Metroid Prime: Federation Force has been announced by Nintendo as a multiplayer-focused First-Person Shooter that also includes a 3-vs-3 “Blast Ball” multiplayer mode as well as 4-Player Co-Op Missions (online or local) set in the Metroid Prime universe. Samus will make an appearance and the game WILL have a single-player mode.
Check out this gameplay trailer showing the co-op missions and Blast Ball of Metroid Prime: Federation Force.
Key Metroid Prime: Federation Force Features:
* Up to 4 players take on a variety of co-op missions in this first-person, sci-fi shooter set in the Metroid universe.
* Work together as a team to clear out enemy-infested bases and complete objective-based mission.
* Take on enemies with a blaster and special sub-weapons.
* Aim using the Nintendo 3DS system’s gyroscope.
* Join a pick-up game of Blast Ball, a 3-on-3 sci-fi sport in the Metroid universe where players shoot the ball into the opponent’s goal to score.
Watch a whole 25 minutes worth of Metroid Prime: Federation Force Co-Op gameplay in this video from Nintendo’s E3 2015 Treehouse Live coverage.
The idea for Federation Force has been around since the early 2000s, when Tanabe wanted to make a game set from the perspective of the “The Galactic Federation”, as mentioned in the instruction book stories for the original NES Metroid, Game Boy’s Metroid 2: Return of Samus & Super Metroid for SNES.
Eventually, Nintendo would release Metroid Prime Hunters for the DS in 2006, which introduced an all-new cast Galactic Federation Bounty Hunters (Sylux, Weavel, Trace, Kanden, Spire and Noxus).
Later, in 2007, a whole new set of Bounty Hunters would also be introduced (Rundas, Ghor & Gandrayda) in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and play a huge role in the game’s story.
This element was further expanded with the Federation Soldiers introduced in 2010’s Metroid: Other M for Wii with Commander “Adam Malkovich”, Samus’ buddy “Anthony Higgs” and expendable soldiers “KG Misawa”, “Maurice Favreau”, “Lyle Smithsonian” and “James Pierce”.
Even so, no game has yet to have the Federation Force as the star of the game until now.
“Personally, I don’t feel like I am creating anything that is a side-story. Until now, we’ve never had a game focusing on the Federation Force fighting against the space pirates.” – Producer Kensuke Tanabe This expanded universe is what the developers want to explore in Metroid Prime: Federation Force; although it sounds like “nameless Federation Soldiers” will be the focus instead of named Bounty Hunters.
Check out nearly half an hour of gameplay footage of Metroid Prime: Federation Force in this Day 3 Treehouse Live E3 2015 video coverage, where you see gameplay that finally begins to resemble what we desire from Metroid!
We know nothing about the story so far, but it sounds like it may go deeper than gamers, and Samus fans, have initially concluded.
“Personally, I don’t feel like I am creating anything that is a side-story. Until now, we’ve never had a game focusing on the Federation Force fighting against the space pirates. So the main idea here is that I sort of wanted to change that focus a little bit and see it from a different view from the same universe.”
He continued: “So as I briefly mentioned earlier, once you play the game you’ll be able to feel that Metroid Prime universe. So it’s kind of… at this point it’s a little difficult I’m sure for both sides to get that idea… for players who haven’t touched the game, it’s really difficult to imagine that feeling you get when you touch the game. So it’s a kind of an unfortunate situation at this time, but it’s something I definitely look forward to having the users touch it and play and experience the awesomeness of it.” – Kensuke Tanabe told Kotaku
Other features of Metroid Prime: Federation Force were also revealed: (via Gamenesia)
* Metroid Prime: Federation Force will feature three different planets, each with about 10 missions for players to take on alone or with up to four players in co-op.
* Blast Ball will serve as the game’s competitive multiplayer, and Tanabe also believes it serves the role of a tutorial to familiarize players with the controls.
* You can use the C-stick on the New 3DS to control the camera, but the game is also playable on the normal 3DS.
* While the game is more focused on action, there will be some areas for players to explore a bit, although there is no scanning visor.
* Players can outfit their mechs with different equipment to serve different roles in co-op, such as repair capsules for a healing role, or super missiles for a more offensive position.
* There will be a mission involving Metroids, and Samus herself will make an appearance somewhere in the game.
* Tanabe hinted that Sylux, a bounty hunter from Metroid Prime: Hunters, could return in the future, although this was not in reference to Federation Force in particular or an all-new game like a “Metroid Prime 4“.
You can read much more about Metroid Prime: Federation Force in this extensive interview with Metroid Prime: Federation Force producer Kensuke Tanabe.