New Metroid DS details

I hope they keep the z-lock (as in Metroid Prime). It was a feature that made a first person game actually playable and even enjoyable. Not sure how it'd work in multiplayer, though.

The demo actually made me sick. Hope they sort it out, or I'm not getting this. Well, if I get a DS, which should happen soon...

25 DM levels! Impressive!
Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

@neuroniky: Made you sick?

>Weavel, for example, will be able to remove part of his body and use it as a turret.<

Hmmm.....

Wow, certainly sounds like the extra dev time was put to good use.

The demo was absolutely brilliant, I thought. I don't get along with the GC games but the DS version came closer to PC FPS controls than ever before. I can't wait!

I can't wait for this game but at the same time I hope they've fleshed out the Single Player (i.e. I hope it's not Deathmatch with bots and some kind of half arsed story to justify it)

Will there be a simgle player campaign?

> there will be a range of playable characters to choose from.

Uhoh... I just hope this isn't going the same way as f-zero with the ridiculously tacky GX-style of presentation.

"but a European date has yet to be announced"

Who cares, itīs not like itīs region locked is it?

Hm. Slightly garbled news piece.

Anyway:

ZeroToHero --

Unless the control system has changed dramatically since it was last shown, there is no Z-lock. You control your character with the D-Pad, fire with the left shoulder button and target with the stylus. This sounds awkward, but after a few minutes play I found it a surprisingly solid FPS control method. IIRC you can revert to using just the buttons, but after getting used to the precision of stylus aiming I can't see why you'd want to. The only concern I do have is that it would seem to make it awkward for a left-handed gamer, but I see no reason why the scheme shouldn't be reversible to allow control via the A-B-Y-X pad and the right shoulder button.

Bengalibengali --

Have you played the demo? IMO that showed that the DS was more than capable of turning out a decent FPS, and as all reports since indicate that the title has come along in leaps & bounds I expect great things of the final game.

Metaljoe --

If you're "hmming" at the Perfect Dark-ishness of that feature, you're not alone! It's very reminiscent of the laptop gun, but as that was an excellent little touch in PD64 (was it in PDZero?) I'm happy to overlook a little poaching...

Onyxbox / Razz --

The single-player campaign looks to be fairly solid, and while this is a key Nintendo Wi-Fi title, I doubt they'll have neglected the solo side of things.

AFAIK - and going off the official info and magazine reports - single-player looks something like this:

You play as Samus Aran. You are called in by the Galactic Federation to investigate the Alimbic Cluster after a mysterious message is received claiming that "the secret to ultimate power" is to be found there. The cluster was home to the Alimbics, a race of supreme being who simply vanished thousands of years ago, leaving the cluster abandoned. They left artifacts scattered across the cluster, all protected by advanced defense systems, that you must now attempt to recover. However, you'll be up against six other bounty hunters who all received the same message and have come to try and retrieve the artifacts themselves.

It's not entirely clear how this will play out, but it seems that it won't have the traditional mission structure of a typical FPS and will instead be a "treasure-hunt" with the player trying to recover artifacts from arenas before computer opponents, or pursuing opponents who have managed to collect an artifact and trying to steal it back from them. This suggests it won't be - beyond the initial setup - particularly story-driven, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were story stages in the mix somewhere.

The reference to "forcing other players down" from their ships is intriguing, as together with the mention of each bounty hunter having their own custom craft it suggests the possibility of another single-player game mode - ship-to-ship combat.

The multiplayer mode looks to be fairly standard, with local Wi-Fi and online modes. I suspect the online system will be more limited - perhaps, as with Mario Kart, certain arenas will be unavailable or the number of players will be capped in the interests of performance - but I've no doubt most of the traditional multiplayer FPS staples will be in there, albeit in a Metroid style.

IIRC, there are seven characters to choose from in multiplayer - Samus, Spire, Weavel, Noxus, Sylux, Trace & Kanden - all of whom are being set up as fairly well-developed protagonists (with the report above also suggesting that they are being developed with an eye to appearing in future Metroid games). There are also rumours that Dark Samus will appear as an unlockable eighth character.

It looks like NST are really putting their all into this title - March can't come quickly enough!

Playing the demo I can see how this is going to work very well. One thing I would say however is that in the options it needs the ability to be able to up the sensitivity of the movement. I found quite often having to drag twice across the screen to turn around 180 degrees...that aint going to be fun while playing online if nothings done about it...

Quick correction to my post above:

Just checked my copy of First Hunt (the DS Metroid demo) and the option to reverse the controls is in there, so left-handed gamers have no need to worry.

yeah im a lefty and the demo did give me a bad impression of the game

Aiming with stylus could be good. I am not a gamer and I hope they got as far away from pc-fps style aiming as possible, since this is what makes those games (pc-fpses) a completely unplayable pixel-hunting fest for me.

The control system in the demo was excellent in my opinion. I'll keep an eye on this one!

The demo was very buggy though - occassionally players disappeared in multiplayer! I'm sure they'll have fixed it by the time it's released properly though.

lavalant - there won't be region-protected online, only region-protected local WiFi sessions - as per all DS games.