Awesome Samus Cake

Another quick update -- fellow forum member Mason has once again brought to our attention the creation of an amazing cake of Samus's helmet. It was a groom's cake for a gamer's wedding courtesy of custom cake maker, Debbie Does Cakes, and as they say, it's pretty sweet. You can read more about the cake and see more pics at the bride's blog. She even used the MDb as a reference to the shape of the helmet! Also, be sure to read the fifth and final page of my feature, "The Woman Behind the Visor." I had a great time writing this article, so if you'd like to give me some feedback, please, by all means, let me know in our forums! Later.

Awesome Samus Pumpkin

Just a quick update today. I have added Part 4 of my "Woman Behind the Visor" feature today, so be sure to check that out. Also, fellow MDb fan and forum member Mason brought to our attention a pumpkin carving contest held by the site Halolz. The winner of the contest made a carving of none other than Samus's head, but they went to the detail of making it look like you can see through her visor when lit n the dark. It's pretty badass, and is way more advanced than last year's offering that I made. Check it out!

Castleroids

Wassup all you wonderful Metroid fans? As you can see above, we've added a new feature bar above to emphasize our features and let people know they are there for those who may have missed them in the past. And speaking of features, I have added in Part 2 of my "Woman Behind the Visor" feature for your reading pleasure. Please be sure to come back next week and read Part 3 of this 5-part feature!

As Capcom has already posted this on our brand-new forums, let me call to your attention a website/blog called Yokoi in Credits. The site, though not quite complete, is completely dedicated in bringing you every bit of input that can relate to that brilliant man. There are links to a couple video biographies of Mr. Yokoi as well, and you can still enjoy the first one even if you don't understand Japanese. If you're interested in finding out more about the legacy of one of the true pioneers of the game industry, please check out this site.

I will leave you all with a reminder that the latest Castlevania title, Order of Ecclesia was released to the masses. From some time with the game, I can safely say that it's without a doubt the most graphically and aurally impressive Castlevania game to date. And it's damn hard too! Igarashi and his talented crew have outdone themselves once again. If Nintendo were to ever make a new 2D Metroid game, this is the bar that they'd have to reach or surpass, and I doubt they could pull it off... Go out and get it ASAP!

MDb's 12^th Anniversary

Well folks, it's the 12th Anniversary of the MDb, and we've got a few updates to start this new year off. I'd like to thank Jesse D and Infinity's End for all the help they've been putting into the site over the past year and a half, as well as YOU, our visitors and fan contributors, and all the folks over at the message board. It's people like YOU who help make the Metroid community as awesome as it is! And let's not forget the site's progenitor, TJ Rappel, who's still alive and kickin' it, even if he doesn't hang around here that often anymore!

To help celebrate the Big 12, we've added this great Fan Music section under the MDbWorld header! This is a section for all the Metroid remixes we've gotten permission to host! There's a lot of classics from Overclocked Remix and the old VGMix 1 and 2 as well as 3! I've also had some great contacts with some other bands and the Dwelling of Duels stuff thanks to Brendan Becker of MagFest! The guys at Arm Cannon were grateful enough to let us host a couple tracks from their album, Leg Vacuum, and it's pretty awesome stuff!

I'd like to thank again everyone who agreed to let us host their music! I'm always glad to help others in the community hear such great music. Hopefully, we'll have more stuff from VGMix 2 and elsewhere on the net over the next few months! If you've got some of your own music you'd like to submit, send us an e-mail!

I'll leave the other major updates to Jesse D and Infinity's End! Here's to another great year at the MDb!

Until next time...
Captain Commando

Happy birthday to the Metroid Database! As you can see, a dozen years on the internet and we're still kickin' Metroid ass! Thanks to you readers and fans, we are STILL the #1 Metroid fansite on the entire internet. While TJ has basically turned over the site for good to Cap, JD, and myself, (he's just not as big a Metroid fan as he once was) we assure you that we won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Sometimes it gets a little difficult to dig around for new Metroid content since Nintendo has pretty much closed the door on the franchise as of late (other than the Wii ports of the Primes). Now if only they would make an amazing 2D Metroid game like either Wario Land Shake It! or the upcoming orgasm-inducing Muramasa: The Demon Blade. These games are living proof that 2D is not dead!

The gift I have to give you all is my new special feature covering the biography of Samus Aran called The Woman Behind the Visor. I will be releasing a new page every week so please be sure to come back and read this in-depth look at our favorite bounty hunter.

I'd like to thank Capcom, Jesse D, TJ, our new forum mod Sharonlover, and of course the MDb forum community for all the great times and those to come! Cheers.

*Whew!*
What else to say? Cap, Inf and I have been working and planning for a long time to make the MDb's 12^th the most memorable yet. With tons of new content and even a new Message Board deployed, I'm proud to say the site and community are as strong as ever.

I've spent my spare moments planning and designing the theme for this new board. While it still needs work, I'm sure it'll prove to be an extremely handy and robust piece of software.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more site features and content updates from all of us!

-Jesse D

AM2R Demo 2 Released

Just a small quick news update today. Fangame maker Doctor M64 has released the 2nd demo of his "Another Metroid 2 Remake," which was made with a combination of graphics and sounds from Zero Mission, Fusion, and Super, but features custom level design work, 3 levels of difficulty, and even Joypad support (YES!). The name of the demo is entitled "Confrontation," and it even comes with its own storyline. Head on over to his site and download the demo for free. Stay tuned to the MDb later this week as we are going to have some great new content for you!

--Infinity's End

Metroid SR388 Website Live

A few days ago, Von Richter finally dropped the bomb and made his website open to the public. The site is currently just a single page, but will be the homepage for any and all information regarding the fangame Metroid SR388. Von is also currently looking for someone else to graciously host his website and forum, so if you think you could possibly be of any service to him, please let him know.

Metroid SR388 website
Metroid SR388 Forum
Metroid SR388 Blog

Von also promises us a demo is coming very soon, so for those of you that are highly anticipating this game and seeing it in action, stay tuned to the MDb for any development as I am also a part of the dev staff and we will probably be hosting it too. IE out.

--Infinity's End

Metroid Prime 1 and 2 Wii Upgrades Now Official!

Hi all! We've got some actual official Metroid news for you. Remember back in June when we reported that Retro Studios was interested in porting Prime 1 and 2 to the Wii? Well Famitsu has confirmed this rumor! In Nintendo's latest press conference, they've posted a listing of about a dozen new games coming to the Wii, some of which are Wii ports of Gamecube games! So if you scroll down this page about halfway (JUST past those kickass Punch-Out!! pictures!), you'll see a couple listings of "Metoroido Puraimu" for 2009! Yup, that's Prime 1 and 2 coming to the Wii with the late Mark Haigh-Hutchinson's genius engineering and interface design skills. His work will continue to live on through these games! Now while we'd like to see them for $20 apiece, they'll probably sell for $30 each. If you didn't pick the games up before, these releases will be a good time to start!

Now if you check the other games on the list, there's a lot of other hot stuff coming to the Wii, including Punch-Out!! (which has been on hiatus for longer than Metroid was!), Sin and Punishment 2, Muramasa (the spiritual successor to last year's awesome Odin Sphere!), and a new DS with a built-in camera! Check out the videos. Oh, and did I mention Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is coming out within three weeks? That ought to give you a 'Metrovania' fix until a new 2D title comes out. (Did I just say 'Metrovania?' Oh well - it's better than Castleroids! That sounds like a medical condition you DON'T want to have!

Speaking of 2D Metroids, November's issue of Nintendo Power has a big hooplah in the letters section about "What directions hould the Metroid series take?" While the letters were overwhelmingly supportive of a 2D sequel, I have to wonder why nobody mentioned a little website called 'The Metroid Database' where we've been screaming for a new one for years! Oh well. Maybe Intelligent Systems has something in store for our favorite bounty hunter...

Until next time...
Captain Commando

Metroid Metal and Blood of the Chozo

Well, this may have been a slow week for updates, but we've got some interesting announcements for you. First off, good old Grant Henry (aka Stemage) from Metroid Metal is heading to MagFest!! He'll be performing an as-yet-unnamed (and possibly brand-new!) mix with Chunkstyle, Danimal Cannon, Kirby Pufocia, and Illzbury Flowboy.

What is MagFest, you ask? MagFest (the Music and Gaming Festival) is THE biggest videogame music rock-out in the States! Every year for the past five years, Brendan Becker and company have been hosting this in Alexandria, Virginia and inviting TONS of bands from across the country. The Minibosses, Jenova Project, Neskimos, and Select Start have all made it here, and now it's Metroid Metal's turn! Our most heartfelt congrats! If you're planning to be in the Virginia area come January 1-4th (that's Thursday through Saturday), be sure to check it out! There's more info at the Metroid Metal forums!

The second thing we've got is an ANCIENT fanfiction from the mid-90s. This is Blood of the Chozo, the famous interactive story produced by the Nintendo Power Source's Epic Center. The story was about an evil branch of the Chozo who invades the galaxy. Nintendo fans created their own characters and played out their roles in the biggest Metroid Interactive Fanfiction ever seen! The whole thing literally took up over 6,000 posts.

While Blood of the Chozo predates the Metroid Interactive FanFiction (MIFF), myself and the rest of the MIFF community did a LOT of digging about eight years ago and contacted Cerberus, one of the original participants, who sent us this MASSIVE 110-page document containing all the posts he had saved. This weekend, through a special request, I dug through the entire document and cut it down into over a dozen easily digestable chunks. So head on over to the fanfic section and scroll ALL the way to the bottom to check it out!

Our collection of Blood of the Chozo material is by no means complete. It only covers the story of The Rebellion, one of the many narratives that took place throughout the game. We're very interested in finding out more information on this amazing story, so if you have any information, please contact us!

Well, that's it for this week. We're getting things organized for the big 12th Anniversary bash next month, so expect some more exciting things. Oh yeah, one thing we'll have before then is the credits information for the Metroid Manga. We were using the Snoopycool translation as a reference, and they've just brought out Chapter 9, so check their translation out!

Until next time...
Captain Commando