Retro Studios Stepping Back From Metroid For A Bit

Retro Studios, the makers of the games in the Metroid Prime series, has announced they'll be stepping back from the games for a bit now that Corruption is in stores. Comments from project director Mark Pacini discuss that decision and their interaction with the Wiimote: "I'm sure that there will be other titles created but as far as Retro Studios is concerned, we're taking a break for a little bit. We started with the core ideas of the game ... but we did not receive the information about the Wii controller until well into development. So we got a big surprise, of, hey, this is what we're going to do for the next console. Many things had to be refactored, but actually many things fell right into place. The Wii remote enables us to do things that we hadn't previously done in other Metroid games."

Re:While saying...

[Anonymous Coward]

what a tiny, meatless, pointless article that was.
waste of time.

nothing to see here.

Re:Finally, a Metroid story on Slashdot

[AKAImBatman]

There's just one teeny-weeny little problem: The Wii Remote does not actually "point" at the object on the screen. It interpolates a set of coordinates based on the positions of the IR LEDs according to the sensor on the front of the remote. The problem this creates is that the aim is inaccurate. You're really aiming within the field of the sensor bar and NOT within the field of the television. Even worse, you're dealing with polar coordinates to determine Cartesian coordinates. This can slightly warp the aim of the Wii Remote, making it even harder to aim precisely.

When I used the Zapper as a kid, I stood far back from the television. (The first mistake people always made with the zapper was to stand too close to the television.) From there I was able to lift the weapon and fire with pinpoint accuracy at ducks/clay pigeons/gangsters/plates/glass panes/various junk the magician threw/etc. At least among my family and friends, I was a crack shot. You can't do that with the Wii Remote. Every time you heft it as a weapon, you need to orient the reticle before taking the shot. You can get good at aiming the remote fairly close to your target, but there will always need to be that visual feedback loop between the reticle and your aim.

While I have yet to play Metroid, I understand it gets around these issues with a "lock-on" control system that actually corrects your aim for you. So if you can get the reticle close to your target, it's good enough to take the shot. Not very realistic, but certainly a lot more fun. ;-)

Now don't get me wrong. The Wii Remote is lightyears ahead of the ultra-fine motor control required to play FPSes with a dual-analog controller. A player can respond faster, shoot quicker, aim more precisely, and otherwise manage to make the controller do what they intend. I think it's an absolutely wonderful update to the venerable gamepad, and wouldn't want to play my console any other way. I'm only pointing out that it has no real advantage over a mouse when it comes to hand/eye coordination skills. In some ways it actually does worse, because the spatial movement of the controller lacks the precision that a mouse's digital-optical sensors can provide. So there is still room for improvement. :)