Games Cheats and Reviews

Greg Howsen of guardian.co.uk writes: Like most gamers over 30 I’ve got a nostalgic bond with Mario and Metroid. Actually, given the high quality of the 2002’s Metroid Prime and 2007’s Super Mario Galaxy, admiration for the pair is not just limited to the old timers. But with most traditional gamers better catered for on the 360 and PS3 will the release of new Mario and Metroid titles tempt them back to the Wii?

Coffee with Games says during an article, "The first line of the article reads, "Nintendo continues to drag its feet on an official response about Metroid Prime Trilogy’s retail status, though online retailer Amazon tells Joystiq that the game has been discontinued."

It baffled me, because I already had given a quote from the official response I received from Nintendo in the original article. Why is Nintendo dragging its feet?

Then a little further down in the article, I read a line that stated, "Nintendo refuses to acknowledge it ever made the statement that the game was ‘no longer being shipped.’".

This line didn’t baffle me, as much as it shocked me. If Nintendo wasn’t acknowledging they made the statement, did that make my article false and show me as a liar?"

Nintendo continues to drag its feet on an official response about Metroid Prime Trilogy’s retail status, though online retailer Amazon tells Joystiq that the game has been discontinued. According to a representative from the online retailer: "Per Nintendo, we will no longer be offering Metroid Prime Trilogy at this time." Requests for comment from other retailers were not returned.

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If you haven’t purchased Metroid Prime Trilogy but still plan to eventually, your window of opportunity is closing fast. Coffee with Games reports (via Kotaku) that Nintendo has confirmed the game is “no longer being shipped,” meaning if your local game retailers are all out of their new copies, you’re likely stuck looking in the used section.

“Unfortunately, Metroid Prime Trilogy is no longer being shipped. Having said that, you may be able to find what you seek through the secondhand video game market,” read a response from Nintendo about the status of Metroid Prime Trilogy. A later response added a bit more information, if not any more clarification: “When first introduced, it was announced that there would be limited availability. However, a reason for this was not announced.”

The end result is a compilation that was only at retail for about four months — a fairly unusual situation. This also marks the first New Play Control! title (adding Wii motion controls to the first two Metroid Prime games) to be discontinued, but Nintendo did make clear the other New Play Control! games (Pikmin, Mario Power Tennis, and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat) “are still being shipped.”

Best Buy has discounted Metroid Prime Trilogy to $19.99.

College News writes, "With the end of 2009 in sight, it’s time to take a look back at how one of the big three video game companies fared with the type of games that sell consoles–the exclusives.

Of the three companies (the other two being Microsoft and Sony), Nintendo actually did a lot better with their 2009 exclusives than they have in previous years. First-party Nintendo titles had a huge presence with hits like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Metroid Prime Trilogy and Punch-Out!, just to name a few, and third-party companies like Square-Enix, 5th Cell and Vanillaware stepped up to deliver some of Nintendo’s biggest exclusive titles.

Here are the top ten exclusives that Nintendo managed to snag for their Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS consoles. Each of these games can’t be found anywhere else and are definitely worth playing over the holiday season."

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption may not be the last game in the Prime series. With Other M on the way next year, some might have thought that the Prime series had come to an end but, as Nintendo’s Kensuke Tanabe told ONM, the series may still have a future.

Asked whether Samus will ever return to DS, Tanabe (who oversaw Retro Studios’ series for Nintendo) said "We are always planning to make new games in the Metroid Prime series. Depending on the timing and the situation, we cannot deny the possibility of realising it on DS or DSi."

How much do life force-sucking aliens and Rosebud have in common? Quite a lot, according to one ABC News report, which compared Metroid Prime to the seminal film Citizen Kane, considered by some to be the finest movie every created.

“Orson Welles was using cinematography to express something very personal and human. It wasn’t just functional anymore, it was actually tied to a specific meaning about people aging, people dying,” said IGN’s Michael Thomsen.

That’s compared that to the “dark and lonely” atmosphere of Metroid Prime, which puts combat second to exploration, the report said. Thomsen also pointed to the “post-mortem discovery” of alien civilizations that’s a characteristic of the Metroid series, comparing it to the journalists of Citizen Kane who are trying to figure out what happened to the titular character.

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We decide to go on a federal holiday and news suddenly starts coming out of the woodwork!  Nothing like a game of catch-up, eh?  There is an overwhelming amount of news including Swine Flu at PAX, borked versions of Metroid Prime, and whiny musicians.  So buckle in, because this is going to be a bumpy ride.

Links to Topics Discussed:

1. Swine Flu takes PAX by storm

2. More Batman on the way?

3. Metroid Prime looks worse on the Wii?

4. Sweet deal on Puzzle Quest

5. Commodore 64 on iPhone is no more

4. Musicians pissy over music games

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• EvilCast NewsBrief Episode #49
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• EvilCast NewsBrief Episode #51

As it would appear, there have been several graphical effects removed from the Wii version of the Metroid Prime.