Metroid Database.com

Oh man, do I have some awesome information for you. It's not quite news of a new Metroid game, but it's just as good.

If you subscribe to our Facebook page, you may have seen a post about Metroid Prime's unused content. Since then, NeoGAF user Mama Robotnik has put together more, incredibly comprehensive threads on cut and unused content of all the Metroid Prime games. There was even "talks" of a Metroid 2 remake by Retro, but nothing ever came to fruition. This concept art of a reimagined Omega Metroid by Danny Richardson may be the only glimpse we ever get of it.

Any fans of the Prime series will deeply appreciate these threads. There is just way too much content in them for me to ever describe it in detail. Check them out below:

• Metroid Prime
• Metroid Prime 1.5 and Metroid 2 Remake
• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
• Metroid Prime Hunters

But wait, there's more! Check out this incredibly kick ass Demo Reel of Sonny Santa Maria, who is currently the Lead Animator at Namco Bandai. Sonny worked as a contract animator for Retro during MP3. The demo reel has a few cutscenes that never made it into the game.

--Infinity's End

Have you ever woken up on a cold morning and arbitrarily thought to yourself, "Hm, I wonder if I could make a life-size version of Samus Aran out of paper"? Well, that's sort of what happened to Matthew Green. What started out as a simple curiosity and personal challenge, eventually turned into a large endeavor involving plenty of glue, paper, and a reduced amount of free space in his apartment. With the assistance of the Pepakura software, Green channeled his inner-sense of Chozo craftsmanship, and worked off and on over a timespan of seven months to assemble this incredible 6'10" Samus based off of the Prime 2 Varia model.

The end results are stunning, but besides the complexity, just the scale itself posed some significant assembly challenges for Green. It became much heavier than he had initially anticipated, and required him to improvise an effective support structure. "For a while, the weight of the arm cannon, which is absurdly heavy for a bunch of paper, was twisting her lower back completely out of shape, so I had to build something quickly before she destroyed herself," he explains. Green was also surprised to learn that the proportions of the game model were suited quite well for a real 6ft person to potentially fit into, except for the legs, which were stretched longer than normal.

For anyone interested in adding this awesome life-size papercraft to their collection, especially anyone in the Toronto area, Green currently has it up on eBay Canada, and is looking for potential buyers. You can view additional pictures of the individual suit pieces on his Flickr profile. We don't know if he might do any other Metroid projects in the future, but we would definitely love to see more from him.

--Aurora Unit

As you can see in the trailer, the game unabashedly gets its main inspiration from the Metroid series. The game's creator is Tom Happ, whose day job is an engineer at Petroglyph Games in Las Vegas. Other than Metroid, he mentions the game also takes inspiration from other old school 8-bit titles such as Blaster Master, Contra, Bionic Commando, Rygar, and Cave Story.

You play as a character named Trace (no relation to the Hunter) who wakes up in a strange, ancient but high-tech world without any knowledge of why or how he got there. Sounds like a good enough backstory to me! The game promises "about 8 hours of play time (depending on exploration), over 60 items and powerups, over 20 upgradeable weapons, classic 2D graphics, gripping sci-fi storyline, and a pulsing sci-fi soundtrack." Check out this awesome trailer!

Axiom Verge is due to be released on both the PC and XBLA platforms, with no current release date in sight other than 2013. Being the sole developer and producer, Tom makes it clear that he's doing this in his spare time without any time restrictions.

For screenshots, devblog and more, visit the Axiom Verge official website.

Tom is also known for creating Orn, a freeware, Metroid 1 clone (based on Brinstar) that works with a GameBoy Advance emulator.

--Infinity's End

A few days ago, Darren of Shinesparkers published a brand new preview of the upcoming expansion album to last year's Harmony of a Hunter, subtitled "101% Run." The new album will span across two discs and be completely free to download later this year. Check out the aural goodness below:

Find out more through the Official HOAH Page on Shinesparkers or on their Facebook page.

--Infinity's End

The most recent bit of developer data we've located is the awesome concept gallery on the homepage of Danny Richardson, one of the lead artists for the Metroid Prime series. Richardson seems to have been largely responsible for the overall design of the trilogy, from the menu screens and HUD design (including the incredibly awesome X-Ray Visor) to many of the series' famous bosses, including Quadraxis, the Leviathan, the Aurora Unit, and various environments. Remember the awesome E3 2001 trailer? Richardson designed that, too! Just to prove he can do more than dark SF, those Donkey Kong Country Returns concepts are reminiscent of Disney animation cells! Given his portfolio and the influence his work had on the visual style for the series, Richardson should truly be considered one of the greatest artists in the industry. Thank you for all your great work, Danny!

One of the coolest elements of this page are several unseen images and concept art, including early HUD designs from Metroid Prime and what appears to be a Phazon-mutated Omega Metroid?! Could this be Project Dread? Kudos to Aaron from Nintendo World Report for the tip.

Until next time...
Captain Commando

For those that missed it, 1up.com's April Fool's day joke was this faux-commercial for a new 3DS game: Nintendo Dubstep Experience. The commercial features Samus, as well as Mario, Yoshi, Pokemon Trainer, and Pikachu all doing mo-capped robot dancing to dubstep. Nice try, 1up.

--Infinity's End

The Bestiary team has been hard at work these past few months polishing up the Bestiary by filling in missing enemies and providing more amazing artwork (Seriously, have you seen the Zeela? Warning: NSFL - Not Safe For Lunchtime). Our latest entry is of one of the most fiendish bosses in the Metroid series ever. He has tormented for two games and several comic books. Click on his image above. Our artist spared no expense, using up every ounce of processing power, and the log writer wracked his brain for at least six hours to get the text as perfect as possible (I know because I timed them). It's what you'd expect for what may be the most terrible boss of the Metroid series. (He makes Mother Brain look like Ronald McDonald.) Click on the image above (or click here) to see the full entry.

In other news, Google has created some brand new technology that allows you to view Google Maps on your 8-bit Nintendo! Be sure to place your name on the wait list ASAP, as these are sure to go out of print quickly! (Thankfully, you can always view it on the web.)

Until next time...
Captain Commando

Ever want to create your own version of NES Metroid? Well now you can and it's easier than ever. Just a few days ago, snarfblam released an update to his user-friendly Metroid editor: Editroid. Editroid 3.0 comes with a lot of great tools to make your hacking experience go smoothly. After opening up a Metroid ROM with it, you can begin editing and hacking the game's rooms in a matter of seconds. Snarfblam has also added a few new features such as a convenient Structure Editor allowing you to browse through the world's individual structures with ease. There's also a "Expand ROM" functionality, letting you do the following:

• Converts to CHR ROM - allows animated background tiles
• 15 KB per level for screens and structures (vs. about 3KB in the original game)
• 256 combos
• Up to 32 rooms per level with item-room-music (vs. 7 in the original game)
• More space for item data than you can use

Editroid 3.0 (Beta) is available for download via our Fanapps page in the Utilities & Mods section.

--Infinity's End

Looking for a cool Metroid shirt? Look no further! This tshirt is now available via SplitReason for a mere $10.00(USD). Unfortunately the only size they have left is XXL, so maybe some of our female fans could use it as a nightgown? I'd love to see some pictures of that...

If this one doesn't suit your fancy, there are also some other Metroid-related shirts on SR's site, just check our menu on the right-hand column.

--Infinity's End

Hello all. Today we bring you the first update to our Recommended Games page in almost a year! Rondus18 has helped give this feature layout a bit of an update so now every staff member has their own page. With this update we also bring you two new recommended games: Batman Arkham Asylum by Rondus18, and one from myself: the Dead Space series. These two series are games that no Metroid fan should be without!

In other news, I hope everyone is enjoying Kid Icarus Uprising. Here is the Komayto Card for use in the AR Game. We will eventually be doing a small update to the Cameos page to add this in.

--Infinity's End