Metroid Prime

Metroid Prime
Developer: Retro Studios Publisher: Nintendo Platform: GameCube Released in JP: February 28, 2003 Released in US: November 17, 2002 Released in EU: March 31, 2003 Released in AU: April 3, 2003 Released in KR: 2003 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Metroid Prime was the return of the Metroid series, which had laid dormant since Super Metroid eight years earlier (excluding a few appearances by Samus and some series elements in the Super Smash Bros. games). The game was met with plenty of nostalgia when it was first announced, but also a lot of suspicion as the series would take its first steps into 3D first-person adventuring.

Luckily, fears were soon quelled as fans and critics alike discovered that despite the different style and gameplay, the core feeling and essence of Metroid was intact.

It was ported to the Wii as part of the New Play Control series in 2009, and a remaster called Metroid Prime Remastered released on Nintendo Switch in 2023.

To do: Lots of unused animations. Also, several important revisional and regional differences, most of which have an enormous impact on the speedrunning community. Metroid2002 is a good place for various oddities and unused tidbits. Tweets from developers: https://twitter.com/ZoidCTF/status/1590750634793668610

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Version Differences Including fixed bugs and broken sequence breaks.

Text Differences Including Pirate Data and Chozo Lore.

Unused Layers

Many rooms have unused object layers that are never enabled for one reason or another.

To do: Get pictures/video of most of these.

World	Room	Layer Name	Contents
Space Pirate Frigate	Exterior Docking Hangar	Crates	A bunch of crates sitting around that don't drop anything.
Space Pirate Frigate	Emergency Evacuation Area	Music Test	Empty.
Space Pirate Frigate	Connection Elevator to Deck Alpha	Don't Load	Some particle effects and a couple objects that would have faded out the music when the item loss cutscene started.
Space Pirate Frigate	Biotech Research Area 2	don't load	A platform on the opposite end of the grapple pit that would have allowed you to cross the room without using Grapple Beam.
Space Pirate Frigate	Biohazard Containment	Music Test	Empty.
Space Pirate Frigate	Reactor Core	Not Loaded	Camera hints in the entrance hallway.
Space Pirate Frigate	Cargo Freight Lift to Deck Gamma	Not Loaded	Camera hint that activates near the big door at the bottom of the room.
Space Pirate Frigate	Reactor Core Entrance	Not Loaded	Empty.
Chozo Ruins	Training Chamber	2nd Pass Enemy	Empty.
Chozo Ruins	Magma Pool	poison	An alternate style for the room, with poison water instead of lava. The water has fish swimming around in it. There's other effects present as well like gnat swarms.
Chozo Ruins	Tower of Light	2nd Pass	Two Puddle Spores in the water at the bottom of the tower.
Chozo Ruins	Sun Tower	Don't load	An unused cinematic with the camera panning around behind Samus, who's standing at the bottom of the tower.
Chozo Ruins	Hive Totem	2nd pass	War Wasps spawning from the statue mouths on either side of Hive Mecha.
Chozo Ruins	Sunchamber	Easy Flaahgrah Killer	Empty. Likely used to contain an insta-kill trigger for Flaahgra, used during debugging, similar to the Thardus and Omega Pirate ones.
Chozo Ruins	Sunchamber	Don't Load	An extra "fake bomb slot" trigger that hurts Flaahgra near the entrance of the room. There's also a counter and a relay on this layer; unsure of their purpose.
Chozo Ruins	Crossway	Don't Load	Empty.
Chozo Ruins	Elder Hall Access	2nd Pass	Empty. The scarabs are on a layer called "1st Pass", so they were probably intended to be swapped out with other enemies at one point.
Chozo Ruins	Reflecting Pool	2nd Pass enemies	Empty.
Phendrana Drifts	Transport to Magmoor Caverns West	REMOVE THE SPIKES!!!!	Two breakable ice spikes blocking the door out that have a random chance of spawning.
Phendrana Drifts	Shoreline Entrance	HIDE THE SPIKES!!	Lots of breakable ice spikes lining the hallway. Again, they all have a random chance of spawning.
Phendrana Drifts	Phendrana Shorelines	Don't Load	Ice debris next to the missile expansion alcove. This seems to indicate the ice was originally going to break when you destroy it, rather than slowly melting like it does in the final game.
Phendrana Drifts	Ruins Entryway	DO NOT LOAD!!!!	A fully-grown adult Sheegoth. Given the room is really small, it's pretty easy to guess why this was disabled.
Phendrana Drifts	Plaza Walkway	Don't load	Some objects being held up by the pillars near the door to Ice Ruins East, forming a small structure with a ceiling. There's a trigger that makes the structure collapse when you walk in.
Phendrana Drifts	Ice Ruins Access	Atomics	Empty. The contents were probably moved to the Default layer, since that layer has Atomics (Bombus) on it.
Phendrana Drifts	Ice Ruins Access	platformers	Empty. The contents were probably moved to the "Don't load" layer.
Phendrana Drifts	Ice Ruins Access	Don't load	Three Crystallites crawling up the walls, evenly spaced through the tunnel.
Phendrana Drifts	Chozo Ice Temple	Don't Load	Empty.
Phendrana Drifts	Canyon Entryway	atomics	Empty. Contents were probably moved to the Default layer.
Phendrana Drifts	Canyon Entryway	Crawlers	Empty. Contents were probably moved to the "Don't load" layer.
Phendrana Drifts	Canyon Entryway	Don't load	Two Crystallites crawling up the walls of the tunnel.
Phendrana Drifts	Chapel of the Elders	NOA Demo	Empty.
Phendrana Drifts	Ruined Courtyard	Don't Load	Water splash effects that would've activated while the lower half of the room was filling with water.
Phendrana Drifts	Specimen Storage	2nd Pass Enemy	Empty.
Phendrana Drifts	Specimen Storage	Dont Load	Music change triggers.
Phendrana Drifts	Research Entrance	Core Mechanics	Empty.
Phendrana Drifts	Research Entrance	3rd Pass - Elite	An Elite Pirate in the middle of the room, not in a stasis tube. There's a few unused Elites like this in several rooms in the labs; it seems they were probably originally intended to spawn here after you first encountered them in the Phazon Mines.
Phendrana Drifts	Quarantine Cave	Cine Test	Empty. There's a trigger on Thardus's layer called "Trigger Thardus Death Cinema Test" that might've activated whatever used to be on this layer.
Phendrana Drifts	Quarantine Cave	Do Not Load	Two damageable triggers. The first one kills Thardus instantly, while the second one enrages him.
Phendrana Drifts	Research Lab Hydra	3rd pass Enemy - Elite	Another Elite Pirate standing in the middle of the room, no stasis tube.
Phendrana Drifts	Frost Cave Access	Don't Load	A few Ice Burrowers around the area that normally has Ice Beetles in it.
Phendrana Drifts	Control Tower	3rd pass enemy - Elite	Another Elite Pirate in the middle of the room.
Phendrana Drifts	Control Tower	Test Layer	Empty.
Phendrana Drifts	Control Tower	Don't Load	Empty.
Tallon Overworld	Temple Hall	1st pass	Empty. Interestingly, the Seedlings and the Tangle Weeds are on a layer called "2nd pass", even though they're there from the beginning of the game.
Tallon Overworld	Frigate Crash Site	Don't load	Three Space Pirate corpses in the water.
Tallon Overworld	Temple Lobby	Don't Load	Four Shriekbats on the ceiling.
Tallon Overworld	Artifact Temple	Temp- Death	Trigger that instantly starts Ridley's death cutscene when you walk into it.
Tallon Overworld	Artifact Temple	Don't load	Empty.
Tallon Overworld	Main Ventilation Shaft Section B	2nd pass scripting	Empty.
Tallon Overworld	Main Ventilation Shaft Section B	Don't Load	Empty.
Tallon Overworld	Main Reactor	test	Empty.
Tallon Overworld	Reactor Access	1st pass enemies	Strangely enough this layer doesn't actually have any enemies in it. It does have a bunch of refill pickups and a pickup generator, though.
Tallon Overworld	Reactor Access	2nd pass enemies	Empty.
Tallon Overworld	Reactor Access	Don't Load	A Space Pirate corpse in the next room over that activates when the door opens.
Tallon Overworld	Cargo Freight Lift to Deck Gamma	Don't Load	Empty.
Tallon Overworld	Biohazard Containment	Don't Load	Features dead creatures in stasis in the tubes lining the walls, like they were in the original room. A lot of the tubes have little shards of glass that can be broken. There's also an extra Space Pirate corpse in the water.
Tallon Overworld	Biotech Research Area 1	don't Load	Two Aqua Drones.
Tallon Overworld	Great Tree Hall	Gate Solved	Empty.
Tallon Overworld	Life Grove	2nd Pass Enemies	Eight Aqua Reapers surrounding the underwater spinner.
Phazon Mines	Quarry Access	2nd Pass Turrets	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Main Quarry	3rd pass enemies	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Main Quarry	METROIDS	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Main Quarry	Don't Load	An extra Space Pirate with a patrol path pacing up and down the ramp, and another one that seems like it would have spawned after lowering the gate. There's also some other objects scattered around for AI navigation.
Phazon Mines	Waste Disposal	Dont' Load	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Security Access A	Don't Load	A Drone patrolling the hallway.
Phazon Mines	Ore Processing	Don't Load	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Ore Processing	Music OLD	Two music objects that would've played pir_yoin (Space Pirate ambience) and pir_isogi (Space Pirate battle theme).
Phazon Mines	Mine Security Station	Metroids	Empty. Contents were probably moved to the "Don't Load" layer.
Phazon Mines	Mine Security Station	Don't Load	Contains some Metroids and a couple Space Pirates. There's also some shields blocking off every exit from the room, and some animation objects for moving them into place and back out.
Phazon Mines	Mine Security Station	Trooper cinematic	Empty. Contents were probably moved to the "1st Pass Scripting" layer.
Phazon Mines	Research Access	Single Enemy	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Security Access B	2nd Pass	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Elite Research	Don't load	Four Metroids on the second level. There's also a light fader and music objects for pir_isogi and pir_yoin.
Phazon Mines	Elite Control Access	Don't Load	Two Plated Puffers in the middle of the hallway.
Phazon Mines	Elite Control	3rd metroid pass	Two Hunter Metroids, one at the bottom of the room and one at the top. There's also a light fader.
Phazon Mines	Elite Control	load_memory_test	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Elite Control	Don't load	Some cameras for a small unused cinematic, with the camera focusing on something that doesn't exist in front of the computer consoles behind the force field on the bottom floor.
Phazon Mines	Phazon Processing Center	Don't Load	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Omega Research	3rd metroid pass	Two Metroids on the bottom level of the room.
Phazon Mines	Omega Research	don't load	Six regular Space Pirates; there's two by each door, with the two near the map station hanging from the ceiling.
Phazon Mines	Processing Center Access	1st Pass	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Processing Center Access	2nd Pass	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Processing Center Access	Don't load	Three invisible Pulse Bombus in the Phazon-covered section of the hallway.
Phazon Mines	Dynamo Access	1st Pass Enemies	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Dynamo Access	Debris	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Elite Quarters	Cull	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Elite Quarters	Don't Load	Empty.
Phazon Mines	Elite Quarters	Easy Omega Killer	Has a damageable trigger that insta-kills Omega Pirate.
Phazon Mines	Central Dynamo	Irving	Empty. The layer name likely refers to engineer Irving Mah.
Phazon Mines	Central Dynamo	Don't Load	Two Hunter Metroids.
Phazon Mines	Central Dynamo	Amanda	Empty. The layer name likely refers to designer Amanda Rubright.
Phazon Mines	Elite Quarters Access	2nd Pass Enemy/Beta Drone	Empty, but the layer name is a pretty good indicator of what probably used to be here.
Phazon Mines	Metroid Quarantine B	Don't load	Contains two extra Metroids and a regular Space Pirate next to the Phazon pit; the pirate is attacked by the Metroids as you enter the room. There's also some camera objects for an unused cinematic behind the force field, with the camera focusing on the two glass tubes (one of which has a missile expansion).
Phazon Mines	Metroid Quarantine A	Don't load	Interestingly, this layer has Phazon-themed Blastcaps on it, which aren't normally found anywhere in the game. There's also respawning Metroids in the Phazon pit.
Phazon Mines	Fungal Hall B	DON'T LOAD	Two respawning Metroids and a second Glider.
Phazon Mines	Fungal Hall Access	Don't Load	A Space Pirate on the upper ledge; it's activated by a trigger next to the lower door, so it probably would've appeared if you entered the room backwards.
Phazon Mines	Fungal Hall A	Don't Load	Two respawning Metroids patrolling the lower half of the room.
Magmoor Caverns	Lava Lake	Don't load	A couple of the platforms on the side of the room with the Artifact have Zoomers crawling on them.
Magmoor Caverns	Lava Lake	2nd pass - Pirates	Two Flying Pirates on the side of the room with the Artifact.
Magmoor Caverns	Triclops Pit	Don't Load	A rock wall blocks the short path in the morph ball tunnel, which would've had to be destroyed with bombs. There's also a Grisby on one of the platforms leading to Monitor Station.
Magmoor Caverns	Monitor Station	Don't load	Two Magmoors in the lava, and some flame jets on the center platform.
Magmoor Caverns	Transport to Tallon Overworld West	Hint Layer	Empty.
Magmoor Caverns	Geothermal Core	Don't Load	Three Puffers floating around the bottom of the room.
Magmoor Caverns	Magmoor Workstation	2nd pass scripting	A pickup generator and some health/ammo refills. Of note is that the triclops and Flying Pirates are on a layer called "1st pass scripting". Additionally, there's two unused SpecialFunctions on the default layer next to the energy tank that are set up to disable the 1st pass layer and enable the 2nd pass (which is labelled "Second Pass enemies"), but they aren't hooked up to anything so they never activate. It's probably a safe guess that originally getting the energy tank would trigger a swap-out of the enemies in the room.
Magmoor Caverns	Magmoor Workstation	Dont Load	Two PlayerActors in the little scan alcoves for the energy tank puzzle; Samus was probably originally intended to appear in the cutscenes after you scan each panel.
Impact Crater	Phazon Core	Don't Load	Empty.
Impact Crater	Crater Tunnel B	Don't load	Contains a Phazon-themed Burrower, another enemy that doesn't appear anywhere in the game. There's also a Lumigek swarm.
Impact Crater	Subchamber Two	Provoke Metroid Prime	Trigger at the entrance of the room that activates Metroid Prime. This seems to be activated by the end of the cinematic on the used layer.
Impact Crater	Subchamber Two	Not Loaded	A couple camera hint triggers at either end of the room.
Ending		Monoliths and Ridley	Empty. Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Got Artifact 2	Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Got Artifact 3	Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Got Artifact 4	Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Got Artifact 5	Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Got Artifact 6	Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Got Artifact 7	Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Got Artifact 8	Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Got Artifact 9	Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Got Artifact 10	Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Got Artifact 11	Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Got Artifact 12	Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Totem	Empty. Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Cinematics	Empty. Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		temporary	Empty. Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Music Decrement Thardus	Empty. Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Music Increment Thardus	Empty. Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.
Ending		Temp- Death	Empty. Leftover from the original Artifact Temple.

Unused Text

Chozo Lore

An unused variation of the Chozo Lore Log Book entry "Binding" exists in the game's textual data in which the Cipher is broken and the Chozo Artifacts have been scattered across the planet by the Space Pirates.

"Binding" - Unused

"Binding" - Used

Chozo script translated. The Chozo Cipher, the congregation of Artifacts that held the Great Poison at bay, is broken now. Fearful of the potential within the small statues, the invaders known as Space Pirates tried to destroy them, only to fail in every attempt. Instead, they have scattered what they could not break across the planet, hiding the Artifacts far from one another, knowing that their reunion could spell disaster for their dark designs. They are right to fear them. Great power sleeps inside these tokens; we Chozo built our temple, the Cradle, to draw its strength from their communal energy. If they could be gathered together once again and replaced in the Cradle, then hope might bloom again in this suffocating land.

Chozo script translated. The congregation of Artifacts that hold the Great Poison at bay still hold strong. Fearful of the potential within the Artifact Temple, the invaders known as Space Pirates tried to destroy it, only to fail in every attempt. We scattered the Artifacts across the planet for their protection, and only a few have fallen into invader hands. Failing to understand them, they now seek to unmake them. Again, they fail. They are right to fear these things. Great power sleeps inside them. Prophecy calls for their union, come the day that the unholy Worm is met by the great Defender. We can only hope the Artifacts are not destroyed by the invader, for then all will be lost. So, we do what we can to preserve the Artifacts, and to guide the Newborn to them. Time wanes with our souls, yet hope remains.

Phazon Combo

It seems that the Phazon Beam originally functioned a lot differently. In 500ec6a0.STRG, the string table file for the inventory screen, in a list of Samus's inventory items, there's a string that simply reads "Phazon Combo". Other evidence pointing to the existence of a Phazon Beam combo includes the presence of a Charge Beam sound effect for the Phazon Beam (see below) and that weapon vulnerability data for enemies and objects includes a slot for a fifth beam combo. The generic placeholder name suggests it was cut before being properly named.

An updated version of the inventory STRG file on the Metroid Prime 2 demo disc has this string named "PhazonBeamCombo".

Placeholder Scans

To do: Get pictures/videos.

For some reason, Elite Quarters has a couple placeholder scans that have nothing to do with the object they're attached to. The first one is used by Omega Pirate himself; it's the scan that shows up if you scan his projectile attacks, which you can actually see in-game:

This is an Elite Space Pirate
Elite Space Pirate description 2
Elite Space Pirate description 3
Elite Space Pirate description 4

The second one is present on all of the Phazon healing nodules that appear while Omega Pirate is in one of the Phazon pools:

This is a Spank Weed
Spank Weed description 2
Spank Weed description 3
Spank Weed description 4

A third placeholder scan is present in Tower of Light, on the unused layer with Puddle Spores on it:

This is a Puddle Spore
Alpha Puddle Spore description 2
Alpha Puddle Spore description 3
Alpha Puddle Spore description 4

Internal Enemy Names

A lot of enemies go by different names internally than what's actually shown in-game.

Alternate	Final
NewIntroBoss	Parasite Queen
PuddleToadGamma	Stone Toad
FireFlea	Plazmite
Metaree	Shriekbat
SpankWeed	Reaper Vine
Ripper	Glider
JellyZap	Jelzap
Babygoth	Baby Sheegoth
Eyeball	Eyon
Magdolite	Magmoor
SnakeWeedSwarm	Tangle Weed
ActorContraption	Incinerator Drone
AtomicAlpha	Pulse Bombu
AtomicBeta	Scatter Bombu
ChubbWeed	Blastcap
GarBeetle	Plated Beetle

Some of them are the names of Super Metroid enemies; this is mostly explained by Shinesparkers' interview with senior artist Mike Sneath, who explains that the creature designs that were done in the first year of development were based on Super Metroid, before Nintendo decided to scrap everything and have Retro work on more original creatures. What seems likely is that some of the work that was done was kept, but the enemies were renamed. One of them even still has its original assets present on the disc.

Mike Sneath: The entire first years worth of characters I modelled for the game were cut. At first we were making all the enemies looking just like the old Metroid 2D enemies. Nintendo, later decided that they wanted the enemies to have a new look so we scrapped all of those creatures. These weren’t just models that were scrapped but these were enemies that had a full set of animations and some even had AI programmed. I’m actually very glad Nintendo made that call because I think the newer designs that Jones and Keller came up with was a big improvement over the original 2D designs.

Unused Scan Images

A scan image of what seems to be a Shinesparking Samus. According to an interview with Retro Studios, the Speed Booster (and by extension the Shinespark) were planned to appear in Prime, but due to difficulty implementing them they were scrapped.

Similarly, scan images exist for the Spring Ball (as can be seen in the scan image collage in the concept art gallery). Samus would later acquire this ability in the Trilogy/Wii de Asobu version of the game alongside the Bomb upgrade.

A Ripper, an unused enemy.

A small fish critter. Several of these creatures can be found throughout the Phendrana region, notably in Phendrana Canyon, where three of them, barely visible, can be scanned without image underneath the ice ramp; and in Research Lab Hydra, where an unfrozen specimen can be found sitting on a table next to some explosive crates.

Unused Audio

To do: Get the file/data location for the Suit Voice Clip.

Samus Monologue

Present in the ISO is this narration by Jennifer Hale, the voice actress of Samus in all three Metroid Prime games. It sounds like it was originally meant to be used in the opening sequences to provide backstory. One likely reason for its exclusion is that Nintendo didn't want to have Samus truly speak to the player, instead remaining the silent protagonist.

The narration at the beginning of the Metroid Prime track in Super Smash Bros. Brawl is based on this.

Suit Voice

Intense heat readings detected behind this door.

This message, which appears in text form in the final game, was apparently intended to be voiced as well. Interestingly, this voice clip is unfiltered unlike the others.

Phazon Charge Beam

A Charge Beam sound effect for the Phazon Beam exists in an AGSC file labeled PhazonGun (c2c1b6fe.AGSC). In the final game, the Phazon Beam can't be charged; holding A simply rapid-fires it.

Unused Textures/Models

Early Phazon Suit

An early, unused Phazon Suit design is present in Metroid1.pak, thanks to a couple PlayerActor objects in Exterior Docking Hangar using the wrong ANCS file. It's quite radically different from the final Phazon Suit design. According to Mike Sneath (Senior Artist), this is the reason why it was cut:

Yes you are right that is what was another version of the Phazon Suit which was done by another artist Gene Kohler. Gene made all the suits with the only exception being the black phazon suit. That suit you mentioned was cut because if I remember the Art Lead Todd Keller didn't feel the suit felt evil enough. That was the whole idea about liquid Phazon is that it transforms things into being aggressive and destructive and Todd wanted that to be reflected in how the suit look. That is all I can remember with regards to that suit you mentioned and I hope I got the story right on that as it was a long time ago but I believe that is why it got cut.

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Unused Morph Ball Design

An unused Morph Ball design is also present in TestAnim.pak as an unused material set on the Spider Morph Ball model. While it's not 100% concrete, it's very likely that this morph ball was meant to go with the unused Phazon Suit design.

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Ripper

A fully-textured model present in Phendrana Drift's files as well as the Phazon Mines. The Ripper was an enemy in Metroid and Super Metroid that could be frozen and then used as a platform. It's likely a leftover from early in development, when Retro based most of the enemy designs based on Super Metroid creatures; most of these were changed into more original creatures at some point, although many are still referred to internally by Super Metroid enemy names (such as Shriekbats being referred to as Metarees, and Magmoors being referred to as Magdolites). In the case of the Ripper, it was eventually replaced with the Glider, with the hook on the bottom being used as a grapple point. However, it was never removed from the Glider's ANCS file, which meant it accidentally got included on-disc; it also means it can easily be swapped back in-game by changing an object property on the Gliders!

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Super Metroid

This texture can be found in every Metroid* pak. It's technically used by an FRME file, although it never seems to appear in normal gameplay. Unknown what its purpose is or why it was removed.