PixlBit

The PixlBit staff loves HD and wants to see some of their favorite franchises get the treatment.

Metroid Prime Trilogy

At the time of its release, nobody was quite sure what to think of Metroid Prime. The radical departure from  the series was off-putting and downright frightening for fans. However, Retro Studios came through in a big way, providing an experience that easily matched up to the legacy of Super Metroid. By the time the third game in the series had come out, it was no longer featured on the GameCube, but on the Wii, complete with motion controls. Based on the positive fan reaction, Nintendo went ahead and ported both Metroid Prime 1 and 2 to the Wii, adding in the much praised motion controls and consolidating all three titles in the series on one comprehensive disc.

There was only one problem: the ports suffered from a slight graphical downgrade despite being ported to a system with more power.

All that would be moot though if Nintendo considered returning to the trilogy once again with an HD remaster. This of course would be the definitive version, featuring 1080p graphics, pointer controls, and some achievement-type system on the Wii U. Thankfully Nintendo would have very little work to do to remaster these titles. The fact of the matter is, they already look fantastic, even on the Wii. What a remaster would provide are cleaner, less fuzzy visuals that better scale to the common HDTVs of today. Heck, many have already had the opportunity to play these games in 720p and 1080p thanks to the Dolphin emulator. Take a peek for yourself below to see the first area in Metroid Prime lovingly upscaled in HD.

Being a Nintendo property, if the game were to go to an HD system, it would have to be the Wii U. Given the unique tablet controller there's some definite additional capability that could be crammed in to improve the experience. For one, the tablet controller provides a perfect handheld map. I know what you're thinking; "Maps on the touchscreen, that's the oldest trick in the DS book!" But if there was ever a game that could use a touchscreen map, Metroid is it. The three dimensional map was always helpful in Metroid, but it hurt the pacing to constantly have to open it up to figure out where you're going. If you could manipulate and view the map at all times, you'd have a much smoother experience. There's a certain leap of faith associated with this assumption, as it wouldn't be likely that Nintendo would revert to classic controls, so the map would have to exist on the secondary tablet controller with the Nunchuk and Wii Remote still handy. Of course, classic controls could be added as a secondary option for those who loved the original GameCube renditions of the games, making the map front and center.

Outside of this obvious improvement, there's little question that Nintendo could work in gimmicks like holding the tablet up and looking "through it" like it were one of your visors. Regardless of what Nintendo decides to do to augment the experience, simply remastering Metroid Prime Trilogy with resolutions of 720p and up would bring the fanboys out in force.