Metroid Database.com

Hello everyone, and welcome to our very first podcast! Dubbed 'Wave Beam', we'll be running more podcasts in the future. For our first podcast, we've interviewed Grant Henry, aka Stemage, the fingers that wield the ax behind Metroid Metal. It's pretty in-depth, and the entire cast runs a bit over an hour at 100MB, with plenty of rockin' musical interludes. Wonder what's in store for Metroid Metal or how Grant gets his inspiration? Then what are you waiting for? Check it out (or click above). After you're done, stop by Grant's page to preorder the album!

In other news, here's a follow-up to the Metroid Prime Trilogy impressions. First off, yes, I did find out about the alternative control scheme, and yes, it's 100% better than free-aim, making the games a total blast. If you don't know, simply go to your options menu and change the control scheme from the default Free Aim to Lock On. I also haven't had time to sit down and play the game 24/7, but I can say that user comments from the forums have pulled up a nice little list of changes. One of the most notable changes is the retconning of the log entries from the US version of Prime to match those of the PAL version, namely that Metroid Prime no longer escaped the Cradle and ran amok in the Pirate labs. Which begs the question of why they didn't fix those in the Player's Choice version... Other notable changes include new cutscenes for item pickups, the full version of Flaahgra's Theme along with some other audio remastering, new attacks for Ridley, and Admiral Dane is no longer a potty-mouth (isn't it great to see Nintendo's wholesomeness of the 1980s return in a T-rated game in 2009? :P).

Additionally, the credits now pay homage to the late Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, who designed the control scheme in all the Prime games, including the masterpiece we find in Corruption. I know this is old news by now, but Haigh-Hutchinson's book, Real-Time Cameras is in print, and there is an excerpt from the book on Gamasutra. If you're interested in doing any kind of camera design in a 3D game, this is the book to get. Mark, we all here are proud of ya.

One more thing that passed completely under the radar here was the preorder bonus of Metroid Prime Trilogy hats through Game Crazy. These hats are also available for a limited time through the Nintendo World Store in New York City. When will we get some Nintendo love for the millions of other people who DON'T live in the Big Apple? This just adds to the frustration many had about the snafu regarding the unreliability of preorder bonuses at Gamestop. We also continue to be dismayed by Nintendo's lack of advertising for the Trilogy, considering how much effort Retro Studios gave to create such a masterpiece. Seriously, we haven't seen a single TV commercial or flash ad, and Metroid.com was even down for a good part of the month! And Nintendo wonders why Metroid isn't a million-seller...

In some interesting news, Shadow Complex is reported to have moved over 200,000 units in the first week, which breaks all XBLA sales records. Check out this awesome making-of interview with Donald Mustard, the game's lead designer, on Gamasutra where a good portion of the discussion is dedicated to Super Metroid.

We'd also like to give a nod to Metroid creator Gumpei Yokoi's little gray brick that could, the Game Boy, which turned 20 back in August. 1Up has a nice overview of the system. If you're looking for some more Metroid-related gaming, it's worth going back and checking out the Wario Land games, which were developed by many of the same people who worked on Metroid.

Finally, the old Classicgaming page is down for good as of midnight, August 31. Thanks again to Kontek for supporting us and all the other Classicgaming refugees!

That's all I have for you today for this massive news blowout. Stay tuned for more news in the future!

Until next time...
Captain Commando