In 2004, the original NES release of Metroid joined several titles deemed classic enough to represent that period of gaming through revisits on the GameBoy Advanced, and yet that same year also saw a much more thorough revisit on the handheld with the release of Metroid: Zero Mission. Aside from several tweaks within the game, the release returned to the source of the series to establish cannon at ground zero, setting the tone and direction for all subsequent releases.
The most significant element of that release was the newly added Zero Mission, a mission that showed Samus Aran stripped of her armor and evading space pirates in the instantly iconic zero suit. It was the emergence of a more vulnerable, but still capable Samus, and a defining moment that opened the floodgates for a greater discussion of the role gender plays within the Metroid series, executed with clever subtlety.
The live-action commercial for Metroid: Other M is without a doubt the darkest ad for a Nintendo published title I’ve ever seen – and as far as ads go this hits every note with precision.
I’m lacking a few words at the moment that aren’t me just blathering on here, it’s entirely possible that this ad is better than the game itself. What is certain is that waiting the last few days out to finally know how this all came together is agonizing.
Catch the video after the break.
Waking up to solid dates for the many games Nintendo listed for the last months of 2010 still manages to leave a few titles up in the air – Epic Mickey just refuses to let go of the holiday season as its date, and Shantae seems to feel the same way. The rest of the list manages to present the image of there being a little something for everyone, or a complete overdose that will break your wallet depending on your gaming agenda.
Still expect to see Metroid on the shelves August 31 and Samurai Warriors 3 on September 27, and then prepare to be bombarded as Wii Party releases on October 3, Kirby’s Epic Yarn hits on October 17, and November sees PokéPark Wii on the 1st, FlingSmash on the 7th, and Donkey Kong Country Returns on the 21st.
Sprinkled inbetween those dates you can still expect Professor Layton and the Unwound Future on September 12, Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs on October 4, Art Academy on October 25, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! on November 14.
Of course there’s also third party releases like Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light on October 5th, and the outing of the next title from Gaijin Games this fall, Bit.Trip Fate.
Considering this is only Nintendo’s schedule and doesn’t include every third party offering hitting the DS and Wii, are we all ready for another spin on the holiday landslide ride?
I’ve been a little put out hearing some pick on Hibaru Yaju’s role in Star Successor, mostly because despite providing plenty of frustrations the sequence has become one of my favorites within the game. If sword fighting inside a reactor core with an anime samurai dream girl who offers you a date is wrong, well I don’t want to be right ever again.
Granted the sequence is strangely placed and timed and one-of-a-kind in the delivery, but isn’t that what makes Treasure so much fun to love?
It really is plenty parts Treasure eccentricity, almost like a pause in the action proper that changes the pacing entirely – I felt more than a bit like the student learning to slow down, relax, and wait for the chance to grab the stone from her hand, or in this case evade at just the right moment and strike. Defeating her tosses you straight into another boss encounter in a game that seems to possess such an incredibly strange and unique rhythm that I might never quite find the right words for what Treasure has done this time around.
If you haven’t played Star Successor yet, shame on you, but I guess you can still check out the fight after the break.
It’s a glorious Saturday when you discover that someone was good enough to tackle translating and subtitling Nintendo’s Japanese developer feature for Metroid: Other M – so be sure to drop by and thank them.
To be honest, the language barrier didn’t stop me from already watching the two videos several times over with limited comprehension – Metroid footage is universal, kinda like the language of love as far as I’m concerned.
That said, being able to follow along and hear about some of the challenges in developing the latest release in the franchise is not to be missed – so catch it after the break.
The year is 1984.
You’re watching MTV, where music videos are still played, and Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” comes on. Bruce is rocking out on stage but… he keeps making eyes at this somewhat androgynous brunette in a sleeveless t-shirt. Then, during The Big Man’s sax solo, The Boss actually pulls her up on stage for a brief, intimate, and somewhat awkward dance. And thus the world was introduced to Courtney Cox; she of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Scream and Friends fame. From those dubious beginnings, a long and fruitful career blossomed.
For two of the N64’s most well-known anthropomorphic platform heroes, the beginning was almost as humble.
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