Metroid Hunters

[Dogg Thang]

Okay, so I've played three planets in single player and a few matches now in multiplayer so here are some first impressions.

Looks a little overwhelming at first - not in a good way. The textures sort of meld into one another in the very first area you start in single player and it's hard to make out what is what. For about 3 minutes. Then your eyes sort of adjust to the look and you get a bit further in and you begin to appreciate just how amazing this looks. Not just in a 'great for DS' way. Just plain great.

Control is easy using the stylus. For the first half hour I did find I'd hit the bottom right of the touch screen with my hand and suddenly I'd be looking somewhere else. Once I figured out why that was happening I never did it again. Smooth controls with plenty of customisation options if you want them (I think the defaults are perfect).

The single player so far is good. Not fantastic yet but it might get better. You go through in a quite linear fashion encoutering quite uninspiring enemies until you come up against a Hunter or Boss. Now the Hunter battles are great fun and feel like a real challenge - quite the adrenalin rush. The Boss battles too so far have been pretty good. There is no doubt more to the single player to experience as there are clearly places I must revisit. But, so far, pretty linear but pretty enjoyable.

Multiplayer is where its at. I suppose we knew it would be - this was always designed to be a multiplayer game. Already, finding matches is easy and they are a real blast. The default mode is just a blast-em-up with the winner being the first to 7 (I think) kills. Players can be sneaky, daring, dangerous and the potential for using the different Hunters in different ways is great. Each one has their own strength. There are various weapons to pick up in the field but, so far, I haven't ever felt at a major disadvantage for not having the right one. This really is a fun mode. I haven't even tried all of the other multiplayer modes yet.

So far, Hunters is excellent. Yes, I would have liked more of a Prime type single-player but that was an unreasonable expectation given the focus right from the start on multi-player - which is truly excellent.

Oh, sound is great too. Perfect Metroid stuff.

[Geoff D]

Haven't had a chance to delve too far into Hunters so far, but what I have played has been very entertaining.

I'm a bit of a banana-fingered mush, so thought that the stylus control might have been an issue, but after a few minutes it's cake-piece, & Samus is dashing, jumping, strafing & so on with ease. I did however have to take down the stylus sensitivity in the options menu - it defaults to about half & I took it down half again & found it much more user friendly.

Played one online match so far (& had my clock well & truly cleaned) - connection was simple, as was finding opponents & it was completely lag-free. The online user interface for MP:H is superb - lots of options, well laid out & simple to get going; hopefully a template for future DS online gaming.

It's good stuff - admittedly, the 1-player game doesn't feel as robust as its big brothers, but it isn't weak by any measure; the emphasis is more on shooting than adventuring, but the developers have still managed to capture the feeling that Samus is a lone wolf, stalking corridors & dishing out charge-beam pain to anything that looks a bit iffy.

Thumbs up from me - looking forward to matching up with you chaps online (& trying out the voice chat function)

[gizmo1990]

Cor, it's a bit good isn't it!

I haven't played much but from the outset its clear its very very slick.

I'll post my opinions when I've had a bit more of a play.

Till then, I'll see you lot in the game!

[dataDave]

I always thought Prime 2 multiplayer was alright. This will be turning up tomorrow although my DS will probably arrive next week.

[endo]

Managed to get a decent go on this last night. I tried multiplayer first to see if the hype was justified- and it was a bit of a disappointment in the end. I would say though, that this was probably more down to a dodgy connection my end rather than crap net code.

I got disconnected several times in the little lobby thing, and then in the one game I managed to start, I got disconnected after a few kills. Like I said though, I think this was more down to a flaky connection at my end- the game I did manage to play was very smooth and lag-free.

What has surprised me, in both multiplayer and single player, is just how slick the movement is. Samus moves very smoothly and easily and the stylus control method works great and feels intuitive. The other stand-out aspect of the game so far is the atmosphere. The graphics are excellent and the moody sound creates a haunting ambiance- really impressive for a handheld.

[Morcerf]

Can someone explain how the stylus control system works please, i.e. what do you can do with the stylus, and what buttons are needed alongside it?

My main worry is that I'm left handed - is this going to be a barrier to playing this??

Cheers.

[Dogg Thang]

There's an option to change everything to left handed I think.

With the defaults the stylus is used with the right hand to look and turn. The d-pad with the left hand is used to move forward, backward and strafe. The L-trigger (also with left hand) is the fire button. Everything else needed is accessed on the touchscreen with the stylus.

[Baseley09]

Stylus! LOL

Thumbstrap pls. Feels natural imo.

[Dogg Thang]

Thumbstrap? Are you kidding me? Even Nintendo realised that was rubbish. It's dropped from the Lite.

[Geoff D]

I did try the thumbstrap, but the stylus is much more accurate.

[ItsThere]

I actually think that a tumb strap would be excellent on the lite. Playing the Hunters Demo just hurt me a little bit on the side of my thumb with the strap . Aside from that I found it more enjoyable than with the stylus.

Stylus control made the whole unit difficult to hold without resting on the desk, with your damn finger underneath. Really couldn't get any accuracy with it.

With a slightly narrower unit this thumb strap would be eradicated. Does no one else really like this method of control for Hunters?

[endo]

Can someone explain how the stylus control system works please, i.e. what do you can do with the stylus, and what buttons are needed alongside it?

My main worry is that I'm left handed - is this going to be a barrier to playing this??

Cheers.

As explained above, you look with the stylus and jump by double-tapping the screen, then move forward/back and strafe with the d-pad. You can just switch this to a left-handed configuration in the options, but then you move with the face buttons, which may or may not be to your liking- don't know what it's like, haven't tried it but I'd have thought it's fine.

All in all the control set-up works very well, the only slightly awkward point being the shoulder buttons used to shoot. But even that isn't a problem once you hold it in a comfy position.

You can have a dual-hand configuration too, which I presume is using the buttons only and no stylus, but I'm not sure because I haven't tried it.

[Morcerf]

Cool, thanks for that.

Kinda what I was expecting - if there are any lefties with this can you let me know if it plays ok pls?

[gizmo1990]

Lefty no.10248 (we're gonna take over the world one day! ) here.

It works fine with the left handed stylus controls. As I've said in the past, the control scheme with the touch screen (for fps's) is the most intuitive setup I've ever used on a console.

[Hosain H]

Mine still hasn't arrived!! Patience, patience!!!