Metroid Database.com

We have another scan from Prime Blue (who gave us a Super Metroid interview and music from Metroid Prime). This time, the scan is of Metroid II DX!! Or something like that... The image comes from the April 1998 issue of Club Nintendo, Germany's equivalent of Nintendo Power. Though the article does not mention of Metroid anywhere, it does show a screenshot of Metroid II on the Game Boy Color. However, there are some odd things about this picture... First, this room does not exist anywhere in Metroid II. Second, this combination of enemies and background tiles (robots with rocks, Gunzoo with Autom) also does not exist! Third, that rocky ceiling looks like it was built specifically for the Autom to move back and forth in... To further complicate things, Prime Blue informs me that Club Nintendo rarely produced mock-up screenshots... However, the image's rotation and the existence of mock-up screens from For the Frog the Bell Tolls DX (a title that was confirmed but canceled) make me believe it's not a screen capture. However, the other odd thing is that if this was a mock-up created by the staff at Club Nintendo, why go through such creativity to create a scene that never existed when they could have just as easily colored a regular screenshot? While I'm tempted to yell out, "Unseen level from Metroid II DX!" my experience tells me to err on the side of caution. This one is likely to remain a mystery...

It's long been speculated that Metroid II DX was in development at some point, though our interview with Dan Owsen doesn't exactly confirm or deny this (though he did say R&D1 put in a special "Metroid II palette" for the GBC, which is why the game looks so nice). The game was also never listed as in-development in Nintendo Power. If you'll also recall from last week's translated interview with Yoshio Sakamoto, no Metroid was made for the GBC because it "would have been unfavorably compared" with Super Metroid. I'd also like to add to that Sakamoto-san's previous assertion that he likes challenging himself by creating new things rather than remaking old things, hence no Metroid DX or Metroid II DX.

Until next time...
Captain Commando