#wish I could make an edit for mpt :((

[knowaristotle]

I LOVE MTRENCHHHHH

[metroidprimepics]

More miscellaneous observations, mostly from Corruption.

Prime etc.

Since there may be Switch remasters of these games on the way, I’d like to clarify that this blog is not an accurate representation of how these games look on console.

For one, I do bump up the resolution, which makes smaller details much clearer. (The base textures are unchanged, though I believe there’s a fanmade HD texture pack for Prime. Which admittedly could kind of use it.)

I also often tweak the lighting in post - usually brightness/contrast, sometimes white balance. (On top of that, I turned down bloom by 10% on Corruption, because it’s a bit much.) This is about as much I would edit a photograph which I took of real life.

Finally... Keep in mind that these games were originally meant to be played on a component video output hooked up to a CRT, which (as you may or may not know from personal experience) is a very fuzzy experience.

That being said, all I’m doing is adding extra polish - Prime games look decent under any condition. (My actual play setup is trash...) So these remasters, provided they exist, have a lot to live up to.

Moving on.

This is what it looks like inside the morph ball. So... now you know...?

Activating two cutscenes at once means they play simultaneously.

It seems Gliders were originally going to be used as platforms at some point. It is very difficult to get on top of one without noclip, but as you might hope, Samus can totally ride on them. Whee!

There’s no issues with sliding off or anything, either - you’re clearly meant to be able to stand on top. (Wish the same was true for my sad attempts to boost onto Quadraxis’ flying head without stunning it first - water off a duck.)

Apparently there’s even an unused scan image depicting this exact scenario, which more or less confirms it.

This applies to some midsize harmless flying enemies in the rest of the main trilogy as well, specifically the drones in Sanctuary and the cargo carriers in Skytown, both of which speedrunners ride to get out of bounds. Perhaps they’re using the same code...? Or maybe those are programmed like “crates that move” and the fact that they’re also flying platforms is a coincidence, who knows. It’s all platforms, always has been.

Different game entirely, but bear with me. These statues in front of Elun reminded me of this statue in Prime 1, specifically with the robes/armor. Might be a coincidence, though, especially since the main series basically ignores Prime.

Echoes

I love Echoes, but I don’t have much to say about it this time.

Spoopy.

The regular human corpses are about the same size as Samus, but when Ing-possessed they get... bigger. (Morph Ball is about half her height - when unmorphing, she comes up to the armpit.) So that’s weird and kind of gross to think about!

Corruption

The MPT version of Corruption seems to have significantly better load times than the Wii release, though it takes longer to boot up at the start.

The Pirate Phazon storage that Dark Samus reconstitutes herself in during the opening cutscene (left - sorry for terrible angle, it’s hard to fight the cutscene camera) isn’t one of a kind. It’s the same room model as the Phazon storage/processing room that you pick up X-Ray Visor in much later (right).

...gonna chuck that one on the right in the queue, actually...

It’s really impossible to overstate just how tiny humans* are in the Metroid universe, compared to almost every other species. Other humanoid species are generally at least as tall as Ghor. So if you’re looking for an in-universe explanation for all these conveniently morph-ball sized vents... Uh, I guess those are still pretty small for most species.

*or, in this case, Gandrayda badly impersonating a human - though she’s the exception, being about the same size as Samus anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if they use the same model.

Speaking of Gandrayda. This isn’t a new discovery, but I figure it’s worth mentioning that there’s some otherwise unreleased concept art in her body texture. Seems someone was using it to colorpick...

Feeding my statuary addiction with these busts on Bryyo Fire.

This save room in Skytown has a mysterious solar system model. My pet theory is that it’s home. Like, the lore on the nearby Cyrlic tree is that this Chozo tribe bioengineered it and brings it from place to place (you also see this exact species on Tallon IV). So maybe if that tree is from home, this model is depicting home? I don’t know.

There are a lot of assumptions there and an environment artist probably just stuck it there because it looks cool. Just kidding! This is approximately canon.

While it seems odd that the HUD is a 3D element in the world, it does let it interact with lighting, like this orange glow. It’s subtle, but a nice touch.

...now that I know you can make it invisible I’m turning it off though... Invulnerability cheat doesn’t work in this game, so whatever happens happens I guess!

Quick look at the dying parasite queens in the Skytown Xenoresearch Facility elevator wall. Which is... You know. A completely normal place to store your dying specimens.

If you’ve ever wondered where exactly in Samus’ body her Phazon growth is located, wonder no longer: it is located above whatever Leviathan seed she happens to be in! (In this case, Bryyo. Blue things on the walls.) Hope that helps. 😔

In the drop cutscene, two Spire pods are loaded at the same time, though you’d never see them both with a normal angle.

You might have to take my word for this, but the text in the biohazard scan is once again basically keysmashing. All homebar too, very classical. There’s one word on here, “extra”. And some numbers, 123123, @@@, etc.

Finally. (deep sigh) Shoutouts to the artist at Retro who decided to give the Reptilicus about 6 polygons of lizard bulge. Maybe they can hang with the artist at Mercury Steam who kept giving a bunch of ZDR critters detailed bolas.