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Top 5: Where Do They Go Now?


As someone who's been following Nintendo for quite awhile, they've almost never failed to surprise me. Though their origins are classic, Nintendo-developed games are continuously refined, retooled, and revitalized. Some may buy into that old standard line used mostly for musical artists that makes you sound cool: "their older stuff is better." Such broad generalizations are silly: to ignore Super Mario Galaxy because of a fetish for Super Mario Bros. would be dogmatic.

But for those of us growing long in the gaming tooth, we're led to wonder where all of these classic IPs are headed. It's hard to imagine a gaming world without Nintendo's current A-listers, but does anyone have a solid idea of what future iterations of our favorite franchises will be like? Now that just about every gangbuster franchise has been successfully embedded in 3D, we're at a loss as to the next big step for gaming.

Some of us have really good ideas, but I'm positively stumped as to where these franchises are going.




The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.

Show and Tell: Recipes for awesome

Good news -- we're expanding Show and Tell a little to include not only your personal creations (though these are, of course, our favorites), but all sorts of interesting fan-created things we find in the wide world of the internet. Each week, we'll show off a new set of Nintendo-inspired projects, and this week, we're starting with the basics: recipes and ingredients. Every creation has to begin somewhere, after all. Your journey can start right here.


Show and Tell is all about fan stuff, so long as it's Nintendo-related. We love to see your collections, your crafts, your frosted creations, your t-shirts and swag of all sorts.Just snap a few pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest. Not a handy type, but found something neat? Send us a link instead.

Phazon Suit Samus statue is ridiculously nice


First 4 Figures has come back around full circle, after completing Sheik and Sonic and his pals, now they've got yet another Samus statue. This one, in our opinion, totally trumps all of their past efforts. Just look at the thing.

Of course, the catch is that this costs a bunch of money. $224.99 in money, to be exact. For those of you with a winning lottery ticket, this goes on sale Q1 of next year.

DS Daily: FPS

The latest footage of Renegade Kid's Moon convinced us (and IGN's Matt Casamassina) that the game could be something special, though a few of you evidently still need some encouragement. In the comments, reader John B. argued that no matter how much impressive technology Renegade Kid throws at Moon, it wouldn't be enough, because first-person shooters just don't work as well on the DS.

We're of the opinion that the handheld currently lacks a great FPS, but do you think the DS will ever see a triple-A game in this genre, given its obvious technical limitations?

Gamefly sales continue to tempt us

Gamefly is having a sale on some of its used-but-in-great-condition games again, also offering free shipping to spice up the deal a bit. As always, we're passings these savings along to you, while picking out a few we think are worth highlighting for their respective prices:
Click on the picture or "source" link to see the full list of Wii games, but keep in mind that you might be able to find some of them cheaper elsewhere.

Wii Warm Up: Forming a dynamic duo

We were just wondering to ourselves this morning about the team-up title Sonic & Mario at the Olympics and how such a combination of mascots has been a huge financial success. It caused us to wonder what other kind of team-up could be not only a commercial success, but also a game we actually want to play.

And, like responsible bloggers, we decided that we couldn't think of anything good and instead would pass the buck onto you. So, what do you all think? Can you come up with some titles? How about a Duck Hunt clone where Mega Man and Samus compete to see who can shoot the most clay Metroids? Or, what about having Dante from Devil May Cry in a No More Heroes sequel?

Of course, that last one is just a selfish suggestion from us.

Today in Joystiq: May 21, 2008

Take a look at this recreation of 16-bit Samus Aran "made entirely of stone mosaic blocks which were hand-nipped to form a several hundred pixel depiction," according to the Flickr page. Now let's see how we can use mosaic blocks to recreate Metroid Prime-era Samus ... now that'd be an accomplishment (Thanks, Corey) Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Metareview -- Haze (PS3)
Readers pick best webcomic: Lego my statue
Tycho Brahe weighs in On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
Wii Fanboy Weekly: May 15 - May 21

News
New Project Origin video compares, gushes blood
GameFly launches GamePie social network application for Facebook
Dragon Quest IV DS remake coming September 16
Sony announces Madden NFL 09 PSP bundle
New Lost Odyssey DLC to be found on Friday
Fallout 3 pre-orders come with soundtrack CD
Niko's voice earned about $100,000 from GTA IV
Midway shows off Superman in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Guitar Hero: World Tour trailer promises 'most realistic drums,' other stuff
Shane Kim: First console to 100 million wins
Killzone 2 delay a 'pure management decision'
James Cameron: Ubisoft's 'Avatar' game is in 3D
Guitar Hero: World Tour's new axe spotted in trailer
See Tekken film stars in costume
GameTap welcomes back Interplay, adding more Take-Two
Infinite Undiscovery releasing worldwide on Sept. 2
Itagaki: Ninja Gaiden Sigma is 'no good'
Battlefield: Bad Company demo arriving June 5 ... for some
New MGS4 screens sneak out
Capcom profits in FY07, wants into Chinese online market
Oh BTW, Square Enix has 'lineup' of Xbox 360 titles
New 'scream' shots of Silent Hill: Homecoming
Warriors Orochi ships over 1.5 million, sequel announced
'Count Castlevania' still not whipped up about Wii

Culture & Community
Cliff Bleszinski is done being CliffyB
A DIY Mario Kart Wii training wheel

Brawl Stage of the Week: Metroid revisited



This week we were feeling nostalgic, and nobody's stages sate such cravings as well as Anthony's do. Therefore, we decided to go with another one of his creations. Simply titled "Metroid," this level recreates the look and feel of one our favorite NES classics. In this side-by-side comparison, you can see how well Anthony captured the essence of the original Metroid.

Continued →

Nintendo dev leaves company, heads to Microsoft

For those of you who keep track of developers and programmers like children keep track of baseball cards, this bit of news is going to be old hat to you. For the rest of the Nintendo loyal, prepare to light some torches and sharpen some pitchforks, because longtime programmer Colin Reed has bailed on Nintendo and taken up a position at Microsoft.

Reed was with Nintendo for 11 years, working on such titles as Metroid Prime: Hunters and Pikmin. He now joins Microsoft's Turn-10, an internal studio that is responsible for the Forza Motorsport line-up of games.

Reimagine Metroid in 2D

Behold Metroid: SR388.

We always have mixed feelings about sharing fanmade renditions of Nintendo IPs with readers. On the one hand, it would be a shame if things this awesome were kept hush hush, but on the other hand, should the buzz get too loud we know Nintendo won't hesitate to squash the project. In any case, since SR388's creator Von Richter is promoting the digg link, we're going to absolve ourselves from such moral dilemmas and spread the love.

The trailer makes this game look like a 2D Metroid reimagining rather than a remake based on any particular title, although some sprites (like Samus's) were clearly ripped. Between the music, original enemies, and intriguing new weapons and abilities, this fanmake has us licking our lips in anticipation. Hopefully we'll get to try it out before Nintendo comes knocking with a cease and desist, should that happen.

Fortunately, progress on the game seems to be going quickly. According to Von Richter himself, this trailer (which was released at the end of April) is already out of date.

[Via NeoGAF]

Rumor: Metroid Prime Trilogy?

A mysterious tipster sent a rumor in to GoNintendo that a retailer database now lists a product called Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Wii. GoNintendo's RawMeatCowboy speculates that this would be "Prime 1, (2), and 3 all on the Wii ... but Prime 1 and 2 with all-new Wiimote controls."

We believe that, if this is a real product, it's a lot more likely that it's the three Prime games ... in a new box! Or maybe even in the same boxes, but with those inside a new box! Not that that's a bad thing -- the Prime games are very high-quality (even if you hate first-person!), and quite reminiscent of the real Metroids. The first two are definitely among the best GameCube games, and any opportunity to get them in new Wii owners' hands would be welcome.

Three Retro Studios staffers escape, save Etecoons on the way out

Three high-level members of Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios have left the company. Design director Mark Pacini, art director Todd Keller, and technology engineer Jack Mathews' last day at the Austin-based, Nintendo-owned developer was Friday. Shacknews speculates that the three are going to start a new company, which is certainly more likely than the three of them simultaneously tiring of game development.

Retro's last released project was, of course, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, after which Pacini said the company would be working on non-Metroid projects. Apparently, even that wasn't enough change for these three -- or they just feared for the condition of their tea tables.

(Yes, the title is a Super Metroid reference and not a Metroid Prime reference. Close enough.)

Shacknews: Key staff leave Metroid Prime dev Retro Studios


Shacknews reports that several "key" employees of Austin, Texas-based developer, Retro Studios, have left the company. The studio is best known for its work on the critically acclaimed Metroid Prime trilogy, which concluded in August last year on Nintendo's Wii.

Staff members said to have been escorted off the premises last Friday include design director Mark Pacini, art director Todd Keller and principal technology engineer Jack Matthews. There's no word yet on what their futures entail, but Shacknews notes that Retro Studios is in no danger of closing. Which is just as well, really, since we're in no danger of not wanting more games from them. We'll let you know when we hear more on this subject.

Update: There's some unconfirmed gossip from mysterious dealer in rumors, Surfer Girl, who mentioned that "something definitely went down at Retro" in a post dated Sunday, April 20th. An unnamed individual is quoted in the post as saying, "Pretty much no one at retro would agree to relocate at nintendo's behest, as asinine shenanigans are typically met with little fanfare."

Samus Aran spotted in Unreal Tournament III


Oh, Samus, did you lose all of your suit's abilities again? Is that why you're running around in Unreal Tournament III, picking fights with Master Chief? Wait, is your lawyer okay with this? Does he think all this modding magic is "great?"

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

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