When Dark Samus was first revealed as playable in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo confirmed that she would get an amiibo figure in the future. At E3 this year, they showcased her amiibo for the first time, and now this morning, Nintendo has confirmed when Dark Samus’s amiibo will be released: on January 17, 2020. As of this writing, preorders have not yet opened up for the amiibo, but we’ll let you know when they do!
Source: Twitter
Luigi’s Mansion 3 was released two days ago, and has been enjoyed by many players alike. If you’re a Metroid fan playing, there’s something cool to note: at the beginning of the Paranormal Productions level, there’s a hallway with several posters for Mario Strikers Charged!!, Punch-Out!! and Metroid Prime: Federation Force! All of these were developed by the same studio as Luigi’s Mansion 3, Next Level Games, so this is a nice little trip down memory lane. You can check out a screenshot of the poster (on the left) below.
We’ll let you know if there are any other Metroid cameos in Luigi’s Mansion 3 as we continue through the game.
Retro Studios has recently hired Kyle Hefley, the artist behind the Halo series Spartan designs, as lead character artist. Kyle has spent nine years with 343 Industries and has done various Spartan and alien designs and modelling for Halo 4, Halo 5 and the upcoming Halo Infinite. This comes after a recent wave of job listings at Retro Studios, which still has roles like art director and graphics engineer left open.
Kyle Hefley has also done work for games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops and Sleeping Dogs. His experience with the Halo series will no doubt aid his position at Retro Studios, as the sci-fi nature of his artwork will be very beneficial to the development of Metroid Prime 4. You can view his portfolio at his Artstation page.
Source: VGC
Today we are proud to be sharing yet another awesome example of the creativity and passion of the Metroid community in the form of Warlockthevigilante, an animator and artist from the United Kingdom, who is working towards creating his own fan-made Metroid anime! Warlock has been sharing clips of his work over his social media, and we really liked what we saw. We hope you’ll enjoy checking out his work, and we encourage you to follow his Twitter account to see more of his amazing animations!
Shinesparkers continue to search for passionate fan projects across the Metroid community, and we encourage you to get in touch if you are working on something and would like us to promote!
We’re excited to share a very special guest feature with you today! Today, we are sharing a personal story from Danior Snyder, a passionate gamer and Metroid fan who lives with Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis (LCA). LCA is a form of blindness, but it has not stopped him from enjoying the Metroid series and games in general. Danior shares with us how he became a Metroid fan, how his condition impacts his ability to play, and offers ideas on how games can be made more accessible for players like him. Unfortunately, because he graduated from school, he lost access to the equipment that allows him to communicate in Braille, and he has set up a fundraiser on GoFundMe in order to buy it back.
We also reached out to Fight for Sight, a British charity that researches eyesight loss, for a quote to learn more about LCA and what progress has been made in finding a cure. We hope you enjoy Danior’s feature, and contribute to his crowdfund if you can. If not, spreading the word helps just as much!
Today we’re sharing our next Community Spotlight with you, for David Verstraete! Known in the Metroid community as Porvia, he is a talented Metroid artist whose work has ranged from humorous with a cartoon style, to serious pieces that pay tribute to the atmosphere of the series. David shares how he became a fan of the series and how he was inspired to start drawing the characters. His work is yet another example of the tremendous talent and creativity that thrives within the Metroid fandom. Please check out David’s story and see his artwork at the link below!
Today we are sharing a new feature focused on a personal story from RoyboyX and his experience of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption from the Metroid Prime Trilogy release, detailing how it encouraged him to become a completionist. When Roy isn’t writing and working through content on Shinesparkers, he continues to rack up an impressive (perhaps slightly scary) Gamerscore on his Xbox, and how the Bonus Credit system of Corruption gave him a focus to complete games in their entirety.
Metroid Prime Trilogy recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. Perhaps its about time I went back to that impressive compilation of games, and did my best to complete it just as effectively as Roy did.
Several new job openings at Austin Texas based Retro Studios opened up in August, presumably in preparation for Metroid Prime 4’s development to begin. Since November last year, the company have been advertising the role of Art Director, which is still present on their website, along with Lead Cinematics Artist and Lead Graphics Engineer positions made available in April this year. The recent job openings could indicate that development of the game is now fully underway.
Art Director (November 12, 2018)
Lead Cinematics Artist (April 26, 2019)
Lead Graphics Engineer (April 26, 2019)
Senior Material Artist (August 09, 2019)
Senior Designer (August 09, 2019)
Environment Designer (August 09, 2019)
Director of Development (August 12, 2019)
Lead Engineer (August 20, 2019)
IT Manager (August 29, 2019)
Back in June, we reported that Metroid Prime 4 Producer Kensuke Tanabe was focusing on the upcoming Luigi’s Mansion 3, a title he is also producing. It seemed to indicate that Tanabe-san was focused on the release of that title, before his work on Metroid Prime 4 would begin. With Luigi’s Mansion 3 releasing on October 31st 2019, it is fair to assume that the development for that game has already wrapped.
Detailed information on all these job roles can be navigated to from the official Retro Studios website, or from the link source below.
Source: Nintendo of America Careers
During today’s Nintendo Direct, the company announced SNES games are coming to Nintendo Switch Online, including Super Metroid! This Friday, September 6, subscribers will finally be able to replay one of the most beloved Metroid games, along with many other titles from the system, at no extra cost. Will you be picking it up? Let us know on social media.
We are very proud to share another great feature from our team member Quadraxis! His second feature, in what we hope will be a long and successful series of articles about the different races within the Metroid universe, he focuses on Luminoth civilisation, the impact of the Ing on their homeworld and offers his ideas on what the future may hold for them, beyond the events of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
