Month of Metroid kicks off with MP3:C channel, VC releases
by Eric Caoili 
{ Aug 10th 2007 at 10:35AM }
Building up hype for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption's August 27th release, Nintendo has declared our eighth month as the "Month of Metroid," releasing a downloadable preview channel for the FPS/adventure title. As shown in the video we've embedded above, you can grab the preview from the Wii Shopping Channel's WiiWare section for free. Two streaming videos should be included with the download -- one a lengthy trailer, the other demonstrating gameplay -- as well as two hidden artwork samples. More videos will be made available this August 13th.
Also on August 13th, as we predicted, Nintendo plans to bring the original Metroid NES game to the Virtual Console for 500 points. Super Metroid fans can expect to see the SNES classic appear this August 20th, priced at 800 points. Coinciding Wii releases with their complementary retro titles seems like an obvious sales stratagem; we wonder what took Nintendo so long to catch on? Anyhow, we can't wait to see what else Nintendo has planned for this Metroid Month.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
danny. @ Aug 10th 2007 10:44AM
so can we set Super Mario 3's VC date at Nov. 12?
sonicspear64 @ Aug 10th 2007 10:50AM
Would've wished for a 15 min demo or something but this is alright. IGN ironically made an editorial a few days back about how Nintendo wasn't hyping MP3. It's a good thing that they were partly wrong.
hvnlysoldr @ Aug 10th 2007 10:52AM
What does this mean?
http://gonintendo.com/?p=22768
Update - Reader Josh sends in this tip…
On the window where the videos are, there is a blinking button on the top right. If you click that, the window minimizes so you can uncover an image using the wii remote to “paint” the screen. The window also has what appears to be buttons on the left for what could be ‘up’ and ‘down’. Meanwhile, when the window is minimized for ‘painting’, there are five video icons on the button to go back to videos, despite the fact there are only four videos.
Louis @ Aug 10th 2007 10:57AM
IGN is still correct. MP3: Corruption is, without a doubt, the most under-hyped Nintendo produced game I've seen on the Wii. I personally think that it is a great game to hype because it shows potential buyers that there are more games than Mario and Zelda on the Wii.
I'm not a Metroid fan at all, but I would have at least liked some gameplay. I don't know how you are supposed to sell a game on 4 low res videos distributed only to Wii owners. Every time a major release comes out, they should be pushing this to non-Wii owners as well.
Almadi @ Aug 10th 2007 11:08AM
So they will release these games next Monday?
1. Metroid - NES
2. Shinobi 3 - Genesis
3. Ghouls 'n Ghosts - Genesis
4. Breath of Fire 2 - SNES
Mohan @ Aug 10th 2007 11:10AM
I think Nintendo should just make a preview channel where we can view stuff like these (upcoming games and stuff). Hopefully in the future.
Rakuen42 @ Aug 10th 2007 11:21AM
@4
I'm pretty sure that Nintendo has reached the non-Wii crowd with this channel. The story is already all over the Internet, pasted across every game-related site and even some that aren't. Not only that, but it's only a matter of time before the videos are posted on Youtube.
Essentially, why should Nintendo spend money to advertise when we're quite content to give them 10x more exposure than they could pay for themselves?
ForceUnleashed @ Aug 10th 2007 11:34AM
LMAO...IGN wants Nintendo to hype up Metroid 3? You want to know why? So they can talk a bunch of sh*t and spew out all this crap about how "great" the game is and how "wonderfully innovative the new controls" are only to end up giving the game an 8.0
Fantus @ Aug 10th 2007 12:03PM
Shame this is only on the US Wii VC channel.
Wish they would release MP3 over here in europe around the same time and not 2 months after you, nearly as bad that we are still waiting for Paper Mario now.
I am english and so we could very well play the US version of the game, but of course, they need to translate the game for the rest of europe and we have to wait.
I just hope Galaxy, Smash and Kart all don't have the same delay.
We only got Trauma Center: Second Opinion out here today, not thats what you call a delay of another good game.
Should of just made the Wii region free like the PS3.
todde7 @ Aug 10th 2007 4:24PM
Well, it's a step in the right direction at least for Nintendo. Hopefully soon we will see a hard drive release, then they can start releasing DEMOS. Please we need Demos, so many of the games coming out r new concepts that we havent seen before and we arent willing to fork out the dough unless we can test them. I guarantee Wii will sell more games if they make demos. Besides they r gonna have to release a hard drive anyways for the Neo Geo games otherwise that would be stupid having to delete and redownload games constantly.
Mr Khan @ Aug 10th 2007 2:24PM
I was kind of disappointed that it wasn't a demo, but i figured that out when i learned it was only 70 blocks (about 9 MB) waaay to small for even a demo with 1 room and no enemies
But this little streaming video hub is a cool touch, full motion video on my actual TV gives a good grasp at how the graphics will really look
nitemare @ Aug 10th 2007 3:27PM
I'm pretty sure that this channel will be morphing into a full blown channel showing video of the VC games, it would be pretty easy seeing that the videos for Metroid are being pulled from the internet when you play them and they already have videos for the VC games on the net, just a matter of upping the servers to do it.... a channel for that would be pretty cool (unless they are still content on having you just use the Opera browser to go check em out)
JKAntwon @ Aug 10th 2007 5:10PM
@todde7 Yeah I rent all my games save Zelda to make sure they are worth $50 bucks. But Resident is not available from Blockbuster here. And most of the time I have to try a game a few months after its been released, because my crappy hillbilly town won't cater enough to the gamers! I would love a Wii demo ability, and a DS demo channel! here's hoping!
Mr Khan @ Aug 10th 2007 5:37PM
Actually, here's an odd question:
Those who got the dummy channel from the 3.0 update, and have downloaded the Metroid content, is your dummy channel still there?
TWiNKiE @ Aug 10th 2007 7:57PM
Wow...... those videos were amazing.... Now I need to cram Metroid into my system before MP3:C launch.... That requires finishing MP1, MP2, and at least complete a new Metroid VC title.
lee @ Aug 11th 2007 8:33AM
anyone else really not impressed w/ the fact that we downloaded a video that we still had to wait for it stream. I love my Wii, but c'mon. At least w/ my 360 I get instant access to what I dl'd. W/ the MP3 vids, it was like I had to wait twice. Your letting me down Nintendo
Charles @ Aug 11th 2007 9:35AM
well, for those who are complaining about video. where do you want to put it? there is no direct access to SD card and the wii only has 512Mb of memory...so where will the downloaded video go?
Quiggy @ Aug 11th 2007 10:52AM
I second what Charles said, but I'm gonna add to it: how many of you really had to wait that long? My download for each video was like five seconds. Calm down, be glad the channel isn't eating up your Wii's space, and be patient.