Metroid Database.com

Wow...um...hi.

Ten years, huh?

I know...it seems that long since the last update. Well, it hasn't been. It's only been a year.

Actually, that's not true. Good ol' Cap has been slogging away at fan stuff and music and art/packaging uploads the whole time. I'm sure you saw his message above for the humungous rundown of what's new as well as everything you may have missed.

As for me...I have precious little to say on the 10th Anniversary of the Metroid Database. Other than Cap's devoted efforts, the site has been otherwise dormant for the better part of the past year. Other Metroid fansites have long since passed up this old dinosaur. That it's still even online after all this time sort of amazes me. The site has gone through an awful lot of ups and downs, not the least of which was the first five years of its existence when we were just chasing the pipe dream of a new Metroid title...trying to keep Metroid fandom alive when there was no such thing as a new Metroid game on the horizon.

This is going to sound really melancholy on what should be a proud day, but hear me out.

First off...I started the MDb when I was 21 and in college, working at Media Play and studying art and publishing. I'm 32 now, and have since spent six years as a professional graphic designer and the past three years as a tattoo artist. Lemme tell ya...priorites change between 21 and 32. A lot. I am still very active on the web, but it's in a whole different capacity. These days I am focused on my art, networking, freelance design work, and trying to make a living. Through it all, I have remained a devoted videogame enthusiast -- always playing a hot new title, adding to my massive collection of classics, or figuring out where I'm going to store another arcade machine. However, archiving data about the Metroid games has slowly slipped from being part of my gaming hobby to barely registering at all on my to-do radar.

Which brings me to my next point, which is Metroid itself. Due to my role as the MDb webmaster, I have tried -- admittedly with varying degrees of success -- to be relatively diplomatic in my opinions on the Metroid Prime series. Well...I'm too old and tired to be diplomatic anymore. I'll put it right out there:

The Prime series has sucked my enthusiasm for Metroid out of me like...well, a metroid.

I'm sorry Nintendo, I'm sorry Retro, but dammit, I hated Prime 2. And I didn't even bother buying Hunters -- not even to keep my Metroid collection complete. The Prime games are just too far away from being what I loved in Metroids 1, 2, and 3, and even 4 and ZM. I always wanted to see a 3D Metroid game, but for some reason those of us who wanted to actually see Samus while running her around an alien planet are just being flat-out denied because Nintendo needs an answer to Halo, or whatever. Clearly, with there being a Prime 3 in the works for the Wii, and no new 2D Metroid in sight, the Metroid series I fell in love with is simply no more.

You can say I'm living in the past. That's fine -- I have five great Metroid games to go back to. But the 2D Castlevania games have just been getting better and better, so you can't tell me it wouldn't be worth it to keep Metroid true to its roots.

So what's all this bitching and moaning add up to? Well... I'm no longer going to make any apologies for not updating the MDb. I don't want it to be expected of me anymore, because the fire's gone. Ten years has been a darn good run, but the time has come to wash my hands of it. I would eventually like to turn the site over to a talented team who has the passion for Metroid and the ambition to get the site back to where it deserves to be and keep it there, while still retaining kind of an "executive producer" role myself. Someday.

As for now...the MDb will sit here, pretty much. Like an ancient Chozo ruin for some intergalactic bounty hunter to discover and learn from.

But hey...here's to the past decade. Metroid has changed. I've changed. I can guarantee YOU'VE changed, and if you haven't, well, you should live a little more. Having had the world's first and biggest Metroid site has been pretty cool. Thanks to everyone...EVERYONE...who has been supportive in any way. Hundreds, if not thousands of you. Too many to list. Thank you. You haven't heard the absolute last of me, but for now...see you on another mission...someday.

--TJ
MDb Founder

--TJ