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!
Feature: Our Hopes for Metroid Prime 4
With Metroid Prime 4 on the horizon in the next year or two, the Shinesparkers team got together to share their hopes for Metroid Prime 4. The feature covers thoughts on story and world building, tone and atmosphere, gameplay, music and sound design, a potential multiplayer feature and general expectations about the game. We hope you enjoy it!
Perhaps you have your own ideas of what you would like to see in Metroid Prime 4? Be sure to share them with us on our Twitter and Facebook pages!
Community Spotlight: Planet Zebeth (Historic Metroid Sprite Comic)
Our first Community Spotlight of March 2018 is now available! This one focuses on the historic Metroid sprite comic Planet Zebeth, which was first created back in 2002 and focuses on the character of Kabutroid and other unique individuals. It’s an important creation within the Metroid fan community and worthy of a feature here on Shinesparkers.
Super Smash Bros. is coming to the Nintendo Switch!
At the end of the Nintendo Direct today, it was announced that Super Smash Bros. will be coming to the Nintendo Switch this year! Samus appears in a silhouette among the other fighters under the fiery Smash symbol as the Inklings look on. Stay tuned for more information.
Feature – Metroid Prime 2: Dark Echoes Q&A
Today, Shinesparkers has an exciting new feature to share with our readers: an exclusive translation of a Q&A on the Japanese Metroid Prime 2: Dark Echoes website! Similar to that done by Yoshio Sakamoto for Metroid: Zero Mission, this interview with the Echoes development team answered numerous questions about the game, as well as the mythology of the series. For example, it gives away the name of Phaaze, well before we discovered it in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. This translation was sponsored by yours truly, and would not have been possible without the generous help of freelance translator Leah Hicks. On behalf of Shinesparkers, I would like to thank Leah for her great work on translating this Q&A!
Community Spotlight: Torby Brand (Musician, AM2R)
Our latest Community Spotlight is now live. It focuses on AM2R musician Torby Brand, who has had a presence in the Metroid community for many years. Our readers may recognise him as our Assistant Director for Harmony of a Hunter: 101% Run, and played a key role in helping that album come to fruition. In recent years, Torby Brand has grown in leaps and bounds with his contribution to the popular Metroid fan game AM2R, as well as maintaining his own YouTube channel!
Metroid: Samus Returns wins Handheld Game of the Year at 21st Annual DICE Awards #NintendoGuy
Last night, at the 21st Annual DICE Awards held by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in Las Vegas, Nintendo cashed in numerous awards for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Snipperclips, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Fire Emblem Heroes for a total of 10 out of 24 awards. As a special bonus, Nintendo veteran and legend, Genyo Takeda, received the lifetime achievement award for his massively influential contributions to the medium.
On top of all this, and most important to us here, Metroid: Samus Returns won the Handheld Game of the Year award! It was nominated alongside Dragon Quest VIII (3DS, Square Enix/Nintendo), Etrian Odyssey V (3DS, ATLUS), Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (3DS, Nintendo), and Monster Hunter Stories (3DS, Capcom).
Unfortunately, the Handheld Game of the Year award was part of the award montage covering Family Game, Racing Game, Sports Game, and Mobile Game of the Year, which were all rattled off without an acceptance speech. This means we sadly did not get to see Nintendo of America’s Nate Bihldorff (from now on to be known as #NintendoGuy) run on-stage yet again to accept yet another award on behalf of the developers.
Congratulations from Shinesparkers to the developers at MercurySteam and Nintendo EPD!
You can watch the full show on IGN’s YouTube channel. The handheld category happens at 1h05m10s mark.
Full list of winners: AIAS
Metroid remixer bLiNd needs your support as tragedy strikes
Jordan Aguirre, also known as bLiNd, is a musician best known for creating remixes of popular video game music through Overclocked Remix. Metroid fans may be familiar with an album called Reserve Tank: VARIAtions, an album put together by Jordan’s friends when he was very ill in hospital. He was able to recover and add his own track Jade Catacombs to the album, a happy ending to a group of friends who wanted him to recover and get well. bLiNd also released a Super Metroid remix album called Chozo Legacy.
Sadly fate has struck Jordan again, along with his wife Jennifer as their home in Las Vegas went up in flames a couple of days ago. They lost everything, including Jordan’s musical equipment required to make a living, priceless belongings from late relatives and all eight of their beloved pets perished in the fire.
We are saddened to hear about this loss, and we know that many fans in the Metroid community, myself included, have enjoyed his work over the years, and would love to do all they can to help. A fundraiser has been set up to raise $125,000 to cover the cost of the damage, which you can support by visiting the links below this news post. No amount of money will recover the loss of priceless items and life, but the money should help them get their lives back on track. We would really appreciate it if you could share it around!
We cannot imagine how difficult these times are for Jordan and Jennifer right now, but on behalf of the team at Shinesparkers, we are thinking of you, and hope you reach your goal.
Rumor: Metroid Prime 4 Could Have Online Multiplayer
Excitement surrounding Metroid Prime 4 continues to grow, as further evidence is found regarding its development. Last week we reported that Metroid Prime 4 is rumored to be in development by Bandai Namco Studios Singapore, with development moving over to their main headquarters in Tokyo, originally reported by Eurogamer. A LinkedIn profile of a Senior Online Programmer working for the company, states that he has been relocated to the Tokyo HQ from the Singapore studio, which appears to line up the Eurogamer report, if this individual is indeed working on Metroid Prime 4. Could this mean that the game will have some sort of online feature, like multiplayer?
Update: We at Shinesparkers checked out his profile on LinkedIn, and while we won’t name the individual, we can confirm that the experience he has are consistent with the position he is covering.
Many of the skills are strictly related to low latency data transmission over the Internet, which are highly regarded in the development of a multiplayer game communication protocol.
With so few official details known about the title, it isn’t much surprise that these kinds of rumours and speculation are coming to light. Only time will tell!
Source: Doctre81