Metroid Database.com

It's taken about a month's worth of translation and image editing, but the Metroid: Other M gallery has finally been completely translated into English! After seeing all the work that went into this, I can completely understand why Nintendo didn't translate this when they made the game - it simply would have taken too much time! Thankfully, they're available now to join the Metroid Zero Mission and Metroid Prime gallery translations. So what's so special about them?

The Other M gallery gives insight into a lot of the behind-the-scenes concepting that went on while creating Other M. Background information for the Bottle Ship and the characters are given (including the ages for some of them), and you can get a good sense of not only the ideas that are generated while creating a game but also the sorts of changes that can occur during development. And there are lots of humorous cartoons (especially the Sidehopper and Magdollite!), showing off Yoshio Sakamoto's sense of humor. Here are some of the more notable images:

• Waver mating rituals. Need I say more? Notice too the Waver is also eating a Hornoad?
• The Volfon was designed after lots of creatures, including wolves, hyena, and the mythical Japanese monster, the kama'itachi (from which the tornado attack was inspired).
• The flames that drop from the Sovas are flaming poo made of silicon, gas, and carbon (our condolences to anyone who's been killed by Sova poo).
• The elevators were designed as 'safe zones' to help the player feel calm.
• The names of the spacecraft are VIXIV (Adam's battleship), the Hygeia (the 07th Platoon's transport ship) and the ill-named Lusitania (the interplanetary shuttle).
• Groganches that appear on the ground are protecting their eggs.
• Vorash has thick armor made of lava that has congealed to his body.
• Little Birdie's favorite snack is the red fruit found growing in the Biosphere. There is a small fruit tree in his holding cage, but the researchers didn't give him enough, so he became dissatisfied... Maybe he wouldn't have escaped if they'd kept him happy!
• The King Kihunter boss battle seems to have had an extra component that was cut, namely you could explore part of the nest interior via morph ball.
• The markings on Samus' spacecraft (and HUD) are Ancient Chozo script.
• The photograph of Ian and Samus was taken by Anthony and illustrates Samus' inexperience with simple human gestures as a hug and the other characters' indifference to her lack of human emotions.
• Phantoon came to Zebes about the Wrecked Ship, which transported the first Chozo colonists to the planet. Phantoon also exists in multiple dimensions, so only part of his body can be seen, which explains his ghost-like qualities.

I'd like to thank Infinity's End for cleaning up the images; they'd never have gotten done without his help!

Until next time...
Captain Commando