Metroid Prime enhanced for Europe
Always nice to hear
Nintendo of Europe (via IGN, insultingly) has announced that the PAL version of Metroid Prime will boast a few improvements over its NTSC sibling. According to reports, the game has been toughened up, with stronger enemies who can take more shots and don't drop as many health/ammo power-ups, a greater rate of health loss when strolling on acid or lava, and doors which require multiple shots just like SNES Super Metroid. The hint system has also been refined, so it'll be a good 10-15 minutes longer before hints appear to guide puzzled players.
Other changes apparently include the ability to skip cut scenes once you've played them through once, and the addition of English speech to the intro and voice output when scanning objects, as well as vocal door locking and unlocking notifications and an added voice for the game's ending.
All in all, we don't think it'll be too noticeably different to the American experience, but we're pleased to see Retro and Nintendo are unafraid to rebalance their masterpiece right up to the last minute if it means we get the closest approximation of their original vision. It's more Super, after all.