What do you like in a Metroid Platformer?

Gaming Indie Works
1

Just a few things I was curious about. Which of the following do you prefer?

Items

  1. Beam Combos or Separate Super Missile Weapon?
  2. Stackable or Switchable Beams?
  3. Allow Player to Turn Items On/Off?
  4. Items Hidden Anywhere or in Secret Areas (In the Wall like SM or in Secret Areas like MP)?
  5. Item Sounds (The BRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIIIHHHHHHHHEH sound that you hear when you get near an item in MP)?
  6. Beam Ammo (Like MP2)?
  7. Prime Spider Ball or MII Spider Ball?
    8) M:ZM Speed Booster or SM Speed Booster?
  8. Visors (Scan, Thermal, X-Ray, etc.)?

Gameplay
10) 3-Directional (Up, Left, Right), 4-Directional (Up, Right, Left, Down), 5-Directional (Up, Left, Up-Left, Right, Up-Right), 7-Directional (All But Down), or 8-Directional (All) Aiming?
11) Several Bosses (Prime, MII), Only One Per Area (SM), or Very Few (M1)?
12) More Action or More Puzzles?
13) Large Map or Small Map?
14) Minimap with Pause Screen Map, Minimap with no Pause Screen Map, Pause Screen Map, or No Map At All?
15) Unique Puzzles or Mazes?
16) Save Stations that Recharge or Separate Recharge and Save Stations?
17) Unique Items or Traditional Items?

Looks
18) M1, MII, Zero Mission, SM, Fusion, or Custom Sprites?
19) Additional Effects/Lighting?
20) 30 (Guaranteed No Lag) or 60 FPS (May Lag But Works Faster)?

If you think of any more, let me know. Here’s what I think:

  1. Beam Combos
  2. Switchable Beams
  3. No
  4. Secret Areas
  5. Yes, but not extremely loud.
  6. God No
  7. Prime
    8) SM
  8. God Yes
  9. 8-Directional
  10. Several
  11. More Puzzles
  12. Large Map
  13. Both
  14. Unique Puzzles
  15. Recharging Save Stations
  16. Unique Items
  17. Custom
  18. Yes
  19. 60 FPS
2
  1. How about beam combos and a separate Super Missile weapon, eh? I prefer separate weapons, though.
  2. Stackable.
  3. Yes.
  4. Anywhere.
  5. Not unless there’s no other way to find secrets, ie. X-Ray visor.
  6. No.
  7. MII spider ball was more flexible, but Metroid Prime spider ball doesn’t render space jumping nearly useless, so for the sake of level design, Metroid Prime style.
  8. I can’t really think of a difference between the speed boosters. You mean shinesparking, right? I’d say M:ZM.
  9. Visors are neat. But for the sake of programming, you would end up rendering the scene twice (and thus it would be much slower) in most cases. So I’d say no.
  10. Aiming depends on the current location. Do you mean all directions when you’re on the ground, or all directions when you’re in the air? 8-directional is nice regardless.
  11. Minibosses FTW.
  12. I’m a strange person, not much into difficulty. So I’d go for more puzzles. (Can always look up/ask for the answer if you can’t figure it out.)
  13. Large map. What’s exploration on a small map?
  14. Minimap and a pause screen with a map on it, too.
  15. Puzzles. Not that mazes doesn’t fit into that category anyway, but whatevs.
  16. Separate recharge and save stations.
  17. Unique. Tradition isn’t something one should care about. Still, using basic old items is a good idea.
  18. Custom sprites. Unless they suck. MZM sprites, in that case.
  19. If it doesn’t slow everything down insanely, custom lighting and effects are good.
  20. 30 FPS. But why not go for 35 or 40 or 45? (Most monitors support refresh rates other than 60 Hz these days.)
3

Items

  1. Beam Combos or Separate Super Missile Weapon? Yeah, both would be good.
  2. Stackable or Switchable Beams? Both, like the plasma and spazer in Super Metroid (only I’d prefer if they were opposites, like flames and ice, so that it would actually make sense). Although, switching shouldn’t be a matter of pausing and going through menu screens… And I wouldn’t want it to be too complicated, either, so if that couldn’t be avoided, I say stackable.
  3. Allow Player to Turn Items On/Off? Yes on some items, no on others. For example, you should be able to turn off stacked beams for different combinations, but I don’t think there’d be much of a point in turning off, says, missiles or the Varia suit.
  4. Items Hidden Anywhere or in Secret Areas? Well, if items are “hidden”, doesn’t that mean they’re in a “secret” area? I like secret areas as well as hidden areas, although I don’t know the difference.
  5. Item Sounds? No, because they’re typically shown on the map in the 2D games when you get near them. SM has some exceptions and two-to-a-spaces, but ZM and Fusion always show them, and even whether or not you’ve gotten them.
  6. Beam Ammo (Like MP2)? No.
  7. Prime Spider Ball or MII Spider Ball? Prime, unless it’s one of the last items in the game.
    8) M:ZM Speed Booster or SM Speed Booster? Definitely SM. It makes much more sense and works better, except for shinesparking, which should be ZM-style.
  8. Visors (Scan, Thermal, X-Ray, etc.)? If it’s planned from the start and done well, then yes.

Gameplay
10) 3-Directional (Up, Left, Right), 4-Directional (Up, Right, Left, Down), 5-Directional (Up, Left, Up-Left, Right, Up-Right), 7-Directional (All But Down), or 8-Directional (All) Aiming? Definitely 8. (Or mouse, depending on the style)
11) Several Bosses (Prime, MII), Only One Per Area (SM), or Very Few (M1)? Only a few “main” bosses, but lots of mini or mid-sized ones. Not necessarily one main boss per area.
12) More Action or More Puzzles? More of both please. I think there’s too much mindless running, shooting, and bombing. Action should be interesting, strategic, and sometimes intense. Puzzles should be clever, fulfilling, and yet seem natural for the area. Nothing like in the Primes.
13) Large Map or Small Map? Laaaaarge, but not repetitive.
14) Minimap with Pause Screen Map, Minimap with no Pause Screen Map, Pause Screen Map, or No Map At All? Minimap and pause map.
15) Unique Puzzles or Mazes? Unique puzzles. The whole world will kind of be one giant maze anyway, right?
16) Save Stations that Recharge or Separate Recharge and Save Stations? Separate. Save stations should be very common, but not recharge stations.
17) Unique Items or Traditional Items? An even number of both, but I would like alterations to the traditional items. Something like having to time the attack of a screw attack while spin-jumping, for example.

Looks
18) M1, MII, Zero Mission, SM, Fusion, or Custom Sprites? Zero Mission/Fusion style, but custom.
19) Additional Effects/Lighting? Yes, but used appropriately and subtly to increase immersion, not to distract.
20) 30 (Guaranteed No Lag) or 60 FPS (May Lag But Works Faster)? Inconsistent framerates are a pet peeve of mine, so in this case I would have to say 30 (or 24-ish for the a cinema feel). But a solid 60 FPS in a 2D game is pretty easy to achieve nowadays, even with a lot of special effects. (Game Maker is another story.) So if a stable 30 and 60 are both achievable, then I don’t think it really matters. Pick one and stick with it.

4

And that’s already been rendered useless. (well, in a week or so it will)

5

Wow. There is a god. GM6/C++ merge? Yes fucking please.

6

1- Both
2- Stackable, but it really depends how you plan on using it.
3- Yes
4- I never really liked items in places so random you have to powerbomb literally every single f***ing room to find the items (I’m looking at YOU Fusion…).
5- Don’t mind it.
6- If it’s to the point where the beams are super pwoerful against enemies, yes, add ammo so they are’t abused.
7- Prime
8- SM Speed Booster was more interesting
9- Scan might be a good idea, but ine very fangame I’ve played with it, I don’t scan anything because it’s IMO, quite frankly, useless. Why read a bunch of material that isn’t even official? Just seems like a waste of time on most occasions. Other visors like X-Ray and thermal could work, though.

10- No 360 degree aiming? If not I’ll go with 8 direction.
11- Several bosses and minibosses to keep things interesting.
12- More Action!!! I’m so sick of long empty rooms with enemies that are no real threat.
13- Depends on the game. Large Map would be nice if pulled off correctly.
14- Don’t really care.
15- I’m leaning more toward puzzles
16- Seperate
17- Unique items. I get bored of seeing the same old all the time.

18- MZM, fusion, or custom
19- If they fit in with the graphics style.
20- 60 plz