Happy New Year! So... why no updates in three months? Well, I've been taking some leave of absence from the site lately and thought it would be a good time to drop by with an update.

If you've been wondering why I haven't been updating the site since October last year, blame Gears of War 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword :) But there's a better reason than that...

Since early 2007 when I started work on our Metroid Prime 2 guide, I've been working on the site almost non-stop right up to the release of Metroid: Other M. Since finishing our coverage of Other M last year, I've been completely burned out from the past 4 years of maintaining the site at that rate. Now that I've covered everything I originally intended for the site, and with no new Metroid games officially announced for the near future, I figured it's time for a break. The amount of time and effort taken to bring the site to what you see now has taken its toll, and I need some R&R.

I apologise for the lack of updates these past few months, but rest assured that I haven't abandoned the site and still have hopes for its future. This site is still primarily about providing guides and walkthroughs for the Metroid games, and despite the current hibernation of Samus' adventures, I have some new ideas and will work on them throughout 2012.

In the meantime, please visit the Metroid Database, Shinesparkers and Metroid Headquarters for your daily Metroid fix - they're all doing a wonderful job in keeping fans up-to-date, and we're all very lucky to have them in the online Metroid community. See you on the other side!

Happy Birthday Metroid Database! The MDb has turned 15, and the guys have prepared a big treat for fans - the Metroid Database Bestiary! This definitive encyclopedia promises to contain information about every lifeform encountered across the Metroid saga, along with superb artwork by a variety of artists from deviantART.

The MDb has also kick-started its next contest - the Design-A-Samus contest! Check it out and join in if you can!

Congratulations to MDb staffers CapCom, Infinity's End, Jesse, Aurora Unit and rondus18 for the brilliant milestone (their site is older than Google!). The Metroid fan community is very lucky to have the MDb as the solid foundation at its core - here's to the future and at least 15 more years of Metroid fandom!

Metroid celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this month, and the celebrations roll on!

Visit Wasabi Sunshine to find 31 Days of Zero Suit Samus - an adorable sequence of art created by artist Chris Furniss. Each piece of art depicts an adorable cartoon Zero Suit Samus in a variety of situations and predicaments. Check it out!

Following on from the Harmony of a Hunter soundtrack release, a new tribute album called Crystal Flash has been created by Theophany, who provided two of the tracks in Harmony of a Hunter. The album marks the 25th anniversary of Metroid and honours the memory of Chris Powell, an artist who contributed to Relics of the Chozo a few years ago. Visit Theophany's Bandcamp website for download links and to check out the album's stylish cover art. If you liked Theophany's contributions to Harmony of a Hunter (Bioluminescence and What's Past is Prologue), don't miss out on these tracks!

Musician Sam Dillard - another contributor of Harmony of a Hunter's music - has been busy building a 3D animation sequence to accompany his track "Into the Green World." Sam has crafted a snazzy 3D sequence of Samus' arrival in Brinstar, followed by footage from Super Metroid. It's a brilliant arrangement, and any excuse to hear one of Sam's tracks again is a good one! Check it out below!

Lastly, Shinesparkers and the Metroid Database have some fantastic news for merchandise and memorabilia fans! A Japanese PVC maker known as Max Factory have been granted an official license to produce Metroid-themed figurines. Two figurines, consisting of Samus in her Varia Suit and Zero Suit (both inspired by her appearance in Metroid: Other M), will release in Japan next year! Website Tomopop has provided a few photos courtesy of Tokyo Hunter from the 2011 Chara Hobby expo in Japan.

Look how fantastic they are!

Good news! Nintendo has announced that the original Game Boy version of Metroid II, along with Super Mario Land 2, will be made available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop later this year. This should be quite a treat for fans who take part in the Ambassador Program, as it'll complement Metroid Fusion nicely.

The second project organised by Shinesparkers to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of Metroid has arrived! Harmony of a Hunter is a 36 track remix album created by more than 20 artists in the video game community. This massive undertaking has resulted in absolutely gorgeous fan remixes of well-known Metroid music from across the entire series, presented in a variety of musical styles.

Head to the official Harmony of a Hunter website for all the details and download links. To help spread the word and make it easier for fans to secure their copy of this fantastic album, we'll be hosting our own local copy of the album here. The Metroid Database and Metroid Headquarters will also be mirroring the album, so there shouldn't be any issues in downloading it. Falcool from MHQ has also posted a great review of the album.

Congratulations to Darren for organising this immense project, and I hope you all enjoy the music!

If that's not enough fan music for you, The Ogvernment writes in to let us know about a beautiful piano and violin duet performed by Samuel Ascher-Weiss and Gabe Terracciano. They cover music from both the classic and Prime series, and every bit of it is stunning! Thanks The Ogvernment!

Happy birthday Samus! On August 6, 1986, Metroid arrived in Japan for the Famicom Disk System. Twenty-five years later, with ten games across more than 7 gaming systems, the Metroid saga has humbly cemented itself into gaming culture. I personally didn't join Samus' adventures until 1999, but I can imagine that many long-time fans have been following the series from the very beginning, all those years ago!

To help celebrate the occasion, the Metroid fan website community has been extremely busy preparing special projects. Up first is a special podcast from Metroid Headquarters (MHQ), in which the webmasters from MHQ, Shinesparkers, the Metroid Database (MDb), and myself discuss the 25th anniversary and how we're all planning to help celebrate. I'd like to thank MetroidMaster1914 and Falcool of MHQ very much for having me onboard for their latest podcast! Head to MHQ's website to listen to, or download the podcast.

Darren from Shinesparkers has been tirelessly working on two special features, one of which is now available. Darren has organised a special personal tribute video in which fans express their fondness for Metroid and offer well-wishes for the 25th anniversary. Not only do fans offer tributes, but professional game developers like Gene Kohler, Daisuke Amaya and Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi join in too. Even Jessica Martin (the voice of Samus in Metroid: Other M) offers her well-wishes! Check it out:

I would have left a message too, but was too caught up in our Metroid: Other M walkthrough at the time (sorry!...). The webmasters of MHQ, Shinesparkers and the MDb were also featured in the latest issue of European gaming magazine N-Gamer, discussing the anniversary and how the series has evolved over the years (same excuse again why I wasn't involved too, double sorry!). Check out scans of the mag at the MDb!

For MR's part in the celebrations, I've launched our new YouTube Channel with a special video walkthrough - the Metroid: Other M Normal Mode Challenge! In this 14-part series, I play through the game in one sitting, picking up minimum items (3%) and surviving without any Game Overs. I'll keep a link to our YouTube channel in the Miscellaneous category of the site's main menu from now on. Swing over and have a look!

There's more features to come from the community, so I'll update again once they're ready. But for now, enjoy the celebrations!

I hope you're all still hanging out for Shinesparkers' Harmony of a Hunter remix album, created to celebrate Metroid's 25th anniversary. The album will release on August 7th and is shaping up phenomenally. Check out the final preview to whet your appetite!

Nintendo have announced an unexpected turn of events - as of Friday, 12th August, the Nintendo 3DS will experience a significant price drop. This will affect all major regions in the world, with the price set to drop to $169.99 in North America, 15,000 Yen in Japan, $249.95 in Australia, $343.99 in New Zealand, and roughly £160 in the UK and €180 in Europe.

Why has this happened so soon after launch? Is it due to the less-than-anticipated launch sales? Either way, Nintendo is offering a nice compensation for those who bought the 3DS at its launch price, or who buy it before the price drop takes effect. 20 free games are eligible to any 3DS owner who connects to the Nintendo eShop before August 12!

Known as the Ambassador Program, this includes 10 NES Virtual Console games (they'll be available on September 1) and 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games (available by the end of the year). One of the GBA games is Metroid Fusion, and at this point the GBA games won't be available to anyone else outside of the Ambassador Program (but you never know, I'm sure Nintendo will eventually open them up to everyone). If you haven't already picked up a 3DS, is this offer enticing enough to pick one up before the price drop?

For some time now, we've had the Metroid Fusion game transcript available. Now that the Other M walkthrough is done, and seeing as Other M is heavily-laden with dialogue, I've prepared a Metroid: Other M game transcript page. This one contains the game's dialogue from all the cutscenes, along with messages and miscellaneous text seen throughout the game (ever wondered what was on the computer screen that Maurice finds in the Exam Center? This transcript contains a good chunk of it).

Don't forget to swing by Metroid Headquarters to catch their 101 hour Metroid marathon!

The Metroid marathons continue! Two more marathons will take place over the next week. The first is organised by The Nerd Gamers, and is scheduled for July 7th at 6pm PDT (July 8th, 1am GMT). This marathon will take place over 72 hours, and donations will go to Children's Cancer Association.

The second marathon is taking place over at Metroid Headquarters, organised by MetroidMaster1914. The marathon is set to take place on July 11th at 8pm CST (July 12th, 1am GMT), and will run for a whopping 101 hours, finishing on July 16th, 1am CST (that's just over four days long!). They hope to play through every Metroid title on the hardest available difficulties, and collect all items and (in the case of the Metroid Prime games) all logbook scans. This is part of their 7-year anniversary celebrations (congratulations guys!) and donations will be given to Child's Play.

Don't forget to catch Game Marathon's three-way Metroid versus marathon on July 8th!