Thanksgiving Sale! 11/23 – 11/26
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Two new official MSR Trailers released from Nintendo
Just published. From what we can tell, these unlisted videos are only available through Nintendo’s official YouTube channel. We assume that they will eventually be embedded into Metroid.com, but they aren’t available through that site as of this writing.
Prime 2D: Celebrating 13 Years of an Unreleased Fangame
Today makes the 15th anniversary of Metroid Prime to be released in the US! Feel old yet?
With that, there’s another announcement. Team SCU (lead by fellow Bestiary artist Tim Hardeman) has released their teaser trailer for their upcoming fangame, Prime 2D.
The game has been digging its way out of development hell for quite some time. Some history from Tim:
We have a long history, starting way back in April of 2004. We joined Samus.Co.Uk when it was created, followed when it moved, left when it died, cycled through 5 different main programmers, and have had hundreds of volunteers making thousands of resources. But that is the past, and we are the now.
Prime 2D has always been focused as a fan project for the joy of creating and learning – this has been exemplified by many prior contributors using skills learned from this project as a way to break into the games industry. As the project has matured, so have we as creators, raising the bar for the quality expected of a game. This shift has resulted in realigned priorities, many of which are demonstrated in this video. Rather than the pixel-perfect translation envisioned by our predecessors, we are taking a more targeted approach as a commentary on the shift from classic 2D to modern 3D gaming. Instead of copying the source material exactly, we are instead focused on taking the core concepts, translating those, and then implementing them in a logical 2D solution. By doing this we allow ourselves to focus on building a good game first and foremost, and then using that as a base on which to create a familiar experience, rather than constraining ourselves to trying to implement 3D ideas in 2D space.
From what I can tell, the project seems to be distancing itself from copyright in name alone. This is a smart move on the part of the team, as they are attempting to avoid a DMCA or any kind of takedown by Nintendo proper, similar to what no one will ever forget happened with AM2R. However, if the trailer is any indication, the game is still very much an attempt at translating Metroid Prime into the realm of 2-dimensional, side-scrolling, sprite-based game design. Even if the game doesn’t contain trademarked names, the inspiration is still quite apparent.
Regardless of boring legalities, the trailer looks really good, and I’m glad they’re still attempting to remake the game after all these years. Let’s hope for the best. I wish the team the best of luck! The development blog/site will commence over at Prime2d.com. Maybe this’ll come out before Metroid Prime 4? Only time will tell.
Rocket League: Samus Gunship
Today is the official release of Rocket League for Nintendo Switch. What’s special about this version of the game is the ability to unlock two Nintendo-themed cars, a Mario/Luigi car, and a Samus/Zero Suit Samus car. The M&L car offers a star particle effect when you boost, as well as Mario’s classic jump sound effect, whereas Samus’s gunship offers a Wave Beam effect when you boost. Check it out in the video below, courtesy of GameXplain.
RUMOR: Metroid Prime 4 Developed by Bandai Namco
A new leak posted recently on Reddit describes upcoming game rumors, namely one of Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS games publisher/developer Bandai Namco being the ones behind the helm of Metroid Prime 4. They also describe the upcoming Dragonball FighterZ being ported to Switch – a welcome addition if I might add.
They detail Metroid Prime 4 footage to be revealed during the next Nintendo Direct, in Janary. As always, take these rumors with a grain of salt – nothing has been proven or given any evidence, but it’s fun to think about!
Details can be found at the end of this post.
Mother Brain Meets Relaxing Jazz?
Last month, Scarlett Moon Records released a new album by artists GENTLE LOVE, a duo of Japanese game musicians Norihiko Hibino (composer of Metal Gear Solid and Bayonetta) on saxophone and AYAKI (performer on Etrian Odyssey and PersonaQ) on piano. GENTLE LOVE has created a calm, soothing remix album of famous video game tracks that can help anyone relax before bedtime. Their choice to remix the Mother Brain battle from Super Metroid is interesting, to say the least. But it’s risk-taking tracks like this that I’d personally like to see more of. Congrats to GENTLE LOVE and their producer Scarlet Moon for this phenomenal album! We’d also like to apologize for not sharing this sooner, we have been quite busy revamping and adding content to our current site. In the meantime enjoy the track below, or listen to the whole album, Prescription for Sleep: Fight for your Dreams, here.
Instruction Manual Scans added
Just added a ton of instruction manuals to the game sections. For the most part, these are Japanese and European versions of the manuals. So if you ever wanted to see what the Wii version of Metroid Prime’s manual looked like, now you can. Game sections affected were:
- Metroid 2 Return of Samus
- Metroid Fusion
- Metroid Zero Mission
- Metroid Other M
- Metroid Prime
- Metroid Prime 2
- Metroid Prime 3
- Metroid Prime Hunters
- Metroid Prime Hunters First Hunt
- Super Smash Bros.
I’m also thinking of giving Metroid Prime Trilogy its own individual section, instead of trying to sloppily merge it with any of the other Primes. But that will have to be a project for another day. As usual we appreciate all your patience while we slowly but surely add things back to the site over time. We are also going to work on updating the forum and give it a brand new theme. Oh yeah, and you can register again there if you weren’t able to in the last couple of months.
HUGE thanks to our manual scanners: Alexander, Elbowbot, and Max Mag!
Staff Review – Metroid Samus Returns
“…Nintendo really came out swinging and went all in on one of their most underutilized franchises in their arsenal.” MDB staffer Matthew “Sharonlover” Sharpe enters the Metroid review fray with his first look into Nintendo’s latest release in the franchise, Metroid: Samus Returns. **NOTICE** Be aware that if you have not played through the game yet, this review contains spoilers. Click the image below to read.
MDb is now on Discord
We have finally created a Discord channel for fans to chat in real-time. This channel also features 50 select emojis from our awesome forum. Come on out and talk about Metroid or whatever you want! If you’re not familiar with Discord, you can access it three different ways: mobile version, PC app version, or webbrowser version. Hope to see you there!
Click the image below for the invite link:
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