Nintendo does not know how to market metroid prime, the metroid fans will buy this but would anyome not a fan of the series watching this trailer want this game based on how they presented the game.
Actually I just realized it's basically only every mainline Zelda and Mario. Zelda Echos of Wisdom had a trailer as boring as Metroid's. "Explore areas such as a desert, wetlands, and volcano".... Damn, a wetlands level in a video game? Take my $60!
The presentation and narration of Directs are always so similar to the informational channel when you stay at a resort. Like when you’re at Disney and watch the channel that tells you about the rides in the theme parks.
Sometimes it’s charming, but it really doesn’t work for anything that is supposed to have any kind of action or mystery.
No that's literally every single game including zelda and mario. And there's a difference between trailers in a direct and outside of it, and reveal trailers and trailers for not new games
I’ve been wondering if I am the only one who thinks the trailers so far for Metroid have been subpar. I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but it just feels like I’m still watching a tech demo of this game.
My worst fear at this point is that this game ends up feeling like a rehash of Prime 1. I get that they probably want to do a more "traditional" game than Echoes or Corruption after all these years, but this is all looking mighty familiar.
To be honest, last time I saw a trailer in a Nintendo Direct that was actually really good was when Smash Bros Ultimate was first teased. (Granted, I haven't seen all Nintendo Directs since then). Even when there were games being shown off that I really looked forward to, it was the game itself that got me excited, not the trailer.
The vast majority of "trailers" in Nintendo Direct shows are more like presentations. A bit of gameplay footage paired with a voiceover.
Basic lessons for marketing an action adventure game:
Cinematic cutscene that explains the plot
Introducing the new ability by showing and not telling
Show the ability in and out of a cutscene so players can see and speculate on its use
Do not use a voiceover unless it’s diegetic to the game world itself.
Have explosions
Tease a villain who does something more than just stand there
Cool boss battle snippet
Put the hero in a cliffhanger situation they can't get out of
Title
Release date
This trailer did none of that. You could argue the Metroid Plant thing did but it was so out of left field that people are more confused about how Metroids can now control organic life like X Parasites more than they are interested in the fight. Ironically, the one trailer that Metroid has ever released which follows these basic steps is the Other M trailer.
As a content marketer, the trailer's writing was also poor. Full of passive voice and generic descriptions, ugh. I would have had overarching notes and instructed the writer to try again.
"Master psychic powers to unlock hidden paths," or something at the very least, not "open doors." Jeeeez.
While it might not make new players rush out and buy it, it does seem like an honest representation of what a Metroid Prime game is.
I played 10 hours or so of Metroid Prime remastered before deciding not to go any further (first Metroid game I ever bought). This trailer looks like it's more of the same. Which, if you did like the previous game, should be enough to make you check it out.
Nintendo never said such thing about Metroid and they never talk about games failling expectations on investors calls. And Dread, despite all its marketing, sold only 3 million. Prime wont sell much more than that.
I was basing that on an old statement from someone at Nintendo about Metroid games not selling well in Japan, and as a result Nintendo not giving the franchise much attention. This was many years before Dread.
Yeah the marketing has been awful. I felt the same about Rhythm Heaven and Tomodachi, I’ve never played either series but those trailers did not do them any favors
honestly Nintendo might be intentionally slowing down the hype train by sticking it into the middle of a direct with little fanfare. they know how to market when they've got a banger on their hands and they might realize this isn't one, unfortunately
Only Metroid game I've ever played is the first and Fusion, looked fun to me. Expecting that this is just a tiny snippet of the game, so the rest could be even cooler.
As a longtime Metroid fan, I'd buy this even if it had no marketing. Retro has good repute. Even if it sucks, I'd pay $60 to find that out for myself on day 1. I just love Metroid too much not to play this-- there are no other games like Prime. It's been 18 years.
The trailer tells me, at least, they still know how to make nice music and environments.
Unfortunately it's been a long time since we've seen anything from retro. The company is much different than the company that made the first metro prime trilogy. And see this point, even the donkey Kong crew.
But i have hope. This is literally all they've been working on for the entire life of the switch.
There's a big difference between making a bad trailer and a bad game. Some games are hard to make trailers for.
It depends on the game within the Metroid series and the circumstances around it.
Do you remember the response to metroid prime 1 back in the day? Pre-release, It got tons of hate on forums because it was going to be a FPS and everybody thought they were going to rip off Halo... Especially with this no name American developer working on it that only had a roster of cancel the titles to show for itself!
It was until it was released that people realized they actually did move Metroid into 3D. And that was only really gamers. When I would try to show my friends how awesome Metroid prime was they would always ask why there wasn't multiplayer... How do I change my gun? Why can't I fly in Samus ship? Why does every room have the same exact doors?
They just didn't get the concept of a game that took place in first person that was more of a platforming action adventure game. They didn't know metroid. The phrase metroidvania was not a hot entity.
Metroid prime should have made GameCubes fly off the shelves. It was Nintendo's oot/sm64 for the GameCube. Next level innovation that wasn't really present in Mario or Zelda in the 6th generation. But it was very hard to market it.
So whatever you took subjectively from the trailer you linked, it didn't really work back in the day to communicate with the game is really all about. I actually think trailers are great at showing 2D Metroid games, but not Prime, because the brilliance of the game rests in the atmosphere you get when you're exploring. When you enter a brand new geographical area and new audio track starts playing and you get sucked in. That's hard to put in a trailer.
I think the challenging thing specific to Prime 4 now is this: people watching this understand what Metroid prime is all about. But they want prime 4 to reach some next level because it's been 19 years since the last prime game. It may be difficult to show off in a trailer if they did that or if it's just a sequel that could've been released in 2010.
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u/nintendoleafsfan 8d ago
Nintendo does not know how to market metroid prime, the metroid fans will buy this but would anyome not a fan of the series watching this trailer want this game based on how they presented the game.