It’s that time of the year again and our good friends over at Metroid Headquarters are hosting the 2015 MHQthon! Please check it out, leave some comments and, if you feel like it, leave a donation for the Child’s Play charity through the widget in the main page.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force announced at E3 2015
June 18th, 2015On June 16, during Nintendo’s Digital Event, the company announced Metroid Prime: Federation Force, an upcoming spin-off of the Metroid Prime series focusing on the adventures of Galactic Federation marines. The game will be released in 2016 for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force will be a 4-player co-op game focusing on Galactic Federation troopers. It is being developed by Next Level Games, the Canadian studio that brought us Punch-Out!! on Wii and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon on 3DS. Producer Kensuke Tanabe, who also oversaw the development of Retro Studios’ Metroid and Donkey Kong games, said that Federation Forces “[is] sort of like a different perspective that I’m taking with this game to create sort of an opportunity to expand, to broaden the universe.”
Also included within Federation Force is Metroid Prime: Blast Ball, a 3-on-3 sports-like game to compete and enjoy with your friends.
Controversy surrounds Federation Force, since it features little of the exploration-driven gameplay players are used to in the Metroid series. Tanabe, however, is confident that “once [players] play the game [they]’ll be able to feel that Metroid Prime universe.” Fortunately, the soundtrack is being composed by Kenji Yamamoto, who worked on Super Metroid and the Prime games, along with Next Level Games’ in-house composers.
Players on New Nintendo 3DS will enjoy enhanced features, but the game is compatible with all systems in the family. It will also feature Download Play, so players don’t have to worry about their friends also picking up the game. There has been no talk of online play so far.
Check out the video below to get a glimpse of Federation Force gameplay on Nintendo’s Treehouse Live that happened during E3:
We at Shinesparkers will do our best to keep up-to-date with the latest Federation Force news, so stay tuned!
Sources: Nintendo’s E3 website and Kotaku’s interview with Kensuke Tanabe.
Metroid: Zero Mission on European Wii U eShop
March 13th, 2015This week, Nintendo of Europe released the GBA classic Metroid: Zero Mission on the Wii U Virtual Console service. If you have a Wii U from that region, pick it up now for £6.29/€6.99/CHF 9.80!
The game is now available both in Japan and in Europe, while people in the Americas have yet to hear anything about it coming to their eShop.
Source: Nintendo UK
Metroid Prime Trilogy announced for Wii U
January 14th, 2015Earlier today, Nintendo announced that, starting now, Wii games will start becoming available for download on Wii U. Super Mario Galaxy 2 launches the feature today; Punch-Out!! and Metroid Prime Trilogy will follow later this month, on January 22 and 29 respectively. Each game will sell for 50% off during the first week after its release, so this might be a great chance to grab Retro Studios’ amazing trilogy for a low price!
Harmony of Heroes: Final Smash now available!
December 27th, 2014Shinesparkers’ latest musical project, Harmony of Heroes: Final Smash, is now available! Final Smash is an expansion to Harmony of Heroes, containing tracks based on Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/for Wii U and some0 that didn’t make it in the original album.
Harmony of Heroes: Final Smash contains 27 tracks and is available as a free download here!
Review: Metroid Cinematica
December 9th, 2014Sam Dillard, of Harmony of a Hunter fame, released his first solo album a few weeks ago, entitled Metroid Cinematica. We at Shinesparkers have had the opportunity of listening to it and now bring to you our impressions on the album.
Click here to read the full review!
Ridley in Smash Bros. – but it’s not what you’re thinking
October 23rd, 2014Earlier today, in the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Direct, it was announced that our one-and-only Ridley will eventually show up in the Pyrosphere stage. Unlike a regular stage obstacle, however, if a player deals a certain amount of damage to him, Ridley will fight alongside that player. Knocking out Ridley will earn a point in time-based matches!
Samus' new pet
Additionally, certain Metroid enemies like Zeros show up in Pyrosphere, and the Norfair stage from Super Smash Bros. Brawl returns for the Wii U game.
Super Smash Bros., Harmony of Heroes now out!
October 8th, 2014Last Friday, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS was released, featuring a vast array of Nintendo characters settling it with their fists (and swords, hammers, guns, missiles, bombs, etc.). The game features Samus and Zero Suit Samus as playable characters. Other Metroid elements include:
- Brinstar, from Super Smash Bros. Melee, returns as a stage;
- Dark Samus and Mother Brain join Metroid as assist trophies;
- Metroids, Zoomers, Rios and Ki-Hunters, among others, appear as enemies in the new mode Smash Run; and
- Custom Mii characters can be of the Gunner class, which feature an arm cannon very similar to Samus’.
Additionally, abilities such as Boost Ball, Power Bomb and, yes, Shinespark are now available as custom moves for Samus.
In Smash-related news, our webmaster Darren Kerwin has released the third album under the Shinesparkers brand, titled Harmony of Heroes, which features 101 tracks covering various themes present in the Super Smash Bros. series.
Harmony of Heroes is available now as a free download over at harmonyofheroes.com!
Review: SteamWorld Dig (Wii U)
August 25th, 2014
We had the pleasure of reviewing SteamWorld Dig: A Fistful of Dirt for Wii U, a Metroidvania style title by Image & Form. To find out what’s new in this edition of the game, be sure to read our review by clicking Rusty above..
Samus – in Shorts!
August 19th, 2014For today’s pic of the day, Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai confirmed that both Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS will feature alternate costumes for Zero Suit Samus, in which the famous bounty hunter uses shorts – the same ones shown in the endings for Metroid: Zero Mission. Sakurai has yet to confirm whether we’ll need to type in “JUSTIN BAILEY” somewhere to unlock the outfit.
Additionally, the stage Brinstar from Super Smash Bros. Melee is once again making a return in the upcoming 3DS game. There was no word on it being on Wii U, so it might be exclusive to the handheld version of Smash.
Source: Miiverse
