The fan response to the upcoming 3DS title Metroid Prime: Federation Force has been… tepid at best. Still, to its credit, Nintendo (and particularly producer Kensuke Tanabe) continues to push forward with its vision for the project, and yesterday that vision was finally shared with the rest of us.
This started with the release of a 15-minute video entitled “Metroid Prime: Federation Force – Mission Briefing” via the official Nintendo YouTube channel. After a brief introduction, the video covers mech modification, party roles, and the ensuing multiplayer mission madness as demonstrated by a quartet of NOA staffers.
After this look at the title’s distinctly co-op slant, Tanabe returns to discuss how the limitations inherent in a portable shooter influenced the game’s art style, which, in turn, further affected its overall game design. He then turns his attention to Blast Ball, the 3-on-3 first-person-sports-shooter revealed at E3 2015 during the Nintendo World Championships. This secondary game will come bundled with Metroid Prime: Federation Force and Nintendo 3DS owners can visit the eShop right now to experience a free demo of Blast Ball, which Kensuke Tanabe suggests as a great way to familiarize yourself with the control scheme employed in Federation Force itself.
While I was a bit ambivalent about this particular chapter in the Metroid Prime saga when it was first announced, I’ve slowly been warming to the idea, and the video playthrough did genuinely make the title look like a lot of fun. And, after all, I was also fairly disinterested in Splatoon when it was first announced, and that game has gone on to become an all-time favorite.
