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.
We love fans. Not only because we are fans and we're completely narcissistic, but because they always come up with some of the coolest things.
Take, for example, this remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus for the original Game Boy. It may be nothing new for a fan to recreate an oldschool game, but this is one of the best we've seen. DoctorM64 not only did a great job with the sprites, but also tweaked the level design a bit so that the game flows more smoothly.
If you want to try this remake for yourself, it's only a click away. Keeping in mind that this is only a tech demo and not the completed version, we're sure that you'll be even more impressed. Also, you can check out DoctorM64's blog to get a feel for the creation process.
If you're still searching for the perfect case for your DS Lite, you might want to check out these handmade options by eBay's munkybaby05. Made with yarn, felt, and plastic canvas, these cases are adorably geeky, and according to the seller, will fit snugly on any DS Lite.
There's two Metroid options, including the one pictured above and a Samus vs. metroid case. If you prefer the Legend of Zelda as your game of choice, though, she also has a case featuring Link and another with a sparkly Triforce.
The cutest of all, though, are the Mario-themed cart cases, which are shaped like little boxes and can hold about nine or ten games. The game holders are available in red mushroom, green mushroom, or question block designs.
Currently they're not too expensive for handmade items ($18 including shipping and handling for the DS Lite cases, $11 for the game cases), but of course, you never know with eBay.
Bringing in the Chinese New Year, import shop Play Asia has slashed the prices on over five thousand of its in-stock games and accessories. What's more, each order you put in between today and February 29th will count towards an entry for you to win a variety of Japanese consoles, games, and store credits. There's just too many items on sale to list, so we've picked out a few from the DS and GBA sections that might pique your interest.
DS game sales:
Ryuusei no RockMan: Dragon, Leo, and Pegasus - $48.90 $9.90
Nodame Cantabile - $48.90 $14.90
Operation: Vietnam (US) - $24.90 $16.90
Slide Adventure: Mag Kid - $58.90 $19.90
Oshare Majo Love and Berry (DS Collection) - $58.90 $19.90
Lwelyk, the Lego mosaicist (mosaician?) behind some truly excellent Nintendo block art, has posted his latest masterpiece, a large-scale model of Metroid's final-boss-in-a-jar. This Mother Brain is "about the size of (Lwelyk's) torso" and took "four or five hours." We can only imagine that part of that time was spent shooting little flying rings so he could get back up on the tiny platform on which he was building the sculpture.
Can you imagine how upsetting it would be to walk in and see something like this, especially if you weren't familiar with Metroid? Or, even worse, to wake up in the middle of the night and see this ... mass ... in your house?
It doesn't really irk us that this Mario/Metroid mélange is at least eight minutes too long, because it manages to confirm a sneaking suspicion that we've held for some time now: that there is a niche between 2D Mario and 2D Metroid games, just aching to be filled. We knew it!
In recent times, we've shone the Fanboy spotlight on cosplay experiments that have ranged from adorable to slightly surreal. This Samus number effortlessly trumps the lot, however.
For starters, it's Samus. Samus cosplay is not a walk in the park, kids. We can only begin to imagine the sheer frustration involved in accurately recreating the Power Suit, with all of its peculiar angles and ridges (not to mention those awkward shoulder spheres). Which makes this effort, featuring Swedish student Jenni Källberg, all the more admirable.
Like a walk of shame after a one-night stand, we found ourselves wishing that last night's Game Night session could've lasted longer for us and not have come to a close. But, those pesky responsibilities of ours always seem to get in the way. Oh well, them's the breaks.
Hit up the poll below and vote for next week's theme game.
We hear your cries! We know you all want to get your Worms on, as we've read in comments that you all want to play. That's great and we're glad to hear it, but just because it isn't on the poll doesn't mean you can't play it folks. Those titles in the poll are just the theme game choices and by no means do we seek to force it down your throat. If we didn't remove the game that won the previous week's poll, then everyone would vote Pokemon every week. This gives people who are interested in other games a chance to play their game of choice.
Friday has become a mixed bag for us. On the one hand, it marks the beginning of the weekend, which is always nice, but it also means we have to wait a really long time before we can play games together again. And, being bloggers and having a responsibility that never ends, we rather enjoy the small break we get to play games with you awesome readers every week. So, hit up the poll below and vote for next week's theme game while we cry in the corner, waiting for Thursday to come back again.
It's Thursday. You know what that means. We're going to get together and celebrate some good, old-fashioned multiplayer action on the DS. And, we've got something special waiting after the break. So, get a move on and get ready to get your game on.
Personally, we had a blast playing The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass last night. Many of you were late in arriving to the chat, throwing down in some Metroid Prime Hunters, Overall, it was a pretty good night, but we're sure that most of you regulars could've managed to make it. We understand things come up, but you better be there next week.
Oh, you better ... or else.
Update: Due to popular demand, we've added Worms: Open Warfare 2 to the poll. If you want other games added in the future (or ... right now), let us know in the comments here or feel free to email me at david at dsfanboy dawt com.
Thank goodness it's Thursday, because we need our weekly gaming fix. We need to get our game on bad. And, hopefully, you do to. So, head past the break for the deets and prepare yourself to meet with us this evening for some DS action.
During an interview with Mark Pacini and Todd Keller, Stepehen Totilo over at MTV grilled them about this whole Metroid Dread business. And, in award-winning fashion, the duo did little to sway our hopes for the project to see the light of day. Instead, they said it wasn't going to happen, but not exactly.
In response to the question regarding Metroid Dread's existence, Pacini said "It's not what you think it means... it was something that was overlooked and wasn't in any way indicating anything about the handheld game. We know no information about the handheld games." Once Totilo grills him more, he further adds "We actually had a fictional element of something else in the game that by a large coincidence could be read that we were giving a hint about "Metroid Dread" which was not the case. It's a complete and utter coincidence."
Then, interestingly enough, Pacini comments "That's all I can say on it." This, of course, lends more fuel to your hopeful fire, as it does ours, but considering that Hunters were referenced in the first Metroid Prime title, which then became a handheld game, we're willing to believe.
Last week we didn't have that good of a showing as far as Game Nights are concerned. This week, though, we want to fix that. So, if you are planning on ditching tonight's Game Night, know this: we will find you. We will emerge from a bush or a dark closet within your close vicinity and ask you why you didn't show up.
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.
In recent times, we've shone the Fanboy spotlight on 
During an interview with Mark Pacini and Todd Keller, Stepehen Totilo over at MTV grilled them about this whole 
