So, you know when you're just standing in the shower staring off into the cosmos when you get a really cool thought and it sticks and develops with you all day? Well that happened to me.
After reviewing AM2R a week ago, I started having thoughts about making a Metroid game. I started thinking of cool story ideas, ect, you know the drill.
But I realised
I was thinking in really cliche and generic ways. So I thought outside of the box. What if it took place in an
alternate universe where Samus never came to the Ceres Station to fight Ridley? Even further, what if the Space Pirates failed to steal the baby Metroid? So it got me thinking, rather than having Samus the main pivotal point, why not have completely unexpected character take on the role as the hero?
A scientist. Think about it. It's really unique, because a scientist would be the person you would
least expect to be capable of blasting away Space Pirates. So I came up with this: The Space Pirates end up docking onto the Ceres colony (Which I'll touch up on later.) and invade it. Most of the scientists are completely killed in a mass genocide, with a small amount barely scraping being alive. One of them has no option but to jump into a prototype suit, and somehow fight off the aliens.
The Ceres colony would be studying the Chozo artifacts and even went as far to develop a prototype suit like the iconic one Samus dons. The scientist would jump into it. Of course, I would make them as weak as possible to further reinforce the fact that they literally just had to come to terms with the immense pressure they have on them (You know,
killing an entire fleet of space pirates. No big deal,
right?). It wouldn't make sense to have them instantly become the most fierce warrior in the known universe, so you need to instil fear into the player to replicate the feeling the scientist would be feeling:
powerlessness.
The game would take place on Ceres colony and the docked Space Pirate Ship. The themes for Ceres would be something I would have to look into, because having one technological ship with the same cold metal look would get boring. Of course, if you've played
Metroid Fusion you would know it perfectly solved this problem with man-made habitats (The water segment is a
literal fish tank.). I don't want to do that though, because it wouldn't make much sense and would look like an exact replica of the B.S.L ship from Fusion. If you have any ideas on that, touch up.
The bosses would have to be mostly new, seeing as Kraid is one fatty of a dinosaur thingy and all the other bosses only reside on Zebes. Ridley would appear, because Ridley appears on Ceres in Super Metroid so it would make sense to have him in the ship yada yada. The bosses would mostly be Space Pirate based but I might include a few environmental based bosses that break out of containment on Ceres. After all, Ceres is mostly based on research.
The beam upgrades would be prototypes. I think most of the game would center around prototypes, and the lore would make Ceres a station focused on researching and developing Chozo based items. A few new items would be thrown in, I would even label them as 'botched prototypes' that ended up having unexpected results. The puzzles would be something to work around, seeing as this is a man-made colony. The map design would be a ring, but I would implement elevators of sorts that intersect in the centre of the Ceres station (Ceres is a ring. I would have 2 elevator shafts going from one side to the other.) and I would have the Space Pirates docked onto either the left or right side of the ship.
Now, I want to touch up on one of my favourite feelings that some games convey:
isolation. There's something so eerie but interesting about isolation.
Super Metroid conveyed such feelings very well. Heck, even
Metroid II: Return of Samus instilled it well. I would definitely instil the feeling of isolation, because, after all, you're literally fighting for your life on a ship which was populated a few hours ago but since then plunged into chaos. It would feel lonely, if not, scary. Metroid is one of those rare games that actually made me feel something other than happiness, so I want to recreate said feelings if I ever make this idea a reality.
Enemies would be fairly similar to the ones in Super Metroid, but environmental enemies would be ruled out of the equation (For example, any stationary wall ridden creatures. It wouldn't make sense how they got there.). Environmental hazards would also have a restraint, considering it's an artificial colony. I could work around this will industrial hazards such as exposed wires, ect. Spikes would be ruled out of the equation. Touching on the man-made situation, it would restrain a lot of things. It wouldn't incapacitate any ideas, but it would definitely hold back a few. It's something I have to figure out.
The map design would be hard, because it being a ring and all. Of course, I would make it intersect via elevators. I would even contemplate having a sort of middle core area that floats in the middle of the ring. It would be a central hub, but at the same time not. It would interconnect with the other areas in ways that make sense. As stated before, it would not be a hub. Think of Maridia from Super Metroid. It's in no way a central hub, just has a lot of exits to other existing areas.
Some areas of the station would be completely destroyed, exposing it to the vacuum of space. The scientist would not be able to traverse these areas until they obtain the Gravity Suit (Which somehow allows completely directional gravity in a 3 dimensional empty space [Of which has no true direction or layout].). An alternative to this cliche would be to make them require another power-up: the...
jetpack?! How is that a power-up? Ok, enough joking around. They can use this jetpack to move in all 8 directions. When not in space, it serves as a double jump.
IT WOULD HAVE A FUEL METER IN SPACE. Not sure how to punish the player for running out of fuel, however.
So yeah, that's my idea. I might come back and revise it later. Don't expect me to make this, though. I have no capability in both graphics or coding. Maybe gameplay, but yeah.
CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM WOULD BE APPRECIATED.
