Released in the US in March 2006, Metroid Prime Hunters is at once a mediocre online multiplayer FPS and a mediocre offline single player FPS. The touch-screen look and d-pad movement controls work well, but the sum total of two unique bosses (excluding the final) does not. MPH was first introduced as a demo included with the original Nintendo DS. Samus is sent to collect 8 octoliths in order to discover and protect the "ultimate power." Six new hunters are introduced in the game, all of whom desire the ultimate power for their own duties or missions. Samus must avoid and conquer these hunters and protect the power from being placed in the wrong hands.
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1:16:33 by Zack Mintzer, done in 12 segments.
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Author's comments:
It's been quite a while since my last Any% run at this game. When I finished the last run, I didn't half-expect to get in range of breaking anything lower than 1:18 in any future attempts, and considered the run to be very close to whatever an optimal time would be considered. Boy, was I wrong. My original goal for this run was to break 1:19:30, because I thought it would be extremely difficult to find more than a minute of improvement. As a result, I ended up beating my old time by just over four minutes, which is quite a lot of progression.
So, while I do find 1:16:33 to be an extremely satisfying achievement that met my goal, I really do think that there could be a lot more room for improvement that I don't yet realize. I used to think that getting under 1:22 would be near impossible, so I really don't think I (or anyone) could make a real guess as to what an optimal time for this run would be. Don't get me wrong, this run is quite amazing and many of the segments were either flawless or could be improved by a few seconds, but there are many factors in the game in addition to just being fast that relate to the speed of the game (the most important factor obviously being the random appearances of hunters and guardians during escapes). If I had to guess what a perfect run would look like, I'd estimate something around 1:14. That would assume having the same speed of this run combined with segments in which no hunters or guardians appear during the escape portions, and all of the sequence breaks are executed without hesitation. It'd be very difficult to achieve this time, but I do honestly think it's in range of possibility.
Looking back I really dislike how I handled the psychobits at 1:14. I've killed them faster, but really the location of them when entering the room is random, so it's not that bad considering how they were set up. On the bright side, the psychobit battle at 2:04 went extremely well, and I managed to spawn kill them at 2:21. 3:46 wasn't particularly good either. I normally make that jump.... The Kanden battle went really well, though I wasn't able to manipulate his AI as I usually can, so I couldn't draw him closer to the door where the artifact lies. 5:18 was just dumb and shouldn't have happened. Cretaphid went quite nicely, and was flawless aside from maybe two seconds lost from having to spin around finding blue bubbles to pop. Because pretty much everything in the escape went well, I'll just note that everything in the escape went well instead of individually pointing out every single awesome part of it.
The bomb jump sequence break in the beginning went very smoothly, and every pre-battle Spire encounter was perfect. Unfortunately, the Spire battle could have been about three seconds faster had the missile I launched hit him and if he didn't light me on fire. x_x Also, a note to self about what to do after getting the last artifact at 3:12: turn around and jump on the platforms to the door. While DBJ'ing looks cooler, it's actually one or two seconds slower. I didn't know that at the time of doing the segment, which is why I used the platforms in my 100% run. The Slench battle was perfect, and the escape was optimal outside the Weavel battle. If I ever do another segmented any% run, I won't keep this segment until I defeat Weavel before he exits the orange room. I know I can do it, as I've done it before, so it's just trial and error whether or not I can kill him quick enough to prevent extending the battle longer than it needs to be.
Perfect segment, nothing to really say here.... Well, one thing to mention is that while it IS possible to scan the switch at 2:15 under the floor later in Segment 9, it's slower due to having to scan-jump while having enemies in the room moving you around and/or freezing you.
Definitely one of the hardest segments in the entire run. In addition to needing luck for not encountering (m)any hunters/guardians in Data Shrines 1 and 3 at any point of the segment, this section contains quite a few different sequence breaks and tricks that add challenge to this part of the game that's already quite difficult when not doing a speed run. While I did face several hunters and guardians in this segment in areas that are random in terms of hunter/guardian appearance, it was a very minimal amount compared to attempts in which I faced someone in every room. For the first six minutes of the run, the only mistake to note is possibly being faster in Transfer Lock, beginning at 2:34. Everything past the 6 minute mark was pretty darn good, including the Slench battle. The only improvement relates to luck in having less guardians/hunters appear during the escape, which is a factor that determines most of where the time goes in this segment.
Noxus battle was amazing, and all of the scanning afterward was faster than anything I'd been able to do before. My only regret in this segment is that I wish I'd been able to set up the missile jump at 3:04 faster, and that I could have hit the judicator barriers quicker. Aside from those two issues, this segment went great.
When I first began fighting the guardian at 1:26, my immediate thought was, "Man, this is going to be a redo." Well, this guardian battle turned out to be pretty darn good, especially with being able to end it right next to the door. The Fire Spawn battle was pretty fast, though I think I could have killed him before he ducked into the lava, so there's more than likely room for improvement there. You'll notice at 2:25 that I lost about a second when trying to remember what part of the segment came next. =P Everything after that was faultless, except that I wish the jump-scanning at 4:14 went a tad faster. In my 100% run, I did this very quickly and in only two or three jumps.
This segment would be an absolute nightmare in a Low% run. In my first few attempts at this segment, I would run out of UA during the Slench battle and would be forced to use the Power Beam against the Ice Spawn, which is something that is unacceptable in a speed run. Thus, in this segment, I made sure to have excess UA before killing off Slench's third phase so I would be heavily supplied for both Trace and the Ice Spawn. As a result, all three of these battles were superb. I think the only real flaw in this entire segment was the guardian battle at 5:42. While it was quite fast compared to other runs at it, I think it could be about three seconds better. That's really the only area for improvement in this entire segment, though.
I'm pretty sure that the locations in which I hit the imperialist targets at 0:59 are optimal, since any other place either takes longer to get to or doesn't even guarantee the ability to see the target. The enemy at 1:43 can be killed one or two seconds quicker using the Judicator, though I didn't know about this until later in the run. And now, to mention the biggest and stupidest flaw in this entire segment. At 2:43, I thought that all of the guardians had been gone, thus I was already in preparation to exit the room and leave them behind. I was blatantly wrong, and it took a ridiculous amount of time to kill that guardian. That's really the only important flaw in this segment that could be improved for a future run. Well, there's also the Cretaphid battle, but generally he's difficult to kill so there's ideally only a few seconds to improve upon there.
The Sylux battle was insanely fast, and I'm still in shock that I was able to defeat him so quickly. Sure, it could have been a little faster, since I missed him twice, but nonetheless that was an amazing run against him. The rest of the segment is pretty much self-explanatory in terms of being super fast and having very little room for improvement. I would call this segment perfect if the Cretaphid battle was just a little bit better and if the little glitch at 5:02 didn't happen.
I hate this segment SO much. This has to be the most challenging and enduring segment of all. Everything goes fine until the guardian battle at 1:40, in which the game creates a ton of lag from all of the enemies attempting to attack you, and the guardians like to run away when you don't want them to. This segment would not have been kept if I didn't get lucky with the last magmaul shot at 2:10. Moving ahead, the Fuel Stack mission went great and I managed to scan the machine at 30 seconds remaining, and I got the DBJB at 4:45 to work perfectly. Moving further ahead, this Slench battle is typically long and boring because of all the pointless, unpreventable rolling he does, though considering how long the battle normally is, this was a pretty quick run against him. And of course, at 9:21 Spire was there to greet me on my progress by being a nuisance and ruining a perfect escape. Typical.
I managed to find a way to do the sequence break in the beginning consistently, though I still have the problem of being able to morph in the tunnel without falling down. Consequently, I managed to do the break reasonably fast. The Cretaphid battle was perfect, though I think I could still beat him a few seconds faster. The entire escape (including when the timer left the screen) was pretty epic, since I only had to face two hunter appearances. This is the kind of luck that's required for a completely optimal segment for a perfect speed run, though it'd have been even better if there weren't ANY hunter appearances.
This is the fastest I have ever beaten Gorea 1. Everything was executed well, and all of the attacks against him managed to connect to one another so that I could get to the credits as quickly as possible. It may be possible to beat him faster, though it'd require perfect precision and an amazing sense of when Gorea decides to change phases (particularly in the beginning from Yellow to Green).
In conclusion, this run is very fast and contains mostly minimal flaws. The biggest time consumers in the run are having to face hunters and guardians in segments 4 and 11 and being able to eliminate guardians faster in general. Based on the few mistakes in this run, I believe 1:15 is easily possible, and that 1:14 would be considered an optimal time for this game.
MPH is a great game, but I have to agree with the majority of Metroid fans that its single player was very lacking. The game was mainly built for its Wi-Fi functionalities, which were eventually destroyed by hackers, glitchers, etc. I used to play the game merely for the online experience, but one day I just decided to re-beat the adventure, and started making a goal to break two hours. It's funny how I'm now able to break 1:20, a time I used to think would be impossible.
Will I try to beat this run some day? Probably, though not for at least another year. My goal for that future run will be Sub-1:16, which I already know is possible with a little luck.
~ DSGamer3002 (Contact me via DSG3002 on AIM or usurper992 AT gmail DOT com)
100% 1:22:57 by Zack Mintzer, done in 12 segments.
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Author's comments:
I began thinking about doing a 100% run early last year when I realized that I'd almost completely abandoned the original Sub-1:20 run I started shortly after completing the first run. I figured that if nobody else has interest for the game, I may as well do every category and have as many runs up as I can. I knew the consequences of doing a 100% run, as I originally thought that the category would include scanning everything for 100% Logbook. When I learned that I wouldn't have to scan the hundreds of items and still get a qualifying 100% run, I immediately began to look at it differently. Over time, this run became progressively easier and easier than the any% run, aside from having to take some detours here and there for certain expansions. Soon after my query about the game's definition for 100%, a compilation thread of 100% and Low% definitions for games appeared on the forums. =D
My very first test run of 100% went incredibly well, and I ended up with 1:26, thus I decided to make the actual run Sub-1:26. I really had no idea that I'd end up beating that initial run by around 4 minutes. I think it's kind of coincidental that both the Any% and 100% runs were improved by ~4 minutes. Overall, this run is very good, though in some parts it may become very easy to tell that I had little experience in attaining some of the expansions, as in one or two segments I tend to lose my sense of direction for split seconds. While these do look very dumb for a speed run, they actually don't lose very much time (1-3 seconds max) so it doesn't really affect speed more than it does appearance.
The opening psychobit killing went pretty good considering their formation is random, followed by an uber fast, spawn killing psychobit battle later at 2:04. Everything goes pretty well until 4:03 when I accidentally boosted too fast and went right into the tunnel for a second. Thankfully, I made up for it in the Kanden battle, in which it went pretty smoothly considering Kanden's unpredictable and non-manipulative AI. I think it matched the Any% battle against him, so it's pretty satisfactory. The rest of the segment is flawless, as the Cretaphid battle went extremely well and the escape was very clean-cut.
Everything up to 1:58 was pretty much perfect. I think it would be very difficult to repeat such a spectacular run in which I did the bomb jump break so quickly and still managed to boost quickly to get the inconveniently placed Energy Tank. Furthermore, the individual mini-battles against Spire before facing him were flawless as well, thus making everything up to the battle ideal. The battle went really well too, though I think I could have dealt more damage against him before picking up the missile expansion, and that I should have used more morph ball against him rather power beam and missiles. Slench was perfect, and the escape was superb outside the Weavel battle, similarly to the Any% run. I was SO close to killing him before he jumped down to the outside area; I think one more shot would have done it. If I ever do this again, I'll be sure to kill him before he drops down.
This segment is very linear, so there isn't much to comment on. I think that I could have been a bit faster in killing the enemies at 2:15, but that's really it. Everything else was perfect, as there's little room to make mistakes.
I decided to put the first visit of Arcterra before Celestial Archives' second visit because I felt that it made more sense to have a surplus of UA in the longer segment, even if I wouldn't really need it in the long run. Overall, the Noxus battle was astounding, and the scanning throughout the segment was quick and smooth. The only thing about this segment that I resent is having to make a huge detour for the UA behind a Judicator barrier in Ice Hive. It really is one of the most inconvenient pickups in the entire game. Anyway, similarly to the Any% run, I wish I didn't take as much time to set up the missile jump at 3:33. Then I have the stupid issue with the Judicator barrier that refused to open at 3:48. I would have restarted if every other part of the segment hadn't been ideal.
I was surprised when this segment only took me one try to get an appealing, decent run. Throughout the segment I ran into few hunters and guardians by random appearance, and thanks to having extra missiles and UA, I was able to get through battles and most areas quicker than the any% run. The only reason for being slower than the any% is that I had to make some small byways to get certain expansions. Anyhow, everything up to 6:33 was perfect. Then I ran into a little trouble with those mock metroids. While it appears I killed them pretty quickly, that one grabbing my face lost JUST enough time to not make the rising platform in the next room, thus forcing me to lose quite some time. I figured that since every other part of this segment was clean and well executed that I may as well keep it, since it was a rare occurrence that I would get everything to work well all at once. In an optimal segment of this, I wouldn't have had any hunters or guardians during the escape, though. I still consider this segment to be very good despite the few unlucky events.
The guardian fight at 1:26 could have been a bit faster had that one guardian not run away right before getting killed, and the Fire Spawn probably could have been beaten three seconds faster with better precision. Everything else in this segment was incredibly fast and would be very difficult to beat in the future. Nothing else to say really.
The Slench battle was very easy thanks to the high amount of UA at hand, and I didn't have to risk getting hit because of all the health I had. The main advantage to having so much UA is not having to worry about having enough for the following Trace and Ice Spawn battles, in which I managed to kill each rather quickly. However, I do think the Ice Spawn could have been beaten faster with better accuracy. Basically, everything goes great until around 5:42 when the guardians come into the picture. It shouldn't have taken so long to kill them off, and the battle against them is the biggest room for improvement in this segment. Everything after the guardians is pretty much superlative.
Similarly to the any% counterpart, everything's smooth until 2:22 when the guardians come into the picture. There just had to be ONE guardian who didn't want to die. x_x By the way, getting the UA in the first jump at 3:28 is a lot harder than it looks, unless you've already memorized its exact location. =P The Cretaphid battle went really well, though I wish finding blue bubbles was easier than it is with the boss moving around so much. The escape was clean and I didn't end up running into a hunter on the way out as I had been expecting when going through the segment.
This Sylux battle is really great. I made all but one shot count, and managed to beat him faster than I'd ever done before. Of course, an optimal battle against him would be to not miss once, but this is still very fast and quite difficult. For some reason the ithrak at 2:10 didn't want to die, and it took about a second longer than usual to get rid of him. Nothing big, but a second is a second. The Cretaphid battle was a little bit of a mess because I managed to lose track of which bubbles I'd already popped, so it was difficult finding any left before being able to shock coil the crystal. It could have been about 5 seconds faster, but the rest of the segment was perfect.
While this segment is a nightmare, it's a lot easier than the any% run thanks to an excess of health. The guardian battle at 1:46 would have been a lot faster if the battle-guardian wasn't so annoying and refusing to take magmaul hits. Still, it was better than the battle in the any% run since, as previously mentioned, I didn't have to worry about dying. Dropping down to the missile expansion would have been better if I landed on the right ramp, so a few seconds lost there for bad aim. Then the DBJB goes great and leads into the Slench battle, which was both good and bad. It was good because I managed to defeat the first two phases quite quickly, though it was bad because it took four cycles in the third phase to finally knock him out. This could easily be eight seconds faster with better precision. The escape was flawless and thankfully didn't have a hunter appearance.
Right, so... basically this segment was terrible. I mean, sure, the opening sequence break went really quickly and the Cretaphid battle was pretty fast, but the escape was a complete ersatz for a real speed running segment. It has nothing to do with not being fast, it has to do with allowing so many hunter and guardian appearances to slip by and me not taking action to redo the segment or anything. I managed to kill most of them very fast (especially Trace), though I think it would have done the run a lot of justice if I didn't keep this segment and kept redoing it until I got a better result. Aside from the hunter/guardian madness, at 5:30 I lose my sense of direction for about 4 seconds, which was really stupid and should have made me realize even more how dumb it was to keep this. I look back at this run and see this as the only reason to be disappointed. Well, at least the Lava Maze for the final UA expansion went perfectly....
The Gorea 1 battle was perfect considering I had to take time out to hit the targets on the wall in preparation for Gorea 2. I think the first phase could have been a bit faster if I had a better sense of the Judicator's lag time and knew how to fire it faster. Moving onto Gorea 2, I was very lucky for him to have allowed me to spawn camp it at the top of the stage. Usually he likes to move down to the bottom in random locations after going into a red health meter, so this was quite a successful run at the boss.
Subsequently, this run is very fast, though contains several faults that allow room for betterment. The two segments that could be the most improved are segments 4 and 11, similarly to the any% run, and I think that in an absolutely perfect run of 100%, that Sub-1:21 would be possible. This assumes the least amount of hunter and guardian appearances and executing all sequence breaks and tricks quickly while having the entire route in mind during a segment. Because this is my first (official) 100% run, however, I can't really tell what times are possible given the run I've just completed. For all I know, 1:19 may be possible for 100%. I honestly don't know, but Sub-1:21 is definitely in range.
In all probity, I don't think I will be redoing this 100% run in the future. While I now find it to be easier than the any% run, it just doesn't seem to be as much of a challenge to me despite the mistakes I've made here. Unless I have a sudden urge to give it another go, this run will most likely stay here for quite a while. But, who knows, someone else could take interest in doing MPH speed runs between now and whenever I eventually (may) redo this run.
Now that I've brought it up, if you have the proper equipment to do a DS run, go right ahead and do it, since nobody's stopping you. MPH is currently the only DS game to be up on SDA, and it feels very awkward having the only run for that system. I think it'd be great to broaden the DS speed run community beyond just MPH and Super Mario 64 DS. If you don't have the equipment to do the run, but want to see one done of a game you favor, then just contact me using the info below and let me know about it. It's likely I have the game and would be willing to do a speed run for it. =)
~ DSGamer3002 (Contact me via DSG3002 on AIM or usurper992 AT gmail DOT com)