Our next Community Spotlight of 2023 is now live! This month we are featuring Tatsuche, a French speedrunner and one of the top five Metroid Dread speedrunners in the world. His personal best time, which he recently achieved, is 00:53:06! Tatsuche talked to us about his journey to reach the highest rankings in the speedrunning community. To learn more, click the link below.
Fall Out Boy’s new song mentions Metroid
An unexpected reference to Metroid has surfaced! The band Fall Out Boy released a cover of the Billy Joel classic “We Didn’t Start the Fire” yesterday, which namedrops multiple public figures and popular culture events that have caught the public’s attention between 1989 and 2023. At about 1:50 into the song, Metroid is referenced. If you want to listen to the song for yourself, you can at the link below.
Source: YouTube
Your Favorite Metroid Game 2023 (Poll Opens)
The poll to discover the community’s favorite Metroid game for 2023 is now live! People are now welcome to vote for their favorite Metroid title, with votes being collected between June 28th to July 31st 2023. As in years past, the results will be revealed on August 6th 2023. In 2022, Metroid Dread won with 178 of your votes. This year, we’ve seen Metroid Prime Remastered come out, allowing new fans to experience one of the series’ most popular games. Maybe this will have an impact on the result? We’ll compare last year’s scores in this year’s rankings, and we can’t wait to see what you decide!
Votes can be cast in our Google forms document here
Please spread the word and share it with your Metroid loving friends! The more votes cast by individual fans, we can get a clearer picture on what fans love.
Feature: Famous Metroid Fans
Our newest feature is live! I worked with our Features Manager Quadraxis to find celebrities who are known to be Metroid fans. Many of them are well known at this point, including Brie Larson, John Cena and Chuck Lorre, yet there are many more who might surprise you. Did you know Venus Williams loved playing Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission? Find out more by clicking the link below!
Interview: Matthew Nightingale
Shinesparkers is delighted to share an interview with Matthew Nightingale, a former level designer at Metroid Prime Pinball developer Fuse Games! Matthew discusses his career in games, how Fuse got the chance to produce Pinball, and what went into the design of each of the tables. We want to thank Matthew for speaking to us, and giving Metroid Prime Pinball, which doesn’t get a lot of love, its chance in the spotlight!
Metroid Prime Remastered has sold 1.09 million copies
Nintendo has released its financial report for the preceding fiscal year, which reveals that Metroid Prime Remastered has sold 1.09 million copies since its surprise announcement and simultaneous release this past February. This figure is based on physical sales. The report indicates that digital sales for Remastered were higher, since the physical version was not released until several weeks later.
All things considered, this is incredibly good going for the Metroid franchise. The original Metroid Prime on GameCube sold 2.78 million units by 2006, making it the best selling Metroid game until Metroid Dread overtook it with 2.9 million copies sold. This means that, at least physically, Metroid Prime has sold a grand total of 4,680,000 copies worldwide. With digital figures, which Nintendo doesn’t share, the number is likely higher.
The financial report still lists Metroid Prime 4 without a release date, placing it after Pikmin 4, which is due to come out on July 21, 2023.
Source: Nintendo
Neill Blomkamp wants to make a Metroid movie
District 9 and Chappie director Neill Blomkamp was recently asked on Twitter if he was interested in making a Metroid movie, and he responded “yes”. This is especially interesting as Blomkamp was once working on a fifth Alien film, and Alien as we know has greatly influenced Metroid.
It seems that the cry for a Metroid film is growing louder and louder. Mere weeks ago, the stars of the Mario movie said they want Metroid to be next, and Brie Larson has long volunteered to play Samus in it if a movie is ever made. With Nintendo having said recently that more movies based on their games will come, there’s never been a greater chance to see our bounty hunter on the silver screen.
Source: Neill Blomkamp
In Memory of Daniel Woodyer (Pirate Crab)
I am deeply saddened by the news that Daniel Woodyer, a.k.a PirateCrab, has passed away. Daniel contributed to three of our albums, making his debut on Harmony of Heroes with Pirate’s Road, and There’s No Metal on Zebes. Shortly after, he contributed a third track called Shadow of the Core for the follow-up album, Harmony of Heroes: Final Smash. His most recent work for us was in Harmony of a Hunter Returns, with Kraidosaurus.
Daniel was an outstanding musician, and incredibly hard-working. He could be counted on to deliver a high quality track to deadline, and never backed down from a challenge. He was flexible and enthusiastic about each project he was involved in, and an absolute pleasure to work with. While we didn’t speak too often outside of projects, I knew him well enough as a pretty chill, laid back guy, with a great sense of humour. I will always be thankful for his contribution to our albums, and his music will live on with us all.
On behalf of Shinesparkers, and the Harmony teams, we share our condolences with Daniel’s friends, family and those who loved him during this difficult time.
Interview: Nathan McGuinness
We are thrilled to share our latest interview with Nathan McGuinness, who directed Iron Woman, the live-action North American commercial for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes! Nathan shared how he became a filmmaker and many other details from behind the scenes, including the filming location, the visual effects, and the name of the actress. It was fantastic to hear from him and to learn more about a beloved commercial for Metroid Prime 2. We hope you’ll enjoy the interview!
Community Spotlight: Noababoa
Our next Community Spotlight of 2023 is now live! This month we are featuring Noababoa, a talented 3D artist whose redesigns of Samus’s different suits have become very popular. These include revamps of the Power, Varia, Gravity and Fusion Suits, with more on the way. Be sure to give his spotlight a read, and follow him on his social platforms to keep up with his work!