Our tenth Community Spotlight of the year is now available, focusing on musician Sebastian Mårtensson, who has played a key role in many Shinesparkers albums such as Harmony of a Hunter and Harmony of Heroes. Sebastian was one of the Assistant Directors for Harmony of Heroes: Final Smash, where he helped to bring together a twenty-seven track album in just six weeks! Sebastian has since gone on to create music for the video game Magnetic: Cage Closed where he and his team were nominated for Best Audio at the Swedish Game Awards and has ambitions to one day create music for a big Nintendo game such as Metroid.
Community Spotlight: Pennaz (Animator)
We are delighted to be sharing our latest Community Spotlight with our readers today! This one is for an animator called Riccardo, otherwise known as Pennaz. He is infamous on YouTube for his series of Metroid animations which he began in 2012 focusing on the events of Metroid: Zero Mission with a fun and amusing twist. Pennaz has been creating animations since 2008 and is creating new content in the form of a Metroid Fusion animated series, which can be found on his YouTube channel. We have been excited to share this Spotlight for a while, so I hope you’ll check it out in the link below!
Click here to view the Community Spotlight
Community Spotlight: Gioia Marzullo (Cosplayer)
To round off April, we wanted to share another great Community Spotlight with you, an artist called Gioia Marzullo who brings her unique creations to life through hard work and dedication. She has featured in the the midwest anime and manga convention, Anime Central in 2011 and is currently working on a new costume to share in the future. We highlight them in this feature and urge you to check out more of her work on the links included within the feature.
Super Metroid returns to Summer Games Done Quick 2018
You may recall that Super Metroid was not run at Awesome Games Done Quick earlier this year, due to issues that have plagued recent runs of the game. If you were disappointed in that decision, we have good news for you today. It will return for Summer Games Done Quick in 2018! However, it is no longer the main event, and will be run on Tuesday, June 26th at 8:09pm PST, after runs of Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid: Samus Returns. Runner oatsngoats, who competed in last year’s SGDQ and died 11:34 into his run, will return for a chance at redemption. SGDQ will be raising money for Doctors Without Borders, a very worthy cause, this year. Be sure to tune in and show your support!
Source: ShackNews/Games Done Quick
Community Spotlight: Behemoth
Today’s Community Spotlight features Behemoth, a popular speedrunner in the Metroid community most notably for his achievements in Super Metroid, where he has set multiple records over the years. He also holds records in Metroid II: Return of Samus and toyed around with runs of Metroid NES, Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission. He currently holds the world record for the fastest 100% and Any% runs of Super Metroid (NTSC) and the fastest 100% and Any% (No out of bounds) records for Metroid II: Return of Samus.
Community Spotlight: Neal Anderson (Artist)
To round off the month, our latest Community Spotlight is now available, featuring an artist called Neal Anderson, who has created some awesome Metroid artwork over the years. He has recently completed a seven-piece project called Metroid Lifecycle, which is available to view in the feature. We are very proud to continue to showcase the amazing talent within the Metroid community, and hope you will consider checking it out!
Metroid Nominated for World Video Game Hall of Fame
The NES classic Metroid has been nominated for The Strong’s World Video Game Hall of Fame for 2018. It is a finalist for selection with 11 other games, including Half-Life, Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy VII, to join the likes of Super Mario Bros. and Tetris to be displayed at the National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.
A player’s choice ballot is available to select three titles to be displayed at the museum, with voting lasting from March 27th to April 4th. The top three highest voting games will be announced on May 3rd and will join 27 other International Selection Advisory Committee chosen ballots in the hall of fame.
This is what The Strong have to say about Metroid in their nomination of the title.
Nintendo’s Metroid launched in 1986 and inserted players into a futuristic world brimming with innovative adventure and evocative music. The game combined the platforming of Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. and non-linear story elements from The Legend of Zelda, offering a new game play experience. The protagonist, Samus, also gave the gaming industry its first playable human female character in mainstream video games. The game launched a franchise with 13 core titles that has sold more than 17 million units worldwide.
Source: World Video Game Hall of Fame
Nintendo Apply For New Metroid and Metroid Prime Trademarks
Nintendo have applied for nine new trademarks under “downloadable videogame programs”, which are Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers, Luigi’s Mansion, Mario & Luigi, Metroid, Metroid Prime, Smash Bros., Wario Land and WarioWare. It isn’t unusual for Nintendo to apply for trademarks often, however it is worth noting that “Wario Land” and “Metroid” are the only two trademarks have no announced plans at the time of writing.
We will update this news post with further information as it becomes available.
Sources: Japanese Nintendo , j-platpat
Guest Feature: Sonny Santa Maria – My Metroid Experience
We are delighted to be sharing a guest feature with you today from Sonny Santa Maria, a video game contract animator who worked on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption who discusses his first visit to Retro Studios, his memories of Metroid Prime 3 and what happened post-Retro Studios. We want to thank Sonny for taking the time to share these memories with us, and we hope you will enjoy reading them!
Feature: Stepping Into The Boots Of Samus Aran (Memories of Metroid Prime)
Today marks fifteen years since the release of Metroid Prime in Europe. I wanted to take the opportunity to mark the occasion by sharing my own personal memories of the game in a new written feature for Shinesparkers. If you’re willing to hear me ramble on about how much I appreciate this game, you can find a link to it below. I am sure you have your own memories of the game, and I would love to hear them! So be sure to send them to us on social media via our Twitter and Facebook pages!