Metroid Database.com

E3 has come and gone, and Nintendo came out swinging this year with the unveiling of the Nintendo DS system, a new "realistic" Zelda title for the Gamecube, and of course, Metroid...times two!

We all figured that Metroid Prime 2: Echoes would be shown, what with new screenshots and information popping up in the last few weeks, and it was -- hot new video footage of Samus meeting something called "Dark Samus," multiplayer deathmatch footage, and even Screw Attacking and wall-jumping in third-person. Prime 2 has also been given a release date of November 15, 2004, according to Nintendo.

But Nintendo, always with something up their sleeve, also dropped on us Metroid Prime Hunters, a first-person, simultaneous 4-player game for the upcoming NDS! Similar in gameplay to the multiplayer deathmatch feature in MP2, the game utilizes the DS' dual-screen setup to display the first-person action on the lower screen, while the upper screen displays a top-view map. MPH is currently being developed by Nintendo Software Technologies, Nintendo's American development team, with support from NCL.

Look for more news on both games as it develops. Meanwhile, read up on the upcoming titles at the following links:

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Nintendo.com's MP2:E page
IGN interview with MP2:E producer Kensuke Tanabe

Metroid Prime: Hunters
Nintendo.com's Nintendo DS software preview page
IGN's Hands-On w/Metroid Prime: Hunters
IGN interview with DS software team members Takashi Tezuka and Hideki Konno
IGN MPH videos

General E3 News
E3 Insider: The official E3 news site

On a personal side note, I'm rather excited about the Nintendo DS. Besides the innovative gameplay potential -- have you read about PacPix??-- touch-screen technology, and wireless networking capability, the machine is pure Nintendo. The dual-screen setup should really come as no surprise to long-time Nintendo fans (and I'm talking pre-NES here). Nintendo has always had a double-screen fetish: from the Game & Watches to the original Punch-Out!! arcade game to the PlayChoice 10 arcade machines, they've been stacking two screens on top of each other for 20 years. I have no idea what kind of niche the DS will find in the saturated market, but as a gamer with a love of new videogame gadgetry, I can't wait to add it to my collection.

--TJ