Can you believe that 2023 is already over? It’s astounding. Every year, the team at Shinesparkers like to do a recap of what happened in the world of Metroid, and highlight some of our favorite content that we’ve published.
We started the year off in January with the release of an oral history of the 90s’ animated Zelda show from DiC, hosted by Polygon. Years ago, an animation cell for a proposed Metroid animated series surfaced in the estate sale of a former DiC animator. Metroid was one of many shows considered for a Super Mario Bros. Power Hour, an hour-long block of shows. The reason Samus was male is likely a combination of Nintendo conducting minimal oversight, and the writers not playing the games. Certainly interesting to think where the series might have been if the show was made. Near the end of the month, we published The Zebesians, the next entry in our Features Manager Quadraxis’ series of features on the races in Metroid. We also shared Episode 26 of the Shinesparkers Podcast, featuring former Retro Studios Development Director Bryan Walker.
February gave Metroid fans their biggest treat of the year: Metroid Prime Remastered was announced during the February 8 Nintendo Direct, and released right afterwards! Our Creative Director Roy may or may not have screamed down the Discord call he was in, watching the presentation with other members of the team. The same Direct revealed that Metroid II: Return of Samus and Metroid Fusion were coming to Nintendo Switch Online, the former on the same day. Metroid Prime Remastered was very well received, although it was unfortunate that the original development team were not credited as in the original versions of Metroid Prime. Some new developers were also improperly credited for their contributions. That said, they will not be forgotten. Later in February we published a Community Spotlight for toy maker Topher Putnam, and Vanessa Marshall confirmed that she recorded the death scream for Samus that was used in the Metroid Prime games.
Onto March. Metroid Prime Remastered was released as a physical game on March 3rd, and in its first week it nearly outsold Hogwarts Legacy in the United Kingdom. Shinesparkers published the next episode of the podcast with Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang, the former hosts of Nintendo Minute, who have left Nintendo behind and started their own podcast. Soon after this, Metroid Fusion was re-released on Nintendo Switch Online. Shinesparkers published an interview with Bruce Hunt, the director of Metroid Fusion’s live-action commercial “Parasite”, and we shared a review of Metroid Prime Remastered written by team member Leon. Ahead of the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, its lead actors Chris Pratt and Charlie Day called for a Metroid film to be developed.
In April, Shinesparkers published a Community Spotlight for Noababoa, a 3D modeler whose recreations of Samus’s classic Power Suits are incredible, and an interview with Nathan McGuinness, who directed the “Iron Woman” commercial for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. We reported on the tragic loss of PirateCrab, a musician on the Harmony albums. Finally, further interest in a Metroid film came again from Pratt and Day, but also Donkey Kong’s movie voice actor Seth Rogen, and District 9 and Chappie director Neill Blomkamp.
May brought us the news that Metroid Prime Remastered had sold 1.09 million copies, a figure that is likely to be higher as it only takes physical sales into account. We also published an interview with Metroid Prime Pinball 3D Artist Matthew Nightingale. In June, we published a feature written by Roy and Quaddy about famous people who are openly fans of Metroid, and announced the opening of our annual favorite Metroid game community poll. Metroid was also mentioned in a Fall Out Boy cover of the classic song We Didn’t Start the Fire. In July, we published a Community Spotlight for Metroid Dread speedrunner Tatsuche, and preorders for the E.M.M.I. Figma from Good Smile Company opened.
Metroid news slowed over the next several months, although we steadily released additional content. In August, the Month of Metroid, we published the results of our favorite game poll. Metroid Dread won again for the second year in a row. It was also announced that the game had sold three million copies. In September, we shared a Community Spotlight that paid tribute to PirateCrab, with our former Creative Director Darren and podcast editor Step sharing their memories of working with him on the albums. In October, we published another interview, this time with Metroid Prime 1 and 2 Character and Environment Artist LeRoy Strauss, who detailed the creative process in designing the iconic worlds of Tallon IV and Aether.
Our final Community Spotlight of 2023 was published in November, focusing on the talented artist Pajarona. A remake of Super Mario RPG was released this month, and we were delighted to see that Samus is still resting up for Mother Brain at Mushroom Castle. Near the end of the month, we published part one of Quadraxis’ features on The Chozo, specifically those of Elysia and Tallon IV, with a follow-up planned for next year.
Finally, in December we published several more pieces of exclusive content, starting with In Search of Samus. This was the culmination of a yearlong investigation led by Roy to identify every single actress who has portrayed or voiced Samus in Metroid games or commercials. It was highly important to him that they not be forgotten, and instead recognized for their roles. Later in December, Shinesparkers published one last interview, which was with Yasuo Kanemaki, who directed the live-action Japanese Super Metroid commercial. After a hiatus from the podcast, it returned with an episode that briefly recapped the year, and featured an audio drama based on the Super Metroid comic! The host of our podcast, Amanda finally got her chance to play Samus, while Roy voiced Armstrong Houston, and Amanda’s husband performed as Old Bird.