Federation Force made Samus a bystander in her own series

Metroid Prime: Federation Force arrived in 2016 as the first Metroid game where you never play as Samus Aran. Instead, you pilot a Marine of the Galactic Federation in a four-player co-op shooter on the Nintendo 3DS. Next Level Games developed it; Nintendo published it. The pitch was simple: teamwork over solitude, Mechs over Power Suits, missions over exploration.

Trailer, via Nintendo of America.

General Alex Miles and Operation Golem

The story picks up after Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The Galactic Federation authorizes Operation Golem, a project to build Mech suits, and forms an elite unit called the Federation Force under General Alex Miles. The squad ships out to the Bermuda System — three planets named Excelcion, Talvania, and Bion — to run archaeological surveys. The Space Pirates have regrouped there, and they have found ancient technology that makes them gigantic.

Samus shows up as a secondary character, not the lead. The game frames her through the Marines’ eyes, which is a real shift for the series. She investigates the Pirates, discovers they are building a battleship called the Doomseye, and then goes silent. The Force destroys the cloaking generators on all three planets, exposes the Doomseye, and boards it. What they find is Samus, captured, brainwashed, and enlarged to fight them.

The Missing Scan Visor

The shooting borrows from Metroid Prime Hunters. Exploration takes a back seat. The scanning mechanic that let you analyze environments and find secrets is gone entirely, and so are the touch controls from Hunters. Before each mission you pick subweapons and MODs to customize your Mech. Some gear is offensive, like the returning Super Missiles. Some is strategic, like a first aid device that lets one Marine hang back and heal the squad. Weapons carry weight-based properties that change your speed and mobility.

Enemies include the jellyfish-like Metroids and the Space Pirates, plus original creatures such as Goliath Beetles. Environments vary — at least one mission is set in an icy region, another in a desert. Up to four players work as a single unit rather than competing, which separates this from the multiplayer in Hunters and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

The E3 2015 Announcement

The reveal at E3 2015 went badly. Fans rejected it on sight because it looked nothing like a Metroid game. The timing made it worse: the series had been quiet since Metroid: Other M in 2010, and Federation Force was a spin-off landing during the franchise’s 30th anniversary. The game sold poorly and reviews were mixed.

The dangerous Metroid Prime universe is now at your mercy.

None of that anger was really about the game in front of people. It was about the game that wasn’t. Federation Force is a competent co-op shooter with a clear design goal — four Mechs, one unit, weight-based loadouts that force real tradeoffs — and it executes that goal without much flair.

Metroid Prime: Blast Ball

Here is what the game gets right, ranked by how much it matters:

1. The co-op structure, which makes four players genuinely depend on each other rather than share a map.
2. The MOD and subweapon system, where weight changes mobility and forces you to build a role.
3. The Mech customization, which gives each Marine a distinct job in a squad.
4. Blast Ball, a side mode that is fun but thin.

The Samus twist is the most interesting thing here — seeing her as a boss, brainwashed and oversized, is a genuine reversal for a series that usually hands you her helmet. But it arrives late, and the campaign around it never earns the weight of that moment.

Metroid Prime: Federation Force is not the disaster its announcement suggested. It is a solid handheld shooter that misread what people wanted from the name. 6.6 of 10.

co-op shooter · game review · Metroid Prime Federation Force · Metroid series · Next Level Games · Nintendo 3DS