Metroid's 30th Anniversary is Aug. 5th

[burningdoom]

So in 3 days is Metroid's 30th Anniversary. And Nintendo doesn't seem to give 2 craps about it. Haven't heard a peep from them. Not even an announcement for an eShop sale.

What a shame. Metroid is probably my single favorite franchise from Nintendo.

What are some of your favorite Metroid memories?

[necrosexual]

i think it's because metroid has a loyal fanbase, but it's not a system seller by any means, and is relatively unpopular... everyone knows samus (thanks to smash bros) but metroid doesn't consistently have high sales numbers.
it's kind of like how sony doesn't really talk much about the vita, despite the vita being loved by its userbase, which includes some big names who lavish it with praise.

it's a shame, but metroid is competing for its 30th... with pokemon's 20th, and a single pokemon game set can outsell, or come very, very close to outselling, the entire metroid series combined (14mil for X/Y vs 16 mil for the entire metroid series, for recent data, though i expect sun/moon to explode thanks to pokemon go)

that's not to say i agree with that (it's always good to acknowledge the fans of a long-standing series after all) but it makes sense from a business standpoint, i guess. unfortunately.

as for memories... never really was a fan of the series personally, couldn't get into them. just wanted to put that out there as a kind of explanation.

tl;dr: metroid's problem is it shares its 30th with pokemon's 20th.

[blurks]

tl;dr: metroid's problem is it shares its 30th with pokemon's 20th.

I rather think Metroid's problem is the weakness of Nintendo's current console generation. Nintendo is afraid to put much effort in a sequel of a beloved series, with only so many Wii U's floating around at the end of its lifespan.
Starfox on the other hand was a safe bet, as it has already been in the making for quite some time and everyone was looking forward to the probably last big Nintendo release for the Wii U.

My celebration lineup:

[gf78]

Like dashv (I believe) said, don't pine for another Metroid.  Go play Ori and the Blind Forest instead.  It's a great "metroidvania" title.  So is Song of the Deep.

Nintendo are just assholes.  I'm done.  I'm tired of waiting & hoping & dreaming about what they could do, only to have my soul crushed by their brain-dead shenanigans.  When was the last time fans got a proper 2D Metroid?  The Game Boy Advance titles?     How long ago was that!?   I'll tell you when - 2004!  Twelve friggin' years ago!   

I'm sick of Nintendo apologists and even at one time being one myself.  I'm not going to sit here and pretend or tell people "Just wait until Zelda comes out!"  Because it won't make a damn bit of difference!

And look at the NX!  Instead of making a powerful console that can compete with the Xbox One and PS4, all signs point to a weak-sauce half-ass portable running a Tegra processor and using tiny cartridges with extremely limited capacity.  It's graphics are going to be shit.  It's battery life is going to be shit.  Third parties aren't going to port their AAA titles to this thing.  If for nothing else, because it will be so radically different from the architecture of the PS4 and Xbox One.  And we aren't talking about a company with clout like Sony to negotiate or that developers will be chasing after them to release their titles. 

The NX is doomed to fail, just as the Wii U before it.  While certainly stronger than console sales, Nintendo's portable sales have been steadily declining.  I know my kids and all their friends couldn't give two shits about carrying around a Nintendo or any other portable for gaming.  They have Androids and iPhones with free games that are long enough to keep them entertained.  Especially since the "next big thing" happens just days or weeks after the last anymore it seems.

So this is where Nintendo and I part ways.  I've sold my Wii U and the last few games I had for it.  I hadn't touched the damn thing since February.  I'll always have my fond memories of the NES and SNES days and many great handheld titles from the past.  But Nintendo has officially lost me.  I can no longer abide by or support their brain-dead ways.  I'm happy for those of you who wish to continue supporting Nintendo and enjoying their games.  But for me, it's like they keep throwing up obstacles to keep me from playing their games.  That's fine.  If they want to make it painfully difficult to play & enjoy their wares, I'll save myself the pain and just buy a game for one of the two normal systems I own, with perfectly fine controllers that don't require me to shake or twirl them or stand on my fucking head.

[maximo310]

Defenitely don't think Metroid is being handled well right now; other ips are focused on more because of sales.

That being said, I really think the whole reactionary " NX is doomed train" is completely overblown at the moment, considering the Tegra architecture is ARM-based, which will allow for easy phone ports and possible 3DS backwards comptability. It's also an architecture that is much easier to port x86 games on, compared to Wii U ports from x86 to PowerPC.  The company isn't stupid enough to make a system design complicated like the Wii U, but it has to differenate itself from its competitors, which are just low-powered PC's with system updates every few years to keep the hardware up to a decent level.

[undertakerprime]

I think a big part of the lack of 30th anniversary recognition for Metroid has a lot to do with the fact that Metroid just isn't as popular in Japan as it is in the rest of the world. If I correctly remember what I read a while back, that's the reason Metroid games have been so few and far between; Nintendo is reluctant to make more of them because they just don't sell as well as their main franchises, especially in Japan.

Anyway, Super Metroid is among my top 10 personal favorite games. Metroid Prime is great, as are the portable offerings.
The NES original, honestly, was a little too broad for my younger mind to comprehend, and I didn't play it much at first because the areas were just so huge and confusing (at least without my handy-dandy Nintendo Power  . Prime 2 is just OK, and I didn't play Prime 3 due to basically hating the motion controls.

[gf78]

Defenitely don't think Metroid is being handled well right now; other ips are focused on more because of sales.

That being said, I really think the whole reactionary " NX is doomed train" is completely overblown at the moment, considering the Tegra architecture is ARM-based, which will allow for easy phone ports and possible 3DS backwards comptability. It's also an architecture that is much easier to port x86 games on, compared to Wii U ports from x86 to PowerPC.  The company isn't stupid enough to make a system design complicated like the Wii U, but it has to differenate itself from its competitors, which are just low-powered PC's with system updates every few years to keep the hardware up to a decent level.

You can only squeeze so much out of any chipset.  But mobile SoC are nowhere near the same level as current generation consoles. Again, Nintendo can't get development to port now. This won't change that. IMO, Nintendo is bowing out of the console business.

[maximo310]

You're right about the chipsets; Nvidia is having a conference later this year to unveil their new mobile chipsets, which is most likely going to give us a clue on what the NX has inside. Of course, most of the news in development is being kept secret by Nintendo; the only things I've heard so far are a few companies praising how easy it is to use, but like I said before it's too early to tell.

To be honest, it's pretty likely that X2 could fall short to the PS4/ and possibly XB1, but what I'm looking forward to is seeing how the developers utilize the hardware.  After all, we've seen some really well-performing games this generation, as well as poor performing games  on the PS4 and XB1.  The performance is usually pretty evident by the developers' effort.

[trinisete]

The closest you can get from a new "metroid" now is Ghost 1.0. Just try it.

As for my fav one… Zero Mission and Fusion.

[gf78]

I think a big part of the lack of 30th anniversary recognition for Metroid has a lot to do with the fact that Metroid just isn't as popular in Japan as it is in the rest of the world. If I correctly remember what I read a while back, that's the reason Metroid games have been so few and far between; Nintendo is reluctant to make more of them because they just don't sell as well as their main franchises, especially in Japan.

Anyway, Super Metroid is among my top 10 personal favorite games. Metroid Prime is great, as are the portable offerings.
The NES original, honestly, was a little too broad for my younger mind to comprehend, and I didn't play it much at first because the areas were just so huge and confusing (at least without my handy-dandy Nintendo Power  . Prime 2 is just OK, and I didn't play Prime 3 due to basically hating the motion controls.

If Nintendo truly doesn't give Metroid much attention because it's not as "big" in Japan, then they are bigger idiots than I initially thought.  Japan isn't and hasn't been anywhere near the largest games market in a very long time.  Over two decades. 

Super Metroid III is and will always be among my very favorite games.  Didn't care for the Prime games as I think the translation into a FPS didn't do the series justice.  But if it was 2D, I loved it. 

[ignition365]

I think a big part of the lack of 30th anniversary recognition for Metroid has a lot to do with the fact that Metroid just isn't as popular in Japan as it is in the rest of the world. If I correctly remember what I read a while back, that's the reason Metroid games have been so few and far between; Nintendo is reluctant to make more of them because they just don't sell as well as their main franchises, especially in Japan.

Anyway, Super Metroid is among my top 10 personal favorite games. Metroid Prime is great, as are the portable offerings.
The NES original, honestly, was a little too broad for my younger mind to comprehend, and I didn't play it much at first because the areas were just so huge and confusing (at least without my handy-dandy Nintendo Power  . Prime 2 is just OK, and I didn't play Prime 3 due to basically hating the motion controls.

If Nintendo truly doesn't give Metroid much attention because it's not as "big" in Japan, then they are bigger idiots than I initially thought.  Japan isn't and hasn't been anywhere near the largest games market in a very long time.  Over two decades. 

Super Metroid III is and will always be among my very favorite games.  Didn't care for the Prime games as I think the translation into a FPS didn't do the series justice.  But if it was 2D, I loved it.

I really don't like speculating, and you're being super pessimistic.. but...

Retro Studios in Austin IS working on a new game.  These are the folks who did the Donkey Kong Country Returns games, so they are pretty good with the 2.5D games.  They also did the Metroid Prime games, so they have history with working with the franchise.  It's entirely possible they are producing a new Metroid game.

Whatever game they ARE working on, they've been working on it since 2014 (honestly late-2013), so we might be due for some news.  Just saying.

[gf78]

I really don't like speculating, and you're being super pessimistic.. but...

Retro Studios in Austin IS working on a new game.  These are the folks who did the Donkey Kong Country Returns games, so they are pretty good with the 2.5D games.  They also did the Metroid Prime games, so they have history with working with the franchise.  It's entirely possible they are producing a new Metroid game.

Whatever game they ARE working on, they've been working on it since 2014 (honestly late-2013), so we might be due for some news.  Just saying.

Nah, not pessimistic.  Just being a realist.  Nintendo has gone brain-dead.  I have lost all faith in them.  Aside from the Mini NES, I don't see myself buying anything Nintendo.  It is a huge investment in a new system, just to play a handful of Nintendo games.  Even more so when you take Zelda out of the equation for me since I haven't cared for that series since after Wind Waker on the Gamecube. 

Like I said, I'm very, very happy for the Nintendo fans looking forward to the NX and are able to willfully jump through their hoops to play the games.  I just can't do it anymore. 

[undertakerprime]

The bottom line is, Nintendo is a Japanese company and is more attuned to Japanese sensibility. I don't remember if it was Super Metroid or Metroid Prime, but Nintendo was not planning to continue the series due to a perceived lack of interest and they had to be persuaded to make another game. I think it was Nintendo of America that persuaded them because the series was so much bigger in the US and they realized there was more money to be made, something Nintendo of Japan was not aware of.

I've always been a Nintendo supporter, even back to the Game & Watch. But their recent products have lost me as a customer. My Wii sat unused for 2 years before I sold it and all my games to a co-worker. I have zero interest in the Wii U or the 3DS. Motion controls are just not my thing, and 3D gives me a headache. Yes, I know there's now a 2DS, but there's no games that make me want to jump up and buy one.

[gf78]

The bottom line is, Nintendo is a Japanese company and is more attuned to Japanese sensibility. I don't remember if it was Super Metroid or Metroid Prime, but Nintendo was not planning to continue the series due to a perceived lack of interest and they had to be persuaded to make another game. I think it was Nintendo of America that persuaded them because the series was so much bigger in the US and they realized there was more money to be made, something Nintendo of Japan was not aware of.

I've always been a Nintendo supporter, even back to the Game & Watch. But their recent products have lost me as a customer. My Wii sat unused for 2 years before I sold it and all my games to a co-worker. I have zero interest in the Wii U or the 3DS. Motion controls are just not my thing, and 3D gives me a headache. Yes, I know there's now a 2DS, but there's no games that make me want to jump up and buy one.

LOL....all Nintendo would have to do is look online to see there was a demand for Metroid games in the US and EU.  But I guess they couldn't figure out how to go online without a mandatory friend code.   

I feel the same as you.  I've played Nintendo games since the days of Donkey Kong in the arcade, Atari 2600 and ColecoVision.  The Wii completely lost me because I despise the mandatory motion controls and the games in general didn't appeal to me.  The only reason we originally kept it around was for our two daughters and now it has a bazillion games emulated on it.  Even at that, I despise the system itself and rarely use it.  I think with Wii U, I had about 10 games at one point.  Mario Kart 8, New Super Mario Wii U and Super Mario 3D World were the only games I really enjoyed on it.  After spending the past six months in standby mode, I finally sold it and the few remaining games I had for it.  I don't do much portable gaming and usually when I do, it's because some game I want isn't available on a console and it's my only option to play it.  Nintendo released the "New" 3DS which should have been great, but all they did was make a crappy port of Xenoblade Chronicles for it and said fuck it.  They couldn't even be bothered to include an AC adapter in the box!  How friggin' cheap is that?

Now we have the NX coming up which Nintendo is being super secretive about so others won't "steal their ideas."     You know what this tells me?  It tells me the systems and it's controllers are going to be yet another gimmick instead of something more standard.  If it truly is a handheld/console hybrid, it won't be as powerful as a dedicated console.  If rumors are to be believed, it will be tablet-sized.  That automatically guarantees that I'm not going to get one and carry it around to play.  I don't do that with my iPad, I'm not going to do that with an (undoubtedly larger) game system.  Something in a tablet form-factor will have low power/low temp chips because there will really be no good way to keep it running cool otherwise.  That says "lower spec" to me.  With the rumors it's going to run on an NVidia Tegra SoC, it sounds like it will be Wii U quality at best.  Then you have it being a pretty sure bet that it will use mini cartridges and coupled with Nintendo's historically cheap-ass practices, they most assuredly won't have the storage capacity of a Blu-Ray disc. 

Like I said, Nintendo lost me with the Wii.  I tried again with the Wii U and it wasn't for me.  They left the "New" 3DS to languish.  I don't see anything about NX that will convince me to buy one.

[soera]

Retro Studios in Austin IS working on a new game.  These are the folks who did the Donkey Kong Country Returns games, so they are pretty good with the 2.5D games.  They also did the Metroid Prime games, so they have history with working with the franchise.  It's entirely possible they are producing a new Metroid game.

Whatever game they ARE working on, they've been working on it since 2014 (honestly late-2013), so we might be due for some news.  Just saying.

If they are working on another Prime-like game, they can keep it. Its not "Metroid". It may as well be Clusterfuck Prime starring Samus.