from the perspective of the Federation Marines. Sylux, a rival of Samus’s from Hunters, may return in some capacity. Although no concrete plans have been made Kensuke Tanabe hopes that Federation Force’s plot will lead to future Metroid Prime games based on the relationship between Samus and Sylux, with additional involvement from the Federation Marines.

Blast Ball

Blast Ball is a mode which offers three vs three matches where players in their mecha suits shoot balls into nets akin to both the real life sport Soccer and another video game titled Rocket League. This mode serves as a tutorial for the control scheme and an in-universe exercise for the playable Marines.

This mode was originally unveiled as Blast Ball during the Nintendo World Championships and was the first reveal of Federation Force in general. This mode was also playable during the E3 2015 where Metroid Prime: Federation Force was announced days later.

Development

Federation Force is being developed by Next Level Games, who are known for having previously developed Super Mario Strikers, Mario Strikers Charged, Punch-Out!!, and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. In early 2014 an interview with Next Level Games' co-founder Jason Carr revealed the company's closeness with Nintendo and implied that their future games will be exclusive to Nintendo's consoles. Carr also shared that Nintendo gives them "better and better IP to work with". Early in 2015, prior to the game's unveiling, it was rumoured that the title they were working on would have an emphasis on story.

Although not involved in the development of this title, Retro Studios are the ones who designed the Galactic Federation mechs in Federation Force.

The leading producer of Federation Force is Kensuke Tanabe, who produced all previous Metroid Prime titles. He first conceptualized of a game centered around the Galactic Federation while working on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for the Wii. He wanted to expand the Metroid Prime universe by showing it from the perspective of the Galactic Federation's Marines. In addition to Tanabe, Nintendo's Yoshihito Ikebata and Ryuichi Nakada are overseeing the game's development. They originally considered making it for the Wii U, but ultimately decided to make it for Nintendo 3DS due to Next Level Games' familiarity with 3DS hardware. It was planned to release alongside the New Nintendo 3DS, but development pushed the title's release date to 2016.

The Amiibo of Samus may have some sort of functionality with the title, but its utility has not been finalized. While the game will be playable on all Nintendo 3DS models, Metroid Prime: Federation Force will specifically benefit from the C-Stick of the New Nintendo 3DS by allowing the player to adjust their view of the surrounding environments. This extends to the game being confirmed to support the Circle Pad Pro and Gyro Sensor controls for earlier Nintendo 3DS models in the Japanese March 2016 Nintendo Direct.

Reception

Pre-release

Upon the unveiling of Metroid Prime: Federation Force at E3 2015, the game was met with an overwhelmingly negative reception from fans. The trailer received over 25,000 dislikes on YouTube within the first day of its announcement, giving it a 90% dislike ratio, and reached 83,000 dislikes by the end of the year. Criticism was aimed towards the game's art style, the absence of the Metroid series' protagonist Samus Aran, the focus on FPS combat over exploration, the lack of a single player mode, and the game's minimal resemblance to other Metroid games. Further criticism was aimed at Nintendo for not developing a main-series Metroid game. A Change.org petition calling for the cancellation of the game was also created in the hours following the game's announcement, reaching 7,500 signatures in under 24 hours. Within 2 months this petition went up to 20,000 signatures. It was later announced that the game does have a single player mode and that Samus Aran will make an appearance.

Following a long silence on the game, Tanabe detailed the game further in a March 2016 Nintendo Direct, however an accompanying trailer on YouTube received a 2:1 dislike to like ratio (last recorded as 1,374 to 600) and had Nintendo disable the feature within hours of being available.