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Official Nintendo Magazine, also known as ONM, was a British monthly Nintendo magazine. It was published by Future from 2006 until late 2014, two years after its American counterpart, Nintendo Power, also ceased publication. Another magazine of the same name was published in Australia and New Zealand.
Metroid content[]
ONM had two Metroid series covers made for them by Joe Roberts, for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Metroid: Other M. In one issue previewing Other M, the Brug Mass was referred to as "Unidentified Life Form 27" - using Wikitroid's article naming policy at the time for currently unnamed creatures in the series.[1] ONM were also the first to announce the name of the Dragotix.
The March 2006 issue listed Metroid Dread for release that year on Nintendo DS. It later appeared in the magazine's schedule for the next four months before being removed. Dread in its then form was cancelled due to technological limitations. It was eventually finished and released in 2021 for Nintendo Switch.
Issue 124[]
Issue 124 featured pre-release coverage of Metroid Prime and a review of Metroid Fusion, which received a score of 9/10.
Issue 141[]
Issue 141 featured coverage of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes ahead of its release, speculation on potential Samus Aran actresses for the Metroid film, and speedrunning techniques for Metroid: Zero Mission.
July 5, 2006 special edition DVD[]
The July 5, 2006 issue of ONM came with a special edition DVD full of previews of upcoming DS and Wii games, and demo footage from the Nintendo Conference at E3 2006. Corruption footage previously shown at that conference was included, as was a commercial for it. The DVD also featured previews of other games, such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy and Project H.A.M.M.E.R. (which was later cancelled).
In the 15 second commercial, a man is controlling Samus through one of the conduit rooms on Norion and shooting a Space Pirate. The camera emphasizes the player charging and then firing a Charge Shot. Afterwards, there are two brief clips of Morph Ball gameplay in Cargo Hub and Substation East. Certain actions, such as walking, morphing and shooting, are emphasized with stock sound effects, such as an electrical jolt for the Morph Ball transformation.
The Corruption demo features Samus Aran landing on Norion during the invasion, with some rooms having notable differences compared to the finished game. It ends after Samus acquires an Energy Tank in Data Storage A (which is not there in the released game). The DVD can be viewed here, with the commercial starting at 6:07 and the demo at 12:25.
Metroid: A Space Odyssey[]
Metroid: A Space Odyssey was the cover feature of the magazine's 59th issue. It included a preliminary review of Other M, which called the game "the gaming equivalent of a Michael Bay movie; a white knuckle thrillride that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go". The review also included brief interviews with Yosuke Hayashi and Yoshio Sakamoto, and a retrospective on previous games in the series, as well as many other features:
- The games were ranked in the preferred order of the readers from best to worst: Metroid Prime, Super Metroid, Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime Hunters, Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus. Other M was not listed since it had not been released at the time.
- Four homages to Alien were included as well, pointing to both series having a female protagonist, lonely space setting, face-latching alien parasitic organisms, and Ridley being named after Alien director Ridley Scott.
- A "convoluted" timeline of the series.
- Seven "Father Brains", or developers crucial to the series: Hirokazu Tanaka, Hayashi, Gunpei Yokoi, Sakamoto, Makoto Kanō, Hiroji Kiyotake and Jeff Spangenberg.
- A brief lookback at Kid Icarus, the initial companion series to Metroid, which would receive a revival in 2012.
- Four defining moments from the series were highlighted: the reveal that Samus was a woman, the escape from Ceres, entering the Phendrana Drifts, and being stalked by the SA-X.
- The five battles with Ridley during the series were chronicled. Other M would become controversial in part due to the cutscene preceding its Ridley battle.
- One page featured word art in the shape of a Metroid with the names of 86 bosses throughout the Metroid series, such as Kraid, Mother Brain, Ghor, Meta Ridley and Queen Metroid.
- The different endings of the original Metroid were shown, along with the clear times required to view them.
- A scale depicted the Beams of the series and the number of appearances they each made.
- The Metroid prequel manga was mentioned. The magazine acknowledged that there was no official English version of the manga, which was never released outside Japan, and instead pointed to an unofficial translation on the fansite Metroid Recon.
- Six cameos that Samus made in other games. The games mentioned were Super Mario RPG, Tetris, Galactic Pinball, Kirby Superstar, WarioWare, and Super Smash Bros.
- The magazine listed 5 games they believed were inspired by Metroid: the original Resident Evil, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Lego Star Wars, Megaman ZX and Muramasa: The Demon Blade.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ^ East, Thomas (26). Dial M for mightily relieved (Review). Official Nintendo Magazine. Archived from the original on April 28, 2010. Retrieved on 2022-07-22.
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