Fans of the Metroid series will know that the Nintendo 64 version was skipped across, instead, they decided to head straight to the GameCube’s Metroid Prime as the first 3D entry in the classic series. But now you can play Metroid 64 for real – well, not quite, but someone is working on making this dream a very perfect reality.
Mexican indie developer Luto Akino has been working his little socks off trying to create his own version of what a possible Metroid 64 could have looked like, only better. Akino has been sharing his work on Twitter, and it shows the infamous Samus Arun exploring some very vibrant caves.
This has the look and the feel of a classic Metroid game, with the low-res textures and extremely blocky environments, but the movements of Samus Arun are actually quite fluid. The famed female space hunter has a very smooth spinning kick, her morph ball looks great, and the lock-on for shooting enemies with her arm cannon is as accurate as ever.
Akino has posted several tweets about his little project in the hopes that people like his concept, and he is really allowing his detailed work to shine. The targeting system, the HUD, and the camera movement all look to be great work, almost as if it was attached to the proper series. It would be interesting to see how the movements would work with the famous Nintendo 64 controller, but that is for another time.
The indie developer has even been revealing a possible planned narrative to accompany the game; it involves Samus escorting a cargo ship that is carrying valuable minerals and rocks, and it would act as a prequel to the original game. However, things aren’t smooth sailing for Samus as she goes off course and lands on a hostile planet.
Even though this is just a tech demo, you can see how much work Akino has put into this idea, but as we all know, big companies like Nintendo don’t like having copies of their work out there, so only time will tell if Akin’s concept will be kept alive.