The original live-action trailer for Metroid Prime, which was released twenty years ago, has been upgraded to 4K resolution.
It may not tell us more about Metroid Prime 4, but it's an interesting piece of gaming history. The trailer is an odd mix of live-action and gameplay footage, oscillating between an actor dressed in Samus's classic power suit and the video game. first person perspective. Follow the actor as he navigates the corridors of Tallon IV and replicates many of the game's features and mechanics.
Samus is shown firing her cannon arm at the CG creatures, transforming into a metaphorical ball, and of course making her way through various doors. The trailer ends with Samus encountering the Parasite Queen, the game's first big boss.
The clip was originally played in theaters and television stations before the release of Metroid Prime in 2002. Although it eventually made its way onto the Internet, downloads were generally low-quality and low-resolution.
However, Metroid fans on the Nintendo subreddit recently discovered a 4K version of the trailer uploaded by YouTuber Denis-Carl Robidoux. The ultra-high-definition video is said to have been created by scanning the trailer's original 35mm film, provided to Robidoux by a contributor.
Watch the trailer below in all its HD glory:
The perfect trailer?
There's no shortage of great video game trailers, but few have been able to capture the aesthetics and atmosphere of games they present as brilliantly as this one. Everything from Samus' costume to the stages she traverses evokes the decaying industrialization of Metroid Prime.
As some editors have pointed out, the trailer is stylistically similar to the live-action trailer for Doom that was released in 2016. Both reimagine a heavily armored, beloved video game character as the live-action hero and recreate many of the main features. of the game. and mechanics through physical scenarios.
But those aren't the only live-action video game trailers that have been released. Insomniac's Resistance 3 was revealed via a spooky live trailer, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided explored its augmented reality with the cast, and Bethesda released a Skyrim live trailer ahead of launch. However, few have been released in as high a resolution as this Metroid Prime trailer.