friendlyHunter

Just pretend the whole Prime series didn't happen. I'm certain the story and atmosphere of this new game can't possibly be worse than Prime 3. That trailer was practically proof. I'm looking forward to this... it's great to finally have a Wii Metroid that's... likely to be very good. In the mean time, maybe I should check out the "new" Ninja Gaiden series. Personally I love that Samus uses moves other than jumping and shooting... there's yet to be a Metroid game that shows off Samus's agility and combat skills, and what her suit is really capable of. The closest thing so far is Zero Mission, with all the crazy fast moves you have to pull off during boss fights. I remember the "Metroid Movie (what if?)" thread from a few months back... I have to say, if this new game has a story as deep as, say, Metroid Fusion, it'll probably be better than a Metroid movie Looks like it'll be pulling stuff from the official manga too. It's possible the "remember me?" guy is one of the manga characters... but maybe not.

Yess, someone do the SkiFree yeti again! Well, looks like I'll have to enter this one. I've already done maybe 4 different StarCraft drawings over the years... maybe it's time I completed a Warcraft one. We'll see.... Or a weird cat-headed woman dancing in a sig? Hmm, our definitions of "sexy" do not seen to match.

Haven't made any music in a long time now, and I'm not that great, but... I'm in.

Hmmm.... I'm hesitant to sign up until I know what dates the competition starts and ends, since I'll be busy between certain dates. But if it's double elimination, I'll probably be eliminated pretty fast anyway Chances are I'll be ok. What the heck, I'm in: BNet name: FriendlyWarlord Race: random

It sounds like many movie trailers... could it be from a movie trailer? I picture the camera moving at high speeds across hilly cloudy plains, spinning past random characters as the screen fades in and out and in and out and in and out. It reminded me of "The Last Samurai", but I just scanned through the entire soundtrack and this wasn't in it. I also scanned through a bit of "Forbidden Kingdom", but it didn't sound like it was going to show up.

AAAAHH I didn't eat my Wheaties and now I don't have time to enter! Not into the pit! IT BUUUURNS!

I was going to say that the meme needs to be more widespread before that can really work... but now that Keyboard Cat has the "Colbert bump", it's (probably) far from obscure

Ooh boy... I tried some SC games yesterday on Bnet and got totally destroyed most of the time. WHY do people host "1on1 noob only" games just so they can do some cheap-ass build order and reaver-dorp the poor newb who didn't have a chance in the first place?? That kind of assery is like paying big bucks for higher levels/items in MMORPGs, and then running around killing low-level newbies for no reason... except that it's wasting my time. The only good game I had was a "1on1 noob only" game that I hosted, and a newbie ACTUALLY joined, but it was borderling "too easy" by the end of the game. Well, and there was a 3on3 that was good until an ally left, and a barrage of archons and high templars completely ripped me apart... With that said, I'm signing up for the tournament Is it possible to choose my race before each match? ...because I really don't know what race I'm good with. Can I choose "random" for every match?

Haha I believe I am the worst the very worst at starcraft! Are you asking for a CHALLEEEEEENGE!?!? Best of 3 sounds like a good idea. I think double elimination or round robin would be good.

It's no biggie; the leg fatigue goes away just minutes after waking up... maybe it's more of a temporary semi-paralysis thing. And if something was seriously affecting the amount of rest I get while asleep.. with the amount of sleep I get, I think I'd know about it ;p But that wikipedia article does sound kind of like me (though it could just be the "OMG I have everything in the book!" reaction). I always assumed it was because I don't have a lot of muscle in my legs, and a lot of chairs aren't build for my bony ass. Sounds like the most likely thing to me... probably jabbed your arm with your hand or ribs or something... I dunno =/

LOL, the Colbert bit at the end of the Daily Show today (Monday) was the best!

Any kind of "body horror" tends to wake me up pretty quickly, and then it's gone. Multiple weird bee stings, spider bites, stupid butterflies in the face/mouth/eyes/nose (that one was nasty). But I do get that terrible leg fatigue when I run in my dreams... or worse are the dreams where I get too tired to run so I have to crawl, and then when I wake up I really feel THAT physically tired. Hmm, I don't think I've shared anything particularly disturbing or interesting yet. UNTIL NOW! I don't think I've ever been angrier or more panicked than I've been in some of my dreams. In these dreams I do things that I never do in real life (yell, fight). Usually I wake up feeling "vented" and happy (especially when I compare the real people in my life with the dream versions I get mad at), but occasionally it goes horribly wrong. How wrong? The worst was a dream when my brother and I were fighting (wrestling) intensely near the top of a staircase, and somehow I accidently flung him down the staircase and watched in horror as he dropped through the air like a rag doll, and I woke up JUST before his head would have smashed into the floor at the bottom. Yeah, I didn't feel good after that one ...Didn't help that the staircase was right beside my bedroom. The second worst was a dream where my dad was driving me somewhere (to a real place, on a real street), and he looked away from the traffic for a moment, and I watch him run over a group of pedestrians before stopping, and I yell "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!?" at the top of my lungs and then wake up... that one really sucked. Makes me wonder what I'd REALLY do in a situation where anger or aggressive fighting is called for. It's almost scarier than a nightmare, because I'm more or less in control of what the dream-me does (as opposed to a nightmarish outside force that's in control). Nothing I say can top Meteo Xavier's stuff though =p

Bahaha, this is the only really good one I've seen so far XD [Edit] Actually this one was decent too:

Signature has arrived. I've never played any LucasArts adventure games, but people keep telling me that I should. Though I have seen a few of their intros, and some gameplay (and played a tiny bit of one), and some trailers too. I've already made up my mind what I'm gonna draw =D

Now that I think about it, I horribly suck at lucid dreams... I can control myself, but I can't control anything that's going on around me or give myself "super powers" or anything, so it's just like any other dream. Sooner or later (usually sooner) I either forget it's a dream, become unsure if it's a dream, or wake up. "So let's see... I was laying in bed, end then all of a su-OH SHIT not again!" Maybe you should (Nah, just kidding) I get the "eyes glued shut" thing if I've been trying to sleep for a few hours, or if I've just slept for only a couple hours or less... I can see why it would happen after a nap. But it's not so much "glued shut" as it is "difficult and rather painful to hold them open".

Fun thread! I'd go back and quote a whole bunch of posts to reply to them, but that'll take too long so I'll just get right into it: I've never had sleep paralysis, but it always sounds scary when I read about it... especially the not breathing part =/ I have had one memorable dream with my eyes open... in the dream I was in a dark place (a subway station and videogame dungeon in my basement lol), and I could see this distinct pattern of bright lines before my eyes. I interpreted it as some kind of telepathic message from aliens or something and I was studying it so I could draw/reproduce it =P Turns out my head was facing right at my window. Luckily it wasn't one bit scary though. I almost never have nightmares, though sometimes I do have dreams where scary stuff happens, but it's rarely "I wish I didn't have that dream" scary. My scary dreams are awesome. Like the time a giant parasitic snake-like worm went inside some guy's body and consumed the interior of his head, and then came out the guy's head and I had to hit these fast-moving worms on the ground with an axe (or was it a sword?). Scary as hell considering I hate and fear parasitic worms, but awesome. Also whenever I have a dream where I'm running, I usually feel really physically tired running in the dream, and then feel really physically tired when I wake up. I don't have the arm spasm thing (but then again I'm never lucid when I fall asleep)... but occasionally I do get a quick "shock" where I hear a REALLY LOUD buzzing noise for a moment before it quickly fades out. I'm not sure if my muscles spasm, or if I'm just surprised by the loud noise, but I do jolt a little. This happens only when I'm trying to fall asleep, and recently I read it's a mechanism to jolt you awake so you don't accidentally fall asleep. Go figure... I've had my share of sleep deprevation, and if I recall correctly the closest thing to an all-nighter I've pulled has been an hour or less of sleep overnight. Symptoms included "wavy" vision, lack of focus, super-alertness (basically the OPPOSITE of lack of focus), slow visual perception (for example I'd think I'm seeing my cat before I realize it's a brown bag on the ground), "tunnel vision", seeing movement that's not there in my peripheral version (a combination of "wavy vision", tunnel vision, slow perception, and long hair)... Oh yes, and mild audio hallucinations (near-silence or background noises starting to sound like things, or sound like nothing in particular, but a noise nonetheless). And I too feel like my body thinks days are longer than 24 hours. I can wake up at 8:00am and be tired until well into the afternoon, sometimes even tired in the evening... but by midnight I'm completely alert and don't feel tired at all, and I can't help but stay up. When I'm supposed to sleep I feel like doing stuff, and when I'm supposed to do stuff (go to classes) sometimes I can barely function. The worst was this one class I was taking around noon... it was in a big room with these old wooden benches/chairs/desks that really restricted your legs. And the lights were really dim, since the prof used an overhead projector. And the prof's accent was slightly hard to understand, but coupled with the echo, and how quiet he was (I never sat near the front), you had to really pay attention to understand him. But it was also hard to read his messy writing (which was especially annoying when he wrote equations with new symbols, or variables with subscripts), and again the fact that I didn't sit very close didn't help. So anyway as soon as the prof would start the lecture, this terrible urge to sleep would come over me, and last the entire lecture as I'd struggle to listen to his voice and keep my eyes open trying to look at this bright bright projector screen in this dark dark room. This sleepyness happened basically every freaking day, unless the topic was particularly interesting (which it usually wasn't). It was like a light switch - I could arrive early and sit down and wait fully awake for 5 minutes, but as soon as the lecture would begin, staying awake would become a struggle. Often I found myself listening but with my eyes closed, reading the overhead but having no clue what he's saying, or looking like I'm paying attention but thinking about something completely unrelated. And the moment the class ends and it's time to go, the magic lightswitch would flip back and I'd be completely awake again. I've never EVER had something lull me to sleep like that. It was SOO tempting to fall asleep in class, but somehow I never did once. One of these days I'll have to make an audio recording of the prof doing a lecture, build an uncomfortable wooden chair/desk, and install dim lights and a projector in my bedroom. Then I could literally have a light switch that puts me to sleep Would be nice, considering it usually takes me a while to fall asleep.

Yeah, a completely new story that's more suited for cinema could definitely work. Either that or a retelling of an existing Metroid game - a retelling that's almost nothing like the game itself, but still conveys the same feelings of eeriness and isolation. Something that uses Metroid canon without actually contradicting it... where the creatures and environments and events are more about the lore than they are about an exciting adventure. The problem is, if most of the movie deals with Samus in isolation, how will viewers with no knowledge of Metroid backstory be able to appreciate the significance of anything? It's clear there has to be SOME backstory... here are a few ways to include it: 1) Stuff happens before Samus becomes isolated. 2) Other characters do stuff while Samus is isolated (movie switches back and forth). 3) It shows stuff from the past before Samus becomes isolated. 4) It shows stuff from the past while Samus is isolated (again, switching back and forth). I included (1), because it can create an incredibly immersive world in a short amount of time, without spoiling any of the "mystery" of Samus's character. To those around her (and at this point to the viewer) she is a mystery. And when the movie turns to Samus being isolated, there's a HUGE contrast between this massive galactic community threatening to break into war, and this single character completely alone deep in a cave on some planet with no outside contact. If you completely ignore the outside world before Samus starts exploring, you don't get that intense contrast. I don't think (2) is a very good idea... I think it would take away from the isolation, switching away from Samus to show something completely unrelated. It is contrast with Samus's adventure, but could you imagine watching the start of Wall-E if it kept switching to/from the empty wasteland every 10 minutes? I didn't choose to include (3) because, again, I don't think Samus's past should be revealed quickly. If you know everything about Samus before you see her as a mysterious bounty hunter, then she's not mysterious at any point of the movie. Everyone knows that movies throw away canon like crazy, so even someone who's read the Metroid manga might know very little about the movie version of Samus. I included (4) because I think Samus's past with Ridley and Mother Brain and the Chozo, as presented in the manga, is a genuinely good story, and would convert very nicely to the big screen. It's far deeper than the story of any single Metroid game, and it touches on everything important in the Metroid universe. Just a couple of pages from Samus's past create a deep engrossing world where previously there was NOTHING. And since the flashbacks can be interpreted as Samus's memories, you can have a huge continuous chunk of the movie with nothing but Samus completely alone with her thoughts/memories. Watching Samus do something as simple as explore, shoot aliens, or fight a boss is intensely more interesting when you know what she knows, what she fears, why she's doing what she's doing. In a Metroid game you know all these things because YOU are the one exploring - that, and it gives you the required backstory before the game begins.

Well I was considering shrinking it down to sig size and adding the caption: "Join the Fan Art Competition, or else you will DIE!"

I just wonder what Ganon's up to... I LOVE the DK one by the way, both the concept and execution. Looking forward to the new theme!! [fake edit] Haha, I wonder what my Link gif looks like to people who haven't seen the CD-i cutscene with Ganon... must be the freaking weirdest Link they ever saw!

I can't imagine a decent Metroid movie with no backstory... for all the same reasons that make the "Shadow of the Collosus" movie a terrible idea. I'm sure an incredible director could do something really stunning and artsy with it, but it has little potential when it's presented as "just a bunch of stuff that happens" with no story. It's not like Wall-E where details constantly reveal things about Earth's past or Wall-E's past. How can a faceless bounty hunter exploring caves and shooting aliens for 90 minutes be anything but shallow to someone who doesn't already know what's happening? What made games like Super Metroid deep and immersive was the interactivity. More linear titles like Fusion and Prime 3 don't have the same Metroid-y flare for this reason (among others). A Metroid movie's exploration is as linear as it gets, unless tons of time is spent going the wrong way, getting secret items, backtracking, wondering where to go next... but how can that compare to actually playing the games? I don't think it can. Back when Sonic games encouraged exploration, they were fun and the gameplay was deep - but try WATCHING a video of someone exploring in Sonic 1 or 2, or a newbie exploring in Super Metroid. Reading the manga added a lot for me. Ridley used to be just a reoccuring boss. Mother Brain was a reoccuring boss that had a second form in Super Metroid. But now I can look at them in a completely different way. SPOILERS AHEAD if you read the rest of the paragraph: Would you rather watch Samus fight a nameless fire-breathing dragon, or the enigmatic leader of the Space Pirates responsible for everything bad in Samus's life? The single biggest threat to the galaxy, responsible for decades of unrest and piracy? Would you rather watch Samus shoot missiles at a giant brain, or the Mother Brain: the mysterious Chozo "interface" for planet Zebes, creator of Samus's suit, and overall nasty self-absorbed evil villian? Would you rather watch Samus travel through a planet you've never heard of before, or the planet where she was raised by the "obsolete" Chozo as their successor, where she reluctantly learned to harness the power of her suit? The planet where she witnessed the invasion of the Pirates, the betrayal of Mother Brain, and the near death of an entire race? I don't care how artsy or breathtaking a storyless Metroid movie could be - there are amazing pieces of backstory that make the mystery deeper rather than taking it away. Including backstory is pretty much necessary to make a Metroid movie that anyone can follow and enjoy (including Metroid lore nerds). Metroid canon itself is rather hazy and incomplete - even knowing everthing there is to know about Metroid, making connections between the manga and the games is flaky (as well as connections between the different Metroid games). I'm all for hazy mysterious loose connections between the games and a Metroid movie, but 95% of the audience will know squat about Metroid lore, and for them the movie will be nothing but processing what's on the screen; watching a character you know nothing about explore a planet you know nothing about and kill aliens for some reason. If you make a movie based on a book, you don't make it utterly meaningless for people who haven't read the book.

I read the manga that's all about Samus's past... the best part about it is the "so THAT'S how it happened!" factor. But simply telling Samus's life story from the start would make a really bad movie. Everyone knows Metroid just isn't Metroid without isolation... yet Samus doesn't experience such isolation until the first Metroid game happens. I don't think a Metroid movie will ever work, and if one is ever made it will probably suck... but I typed up a decent movie premise that's basically the "best case scenario" for me... mashing up the good parts from the manga backstory with the unique feel and atmosphere of Metroid games: It starts out following Samus's life as a bounty hunter, in an uneasy world plagued by increasing Space Pirate activity and the possibility of war. It's apparent that tensions have been mounting for a long time. The relationships between the Space Pirates, Samus, the Galactic Federation, and the Chozo are established as Samus takes on another assignment. The story up to this point is more about the characters' political viewpoints than anything else - but Samus seems quite distanced from it all, just hunting bounty for a living. By this point we've already seen Samus kicking ass and are aware of her suit's powers, and the fact she was raised by the Chozo - but we know very little about her (besides her personality, or at least how she acts towards the other characters). Suddenly things go very wrong. Samus gets back from her latest hunt for bounty (or is unable to finish), and is informed that a Metroid(s) has been stolen by the Space Pirates. A rushed meeting is held to explain the gravity of the situation and what the heck a "metroid" is, and soon Samus takes off for Zebes. From this point on, starting with an overly long and uneventful flight to planet Zebes, Samus is completely isolated. The rest of the movie is about 30% Samus's journey and battles on Zebes, and 70% flashbacks of Samus's life. The flashbacks are in chronological order, and hit on a lot of different events... some important, some not as important. I'm gonna be making up a lot of crap as I go along here, but hey, it's fun Before Samus arrives at Zebes, the flashbacks have recounted the day her parents died (but from Samus's point of view). This would play out exactly like the manga pretty much: the hooded Chozo are meeting with the planet's workers (lead by Samus's father), Samus and Old Bird chat it up, and then the Chozo leave and Samus goes back to find that bunny creature. When the distant explosions and fires start, Samus doesn't quite get what's going on because she's only three. Pirate spacecraft can be seen from a distance, and Ridley arrives, but the flashback decidedly stops before Samus and Ridley meet - Samus clearly doesn't want to think about that right now. Samus lands the ship, heads underground (she looks like she knows exactly where she's going), but then she's stopped by several dead ends, and finally an unfamiliar elevator. After a bit more exploring and dead ends she goes back to the elevator (and then on the elevator), and it takes her deep underground. A quick flashback shows the aftermath of her meeting with Ridley, where Old Bird spots her by chance and takes her under his wing (so to speak). When the flashback ends, she's standing in the iconic "first room" from Metroid. Samus casually shoots some dangerous-looking Zoomers (well, dangerous to anyone but Samus), and goes into the room with the Morph Ball. Some stuff happens and somehow her suit gets the power to morph into a ball - this is never explained, and the visuals don't answer any questions. Samus explores some more without the movie skipping a moment, until she reaches the first Chozo statue (with a missile expansion?) - and another flashback starts. 3-year old Samus is on Zebes, and it's the scene from the manga where the Chozo introduce her to Mother Brain.... "It's ok Samus. It won't harm you. It's the computer interface that oversees this planet." 11 years pass, and the flashback continues much like the manga. The rest of the movie has a lot of different flashbacks, inluding events from the manga (but far from all of it!), and maybe some events NOT from the manga. Samus's encounters with Ridley are detailed (including the one from her childhood), and also her encounters with Mother Brain. Ridley and Mother Brain are built up as the badass evil villians they are in the manga, Samus's life-changing events are shown (especially the ones that change her attitude and reveal the origin of her suit), and the impending war and political tensions are touched on as well. In the meantime, it shows Samus doing stuff on Zebes, including: - Samus getting utterly lost at one point (checking out her map and getting confused, falling into traps, getting ambushed by strange creatures, etc.) Probably in Kraid's Lair, because that place is hell in the original Metroid. - A battle with Kraid (spoiler: Samus wins) - At least a couple not-dangerous-looking action-y or fast explore-y sequences with accompanying melodic Metroid music (think Green Brinstar from Super Metroid, or Kraid's Lair from Metroid). Like a montage, but without the constant time skips. - At least a few slow and eerily silent moments... a good candidate would be the part where you enter Ridley's Lair through a giant freaky-looking alien dinosaur head sculpture, and nothing happens other than Samus's spirit being crushed ;p Anyway, every time it goes back to Samus's adventure, her suit is a bit more powerful, or has some new special weapons or abilities, and for the most part enemy creatures don't threaten her life. At some point in Ridley's lair, a flashback begins... and ends abruptly when Ridley flies in out of nowhere, catching Samus off-guard. They fight (and probably exchange words, if Ridley can speak English in the movie), and Samus takes a massive beating, but eventually kills Ridley in a fashion that allows him to be "rebuilt" later. Samus discovers an energy tank in the next room, and then there's one final flashback to inspire some emotion in Samus and in the audience (Anger? Courage? Determination? Hope? Fear? All of the above?) - and as the flashback ends, Samus takes off, running and climbing and jumping and shooting and screw-attacking without slowing down, all the way up to Tourian in a single uncut sequence of shots. TOO EPIC!! Finally Samus takes the elevator down to Tourian... gee, I've got nothing. Metroids turn out to be the most powerful enemy Samus has faced so far, Samus unloads missiles at layer after layer of regenerating "zebetite" walls that encase the Mother Brain... the room with the Mother Brain (formerly a huge wide open room walled with carved stone) is now a cramped nightmarish tunnel walled with tubes and guns... that's all I've got. Yep. Remind me to never do that again

Err... don't ALL the characters from OOT's time period exist in both timelines? Only now am I confused =O

Hehe, don't worry... I'll go to sleep and it'll be as if no time has passed!

AAAAH I'm almost done, but there's one more important detail to add, not sure if I'll make it....!! [Edit] AAAAAAAAAAH Now I'm done, must upload to internets! [Edit] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH ok it's submitted. Can't wait to see all the entries!

Ack, an hour left! Almost done, let's see if I can finish...