Metroid Prime 3 wasn’t open world because Nintendo doesn’t know what a bounty hunter is

metro.co.uk:

It seems Nintendo’s understanding of the character of Samus Aran, and by consequence Captain Falcon, is very different to everyone else’s.

Did you ever wonder why Samus Aran and Captain Falcon are always referred to as bounty hunters but never actually seem to hunt any bounties? It’s apparently because Nintendo doesn’t understand what the concept means.

Since the earliest days of the character, Metroid’s Samus Aran has always been described as a bounty hunter, at least in the West. In-game though, she seems more like a mercenary or straightforward government operative, taking her orders from the Galactic Federation.

It turns out that Nintendo think of her as a more ordinary space adventurer, who’s always looking out for humanity. This is not only very different from how fans view her but meant the cancellation of what would have been a very cool feature from Metroid Prime 3.

2007’s Metroid Prime 3, by Western developer Retro Studios, leaned heavier than usual on the bounty hunter theme, with a number of rival hunters clearly inspired by the use of similar characters in The Empire Strikes Back.

Senior producer Bryan Walker has spoken a few times about how the original idea was to have the game be a more modern style of open world game, but more recently he’s revealed that Samus would have been able to go off on side quests, completing optional bounty hunting missions.

The open world aspect would still have been quite limited – Metroid Prime 3 was only a Wii game, after all – but it would have had the player operating in a hub area where they could travel around much more easily than a traditional Metroidvania.

According to comments made to DidYouKnowGaming, Walker’s team was directly influenced by Star Wars’ Boba Fett, but