You may know me through various methods, but it's probably through Destructoid. This is where I'll be writing up stuff that isn't appropriate for a community blog, or perhaps just random thoughts that I need to get on e-paper. You have been warned.
Emerald City Comicon Announcement 1
Akira: The 35th Anniversary Box Set
In December 1982, the manga world changed forever. That was the month that Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira debuted in Kodansha’s Young Magazine. The two-year run that followed set the tone for manga and anime for years to come, and overseas became a generation’s touchstone for Japanese comics.
In 2017, to honor the 35th anniversary of the debut of this seminal piece of sequential art, Kodansha Comics will release Akira: The 35th Anniversary Box Set. It will feature Vol. 1-6, the complete series, in large format hardcovers, plus the Akira Club art book. For the first time ever in English, the series will be presented in the original right-to-left format, with unaltered original art and Japanese sound effects with endnote translations. Our goal is to produce the ultimate, definitive English edition, presenting Otomo’s art in the most authentic and collectible way possible.
Additional extras to be announced. Suggested retail $199.99.
The Metroid Prime: Federation Force backlash proves Nintendo right
That title is not one that I think you all are going to easily swallow. In fact, I’m pretty sure by now a considerable number of you have already stopped reading. To those of you who haven’t, if nothing else, please give me the chance to explain my argument. I don’t like the fact that I feel that it’s come to this, but this has been going on too long with, at least from my perspective, so little self-awareness.
August 31, 2011: Nintendo releases the long-awaited Metroid: Other M. An initially solid, if not “great” critical response (No seriously, the game’s got a 78 Metascore), ultimately gives way to heavy backlash, with fans criticizing the gameplay for being too experimental without successfully finding a fundamentally compelling core, while the narrative gets raked over the coals for poor storytelling, and for portraying the lead character, Samus Aran, in a way fans found objectionable and inconsistent with their own interpretation based on prior titles. The game is considered by many as being a dark mark on the franchise, doing significant damage to the series’ reputation and integrity. Despite disappointing sales, Nintendo holds to their convictions, supporting the game and continuing to believe in their work.
Then, next to nothing happens. Years pass. No Metroid 5. No Metroid Prime 4. No Metroid: Other M 2. Metroid Blast is a mini-game in Nintendo Land, and Metroid gets its usual representation in Super Smash Bros., although the decision to base its representation on content from Other M is considered questionable at best. Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Kirby all receive acknowledgement of their respective anniversaries by Nintendo, Metroid is not afforded such attention. Fans start to grow worried for the series and begin to wonder confusedly why the property is being “ignored”. Concerns turn into demands. No such luck, Nintendo is practically on radio silence with the property, unwilling to make any comment aside from saying that the series will return when the time is right.
E3 2015: Nintendo announces Metroid Prime: Federation Force, a co-op oriented handheld spin-off of Retro Studios’ Metroid Prime trilogy, in which players will take on the roles of Galactic Federation soldiers to perform missions tangentially related to Samus’s exploits, but not directly involved. Federation Force will also come with a 3-on-3 competitive mode called “Blast Ball”. No mainline entry is announced alongside it. Fan reaction starts confusedly, then quickly turns to rage. Criticism is leveled at the game’s “generic” art and character design, while the decision to give Samus a side role is considered a huge turn-off. The game will no doubt fail to appeal to fanbase as a whole, with the Prime trilogy itself existing in a smaller pocket of the series legacy, albeit not due to critical or commercial failure, and a game with Federation Force’s ultimately distinct appeal will not entirely overlap with the previous mainline entries’.
Alright, I’m done with the history lesson. If you’re reading this, you probably already experienced all that in one way or another. You know the story: Nintendo failed to pull off Other M they way they expected to, the fanbase (or at least the half of it that hated the game) raised hell, and Nintendo bailed. Maybe they didn’t disown the game like some of you may have wanted them to, but almost five years with nothing to say or show for it can’t exactly be called a success, and that was the end of it until last E3. Then, they revealed Federation Force because it had been in development since 2009, and they were satisfied enough that they needed to start wrapping it up and getting it released so that they no longer had nothing to show for the last half a decade. And then you threw it back into their face.
And you know what? I get it. I get the confusion. I get that this isn’t going to be a game that will appeal to a lot of you. I get the concern over the game’s quality. I’m not even entirely convinced of it myself. Make no mistake; this is not a vote of confidence for Federation Force. It could come out later this year, get the critical response of a lead balloon, and be totally worth ignoring.
But it has achieved one thing: It’s proven Nintendo’s conservative attitude towards the property to be justified.
The last five years have been spent with no new Metroid game because Other M failed. You rejected it. Hard. You completely and utterly upended Nintendo’s entire plan for the series going forward. Even if some of what was in the game could have been retooled and made better, you made it abundantly clear it wasn’t worth the effort. You disowned it. You had to write it out of your own personal headcanons in order to sleep at night. It didn’t exist. It never happened. You made it arguably the single most controversial game Nintendo’s ever made. And now you have to deal with the consequences.
Look guys, I don’t like this either. No, I didn’t hate Other M. Yes, I admit it is *incredibly flawed*. (And for those of you who’ve known me for a while, yes, I’ll admit some of my arguments at the time it came out were a little too…impassioned.) But in the grand scheme of things, I lost. You won. Nintendo can’t ignore half of its own fanbase.
But if you’re at the point where you need to *beg* Nintendo to bring the franchise back, and I know nearly all of you have, then none of that matters anymore. No seriously, it really doesn’t. I can’t be expected to believe that a fanbase that launched an attack on a single game that impassioned over poor creative decisions could demand that the artist who made those creative decisions come back and still not be satisfied that said artist isn’t foolish enough to make the same mistakes twice.
And in spite of all this, so many of you haven’t gotten over it. You’re still letting that game dominate the conversation. All you have to do is mention it and you’ll piss someone off. This is getting ridiculous! You act like that game single-handedly killed the property, and yet now you’re the ones trying to reinvigorate the corpse! Or, rather, you’re getting pissed off that Nintendo hasn’t replicated Dr. Frankenstein’s project fast enough.
I don’t think this is just a trivial observation. This attitude doesn’t come with no strings attached. You want Metroid back. You NEED it back. But it’s clear now that you need it back a lot faster than Nintendo is prepared to agree to. Why would they announce a new mainline project before it’s ready, especially when their own audience has spent five years picking apart every little detail related to the series (Zero Suit Samus’s shoes, anyone?) and reinforcing the notion that they have no room to misfire again? Even if they do the most traditional, conventional game in the series since Super Metroid, you’ve made it abundantly clear that they’ll be under more scrutiny than ever.
They’re not going to budge until they’re ready. But you’re desperate and, sorry, beggars can’t be choosers. Which brings us back to Metroid Prime: Federation Force.
As I said before, I’m not trying to sell you on the game. There are totally legitimate reasons to be concerned for that game’s quality. Not all of you are going to like it, and even the ones that do probably won’t get that Metroid itch scratched. But spin-off or not, it’s the first Metroid game in *five years*. This reaction? Tearing into it within hours of the darn thing getting announced? Tearing into it *months* later, after the confusion died down and it should be clear what Nintendo’s objective is? Writing up a petition to get it cancelled? This is what Nintendo was afraid of.
The criticism that Nintendo’s taking too long with the next mainline Metroid game is reliant on the belief that they have nothing to be afraid of. Instead, you’re proving that anything that isn’t exactly what you want shouldn’t just be ignored, it should be actively antagonized. If you truly want Metroid back, you’re undermining yourselves. You’re not closing the gap with Nintendo. You’re widening it. And then you’re getting upset that they haven’t built a good enough bridge yet.
So please, if you’re a Metroid Prime fan, give the game a chance to surprise you. If your expectations are already low, then all it has to be is decent to meet them, right? At the very least, wait until the critical response at launch. If you don’t, I truly believe you’re doing yourself a disservice.
And if you’re a Metroid fan who’s still letting the mistakes of the past dictate your attitude of the present…Well, I can’t stop you. You’re entitled to your opinion, and how you choose to express it. But if you want the series to come back, I genuinely believe that you’re making a mistake. It’s time to get over Other M(And no, passive aggressively pretending it never happened isn’t “getting over it”.). There’s nothing left to say.
Okay, I lied. There’s one thing left for me, personally, to say. The following is a message directly to Nintendo, the Metroid team, and Next Level Games:
You are not a perfect company. You make mistakes. You are stubborn. You can make baffling business decisions. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. You did not succeed with Metroid: Other M. There’s nothing anyone can do to change that. And your handling of the situation has not been ideal, either. Even if you don’t want to announce a new mainline entry, you missed opportunities to earn some goodwill.
But you are a smart company. You have been in business for over 100 years. You have proven the naysayers wrong. You have made incredible experiences, and you will continue to make them. I do not believe you are going to let a single game bring down one of your pillars of critical acclaim. And even if you are interested in making an experience in the vein of Other M again, I think you will be smart enough to avoid becoming victim to the same pitfalls that led you into this mess.
I do not think you expect Metroid Prime: Federation Force to satisfy everyone. Some of your own fans are calling for your head right now. But I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. I still believe you can surprise us. I hope that, later this year, my faith is justified. And whatever the next mainline Metroid game is, you have my full attention. You can still fix this.
You’re thinking of a scallop. Scalia is the eighth astrological sign in the tropic Zodiac, and one of the three water signs, along with Cancer and Pisces.
You’re thinking of Scott/Malia. Scalia is the primary antagonist in the He-Man cartoons. He wants to seize control of Castle Grayskull, the cultural and political stronghold of Eternia, so that he can conquer the universe and shape it to accord with his own evil vision.
You’re thinking of Scully. Scalia was a villain in the excellent and under-appreciated scifi original series Farscape. He perused John Crichton across the uncharted territories for his knowledge on wormhole technology.
You’re thinking of a scale. A scalia is a giant robot you pilot to explore a new planet that New Los Angeles crash landed on after the Earth was destroyed
People might be divided on her name, but the character herself has a lot of fans! There are tons of tributes to Linkle, the newly introduced Hylian heroine debuting in Hyrule Warriors: Legends. The pieces featured above, from top to bottom (and left to right) are from the following talented artists:
Marta
Tigera
Mary Cagle
Mage-Vaati
Andrea Bell
Presteasy
Bellhenge
Zahra
Ru Xu
Linkle and Hyrule Warriors: Legends will arrive for the 3DS on March 25th.
BUY Hyrule Warriors: Legends, The Legend of Zelda (Wii U)
Inspired by the Gamecube classic Chibi-Robo! Not sure how many people out there played this game, but it was really quite lovely. I’ve got my fingers crossed for a new one on the Wii-U.
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