Early Metroid Prime 2: Echoes prototype had playable Space Pirates

The Metroid franchise has dabbled with multiplayer in various forms over the years, including efforts on the GameCube, DS, 3DS. When it comes to GameCube, it was Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was the lone installment to offer local multiplayer, and it turns out an early prototype of the mode offered something the final game didn’t.

In an interview on the KIWI TALKZ Podcast, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes devs Zoid Kirsch and Jack Mathews spoke at length about the game’s creation. The discussion includes some talk about the game’s multiplayer mode, which apparently was going to include playable Space Pirates. Jack Matthews elaborates in the quote below:

“maybe this was the narrative behind multiplayer but like most of it was going to be I believe you would either play as like Samus or as a Space Pirate and the Space Pirate had fundamentally different abilities than Samus like I remember we prototyped like clinging to walls and stuff like that as a space pirate like you could lock on to it.”

The multiplayer prototype discussion comes up at the 48:37 mark in the podcast, but you can also check out the complete episode below.