In video games , first-person (also spelled first person ) is any graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player character , or from the inside of a device or vehicle controlled by the player character. It is one of two perspectives used in the vast majority of video games, with the other being third-person , the graphical perspective from outside of any character (but possibly focused on a character); some games such as interactive fiction do not belong to either format.
110-394: Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo . The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran , who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic Metroid creatures. Metroid combines the platforming of Super Mario Bros. and the exploration of The Legend of Zelda with
220-511: A Metroid game for its next console, the Nintendo 64 , but could not generate firm ideas. Sakamoto said he could not imagine how the Nintendo 64 controller could be used to move Samus. An unidentified company declined an offer from Nintendo to develop a Metroid game for the Nintendo 64, as they were not confident they could create a worthwhile successor to Super Metroid . Samus appeared in
330-642: A Metroid manga series was published in Kodansha 's Monthly Magazine Z beginning in November 2003, and ran for 16 chapters which were later collected into two Tankōbon volumes. The series chronicled Samus' life up through the events of the original game, and went on to influence the plots of subsequent games in the franchise. Also in Japan, Comic Bom Bom published a three-volume manga starring Samus, Metroid: Samus and Joey . In 2003, two producers optioned
440-627: A fantasy " setting. Tutankham , debuted by Konami in January 1982, was an action-adventure released for arcades . It combined maze, shoot 'em up, puzzle-solving and adventure elements, with a 1983 review by Computer and Video Games magazine calling it "the first game that effectively combined the elements of an adventure game with frenetic shoot 'em up gameplay." It inspired the similar Time Bandit (1983). Action Quest , released in May 1982, blended puzzle elements of adventure games into
550-446: A joystick -controlled, arcade-style action game, which surprised reviewers at the time. While noting some similarities to Adventure , IGN argues that The Legend of Zelda (1986) by Nintendo "helped to establish a new subgenre of action-adventure", becoming a success due to how it combined elements from different genres to create a compelling hybrid, including exploration, adventure-style inventory puzzles , an action component,
660-571: A monetary system , and simplified RPG-style level building without the experience points . The Legend of Zelda series was the most prolific action-adventure game franchise through to the 2000s. Roe R. Adams also cited the arcade-style side-scrolling fantasy games Castlevania (1986), Trojan (1986) and Wizards & Warriors (1987) as early examples of action-adventure games. Games like Brain Breaker (1985), Xanadu (1985), Metroid (1986) and Vampire Killer (1986) combined
770-632: A raycasting engine, giving it a visual fluidity seen in future games MIDI Maze and Wolfenstein 3D . It was followed in 1983 by the split-screen Capture the Flag , allowing two players at once, and foreshadowing a common gameplay mode for 3D games of the 1990s. The arrival of the Atari ST and Amiga in 1985, and the Apple IIGS a year later, increased the computing power and graphical capabilities available in consumer-level machines, leading to
880-430: A science fiction setting and an emphasis on nonlinear gameplay . Most Metroid games are side-scrolling , while the 3D games use a first-person perspective . Players battle hostile alien enemies and obtain power-ups as they progress through the game world. The series is known for its isolated atmosphere, featuring few non-player characters . The first Metroid was developed by Nintendo R&D1 and released on
990-767: A subgenre of open world action-adventure video games in the third-person perspective . They are characterized by their likeness to the Grand Theft Auto series in either gameplay or overall design. In these types of open world games, players may find and use a variety of vehicles and weapons while roaming freely in an open world setting. Metroidvania is a portmanteau of Metroid and Castlevania ; such games are sometimes referred to as "search action", and are generally based on two-dimensional platformers. They emphasize both exploration and puzzle-solving with traditional platform gameplay. Survival horror games emphasize "inventory management" and making sure
1100-638: A ball, roll into tight places and plant bombs. The classic series consists of 2D side-scrollers , while the Metroid Prime series uses a first-person perspective , and first-person shooter mechanics. The 2010 Other M made use of a third person shooter format. The original Metroid was influenced by two other major Nintendo franchises: Mario , from which it borrowed extensive areas of platform jumping, and The Legend of Zelda , from which it borrowed non-linear exploration. Metroid differed in its atmosphere of solitude and foreboding. Metroid
1210-573: A bounty hunter, while facing the forces of Ridley and Mother Brain . In the original Metroid , Samus travels to the planet Zebes to stop the Space Pirates from using the Metroids to create biological weapons. She defeats the cybernetic lifeform Mother Brain, as well as Ridley and his fellow Space Pirate leader, Kraid. The Metroid Prime series is set between Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus , and chronicles Samus' conflicts with
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#17327809625491320-545: A choice of what to say. The NPC gives a scripted response to the player, and the game offers the player several new ways to respond. Due to the action-adventure subgenre's broad and inclusive nature, it causes some players to have difficulty finishing a particular game. Companies have devised ways to give the player help, such as offering clues or allowing the player to skip puzzles to compensate for this lack of ability. Brett Weiss cites Atari 's Superman (1979) as an action-adventure game, with Retro Gamer crediting it as
1430-474: A combination of complex story elements, which are often displayed for players using audio and video. The story is heavily reliant upon the player character's movement, which triggers story events and thus affects the flow of the game. Popular examples of action-adventure games include The Legend of Zelda , God of War , and Tomb Raider series. There is a good deal of controversy over what actually constitutes an action-adventure game. One definition of
1540-448: A complex text parser and no free-moving character. While they share general gameplay dynamics, action-adventures vary widely in the design of their viewpoints, including bird's eye , side-scrolling, first-person, third-person , over-the-shoulder, or even a 3/4 isometric view . Many action-adventure games simulate a conversation through a conversation tree . When the player encounters a non-player character , they are allowed to select
1650-603: A fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate , sharing a moveset similar to Samus. A number of locations from the Metroid franchise have appeared in Super Smash Bros. games as battle stages. Samus has appeared in other Nintendo games such as Super Mario RPG , the NES version of Tetris , Tetris DS , Galactic Pinball , Kirby Super Star , Kirby's Dream Land 3 and WarioWare . A Metroid-lookalike enemy, called
1760-567: A fighter's side if they manage to knock him out. Due to demand from fans, Ridley was made a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate . Kraid also appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a stage hazard in Brinstar Depths and unlockable trophy. Various other characters such as Metroids, Mother Brain and Dark Samus appear as either trophies or stickers in the Super Smash Bros. series as well. Dark Samus would later debut as
1870-424: A first person perspective include amateur flight simulations , combat flight simulators , dating sims , driving simulators , visual novels , immersive sims , and walking sims , although it has virtually been used in all genres, including survival horror and stealth games , either as main perspective or for specific actions or sections. Games with a first-person perspective are usually avatar -based, wherein
1980-406: A first-person perspective where players aim at moving targets on a stationary screen. They in turn evolved into rail shooters , which also typically employ a first-person perspective but move the player through levels on a fixed path. Rail shooter and shooting gallery games that use light guns are called light gun shooters . The most popular type of game to employ a first-person perspective today
2090-446: A former artist from Next Level Games said that Next Level had built a Metroid prototype for the Nintendo 3DS handheld before Nintendo asked them to develop Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon instead. In 2016, Nintendo released Metroid Prime: Federation Force , a multiplayer game for the 3DS developed by Next Level. It received criticism for its multiplayer focus and frivolous tone. A remake of Metroid II , Metroid: Samus Returns ,
2200-431: A further level of realism by implementing a rotating point of view, thus creating the effect of turning corners left and right, in addition to just walking forward. In 1988, Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode featured first-person shooter levels and included a sniper rifle for assassinating an enemy agent at long range using an unsteady sniper scope. The same year saw the release of Arsys Software 's Star Cruiser . In
2310-517: A game with a mix of elements from an action game and an adventure game , especially crucial elements like puzzles inspired by older adventure games. Action-adventures require many of the same physical skills as action games, but may also offer a storyline, numerous characters, an inventory system, dialogue, and other features of adventure games. They are typically faster-paced than pure adventure games, because they include both physical and conceptual challenges. Action-adventure games normally include
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#17327809625492420-550: A malignant, radioactive substance named Phazon. In Metroid Prime , Samus travels to Tallon IV to stop the Space Pirates from exploiting a Phazon-infused meteor that has poisoned the local ecosystem. After battling a cybernetically enhanced Ridley and clearing out the Space Pirate presence on the planet, Samus purges the Phazon from Tallon IV by defeating the titular enemy, a Phazon-infected Metroid. Metroid Prime: Hunters , which
2530-562: A massive misfire and a flop with fans that it practically killed the series", with the series going on another hiatus for six years. A Metroid minigame , "Metroid Blast", appeared in the Wii U game Nintendo Land (2012), which had a mixed reception. Using the Wii U GamePad , the player controls Samus's gunship, while up to four players with Wii Remotes and Nunchuks control Mii characters on foot, wearing Varia Suits. Miyamoto said this reflected his ideas for future Metroid games. In 2014,
2640-585: A minigame based on the series called "Metroid Blast". A Samus amiibo figure can be used to unlock a Mii costume based on her appearance in Mario Kart 8 and a Samus costume in Super Mario Maker . In 2020, Nintendo and Epic Games began negotiations to include Samus in Fortnite as a skin. The plans for this first came to light publicly when internal Epic documents were released as part of
2750-415: A mounted positional light gun . It allows two-player cooperative gameplay for the mission mode and features a deathmatch mode where two players compete against each other or up to four players compete in two teams. In 1992, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss was among the first to feature texture mapped environments, polygonal objects, and basic lighting. The engine was later enhanced for usage in
2860-485: A new wave of innovation. 1987 saw the release of MIDI Maze , an important transitional game for the genre. Unlike its contemporaries, MIDI Maze used raycasting to speedily draw square corridors. It also offered a networked multiplayer deathmatch (communicating via the computer's MIDI ports). Sublogic's Jet was a major release for the new platforms, as were Starglider and the tank simulator Arcticfox . In 1987, Taito's Operation Wolf arcade game started
2970-719: A remake of the original Metroid . Both GBA games received acclaim. A Nintendo restructure merged R&D1 with R&D2 in 2003, shortly ahead of the release of Zero Mission . A 2D Metroid game for the Nintendo DS , Metroid Dread , was in development around 2006, but the hardware was not suitable for the project. Dread was ultimately revived in 2021 for the Nintendo Switch . In 2004, Nintendo also released Metroid Prime 2: Echoes , which sees Samus switching between parallel light and dark worlds and introduced more difficulty. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption , released for
3080-475: A scientific research station in the planet's orbit, assimilating and imitating many creatures being studied on board. Samus is infected by one but is saved using a vaccine made from the baby Metroid's cells. She discovers that the Federation has been cloning Metroids in secret, and sets the space station on a collision with SR388 to destroy the X parasites. Metroid Dread continues where Fusion left off, with
3190-467: A score that made players feel like they were encountering a "living creature" and had no distinction between music and sound effects. The only time the main Metroid theme was heard was after Mother Brain is defeated; this is intended to give the player a catharsis . At all other times, no melodies are present in the game. The composer of Super Metroid , Kenji Yamamoto , came up with some themes by humming to himself while riding his motorcycle to work. He
3300-711: A side-scrolling platformer format with adventure exploration, creating the Metroidvania platform-adventure subgenre. Similarly, games like 005 (1981), Castle Wolfenstein and Metal Gear (1987) combined action-adventure exploration with stealth mechanics, laying the foundations for the stealth game subgenre, which would later be popularized in 1998 with the releases of Metal Gear Solid , Tenchu: Stealth Assassins , and Thief: The Dark Project . The cinematic platformer Prince of Persia (1989) featured action-adventure elements, inspiring games such as Another World (1991) and Flashback (1992). Alone in
3410-400: A single avatar as the protagonist . This type of game is often quite similar to role-playing video games . They are distinct from graphic adventures , which sometimes have free-moving central characters, but also a wider variety of commands and fewer or no action game elements and are distinct too from text adventures , characterized by many different commands introduced by the user via
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3520-506: A track editor: Stunt Driver from Spectrum Holobyte (1990) and Stunts from Broderbund (1991). In 1990, SNK released beat 'em ups with a first-person perspective: the hack & slash game Crossed Swords , and the fighting & shooting game Super Spy . In 1991, Dactyl Nightmare appeared for the Virtuality arcade VR platform, which featured first person deathmatch style games with polygon player avatars. In late 1991,
3630-735: Is an action game that includes situational problem-solving. Adventure gamers may also be purists, rejecting any game that makes use of physical challenges or time pressure. Regardless, the action-adventure label is prominent in articles over the internet and media. The term "action-adventure" is usually substituted for a particular subgenre due to its wide scope. Although action-adventure games are diverse and difficult to classify, there are some distinct subgenres. Many games with gameplay similar to those in The Legend of Zelda series are called Zelda clones or Zelda -like games. Popular subgenres include: A Grand Theft Auto clone belongs to
3740-439: Is not clear exactly when the earliest FPS video game was created. There are two claimants, Spasim and Maze War . The uncertainty about which was first stems from the lack of any accurate dates for the development of Maze War —even its developer cannot remember exactly. In contrast, the development of Spasim is much better documented and the dates are more certain. The initial development of Maze War probably occurred in
3850-407: Is often named among the best video game bosses. The original Metroid has been described as boosted by its "eerie" music, adding a "sense of mystery and exploration" to the game by making the game "moody and atmospheric". IGN praised the well-timed music that helped add suspense. GameSpot described Super Metroid as better than the original "in literally every conceivable way", Metroid Fusion
3960-582: Is shown to be a part of a spacefaring sovereignty known as the Galactic Federation. Other races are both a part of the Federation as well as close allies, the most prolific being the Chozo, an avian species possessing advanced technology and skills in bioengineering. The mutual nemesis of the Federation and the Chozo are the Space Pirates, a villainous interstellar cabal comprising multiple alien races of disreputable nature that all refuse to abide to
4070-437: Is the first-person shooter (FPS), which allows player-guided navigation through a three-dimensional space. Electro-mechanical racing games had been using first-person perspectives since the late 1960s, dating back to Kasco's Indy 500 (1968) and Chicago Coin 's version Speedway (1969). The use of first-person perspectives in driving video games date back to Nürburgring 1 and Atari 's Night Driver in 1976. It
4180-510: Is unconnected to the Phazon storyline, sees Samus respond to a distress call to the Alimbic Cluster. Other bounty hunters respond to the call, and after conflicting amongst themselves, they all ultimately band together to fight against a creature named Gorea. In Metroid Prime 2: Echoes , Samus explores the planet Aether, which is suffering from a Phazon outbreak. The Phazon has split the world into "light" and "dark" dimensions, leading to
4290-537: The Epic Games v. Apple case in 2021. Other characters from the batch in the document such as Kratos and Master Chief were added to the game in late 2020, but Samus was not. In 2024, former Epic creative director Donald Mustard revealed that Nintendo had requested Nintendo Switch exclusivity for the Samus skin, which was against Epic's policy of maintaining feature parity for Fortnite across all platforms, and so
4400-511: The Uncharted franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Ark: Survival Evolved . First person (video games) First-person can be used as sole perspective in games belonging of almost any genre ; first-person party-based RPGs and first-person maze games helped define the format throughout the 1980s, while first-person shooters (FPS) are a popular genre emerging in
4510-749: The Family Computer Disk System , was developed by Nintendo's Research & Development 1 (R&D1) and released in Japan on August 6, 1986. It was published for the Nintendo Entertainment System in August 1987 in North America and on January 15, 1988, in Europe. It was directed by Satoru Okada . Metroid was designed to be a shooting game that combined the platform jumping of Super Mario Bros. with
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4620-400: The Metroid formula, with numerous new power-ups and a richer story. It received acclaim and is considered one of the best SNES games. It was directed by Yoshio Sakamoto , character designer for the first Metroid ; Sakamoto has directed or produced most of the 2D Metroid games since. After Super Metroid , Nintendo released no new Metroid games for eight years. They considered developing
4730-751: The Metroid universe. Metroid II: Return of Samus was released for the Game Boy in 1991 in North America and in 1992 in Japan and Europe. Metroid II also further established Samus ' visual design, with the bulky Varia Suit upgrade and different arm cannons. As R&D1 were committed to making another game, Nintendo brought in Intelligent Systems to develop Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Development began in late 1991. Released in 1994, Super Metroid drastically expanded
4840-471: The Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. Metroid II: Return of Samus was released for the handheld Game Boy in 1991. Super Metroid (1994), released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System , received acclaim. After a hiatus, Metroid Fusion (2002) and Metroid: Zero Mission (2004) were released for the Game Boy Advance . The first 3D Metroid game, Metroid Prime (2002),
4950-519: The Wii in 2007, added motion controls and has Samus exploring separate planets, with more emphasis on shooting action. The Prime games were rereleased for the Wii in the compilation Metroid Prime: Trilogy . In 2005, Nintendo released Metroid Prime Pinball , a pinball spin-off for the DS developed by Fuse Games . Metroid Prime Hunters , a multiplayer game developed by Nintendo Software Technology ,
5060-818: The "first to utilize multiple screens as playing area". Mark J.P. Wolf credits Adventure (1980) for the Atari VCS as the earliest-known action-adventure game. The game involves exploring a 2D environment, finding and using items which each have prescribed abilities, and fighting dragons in real-time like in an action game . Muse Software 's Castle Wolfenstein (1981) was another early action-adventure game, merging exploration, combat, stealth, and maze game elements, drawing inspiration from arcade shoot 'em ups and maze games (such as maze-shooter Berzerk ) and war films (such as The Guns of Navarone ). According to Wizardry developer Roe R. Adams, early action-adventure games "were basically arcade games done in
5170-467: The 1990s in which the graphical perspective is an integral component of the gameplay. Although, like third-person shooters (TPS), the term has come to define a specific subgenre of shooter games rather than any using the perspective, with several shooter games, while belonging to other subgenres, using a first person perspective, such as, traditionally, light gun shooters , rail shooters , and shooting gallery games . Other genres that typically feature
5280-620: The 1990s: Wing Commander and X-Wing . Atari 's 1983 Star Wars arcade game leaned entirely on action rather than tactics, but offered 3D color vector renderings of TIE Fighters and the surface of the Death Star . Other shooters with a first-person view from the early 1980s include Taito's Space Seeker in 1981, Horizon V for the Apple II the same year, Sega's stereoscopic arcade game SubRoc-3D in 1982, Novagen Software s Encounter in 1983, and EA's Skyfox for
5390-723: The 6th in 1999, and as the eighth best game franchise by IGN in 2008. In 2001, Electronic Gaming Monthly named Super Metroid the best game ever. All the Metroid games released by 2005 were included in a Nintendo Power top 200 Nintendo games list, Prime in the IGN top 100, Metroid , Super Metroid , Prime and Echoes in a list by GameFAQs users; Metroid and Super Metroid in Game Informer ' s list; and Prime and Super Metroid in Edge ' s list. The series has influenced games including Castlevania: Symphony of
5500-414: The Apple II in 1984. Flight simulators were a first-person staple for home computers beginning in 1979 with FS1 Flight Simulator from Sublogic and followed up with Flight Simulator II in 1983. MicroProse found a niche with first-person aerial combat games: Hellcat Ace (1982), Spitfire Ace (1982), and F-15 Strike Eagle (1985). Amidst a flurry of faux-3D first-person maze games where
5610-487: The Blind Forest (2014), Hollow Knight (2017), and Chasm (2018). Metroid is therefore among a handful of game series to have genres named after them, along with Dark Souls ( Soulslike ) and Rogue ( Roguelike ). In 2016, AM2R , a fan-made remake of Metroid II was released. Nintendo issued takedown notices to halt its distribution, citing the potential damage to its intellectual property. AM2R
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#17327809625495720-468: The Bottle Ship, a derelict scientific research station, with a Galactic Federation platoon led by her former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich. They team up against many bioweapons created by a Federation science group, including clones of creatures Samus faced on Zebes like Ridley and the Metroids. A revived Mother Brain, now occupying a humanoid body supplied to her by the Federation, takes control of
5830-490: The Dark (1992) used 3D graphics , which would later be popularized by Resident Evil (1996) and Tomb Raider (1996). Resident Evil in particular created the survival horror subgenre, inspiring titles such as Silent Hill (1999) and Fatal Frame (2001). Action-adventure games have gone on to become more popular than the pure adventure games and pure platform games that inspired them. Recent examples include
5940-507: The Exidy arcade game Star Fire and Doug Neubauer 's seminal Star Raiders for Atari 8-bit computers . The popularity of Star Raiders resulted in similarly styled games from other developers and for other systems, including Starmaster for the Atari 2600, Space Spartans for Intellivision, and Shadow Hawk One for the Apple II. It went on to influence two major first-person games of
6050-469: The Federation dispatching a squadron of advanced automatons known as E.M.M.I. to investigate the planet ZDR, where X parasites have been sighted. Samus is sent to the planet herself after contact is lost, coming into conflict with the X and a Chozo war criminal named Raven Beak, stopping both from invading the rest of the galaxy. The central figures in the production and development of the Metroid series are Satoru Okada , who directed Metroid and created
6160-404: The Galactic Federation's rule. They are led by the dragon -like warlord Ridley , and plot to develop weapons of mass destruction from hazardous life forms and materials to destroy the Federation and secure galactic dominance. The eponymous Metroids are a species of predatory, jellyfish -like organisms that feed on an undetectable life energy found in all living creatures. Biological weapons,
6270-437: The Galactic Federation, and rogue members of the Chozo race, to weaponize the Metroids and the subsequent conflicts they cause. Metroid follows the adventures of the bounty hunter Samus Aran , who battles the Space Pirates and the Metroids. Samus was raised by the Chozo after her parents were killed by a Space Pirate raid led by Ridley. She serves in the military of the Galactic Federation before departing and beginning work as
6380-936: The Komayto, appears in Kid Icarus for the NES; the characters allude to the similarities between the two in Kid Icarus: Uprising . In Dead or Alive: Dimensions , a fighting game developed by Team Ninja for the 3DS, one stage is a replica of the arena in which Samus fights Ridley in Metroid: Other M and features both as non-playable characters. When asked why Samus is not playable in Dimensions , Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi said in an interview that "it would be better to let her focus on her job rather than kicking everyone's butt in [ Dead or Alive: Dimensions ]". The Wii U launch game Nintendo Land has
6490-423: The Metroids and attempts to unleash them upon the Federation, but is stopped by Samus at the cost of Adam's life. Afterward, Samus encounters and kills the ethereal entity Phantoon and sets the Bottle Ship to self-destruct. In Metroid Fusion , Samus accompanies a team of scientists to SR388, where she has her first encounter with the X parasites when the species reappears in the absence of the Metroids. The X overruns
6600-415: The Metroids were engineered by the Chozo to eradicate a parasitic, shapeshifting virus known as the "X" that threatened their civilization. While the Metroids succeeded in stopping the X, they became a danger to the Chozo themselves when they developed the ability to evolve into different and far deadlier forms. Most of the games center around the efforts of various organizations, including the Space Pirates,
6710-490: The Night , the early Metroid games defined the Metroidvania subgenre, inspiring other games with continuous, explorable side-scrolling levels. Samus was one of the first prominent female video game characters. The Metroid series contains gameplay elements from shooter, platformer , adventure, survival and sometimes first person games. The series is notable for its non-linear progression and solitary exploration format where
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#17327809625496820-443: The Night . Samus Aran was recognized by Guinness World Records as "enduringly popular" and as the "first playable human female character in a mainstream video game", although Toby Masuyo ("Kissy") from Namco 's Alien Sector predates her by one year. Ridley was the second-most requested Nintendo character by IGN and number one by the fans to be added as a playable character to the Super Smash Bros. series and Mother Brain
6930-468: The Nintendo 64 fighting game Super Smash Bros. (1999). In 2000, the Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto visited the new Nintendo subsidiary Retro Studios in Austin, Texas . He did not like any of the projects they had in development, but spent time playing Action Adventure , a third-person science-fiction action game with a female protagonist. Miyamoto tasked Retro with developing a Metroid game for
7040-708: The avatar to block the player's view, but the absence of an avatar can make it difficult to master the timing and distances required to jump between platforms, and may cause motion sickness in some players. Players have come to expect first-person games to accurately scale objects to appropriate sizes, although the key objects such as dropped items or levers may be exaggerated in order to improve their visibility. First-person perspectives are used in various different genres, including several distinct sub-genres of shooter games . Shooting gallery games , which evolved from early-21st-century electro-mechanical games and in turn late-20th-century carnival games , typically employ
7150-465: The best-selling Metroid game. In February 2023, Nintendo released Metroid Prime Remastered , a high-definition remaster of Metroid Prime for the Switch. It was developed by Retro Studios with assistance from developers including Iron Galaxy Studios . In June 2017, at E3 , Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4 for the Switch. While not confirmed by Nintendo, Eurogamer reported that Prime 4
7260-496: The character was never included. A Metroid animated series was considered for the Super Mario Bros. Power Hour , a cancelled animation block that would have aired in the 1980s. Concept art was produced for the series, which notably featured a male incarnation of Samus. Power Hour never moved forward in the intended format, instead being replaced by The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! which aired in 1989. Mother Brain
7370-400: The fledgling id Software released Catacomb 3D , which introduced the concept of showing the player's hand on-screen, strengthening the illusion that the player is viewing the world through the character's eyes. Taito's Gun Buster was released in arcades in 1992. It features on-foot gameplay and a control scheme where the player moves using an eight-direction joystick and aims using
7480-498: The following week. Along with the 1997 Konami game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night , the early Metroid games defined a subgenre known as Metroidvania . Tom Happ, developer of the 2015 Metroidvania game Axiom Verge , defined Metroidvania games as side-scrolling adventures with continuous maps, rather than discrete levels , that require the player to collect items and backtrack. Other notable Metroidvania games include Cave Story (2004), Shadow Complex (2009), Ori and
7590-401: The game displays what the player's avatar would see with the avatar's own eyes. Thus, players typically in many games they cannot see the avatar's body, though they may be able to see the avatar's weapons or hands. This viewpoint is also frequently used to represent the perspective of a driver within a vehicle, as in flight and racing simulators; it is common to make use of positional audio, where
7700-467: The game was responsible for the word's subsequent entry into the video gaming lexicon. Doom has been considered the most important first-person shooter ever made. The 1995 game Descent used a fully 3D polygonal graphics engine to render opponents, departing from the sprites used by most previous games in the FPS genre. It also escaped the "pure vertical walls" graphical restrictions of earlier games in
7810-406: The gameplay still follows a number of adventure game genre tropes (gathering items , exploration of and interaction with one's environment, often including an overworld connecting areas of importance, and puzzle-solving). While the controls are arcade-style (character movement, few action commands) there is an ultimate goal beyond a high score. In most action-adventure games, the player controls
7920-560: The games Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds and System Shock . Later in 1992, id improved the technology used in Catacomb 3D by adding support for VGA graphics in Wolfenstein 3D . It would be widely imitated in the years to follow, and marked the beginning of many conventions in the genre, including collecting different weapons that can be switched between using the keyboard's number keys, and ammo conservation. 1996 saw
8030-493: The genre, and allowed the player six degrees of freedom of movement (up/down, left/right, forward/backward, pitch, roll, and yaw ). The Quake series since 1996, and derived titles such as 1998's Half-Life , advanced from Doom with a fully 3D engine allowing players to look from any angle, and helped formalize the mouse and WASD keys combo that has become the standard means of control on personal computers. On consoles meanwhile, games like Halo from 2001, helped define
8140-443: The handheld Nintendo 3DS , followed by Metroid Dread (2021) for the Nintendo Switch . Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is scheduled for 2025. As of September 2012, the Metroid series had sold over 17.44 million copies. It has been represented in other Nintendo media, including the Super Smash Bros. series. Additional media includes soundtracks, comic books, and manga. Along with the 1997 Konami game Castlevania: Symphony of
8250-488: The increased RAM in the Wii , allowing for higher-quality audio samples. Kenji Yamamoto, who composed the music for Super Metroid and the Prime trilogy, copied the musical design of the original Metroid in Metroid Prime 3 , by keeping the music and themes dark and scary until the very end, when uplifting music is played during the credits. The Metroid franchise takes place in a science fiction setting where humanity
8360-450: The late 1980s, interest in 3D first-person driving simulations resulted in games like Test Drive (1987) and Vette! (1989). 1989's Hard Drivin' arcade game from Atari Games was particularly influential, with fast filled-polygon graphics, a mathematical model of how the vehicle components interact, force feedback, and instant replay after crashes. In the following years, two Hard Drivin' -esque MS-DOS games appeared, each including
8470-460: The level Zebes, and in Super Smash Bros. Melee both as an unlockable trophy and in the game's opening, where he is fighting Samus at Ceres Space Station. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl , Ridley appears as a boss character in both normal and Meta Ridley forms. Ridley's clone from Metroid: Other M appears as a boss on the Pyroshpere stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , where he will join
8580-434: The monsters and other players, with the walls rendered as vector lines. Set in A.D. 2020, Futurewar anticipated Doom , although as to Castle Wolfenstein ' s transition to a futuristic theme, the common PLATO genesis is coincidental. A further PLATO FPS was the tank game Panther , introduced in 1975, generally acknowledged as a precursor to Battlezone . 1979 saw the release of two first-person space combat games:
8690-477: The new Nintendo console, the GameCube . The team terminated Action Adventure and moved to Metroid . Metroid Prime , the first 3D Metroid game, released in 2002, moved the nonlinear structure of Super Metroid to a first-person perspective . Nintendo stressed that it was not a first-person shooter but a "first-person adventure". Metroid Prime received acclaim. It sold 2.84 million copies worldwide and
8800-469: The non-linear exploration of The Legend of Zelda and a darker aesthetic. The name of the game is a portmanteau of the words "metro" (as in rapid transit ) and android, and was meant to allude to the mainly underground setting of the first game as well as its robot-like protagonist. Halfway through development of the original Metroid , one of the staff said to his fellow developers "Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside
8910-572: The only game in which players do not control Samus, sees Samus mind-controlled by Space Pirates; the Federation Force, an elite squadron of marines equipped with powerful exosuits, battles to rescue her and destroy the Space Pirates. In Metroid II , the Galactic Federation calls for the extermination of the Metroid species and contracts Samus to travel to the species' homeworld, SR388, to carry out their extinction. She succeeds in wiping out
9020-661: The planet's Metroid population, but saves a single hatchling Metroid that bonds to her and delivers it to the Ceres research station for study. In Super Metroid , Ridley steals the hatchling and takes it to Zebes, where the Space Pirates are attempting to clone the Metroids. After killing Ridley, Samus herself is nearly killed by the revived Mother Brain, but is rescued by the now grown Metroid which sacrifices itself. Samus destroys Mother Brain in retaliation and escapes as Zebes explodes, exterminating her old enemies for good. In Metroid: Other M , set after Super Metroid , Samus investigates
9130-489: The player has enough ammunition and recovery items to " survive " the horror setting. This is a thematic genre with diverse gameplay, so not all survival horror games share all the features. The Resident Evil franchise popularized this subgenre. Action-adventure games are faster-paced than pure adventure games, and include physical as well as conceptual challenges where the story is enacted rather than narrated. While motion-based, often reflexive, actions are required,
9240-472: The player is locked into one of four orientations, like Spectre , Muse Software 's Escape! , Tunnel Runner , Escape from the Mindmaster , 3D Monster Maze , 3-D Monster Chase , 3-Demon , Phantom Slayer , and Dungeons of Daggorath , came the 1982 release of Paul Edelstein's Wayout from Sirius Software. Not a shooter, it has smooth, arbitrary movement using what was later labeled
9350-473: The player only controls Samus Aran , with few or no other characters to interact with. The player gains items and power-ups for Samus's cybernetic suit primarily through exploration, and occasionally by defeating alien creatures through real-time combat with the suit's arm cannon. Many such upgrades enable further avenues of exploration. A recurring upgrade is the Morph Ball, which allows Samus to curl into
9460-473: The player to explore and solve to complete a storyline, involving little to no action . If there is action, it is generally confined to isolated instances. Classical action games, on the other hand, have gameplay based on real-time interactions that challenges the player's reflexes and eye-hand coordination . Action-adventure games combine these genres by engaging both eye-hand coordination and problem-solving skills. An action adventure game can be defined as
9570-518: The player's character could climb upon), more intricate level design ( Wolfenstein 3D was limited to a grid based system where walls had to be orthogonal to each other, whereas Doom allowed for any inclination) and rudimentary illumination effects such as flickering lights and areas of darkness, creating a far more believable 3D environment than Wolfenstein 3D 's levels, all of which had a flat-floor space and corridors. Doom allowed competitive matches between multiple players, termed deathmatches , and
9680-446: The release of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall for MS-DOS by Bethesda Softworks , featuring similar graphics and polygonal structures to other games at the time and furthering the first-person element included in 1994's The Elder Scrolls: Arena , to which it was a sequel. Doom (1993) refined Wolfenstein 3D's template by adding support for higher resolution, improved textures, variations in height (e.g., stairs and platforms
9790-575: The rights to create a live-action film based on Metroid , but the rights expired. The director John Woo acquired the rights a few years later, and his studio Lion Rock Productions was to produce and release the film before 2006. The writers included David Greenwalt , who had worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Angel , and Grimm . According to the producer Brad Froxhoven, the film would have explored Samus' origin story ; she would be "an exceptionally talented, but also flawed character who
9900-527: The rise of the evil Ing race. While liberating Aether from the Ing, Samus encounters Dark Samus, a revitalized Metroid Prime that has partially copied her physical appearance. In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption , Samus and three other bounty hunters are recruited by the Federation to stop Dark Samus from infecting the galaxy with Phazon. While fighting to avoid being slowly corrupted by Phazon herself, Samus eradicates Phazon and her double. Metroid Prime: Federation Force ,
10010-413: The same year. The game is a rudimentary space flight simulation game with a first-person 3D wireframe view. It allowed online multiplayer over the worldwide university-based PLATO network . Futurewar (1976) by high-school student Erik K. Witz and Nick Boland, also based on PLATO, is sometimes claimed to be the first true FPS. The game includes a bitmap image of a gun and other armaments that point at
10120-641: The series had sold over 17.44 million copies worldwide. Sales of Metroid games in Japan have typically been lower than in the United States. In its debut week in Japan, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption sold 32,388 units, ranking it behind Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan! , Super Smash Bros. Brawl , Wii Fit , and Gundam Musou Special . Metroid: Other M was the third-bestselling video game in Japan during its week of release with 45,398 copies sold, ranking it behind Wii Party and Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airu Village . It sold an additional 11,239 copies
10230-485: The series; Yoshio Sakamoto , who was a character designer for the first game and has directed or supervised most of the sequels; Gunpei Yokoi , who headed the R&;D1 division and produced the first two games; Makoto Kano , who wrote the scenario for Metroid , co-designed the second game, and produced the third; and Hiroji Kiyotake , who designed characters for the original. The original Metroid , an action game for
10340-451: The suit was a woman?", and the idea was accepted. Ridley Scott 's 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien was described by Sakamoto as a "huge influence" after the world of the first Metroid had been created. In recognition of this, an antagonist was given the name Ridley , after director Ridley Scott . The development staff were also influenced by the work of the film's creature designer H. R. Giger , finding his style to be fitting for
10450-465: The summer of 1973. A single player traverses a maze of corridors rendered using fixed perspective. Multiplayer capabilities, with players attempting to shoot each other, were probably added later in 1973 (two machines linked via a serial connection) and in the summer of 1974 (fully networked). Spasim was originally developed in the spring of 1974 with a documented debut at the University of Illinois
10560-430: The term "action-adventure" may be '"An action/adventure game is a game that has enough action in it not to be called an adventure game, but not enough action to be called an action game." In some cases an action game with puzzles will be classified as an action-adventure game, but if these puzzles are quite simple they might be classified as an action game. Others see action games as a pure genre, while an action-adventure
10670-435: The trend of realistic military-themed action shooters, and featured side-scrolling environments and high-quality graphics for the time. It was followed the subsequent year by a sequel, titled Operation Thunderbolt , that introduced a pseudo-3D perspective and the illusion of depth. The success and popularity of these two games led to Sega releasing Line of Fire in 1989, another military combat arcade machine that achieved
10780-404: The volume of ambient sounds varies depending on their position with respect to the player's avatar. Games with a first-person perspective do not require sophisticated animations for the player's avatar, nor do they need to implement a manual or automated camera-control scheme as in third-person perspective. A first-person perspective allows for easier aiming, since there is no representation of
10890-441: Was also one of the first video games to feature an exploration to the left as well as the right, and backtracking to already explored areas to search for secret items and paths. Since the late 1990s, the term " Metroidvania " has been applied to this format. The Metroid series has been noted and praised for its unique style of video game music . Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka , composer of the original Metroid , has said he wanted to make
11000-543: Was asked to compose the music for Metroid Prime to reinforce the series continuity. Metroid Prime ' s Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound was mixed by a member of Dolby . Developers from Retro Studios noted how the 6 MB memory budget for all sound effects of a level in Metroid Prime was crucial in producing a quality soundtrack, as each sound had to be of high quality to be included. Yamamoto used heavy drums, piano, voiced chants, clangs of pipes, and electric guitar. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption took advantage of
11110-425: Was being developed by Bandai Namco Studios . Unsatisfied with the progress, Nintendo announced in January 2019 that it had restarted the development under Retro Studios, the developer of the previous Metroid Prime games. In June 2024, Nintendo revealed a trailer and the title Metroid Prime 4: Beyond , with a release year of 2025. Metroid ranked the 70th top game (collectively) by Next Generation in 1996 and
11220-430: Was called the best sound design on the GameCube . The sound effects were also noted for a high degree of accuracy and blending with the soundtrack. On the popular video game music site OverClocked ReMix , Super Metroid is the tenth-most remixed video game, while the first Metroid video game was twenty-fifth. Each Metroid game, excluding spin-offs and remakes, has sold more than one million copies. By September 2012,
11330-543: Was developed by MercurySteam and released for the 3DS in September 2017. It retained the gameplay of the original and added 3D graphics and gameplay features such as melee combat. MercurySteam's next project was Metroid Dread for the Nintendo Switch , a realization of the cancelled Nintendo DS project from the late 2000s. Released in October 2021, it had sold more than 2.9 million copies worldwide by May 2022, making it
11440-407: Was developed by Retro Studios for the GameCube and received acclaim. It was followed by Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004) and the Wii game Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007). Metroid: Other M (2010), developed by Team Ninja for the Wii, received weaker reviews. After another hiatus, MercurySteam developed a remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus , Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) for
11550-442: Was looking for redemption ... We wanted to see her struggle, to be humbled, and to be forced to rise up against crazy odds. And of course we wanted to see the cool weapons in all of their glory". Action-adventure game An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, classical adventure games have situational problems for
11660-564: Was nominated for the Game Awards 2016 , but was removed as it had not been cleared by Nintendo for inclusion. Samus is a playable character in all five Super Smash Bros. games. Games from Super Smash Bros. Brawl onward also feature Zero Suit Samus, a version of the heroine using the blue form-fitting suit seen in Zero Mission and the Prime series. Ridley makes cameos in Super Smash Bros. , where he can be seen flying through
11770-592: Was noted for its "understated score" which fit the mood of the adventure and its excellent stereo sound effects, making it an uncommonly good Game Boy Advance sound experience. Metroid Prime was considered one of the best games ever made upon its release, winning Game of the Year from various publications and websites. IGN called the aural experience with Metroid Prime 2: Echoes "mesmerizing". Music from Metroid has been frequently re-released as part of "best of" video game music releases. Metroid Prime ' s soundtrack
11880-517: Was released for the DS in 2006. A new 3D Metroid game, Metroid: Other M , developed with the Japanese studio Team Ninja and directed by Sakamoto, was released for Wii in 2010. It featured a third-person perspective and placed a greater focus on story and action. Other M received weaker reviews, with criticism for its characterization of Samus as timid and emotional and its reduced emphasis on exploration. Polygon described Other M as "such
11990-408: Was the best-selling Metroid game until Metroid Dread (2021). In 2002, Nintendo released Metroid Fusion , a 2D game for the Game Boy Advance (GBA). It was developed by R&D1 and written and directed by Sakamoto. Its gameplay is similar to Super Metroid , but with a more mission-based structure that gives more guidance to the player. The team's next GBA project was Zero Mission (2004),
12100-568: Was the primary villain in the Captain N: The Game Master TV show. Various magazines have published comics and manga based on Metroid , Super Metroid , Metroid Prime , Metroid Prime 2: Echoes , and Metroid: Zero Mission in both the United States and Japan. Samus Aran and other Metroid characters also featured in the Captain N: The Game Master comic books by Valiant Comics . In Japan,
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