Metroid series producer Kensuke Tanabe has said that he completely expected the negative reaction to Metroid Prime: Federation Force.
In an interview with Canadian Gaming Magazine (CGMag Online), Tanabe said he knew there would be a backlash when players discovered “Samus was not an actual player.”
It seems somewhat unlikely he expected the scale of the response however, which yielded a petition with more than 22,000 signatures calling for game to be scrapped.
“What I see happening is once the players actually have hands-on experience with the game, they’ll be able to understand and experience for themselves how the game actually feels and that the Metroid Prime universe atmosphere is there,” he commented.
“They’ll definitely understand the different perspective that we’re taking here and it’ll certainly make a difference once you get some experience with the game.”
At E3 last month, Tanabe said Nintendo fans who want a 'proper' Metroid Prime title should look to the company's upcoming NX system. The new platform is due to be unveiled next year.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force offers 4-player co-op missions with an objective-based structure and is set to come to 3DS in 2016.