Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

The second sequel to Metroid Prime makes a bold statement about brown-grey-and-bloom HD gaming by adding blue in exchange for the lack of HD. Seriously, this is the bluest game that has ever existed. It's bluer than a blues singer's sky-blue yacht in the middle of the Atlantic, at mid-day.

Anyway, this game has a lot of unused scan data. Like, Etecoons and shit. Some of this data is actually interesting flavor, and it's kind of sad if wasn't present. Also, most of it's in German, and seems to date back to a FAR earlier version of the game.

Unused Scan Data
Morphology: Phase Sprite Emits bursts of energy capable of blinding visor systems.

Phase Sprite Phase Sprites travel in large collectives for safety. Each collective is spawned by a Sprite Nucleus--a larger, brighter Sprite that the others orbit as they search for sustenance. As a defense mechanism, they can render themselves invisible. If threatened, they will generate a bright burst of light and radiation that can temporarily neutralize sensors and powered systems.

Mechanism: Despair-Class Turret Space Pirate defense system. Susceptible to explosive attacks.

Despair-Class Turret The Space Pirates have upgraded the venerable Humility turrets with a new unit. The "Despair" turret is a grenade launcher modified for use with the new turret platform. The unit is lightly armored, and fast targets can evade the limited targeting system of the unit.

Morphology: Phazite Armored Trooper Heavy assault armor composed of Phazite. Resistant to most weaponry and Beams.

Phazite Armored Trooper Target's Phazite armor makes it extremely resistant to damage in combat. Only Beams of the highest temperature can penetrate the layer of Phazite in the armorsuit.

Morphology: Reptilicus-G Personal cloaking field now enabled. Detectable with an advanced visor.

Gandrayda Gandrayda's ability to shape-shift has been greatly enhanced by Phazon exposure, allowing her to assume a number of deadly forms at will. These new forms come with a cost, as she also inherits their weaknesses. A mistress of stealth, she will employ her personal cloaking field often, setting up her next deadly attack. An advanced visor system may be able to detect her location.

Morphology: Armored Pirate Armor resists Beam attacks. Vulnerable to explosive blasts.

Armored Pirate Some Space Pirate units are now equipped with a durable battle armor that provides resistance to most Beam weaponry. The armor is susceptible to explosive attacks, however. Shatter it to expose the target to Beam damage.

Morphology: Assault Pirate Militia Expendable infantry units. Armor vulnerable to explosive blasts.

Assault Pirate Militia The heavy armorsuits of the Assault Pirate Militia provide adequate resistance to most weapon systems. This unit is the most skilled of all the militia forces. If able to prove themselves in combat, the pirate military will grant them admittance into the official army ranks.

Morphology: Advanced Pirate Militia Expendable infantry units. Armor vulnerable to explosives.

Advanced Pirate Militia The additional armor of the Advanced Pirate Militia increases their resistance to Beam weaponry, but they remain vulnerable to explosive attacks. The Advanced Pirate Militia contains promoted soldiers from the Armored Pirate Militia. Once the pirate military is satisfied with a unit's performance, they will grant them a higher rank. With the promotion comes additional support in the form of an extra layer of ablative armor for combat.

Morphology: Mantha Susceptible to cold-based weapons. Emits sonic bursts in self-defense.

Manthas are practically indestructible. Only low-temperature weapons have any effect on them, and then only to stun. The creatures use sonic bursts to attack potential meals.

(This seems to be older than most of the scan data- note the lack of a title for the main page.)

Morphology: Advanced Shield Militia Battle shield deflects attacks, but can be pulled with Grapple Beam.

Advanced Shield Militia The pirates in this militia unit wear an additional layer of ablative armor. Despite the added protection, the armorsuit is still vulnerable to explosive blasts. Their portable battle shield, while resistant to most small-arms fire, is also easily pulled off. Phazon-based attacks can also destroy the shield.

Morphology: Vaporwing Combat rating at 4F: Minimum. No detected weapon systems.

Vaporwing Vaporwings were created by the Steamlords as pets. They have since gone rogue, and now run wild in SkyTown. They are named for the wake of energized gas they leave behind in flight.

Morphology: Endocoon Threat level low. Fond of machinery. Widely considered to be cute.

Endocoon Endocoons are a semisentient species of mammal known for their playful demeanor. They are particularly fond of machines, perhaps drawn by the hum of an engine or the shine of metal. Unfortunately, their inquisitive nature can be quite disruptive, especially when fine machinery is involved.

(Etecoons were scrapped early on, it seems; the spelling is inconsistent with the prior games.)

Morphology: Assault Shield Militia Battle shield deflects attacks, but can be pulled with Grapple Beam.

Assault Shield Militia Members of this militia are well equipped. Their heavy armorsuit is resistant to most weapon systems, and their portable battle shield can withstand most small-arms fire. Their shields provide excellent protection, but are easily ripped from their arms. Phazon-based attacks can easily destroy the shield.

Morphology: Salamander Phazon-based bioform. Dangerous in large numbers.

Placeholder

(VERY early removal. Check out that detailed flavor text!)

From German
Galactic Federation, PA-003. (Phazon mining by pirates) Transferred data for further inspection to database.

GFDS-PA.0003

During the last two years, the space pirates were led by their greed for Phazon. To this day, two Phazon mines were neutralized, yet the pirates are almost obsessed to obtain this rare commodity. The secret service suggests that the pirate syndicates already depleted all their resources on Phazon programs. Many pirates lost their life, during fights over the substance, but also in barbaric experiments to increase performance by Phazon. Recent data suggests that the pirates came across more Phazon deposits, possibly the biggest yet.

OGF dataset PK-211. (Phazon seed) Transferred further data to the database.

GFDS-PK.211

The collected data suggests, that the "Phazon seeds" are an organism, a living container for a Phazon core. The entity is capable of interstellar travel by creating worm holes. It instinctively approaches its target planet. After the impact the life form perishes. The armored hull is left to protect the Phazon core. Yet, before that, the organism will often attract predators of the local ecosystem and beguiles them. Prompted by this mutation through massive Phazon radiation, they defend the core. The kernel itself oozes into the planet and finally replaces the local ecosystem by a Phazon-based one.

Unused Enemies

 * Advanced Pirate Militia: Unused; only troopers get this armor.
 * Advanced Shield Militia: Unused; only troopers get this armor.
 * Assault Pirate Militia: Unused; only troopers get this armor.
 * Assault Shield Militia: Unused; only troopers get this armor.
 * "Despair" Class Turret: Interestingly, the scan data for it in the original NTSC version suggests that this wasn't to be a recolored "Remorse" class turret, but rather a grenade launcher!
 * Mantha: Some kind of enemy, presumably from Bryyo, that fired sonic blasts to mess with your visor and was vulnerable to Ice Missiles.
 * Phase Sprite: Something that could emit energy that screwed with your visor... notice a pattern?
 * Phazite Armored Trooper: NOT turned into the Advanced troopers! Apparently they were trollish InvinciPiratesTM until you got the Plasma Beam, and Retro probably removed them because enemies you can't damage at all until getting a particular item would NOT work well in SkyTown, where the Plasma Beam is obtained, and where there are TONS of pits.
 * Reptilicus-G: Gandrayda never turns into a Reptilicus.
 * Salamander: Some kind of swarming Phazon lifeform; the lizards from Prime 1's Impact Crater? Removed very early; it's the only unused enemy without any kind of proper scandata, but rather just "Placeholder".
 * Vaporwing: Small, harmless robots intended for SkyTown. Guess they thought there were enough things fitting that description?

Unused Items

 * Ship Grapple Expansion: No idea how this worked; the Ship Grapple Beam must have worked differently in an earlier version of the game. See for yourself in 0_90c76f28fe55670e.STRG within Logbook.pak. No data beyond a namedrop from scanning the pickup seems to be left of this.

Regional Differences
The PAL version included a few minor glitch fixes. It also changed Admiral Dane's "Damn!" to "No!". The changes to the PAL version were included in the release of Metroid Prime: Trilogy.

The Japanese version removed the difficulty selection in favor of a Galactic Federation survey that occurs before major gameplay. Depending on the choices, the game sets its difficulty.

Bumper Stickers are region-specific; for example, a North American copy will not read saves from other European or Japanese games to unlock stickers.