For those who know, http://www.smashbros.com has been updating daily with interesting little snippets of information and gameplay details about the anticipated Wii release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. These updates have been occurring for a number of weeks. So why make a fuss about today’s update? Well, because they have added a short music clip that remixes one of my favorite songs in all of video-game-dom, (it’s a word, look it up).

Check out the remix of Ridley’s Theme right here!

May it brighten your day as much as it has mine.

Now that we’ve got a release date, Nintendo just released a new batch of screens for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. We’ve got a new logo, some random arm shots using that grapple beam, and one group shot of the other hunters.

Hopefully some new gameplay video will show up soon.

I seriously doubted they could get the game out before fall, and was betting we’d see a November release.
Now the long awaited 3rd installement in the Metroid Prime series has a release date: August 20th. Which means I better get a Wii by August 19th.

Also on August 20th, Nintendo will publish a sequel to Brain Age on DS, and many more DS and Wii titles are on the way beyond that. Sadly the list has many licensed games from movies or cartoons, but on the bright side there are only 3 Megaman games!

Keep reading for the full release list!
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If you haven’t seen this yet, prepare to be blown away at one man’s dedication to making great CG action and trying to show what might happen in a fight between Samus Aran and a USNC Spartan like Master Chief. Fight choreography is top. Give this man a job now.

Toys based on video games is still a woefully untapped and underserved market. Even massively popular lines like Halo 2 from Joyride don’t make it much further than stores that sell video games (even Toys R Us stocked them near the Xbox games).

Metal Gear Solid 4 may not have a release date, but the 12″ Solid Snake (picutred) will be out in November. He’s pretty detailed, and employs some advanced action figure technology to keep his body in realistic posts, which sounds nice but its really a shady way of saying he’s not getting double jointed limbs. Couldn’t find a price point, and Medicom is a Japanese toy company so be prepared to pay brutal import prices.

NECA has a handful of figures already out based on Eidos properties: Tomb Raider Legend, Hitman, and Legacy of Kain. They also announced at Toy Fair they’ll have some Resident Evil figures out by September, and Castlevania in October. Simon Belmont will be based on the NES box art, but Alucard, Dracula, and Succubus will be styled after Symphony Of The Night.

First 4 Figures has a Metroid license, but seem intent on making statues too expensive to buy on a whim. Zero Suit Samus will retail for $109. An excellent likeness, and sure to be the pride of your basement collection. They’re also stamping out Zelda statues. Why not make me a proper 6″ Varia Suit Samus Aran action figure and some Space Pirates, F4F?

SOTA Toys will have some Darkstalkers to add to their Street Fighter line. Dimitri and Lord Raptor will be out late spring 2007.

Its really frustrating that theres still no line that conforms to a scale and offers more than the most obvious characters as figures. Getting ONLY Snake or ONLY Lara Croft seems odd. Even Mario brought some supporting characters to Happy meals.

Boy, there has been a lot of Wii news this week. And with all the press releases and announcements, it was almost easy to overlook that Nintendo showed off new videos at their press events. Note: all links are to Windows Media, but there are Quicktime versions available.

First up, GameTrailers has a legnthy video showing the fishing demo from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Nintendo also released a new all-gameplay trailer, showing off a lot of Link’s abilities plus the widescreen mode.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption had the same demo as E3, but this gameplay video goes over the game a lot better than anything I saw in May. Theres also a better look at the Ridley free-fall boss battle.

Oh yeah, I guess there was Battalion Wars, Wario Ware, and Red Steel too. And a Dragon Ball Z game that looks terrible.

A lot of NES favorites are celebrating over 2 decades of classic games, and Metroid is the latest. Yes, on August 6, 1986 Metroid was released on the Famicon Disk System in Japan. Its subsequent release in the US and sequels that went portable and 3D moved Metroid from beyond a simple shooting/exploring game to a rich Sci-Fi universe with depth, history, and colorful characters.

Check out the feature One Girl Against The Galaxy on 1up. For more on Metroid’s hero Samus Aran, try wikipedia. While you read, do rock out to Metroid Metal.

Also, while its not in english, theres 2 volumes of flash Manga: here and here

The latest installment in the Metroid series, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, will be in stores on the Nintendo Wii this fall. Currently available in stores is Metroid Fusion & Metroid Zero Mission on GBA, Metroid Prime Hunters & Metroid Pinball on NDS, and Metroid Prime & Metroid Prime 2: Echoes on GameCube.

Art by Torokun

“The Nintendo Difference” – a promo video released before the GameCube launch, with a lot of footage of games like Raven Blade and Donkey Kong Racing that never came out, in addition to a look at Kameo (which eventually came out on Xbox360) and some clearly pre-rendered concepts of Mario Kart and Metroid Prime alongside the infamous Legend Of Zelda Link/Gannondorf fight.
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