Let me be clear: Metroid is my absolute favorite video game series of all time. While I realize it’s quite common for longtime gamers to identify with a particular Nintendo franchise, I’ve always felt that Metroid was something special. The isolation, the atmosphere, the sense of progression; everything about the franchise reaches out to me.

That being said, I realize that the franchise has fallen on some hard times. The release of Metroid Prime 3 was practically ignored by Nintendo and its PR teams, Trilogy is almost impossible to find in stores and even harder to get for a decent price, and Other M was such a disappointment (both in terms of quality and in sales) that many a fan’s faith in Nintendo’s ability to handle the franchise has been shaken.

That’s why I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands. Below, I’ve compiled a list of the top four things that I believe should be done with the next entry in the Metroid franchise.

Note: these are just this writer’s opinions. Currently, Nintendo has announced no plans regarding a new Metroid title.

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Image Credit: Chris Furniss. Click the image for more or to order prints.

“I had a concept that the music for Metroid should be created not as game music. . . . I wanted to create the sound without any distinctions between music and sound effects.”

This quote from a Gamasutra interview with Hip Tanaka (composer of the original Metroid) sums up the beginning of the atypical sound the Metroid series is now known for. While it has definitely evolved as the series progressed through the changes in composers and hardware, the spirit and tone of the original has mostly remained throughout.
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On a very special episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, Jonah, Jesse and Adam Milecki talk about Metroid.

OK, that might be a little bit of an understatement. They don’t just talk about some of the games, they go through all of the games. It’s a super sized episode of ridiculous proportions and may have nearly been too big to process in Jonah’s audio editing software. We also announce the winner to our Humble Bundle Giveaway.

All music is taken from “Harmony of A Hunter“.

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"A very controversial entry in an established series."

I remember when Metroid Prime was first revealed. “An FPS? How dare they do this to my precious Metroid!” I exclaimed. I generally don’t like First Person Shooters save for the occasional local multiplayer. Fast forward to today. Metroid Prime is now among my favorite games.

It’s for this reason that I was less skeptical about Metroid: Other M going in. History gave me faith that a drastic change from what’s been established is not necessarily bad. Now that I’ve completed Other M, I can answer the question “Does this new take on Metroid reinvent it as successfully as Prime did?”

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On a very special eighty-third episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast, the guys are sent on an endless search to discover the dark origins of the mysterious creature known only as “Waldo”. Be he man, or monster? Is he even from this mortal realm? There is only one way to find out, and it will not end well…

Jonah and Jesse are joined once more by Adam from The Mega Man Network. In a startling move, the guys have actually been playing a lot of the same games as each other. It’s a bold new world of podcasting, my friends.

There is a lengthy discussion of Metroid: Other M, the Vanquish and DJ Hero 2 demos, Dead Rising: Case 0, and Adam gives us his thoughts on Red Dead Redemption.

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Ok, so Metroid: Other M didn’t come out last quarter. Is anybody really that surprised it got delayed? Fortunately, we get it in the third quarter (we hope) along with a slew of other promising titles. Head past the break for our full list of anticipated Wii games for Q3 2010.

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On a very special seventieth episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, we talk all things E3.

As we mentioned last year, E3 talk is mandatory for every gaming blog. On that note, we bring reports from the field thanks to The Mega Man Network’s own Adam “Heat-Man” Anania being our eyes and ears of the con.

Check out his hands on impressions, then check out the podcast.

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With E3 having come and gone now, I do miss it a little. By all means, it was no walk in the park. Driving around busy downtown LA looking for parking, wading through crowds of gamers, and sitting in lines for upwards of an hour just to try a game for ten minutes; it’s a lot of work. And yet somehow I feel like I came back too soon. Sure, it was fun to try out a lot of cool games before they release, but there was also an energy in the air that I miss being a part of.

At any rate, I must give sincere thanks to Capcom, especially Joveth “jgonzo” Gonzales. Due to my large involvement with The Mega Man Network, and promoting Mega Man in general, they offered me a pass as a way of saying thanks for the support. I am very humbled to know how much they appreciate the work I do, which has never struck me as anything incredible. Still, it’s unfortunate that none of Capcom’s announcements pertained to Mega Man… but I’m thankful all the same! Above is me on Capcom*Unity’s E3 stream with jgonzo and Noah, another Capcom fan. Sadly, I don’t recall what was said to make jgonzo produce such an awful expression.

Also deserving of thanks is my good pal Cheston, who accompanied me and helped out with some of the expenses, and more of the driving around. He also acted as our eyes as assistant media coordinator and took many of the photos we’ve used here in our reports. Cheston is getting married next month, so this may have been our last big adventure. But who knows! Couldn’t have done it without you, man. Congrats on tying the knot.

Finally, I guess I should thank the WingDamage crew for giving me a podium to express my experiences, since they wouldn’t really fit on TMMN. But having gotten to know Jesse and Jonah… yeah, I dunno. They’re sketchy to me. Anyway, enough sentimental crap. To close things up, I’m taking a look at Hard Corps: Uprising, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Metroid: Other M, Dead Rising 2, and Marvel vs Capcom 3.

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The second quarter of 2010 contains a lot of solid releases. Will we ever have time to catch up on our backlog? More and more, it’s looking like the answer is a big, fat “no”. However, you might find a few games from Q1 that have snuck in thanks to delays. What you’ll see below is a collection of the WingDamage staff’s most anticipated Wii games of Q2 2010.

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*UPDATE* - Turns out the audio file had a glitch in it where the last twenty minutes were doubled and off time from each other making it a horrible mess. We at WingDamage would like to apologize to anyone who listened to this episode and promise that the next episode, which will release on Tuesday, is much, much better in both quality and content.

On a very special fifty-fifth episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, we have to match up all the different sandwiches if we want to stop the flow of incoming sandwiches. Boshi is there to help. Remember Boshi?

Our regular hosts are joined by Geoffio, as well as WingDamage’s newest writer, Anthony. In what we’ve been playing, Geoffio kicks us off with tales from the aerial combat sim, Wings of Prey. Jonah has just started on The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition and Company of Heroes, an RTS he’s actually enjoying. Anthony gives us his thoughts on Resident Evil 5 and Jesse goes in-depth with the new Valkyria Chronicles DLC.

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