“When first introduced, it was announced that there would be limited availability.”

Its indeed a collector’s edition now. However, the game should still be fairly easy to get at resale stores, but if you want a new unopened copy you’re now on a time table.

The official Metroid website also updated for the Prime Trilogies release. You can find a developer’s interview with Retro Studios. They also hint at the possibility of another Phazon based game.

Q. Will you ever see Dark Samus or Phazon again?
A. Do you want to see Dark Samus or Phazon again? It’s up to the fans.

You can view the video below.

For recent fans of the series this is a definite pickup, and for older fans it may well be worth another look through the worlds of Tallon IV and Aether if only for the bonuses.

T-Shirt Pre-Order Bonus

Sure the case is no wasa-bi creation but after the lapse with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption’s box art I personally couldn’t be anymore pleased. (Unless they were to actually use Wasa-Bi’s creation)

The game is set for release in North America on August 24th of this year.

They appear to be taking the game in a more action oriented direction in an attempt to bring more fans to the Metroid series.

IGN: Has working with Team Ninja brought about a more action-oriented Metroid with less focus on adventure?

Yoshio Sakamoto: I think Metroid has always been a little bit of action as well as adventure, but because we are teaming up with Team Ninja, I do think that they will bring things to the table that we haven’t been able to do in the past. But again, a huge part of Metroid is the adventure aspect and we do want to stay true to that as well.

I for one am all for more action if and only if this new approach doesn’t alienate the adventure aspects of Metroid in favor of those action sequences. Sakamoto has at least acknowledged the adventure aspect of Metroid so we can only hope for the best. Sakamoto also stated in the interview that he still has the idea about Metroid Dread in his head and that a 2D Metroid could be in the works sometime later in the future.

Check out the rest of the interview for more information about the game.

So unless you have been living in a hole for the past few days by now you know that Nintendo has announced a new Metroid for the Wii at this years e3 conference.

Dubbed Project M it is a collaboration by Nintendo and Team Ninja (the people behind Ninja Gaiden). Set between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion this story promises to reveal some of Samus’ back story as well as what happened to her former commanding officer Adam Malkovich.

The trailer also looks fantastic showing what the Wii can be graphically capable of. It showcases a hybrid 2D/3D gameplay style. It should be interesting to see how this 2.5D plays out. The game is expected to release sometime in 2010. Personally I’m just glad Team Ninja showed restraint in Samus’ figure.

You should also check out 1UP’s Interview with Yoshio Sakamoto & Yusuke Hayashi for more information on the game. It’s a great read aside from the mention that the game may be a bit more linear than we could hope for.

The trailer is below. More coverage to follow, in the meantime you can join the discussion in the forums.

Prime's New Controls

On another note along with this is a new section on the site that showcases more videos of Prime being played with Wii controls. There are also a few screens cast about the site you might want to check out. Don’t get your hopes up, because personally I’d love to be proven wrong on this one, even if the result was a Prime spinoff where you control a space pirate.

Rounding up the year with a quick look back at 2008 fan creations. The Metroid Manga has been fully translated and 2009 should be another great year. Take a small glimpse at what we have in store for 2009.

Short look at 2008

It has been a relatively quiet year for Metroid fans. The excitement over Metroid Prime 3: Corruption seems to have died down and aside from gamecube to wii ports it seems not much is happening in the Metroid universe over at Nintendo.

However we’ve seen for ourselves how active the Metroid community still is. A rather large influx of user created content has been burning up the web this year. Some of the most notable ranging from Metroid cake to Metroid lego models.

Metroid Manga

Metroid Manga Anyone?

The folks over at snoopy cool have also finished translating the Metroid manga, so if you’re interested head on over there for a read to find out what happened chronologically before the original metroid.

What’s to come

We’ve been working on a project which we’ll be unveiling in a short while. It is still under wraps for now, but maybe you can take a guess at it from the logo. We hope to have a new, much more appealing design up soon. Since this is a metroid blog if you have any metroid news, or content you’ve created that you would like to publish, get noticed, or have featured then feel free to contact us.

See you next mission!

Metroid Quasi-Stop Motion by Bitflick

What you can see is a very basic quasi-stop motion animation. Quasi because there was actually only one LEGO block involved, which was photographed in multiple positions and then composited in a photo editing program as a multi-layer image. Producing the animation was then a simple matter of masking the LEGO blocks and then hiding or displaying certain layers. The end result was a simple stop motion animation that didn’t suffer from the usual random variations in lighting and position.

Lego Metroid by Richard Leyva

We’ve contacted their creator and this is what he had to say:

My name is Richard Leyva. For a year and a half, I’ve written a 10 chapter long story pertaining to a series called, “Lego Metroid”. Using Legos to express my story through stop-motion animation, the series became a hit for Metroid fans. Everyday apart from school, for restless hours, I film with the motivation from my fans. The story is currently being filmed and should be finished by early ’09.

You can see his videos in his YouTube channel (001rich100). He is currenlty in Episode 5 of his series, and as he himself stated, he’s working hard to make more episodes. The main plot it set after Metroid Fusion, so it stretches the Metroid storyline further. But since we won’t spoil you the video contents, you will have to watch them yourselves to know what is this all about.

Metroid Prime 3 Ships by Paul Hanger

A Space Pirate ATC from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

A Galactic Federation Stiletto Class starfighter

The Griffin Class Assault Frigate Thesius

Samus Aran's Gunship in landing mode

The cockpit of Samus Aran's Gunship

Samus Models by Matt De Lanoy

Varia Suit Samus and Zero Suit Samus

Samus vs. Metroids

Metroid Sprites Mosaics by Lwelyk

I started making lego mosaics of video game sprites as something to do with my hands when watching TV. It kind of snowballed and now I have 199 done. I unfortunately didn’t notice the nice number there before I started typing this up, otherwise I would have made something big, but oh well. It’s not all that hard to do overall, it takes time, and as long as you know how to support the structure, not too much effort. It’s a fun thing to do and for some reason people seem to like it.

Samus

Samus Again

Mother Brain

Metroid

Pretty nice. You should check out lwelyk legos for more videogame sprites as well.

But wait, what is this article about? A red cabinet? What’s so special about that?

Well…

…This.

Kelli Nelson made this amazing Metroid Cabinet. The bright colors, simple but harmonious, give it a very energetic look. It certainly is a work of art to be taken into consideration.

For instance, the Metroids were delicately carved and shaped to perfection, giving them about an inch of depth.

The cabinet shows Samus in a new and fresh design, exaggerating her famous Varia Suit shoulders and deforming her original look to fit the artists’ perception. And what a perception!

But not only should we look at the quality, which is impeccable, but also the size. Comparing the cabinet to average bananas (um…) as a scale, we can appreciate how big it is, only showing how much work was put into it.

The cabinet is on sale in Kelli Nelson’s site, Cheappaperart.com. Be sure to visit and check out some amazing content!