Metroid Database.com

In a recent interview with CGM, Kensuke Tanabe answers many of the questions we had about Federation Force, particularly the story, Blast Ball, and fan reactions. The game centers around an archaeological survey mission into former Federation territory that is now taken over by Space Pirates:

"So the story itself revolves around this star system that consists of three planets. One of these three planets has the ruins of a factory that was once used by [the] Galactic Federation but has since been abandoned. The Galactic Federation member you the player take control of will go to this planet to conduct some research.
The Galactic Federation member goes out to the planet to try and research all the ancient ruins. As that member goes about their mission, they end up finding that the Space Pirates are there, plotting something and creating the ultimate type of weapon to use against the Galactic Federation."

Despite the focus on the Federation soldiers (something he emphasizes Yoshio Sakamoto hadn't explored), Tanabe wants to make sure the game is strongly connected to the rest of the Metroid universe, similar to how The Avengers ties together so many superhero narratives - it just won't happen through Phazon.

"[T]he story around [Phason] and Dark Samus in my mind is already complete." However, Sylux appears in the 100% ending to Metroid Prime 3, which was done to tie Hunters together with the rest of the Prime universe - and also to express Tanabe's desire to continue the story between Samus and Sylux. However, Samus will be in there "for sure. You will see her in some way."

Interestingly, Tanabe also notes that Blast Ball has a story mode as part of some "tough training" where "a Galactic Garrison member gets chosen" that is "a final test" for squad members, so it isn't just a minigame.

Blast Ball is Tanabe's solution to the problem of FPS players having very different skill levels. The most advanced players will easily dominate multiplayer arenas, but since the ball is so large, anyone can shoot at it, even from a distance.

Tanabe also gives some pointed comments on the strong reactions many Metroid fans had to the game, saying it was something he expected, and emphasizing the need to play it to decide:

"[O]nce the players can actually have hands-on experience with the actual 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, and the music that is used in the game is so heavily related to the Prime series...[I]t'll certainly make a difference once you get some experience with the game."

Just like when Metroid Prime was first announced to be a "First Person Adventure" back in 2002, Tanabe's advice is essentially "try it for yourself." On that note, you could probably imagine the type of reaction that would have exploded through the Internet if there had been Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit back then... we certainly saw a lot of it on the message board. And that's really why you won't see any coverage of that here. We on the Metroid Database staff want to play the game for ourselves first before giving any final judgment and hope there will be more updates on the game's development soon.

Until next time...
Captain Commando