My childhood memories - Metroid Prime Hunters (2006) Retrospective
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- Опубликовано: 17 фев 2022
- Think I'd be back so soon? Tonight we're looking at a game from the depths of my childhood memories, one of the very first FPS games I ever played and one that may have lasting effects on my tastes in video games to this very day. We're looking at the Nintendo DS exclusive first person shooter, Metroid Prime... hunters...
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This game was a revelation for me. It was just a piece of damned art.
It still is.
@@Lightforeverandever right you are
@@wills242yeah
Dude I love Prime Hunters. That game will always have a special place in my heart
The atmosphere and aesthetic of the game really feels so unique for the DS. Just the emptiness of the levels due to the technical limitations really gave off an eerie feeling the whole way through
Still can't get over how good the graphics were for the original DS. No other DS game looks like that!
Abolutely true.
This game gaslit me into thinking I was terrible at games. As well as nearly breaking my hands during the boss fights.
Although I must say - it felt premium for a DS game and worked great in terms of controls. It's a damn shame Quake was never officially ported to the DS
So true as a kid I struggled on the first boss
I actually found the secret ending by myself when I was a kid, although it took a while. You can't imagine the rush I felt, when I actually found it.
This game was amazing for the time. I so desperately wanted an Xbox and Halo but wasn’t allowed, so my parents settled on letting me have Prime Hunters.
I remember after playing Metroid Prime on the GameCube, Hunters was a huge disappointment with the singeplayer. However, the multiplayer on it was the best you could get on the DS by far, and as you said, the atmosphere and graphics are still great.
It was a great launch game. It had fmv opening which seemed impressive coming from a cartridge game and it had impressive graphics and controls for a portable
@@alanlee67 Metroid Prime Hunters was not a launch title for the DS, in fact it was delayed quite a bit. You might be thinking of Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, which was a demo that came with the first Gen launch of the Nintendo DS. I had that one and it was impressive for the hardware at the time.
@@huge_balls oh yea. You're right. I remember playing that on my fat blue ds with the janky thumb stylus
Well due to the DS limitation it makes sense why it came up short in comparison to Metroid Prime. I did love the multiplayer and cut scenes in this game. Thr multiplayer was phenomenal in this game and it was free can u believe that lol?
facts
Coming back to this video after the Prime 4 reveal! It's crazy that Sylux will actually be in the game!
Hunters has an incredible multiplayer mode. I still play it with my brothers to this day!
You can still play online matches btw, either locally ( this game has bots) or throught wiimmfi
Remember staying up late on school nights making lobbies with some of the best clans in NA and Europe playing for hours. This video brought back so many childhood memories.
Just got Dread and I'm hoping they remake this and re release the trilogy on switch. I'm a huge Metroid fan and I'm always happy to see someone else who loves the series as much as me
Looks like you got part of your wish!
A Hunters remake that keeps the skeleton but expands it into a real Metroid game would be amazing
One of the greatest FPS's of all time in my opinion. The multi-player was top notch as well as the community. I still have friends to the day from this game.
This is actually one of the earliest online shooter that I have played. (like way before I bought a console and started playing COD) it was mind blown back then simply for the fact that I could wirelessly play with online random players. Now look back I am actually more impressed by it since the multiplayer is practically a Nintendo handheld version of Quake with all these high movements, projectile based combats, and trick shots. We are truly in luck of playing this masterpieces back in the days.
I'm here in 2024 because Nintendo revealed more footage of Metroid Prime 4 this week. It's called Metroid Prime 4 Beyond and Sylux is the main antagonist.
Fr
Well, the other hunters not appearing in future games isn't _entirely_ correct. Sylux has appeared in the true ending of Prime 3 like you mentioned, but they also appeared at the end of Federation Force and is confirmed to play a major role in the upcoming Prime 4. Probably as the main villain, but it's too early to tell.
Interesting how this is the game where characters are actually remembered and used again
_Prime 1_ is my videogaming albatross. I only got as far as the beginning, then due to bad financial circumstances, I had to sell both console and games. It's been over 20 years, but the fire to beat the game still burns.
As for _Hunters_ , I'll probably never play it, but it was great to hear both your enthusiasm and criticism for it.
It's kind of poetic that you went from Metroid to Halo. I've always considered them to be in the same vein but Metroid is more based in exploration whereas Halo is about combat
You get more lore and context from the scans, but i definitely adore this game and honestly i love how hunters like Sylux will be extra aggressive or Trace will vanish in various spots to take pot shots at or, or Noxus will just bum rish you with his alt form in honorable melee combat, Kanden will start spamming you with his EMP whenever he gets the chance and will try to ambush you either with that terrifying snake form (ive died to that lil demon in ovp more than id care to admit), and Spire will use raw brute force to try to overwhelm you by contasntly nading you from a distance, only alting on you when you get too close for comfort. It's not anything too insane and yeah at first patterns arent that noticable in the first encounters like Weavel, who's kinda underwhelming as a npc to fight but he alsl has tactics like barraging you with his Half-Turret whilst rushing you and trying to tear you apart with his cyborg claws. I adore the Metroid series, especially Prime, but Hunter's just really left its mark on me as a kid and i still play it time to time now, i even have a new run going and hopefully i actually 100% it this time!
I loved this game when I was a kid - the campaign and the multiplayer. I remember being hyped for it before it had come, while grinding the First Hunt mini game. Beautiful times.
It's very nice to see a modern review of a game I only played (and found frustrating) as a kid.
I would call the "controls" issues - DS ergonomics issues. The controls are precise and the game maps pretty closely to PC FPS games, it's as good as one could have hoped for. The problems arose from the ergonomics. A boss fight fought on that tiny rectangle would kill my hands.
Spot on elsewhere. It's a shame Wuake never officially came out on NDS.
You can still play multiplayer! Click "multi card play" then add up to 3 bots that can be any hunters and any difficulty from 1-3, and you don't need internet. The AI is actually really good, and AI level 2 is enough to pretty much match my ability, and I play a ton of FPS games and have played a ton of Mertroid Prime Hunters as a kid, so you definitely won't be disappointed. It's a lot harder to aim, but I still play it today!
Personally I really like scanning so I can learn about the lore, the creatures, and the environments
God i had vague memories of this game for so long, this video brings back everything
there was a strap with a thumbpad on it you could use to better control the aim in this game, but the problem of wrist fatigue was the same
Yea it seems a lot of people misplaced theirs. I found it infinitely better than trying to use the stylus or button controls
I remember having “metroid prime hunter:first hunt” which was a demo cartage, and playing the daylights out of it. it was JUST a survival mode against metroids in an arena, but i got miles out of it. the creepy atmosphere really left an impression on me i remember.
The scan thing with the japanese might because they weren’t generally into fps. so that feature might get the attention of someone usually not into that sort if gameplay.
cant remember if this was true, but i feel like i thought it was the whole game and thought it would be cool if they made a longer version.
I also remember the controls working ok to well, its just that they can become uncomfortable after a while. I used the pinky on the stylus hand to support the right of the ds and kinda clawed it with my ring finger.
WE HAVE HIM! WE HAVE SYLUX! HOORAY
I couldn't sit through this. It made me feel so old lol
glad to see you making videos again! these are just so nice
Indeed Sylux came back in federation force, and is probably the key of metroid prime 4 :p
so many stories with this game, it was actually a huge game back then, must of been 2006ish, at my summer camp, EVERYOOOONE had this game along with mario kart, but this was the popular one to play, be like 40 of us all bringing in our ds’s to play this together or get our ds’s and yugioh cards stolen LOL. also always chose the red guy or the rock guy that could climb, those 2 were the popular ones.
Thank you for making this video. I agree with pretty much everything you have to say. I do recommend checking out the multiplayer mode as well. You can play it solo against bots and it's pretty neat. All in all, this is just an oddly beautiful game with great atmosphere, great graphics, great multiplayer and a weird sort of half-enjoyable single player mode. And it was a technological wonder for being on the Nintendo DS. This game will always be carved into my mind. Peace.
I'm so happy about what you said about the graphics. As somebody who grew up during the shift to 3D graphics have never really bothered me. Especially once we hit that PS3 error where basically everything looks good. The jump to PS4 and PS5 is such a minute difference that you don't really notice unless you see a side-by-side
good video happy that you are back there needs to be more retro game retrospective type videos they very relaxing
Hey just wanted to say that I love your channel and I’m glad your back. You’re one of my favorite reviewers on RUclips and I really hope you continue to make videos!
what was really great was putting metroid fusion in the gameboy slot so you can have two metroids at the same time
FYI, you can play multi-player using computer controlled bot enemies even without internet. To do it, select to play with multiple local DS cards (not the download play), choose to host a game, then select your character and add as many bots as you want. You can even select the skill of the AI.
I love this game. The controls are great, I have no idea what you are smoking. But I play it on the DS Phat.
Sylux has retruned and is returning in Prime 4. Great video. One my my childhood favorites. Playing people online with my friend and chatting between matches. Good times.
13:28 that is actually how the game was meant to be played, the original ds had a strap that had a plastic little nub on it that you tightened around your thumb and that was how the devs intended for the game to be played so you could still hold the ds with both hands! I’m not sure if i read it in the manual or if it was a dev mentioning that in an interview but i clearly remember that being the intended way! Still wasnt a great control scheme lmao
Hello there fellow MN winter survivor.
Prime hunter was a pretty impressive for a DS game.
I never managed to complete this game either despite loving it! I remember lots of backtracking, so presumably I got lost.
"No one, and I mean one ever plays like this on a real DS" ... buddy.. I did.
Never played it, but this brought me back to my CoD: WaW DS days.
Good times, good times...
For those who don't know, there is an addon for the desume DS emulator that adds mouse and keyboard control. Sadly the addons are a bit hard to find. But it works well.
Also, switch your damn weapons! Ugh... they do more damage if you use the weapon's opposite.
The game is amazing and I recently replayed it and I gotta say: The controls feel kinda good to use. It's not a 5 hours in one sitting game but getting an hour of fun out of it an then continuing with your day has felt great. (But I think the real reason I had no issue with it was the fact that I was used to it by playing ungodly amounts of Kid Icarus: Uprising as a wee lad)
Holy shit 2 uploads in within a month
A possible solution for the controls would be to use a graphic tablet, like the ones we use to model characters in zbrush, is essentially a touchpad like the nds but with far way more resolution xD.
For instance, the Wacom one by wacom (S) would be perfect, is like 20 times the size of the nds touchscreen with 10times more resolution and is around 40€. In addition since the stylus has 2 buttons + the pressure you could emulate some controls to make it more intutitive (for instance, the morphball).
If you have a multimonitor setup, you can put the "touchscreen" into the secondary one and configurate the tablet to work just in that monitor, so it would be a perfect emulation :p
Loved this game on ds with WFC. I was a nintendo boy up until ps3 so nintendo ds and wii were my first forays in to online console environments and I was just blown away with hunters being a portable game. Course I played games on pc at the time but console and handheld were different to me at the time. Really really good times
scanning is a way of adding world building. it helps get you immersed in the world you and samus are in, and it makes you feel like you are gathering info about the world around you.
I love this game man, sick video
The controls are really good if you get a fat stylus with a pen grip. I remember getting a fat pen sized stylus and it made it so much better. The tiny DS stylus is horrible.
Yep. I loved it. Love Trace. The name is a bit.. Let's say "Childish", but I loved that we not only got another new Hunter but also one from an Empire that appears to be even worse than the Space Pirates.
2:03 It was supposed to be a big gun for the DS during its infant years. Nintendo wasn't sure if the DS would succeed or not, that's why the 2 original DS models had GBA backwards compatibility. In Reggie Fils-Amié novel Disrupting the Game, he states,"We pushed the development team to finish up a key game for our market called Metroid Prime Hunter." 122. His reasoning was that Prime 1 and 2 sold fairly well on the GameCube and the FPS genre was more popular in NA. Pretty much it was to show Nintendo fans that you could play a metroid prime game on handheld.
I bought this game a few months ago after losing my original cartrige and compared to the other prime games it's a stripped down prime experience, but still fun.
I didn't think the bosses were that spongy. If you only use the power beam enimies will take a while to kill but the other beams are pretty good, kinda of like metroid prime 2. I remember the shock coil being very powerful against the main weak point on the tower bosses.
Me and my cousins logged so much time on this game back in the day. we never had money back then for any major systems or a PC, so this was the closest thing we had to anything like that. i remember fondly the times in combat hall on the wifi connection exchanging FC's with people by shooting at the wall and "writing" it using the marks the power beam would leave. its a same things like FB, discord and the like didn't exist back then, and the servers for this game had since shut down. man, it doesn't feel like 15 years has gone by.
something to note about this game:
The repetitive level design isn't *inherently* due to space or hardware,
The dev cycle had a lot of issues.
Namely, there was a lot of focus on making the multiplayer good (they succeeded), but this ended up involving resource and time mismanagement with the single player.
Also, those weirdly high quality pre-rendered cutscenes that are compressed to hell on the DS? Well uh, again, a lot more money and time went to those than it should have.
As a result, the single player ended up being recycled multiplayer maps kind of strung together with only some unique rooms and areas.. I and modification.
This is also likely why it had such a repetitive structure. They just didn't have the time and resources for the single player they should have due to mismanagement issues in development. I think given that they did do pretty good still, but it does hold the game back a ton
You can use the right 4 buttons as the main looking control scheme. Thats an option. Always worked just fine for me. You just put your finger over them and pretend its a joystick. Works way better than trying to use the touch screen to aim. In fact almost every fps on the ds had the option to do that. I always played games like that.
Edit: just saw you found it.
The problem with control schemes like this game that use the stylus heavily as well as buttons and similarly on the Wii is that a lot of times they just straight up ignored the fact that some people are left-handed. I think I recall this game having a way to swap hands but I remember some games being unplayable because they lacked the option
ok hear me out on the secret ending. i was a pretty intellectually talented kid so I can understand people not getting it even though I got it first try but whats important to not ignore here is how different gaming was in the 2000s was. I spent those "slog" sections being a scared spooked out lil 7 year old and just happy there was no scary enemies around. As a kid I had a natural hunger to immerse myself in the game and I was fascinated with the lore, I was always big on literary analysis and I spent most of my time playing in a state of deep meditation upon the lore bits I was putting together and it made the repetitive octolith collecting more zen to think while I played. When I hit the end I got the secret ending and took it for a normal one not knowing. then my brother who had beat it first was like, "cool ending huh?" and we talked about it and I ruined it for him lol. The secret ending is made as a gift for those who thematically engage with the game on a personal level. i think that if I wasn't using metroid to help me sort trauma the game wouldn't have guided me the way it did and it was such a cathartic experience getting that ending! And here's the thing; I didn't logically come to the conclusion of hitting the boss room bits in that order. I was literally just doing it to further immerse myself and have fun! I kept seeing the lore bits and thinking of them and how they relate to the game as a whole and when I hit those nodes I was only hitting them because I noticed they reacted and I hoped it would debuff the boss or something. I was just thinking of the lore bits at the right time out of sheer fascination. So naturally when my brother tried to beat the game faster and faster he didn't get the usual metroid secret ending. So he tried taking much longer to beat it like I did with all my self immersive fun and taking my time. Neither worked and he assumed I was lying to prank him. But he kept fighting the boss for fun and stumbled on the ending after watching me do what I always did and shoot the nodes. Anyways all I'm trying to say is that kids did in fact stumble on the ending and it increased replayability for those who couldn't afford consoles or fancy things.
To me *its the best* Metroid game from every perspective, finding the boss repetition the only drawback.
I Beat This Game Like Half A Year Ago And Had No Idea About The Secret Ending Guess I Gotta Go Do That
the controls on this game were always really goofy.
i always hooked my right pinky around the back of the DS to hit the shoulder button and used the stylus to aim. the ABXY buttons weren't used too much for anything other than jumping or shittier camera movement. i double tapped the touch screen to jump
The bosses aren't supposed to be bullet sponges. If you scanned any of them, you would quickly realize that they are weak to certain weapons and you can quickly take them down with some skill and the right weapon choice. You just made your life harder by using the power beam for everything.
U forgot to mention the endless replayability fun on *Multiplayer (both vs Bots and Players) with all the modes n maps* and the *extra multiplayer map you unlock in the end EXCLUSIVE to the availability of the destructive power of Omega Cannon*
Great review!
I doubt it would happen, but I would love to see Hunters get a heavy remake. There's a lot of potential here IMO, but between the hardware and some wishy-washy decision-making during the development, that wasn't realized entirely. It would be cool to see something that can bring that out more in some way.
Yeah, I couldn't take the heat of the DS' FPS controls. Now, I see that I should've pushed through. Probably. Eh.
I've played all the heavy hitters of the franchise but this one's my favorite overall, it definitely has it's fan even though it's not much.
crazy thing is you look at any game, song, book, movie, whatever and no matter how good or bad it is it's somebody's favorite.
Looking forward to this one, here's some interaction for the algorithm 😁
Me and my friend have an ongoing joke about this game since high school 😂🔥
You could play infinite multiplayer against adjustable skill bots, across like a dozen maps and more than one mode.
When you get 2 games a year, this meant a lot.
3:15 You thought you could sneak that Strife track past me, didn't you?
Metroid Prime with high FOV looks pretty cursed
This probably the one game in the franchise that could benefit the most from a remake.
this game should get the remake treatment like Luigi's Mansion 2 (cause it went from the 3DS to Switch) and Prime 1 did
as a kid I always used my thumb instead of the stylus. Worked wonders, nowadays my hands get a bit cramped by doing this for some time, but at least the game is playable
i loved this game, trace was always my favorite hunter.
The controls are amazing for the DS and i cant believe it works this well they got a metroid game to work for the system so many games promised similar ideas and failed hard. If you want to play a prime game with a controller they have them for the gamecube as you know
Had my issues with the shooting controls first. But then I noticed the sensitivity options aaand was ready to roll.
The lanyard thumb strap on the DS was how you were supposed to play. It was very intuitive when you used your thumb.
The DS has ergonomics, but only the DS Phat. The DS Phat had a larger bottom side with rounded sides on the bottom to make it more economic. The DS Lite removed those economics in favour of looking "prettier" (for people who think a boring square brick is pretty).
Also, I love the controls. I have no issue with them at all. But if you think the stylus is awkward, then why not use the thumb strap? With the thumb strap you can hold the DS normally while playing Metroid Prime: Hunters. The DS even has a lanyard hole so that you can attach the thumb strap to your DS. The thumb strap works pretty good IMO. But I like the controls with the stylus as well so I guess your opinion may differ.
Back in the day I just held the controller normally and used my thumb to aim and jump. Also kid me had my first crush on samus from the second ending cutscene 💀
Did you knew this is one of the few games compatible with the DS rumble pack (it has to be plugged on the GBA slot, though)? It even added "bass" for the musics.
The controls are indeed something to get used to...
My only complaint: Bosses are repetitive...
Oh hey a tower... An eye too!... Another tower, another eye... Oh woah another tower and another eye... Fantastic!
15:18 This is precisely why I never beat Ocarina of Time. (Weird tangent, I know) I never had an N64, so I first played it through Wii Virtual Console and that's basically how the aiming worked. It wasn't a huge problem until the Phantom Gannon fight. You have to quickly find the real Gannon, and hit him as a moving target. I kept aiming too little or too far and missing my chance. I quit because i would take no damage, but wouldn't be able to hit him
Sylux is BACK !!
I grew up playing this still need to get around to finishing it fully and i played with the dpad and lettered buttons
More comfy videos from Magnum, based
Metroid Prime 4 has been announced!!!! :)
Yeah the Prime Triliogy is a GOATED game series and I can not believe it took Nintendo until just now to get 1 of them onto Switch. I played through Prime 1 when I bought a used GCN about 2 years ago. I played through Prime 2 on my WiiU over winter break and that was fun as well. I'm currently half way through Prime 3 and it's so far the weakest one, mainly because of bs wii motion controls. But I'm still having a lot of fun with it still.
After finishing Prime 1 I had the Peter Griffen comment about Stem cells. I went "Why the hell Is this not on Switch?". Hopefully the domino's will fall and we will get remaster for Prime 2 and 3, then 4 will come out on Nintendo next home console
Loved this game
scanning was the best part of the games
this game IS worth visiting for multiplayer though. slaps.
With this, I didn’t bother with the touchscreen controls. I honestly got pretty adept with moving and aiming using the buttons to aim with, despite how extremely clunky it was.
I thought I was the only one who played this game
If they don't bring this back as a side mode in Prime 4 for online multiplayer then they are missing the most obvious opportunities. Even blast ball from federation Force would be awesome with online play
I couldn't finish this game as a kid because I was terrified by it lol
Yes, likewise. Still get the heebie jeebies playing this game.
I remember playing the red hunter a lot and that's it
Trace.
Did you ever use the touch slider with this game?
I disagree with the controls. The touch screen controls were great, and you don't have to hold the DS with one hand to play. You can hold the stylus and rest the right bottom corner of the DS on the lower mid portion of your hand where the thenar muscles come out from.
I agree the game feeling repetitive and dry if you play it through in one sitting, but as a portable game, playing it in bursts, it's not that bad.
Multiplayer is where the real fun begins, and even with bots, it was good fun.
Also, some of the best visuals on the DS belongs to this game, and is easily the best FPS on the system.