Nintendo has added a new selection of user icons, available to purchase with Platinum Points obtained with the Nintendo Switch Online Missions feature. These icons will change every week, and will feature at some point one or several icons based on the original Metroid game for the NES! Make sure to claim them while you can for 10 Platinum Points each as they are temporary rewards.
Interview: Micky Coyne (Metroid: Other M commercial)
We are delighted to be publishing another great interview on Shinesparkers today, this time with Micky Coyne, the Creative Director behind the Metroid: Other M commercial. Micky discusses the writing, filming and casting process, as well as sharing an insight into the working relationship with Nintendo and Series Producer Yoshio Sakamoto. This interview may be valuable to anyone with an interest in filmmaking, and those with an interest on what goes behind the scenes when it comes to advertising a product for Nintendo and the video game industry.
Community Spotlight: Wata Ridley
We’re back with another Community Spotlight, this time for the brilliant artist Wata Ridley! A prominent member of the Japanese Metroid fan community, Wata Ridley’s artwork encompasses all games in the Metroid series, including the most recent Metroid Dread. One of their drawings has Samus playing on a Switch alongside one of the E.M.M.I. Wata is on a mission to help increase the Metroid series’ popularity in Japan. We wish them the best of luck with this and hope to see more of their wonderful art in the future.
Autechre almost composed Metroid Prime
For years, it’s been rumored that Autechre, the English electronic music duo of Sean Booth and Rob Brown, either inspired the music of Metroid Prime or were approached to compose it. Both of their names appear in special thanks in Metroid Prime’s credits (original NTSC release only), which is what fueled the speculation. In an AMA stream on Twitch at the end of July, Sean explained that Autechre had been asked by Retro Studios if they would make the music. They met with Retro representatives in Austin, Texas, and both parties were eager to get started. However, Nintendo disagreed with hiring them for unknown reasons, and instead sent Kenji Yamamoto to work with Retro directly.
Sean previously declined to answer a question about Autechre’s potential role on Prime in another AMA almost a decade ago, citing the non-disclosure agreement he signed.
You can see Sean answer the question at 32:34 in the video below.
Source: VGC
Feature: Your Favorite Metroid Game 2022
The results of our poll to discover Shinesparkers readers favorite Metroid game of 2022 are now available. After 798 votes, we find out how each game ranked.
Feature: Harmony of a Hunter Returns – One Year On
Its hard to believe that we released Harmony of a Hunter Returns a whole year ago, but the fact is we released our sixth (and third Metroid) album back on this day in 2021. I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on the project, and explain how it satisfied so many goals for me, dating back to the very first album we created, and to express my thanks for the people involved in it. I’ve gathered some thoughts here in this feature that I hope you will be interested in reading.
I’m massively thankful for all the support the album has received from fans over this past year, and I hope it continues to be an important project that helps you through the years to come. I am very proud of everyone involved in the project for their hard work and dedication to make this project possible.
Metroid Dread Samus and E.M.M.I. Figma revealed
Back in February, we learned that a Figma based on Samus’s Power Suit in Metroid Dread was coming. Tonight at Smile Fest, we got our first glimpse at not only this Figma, but a brand new E.M.M.I. one! The Samus Figma has a beautiful coat of paint, which suggests it’s closer to being ready for release than the E.M.M.I. Figma, which was shown as a prototype without coloring. At this point, we still don’t have release dates for either Figma statue. Watch this space.
Source: Good Smile (Samus/E.M.M.I.)
Metroid II commercial narrator David Warner has died
The narrator of the North American commercial for Metroid II: Return of Samus, David Warner, died on July 24, 2022 at the age of 80. Many Metroid fans who grew up in the early 1990s, or found the commercial on YouTube later, will remember the face that warned players to “Be afraid, be very afraid…” It was only today that we learned his name, and that he was sadly no longer with us.
David’s career spanned sixty years in film, television, theater and video games. His best known roles are in Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment, Time After Time (as Jack the Ripper), A Christmas Carol (as Bob Cratchit), Batman: The Animated Series (as Ra’s al Ghul) and multiple characters in Star Trek.
On behalf of the team at Shinesparkers, we offer our condolences to David’s family and friends during this difficult time, and we will remember his many brilliant performances over the years, especially the Metroid II commercial. You can watch it below.
Source: Rock Paper Shotgun/BBC
Feature: Izuki Kouji Tweets
For our latest feature, we are delighted to have reached out once again to Idzuki Kouji, the mangaka (author and illustrator) of Samus and Joey and Metroid EX, a four-part story for Metroid that was a manga series, published in Comic Bom Bom between December 2002 to April 2005 in Japan. Since we last spoke with Kouji-san in our interview back in 2019, Samus and Joey has been re-released as an eBook by Kodansha. The feature we have produced here, is a collection of his tweets over a ten month period between March 14th 2021 to January 8th 2022. With Kouji-san’s permission, we sought to translate these tweets in an attempt to preserve a record of his thoughts, feelings and his memories of working on Samus and Joey. Additionally, Kouji-san discussed his experiences playing Metroid Dread in these tweets.
Kouji-san also left a closing message on the feature for fans, which we hope you will read!
Shinesparkers Legacy Content restored
We have restored twelve pieces of classic content from the original Shinesparkers website (2010 – 2017), which wasn’t originally available upon relaunch in 2017. We’ve been chipping away at this for the past few years when we have had the spare time, and made some quality of life improvements to many of the pages, including new photographs, header images and a good ol’ spell check (no one is perfect). They can be found on our Features page, and on the following links:
End of Year 2010
End of Year 2011
Metroid Arrange Review
Metroid Blast Preview
Metroid Cinematica Review
Metroid Wii U Concept
Other M: Two Years Later
Shinesparkers 1st Anniversary
Super Metroid 20th Anniversary
Super Metroid Symphony Review
Varia Suit Metroid Other M Figma Review
Zero Suit Metroid Other M Scale Review
We hope you’ll take the time to see some of our early content, as much as we appreciate you taking the time to see our more recent content!