How Samus's Visor Changed the World
How Metroid Prime Invented First-Person Adventures
In a really rather excellent Offworld feature on Austin-based Retro Studios, Nintendo's head of SPD3 (Software Planning & Development Department, Production Group No.3), Kensuke Tanabe, explains how he invented the First-Person Adventure while working on Metroid Prime. Bearing in mind that he'd never played a first-person shooter, let alone any Metroids, he explains:
"One thing is that in many first person shooters, you don't see yourself. You don't know how you look. I wanted players to feel that he or she was Samus, and so we constantly emphasized the feeling of the player seeing things inside the helmet, seeing them as Samus would see things.
"Prime could have adventure elements with the introduction of this visor. That's how we came up with the genre - first person adventure, instead of shooter."
So, there you have it. We absolutely recommend the feature.
"One thing is that in many first person shooters, you don't see yourself. You don't know how you look. I wanted players to feel that he or she was Samus, and so we constantly emphasized the feeling of the player seeing things inside the helmet, seeing them as Samus would see things.
"Prime could have adventure elements with the introduction of this visor. That's how we came up with the genre - first person adventure, instead of shooter."
So, there you have it. We absolutely recommend the feature.
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Comments
Retrospecs 25 Aug 2009 18:42
1/1
and at the same time they invented the "first-person retreading old ground 'em up". totally awesome