Amazingly we will be seeing a new Metroid game for the first time in years coming out in just a few short days on September 15th, 2017 and even more surprising is that we didn't even know it existed before E3.
This new game, titled "Metroid: Samus Returns" is a remake/re-imagining of the 1991 Gameboy classic "Metroid: Return of Samus". Many changes have been made to this game to bring it up to date on the Nintendo 3DS that make it far different from its progenitor. These changes I will try and talk about in a later article but for now I want to talk about what happened back in 7th grade.
Now, to get in to the mindset of this little story, we have to remember the gaming landscape way back during my 1991 to 1992 7th grade school year here in Panama City, Fl. I had my Nintendo Entertainment System at home, I had seen and played a Gameboy but did not yet have my own, and there was a new system called the Super Nintendo that no one I knew had gotten yet except for one kid who's parents/grandparents had bought for him so he wouldn't run away again...yeah, it was a weird situation. Handheld gaming was still a fairly new thing and was just starting to show it could have truly large games on the go.
Now for a little of my own background as it is in regards to the Metroid franchise at the time...which was just a single game. I was hardcore into the original Metroid then. I had received it one Christmas for my birthday the same day that a friend across the street had gotten his. This lead to a rivalry for who could finish the game first, what secrets we could find, and an almost daily exchange of passcodes to verify where we were and to show off what we had each done.
One day my friend Patrick showed up for school and he had his Gameboy with him. This was nothing new, but what surprised me was the fact he had picked up a brand new Metroid sequel for it that I had never seen before. I was enthralled with it & wanted to play it every chance I could get. This was a little while after the game had released so Patrick, thankfully, was ok with me running around with is Game Boy.
What got me though was that I wanted to play it NO MATTER WHAT. I tried in class, but couldn't find a time. I would play it for quick jaunts in-between classes while on the move. But my mistake was the lunch room. I thought I had plenty of time to play it there but failed to remember that the lunch room was monitored and patrolled by faculty.
I had to be sneaky...and at the age of 12....I wasn't really good at it. But I persisted because I just had to play this wonderful game. The idea of it...a full Metroid game that was PORTABLE! It was unbelievable. I was seeing the future in shades of green at the lunch room table. What I wasn't seeing was the Vice Principle watching me and heading towards me.
Patrick tried to warn me, telling me to put it away or give it back...but I just had to keep going. Hunting down Metroids after everything they had done in the first game just seemed SO important at the time! So by the time the Vice Principle was at my back looking down at me, it was too late. Only then did I realize what I was doing and that I had been caught. He looked down at me sternly, took the Gameboy from me, and then said that I could have my parents pick it up. I tried to explain that it wasn't my Gameboy or game and that the actual owner hadn't committed this violation of the lunch room, but to no avail. As you can imagine, Patrick was not really happy with me at the time.
This story does end on a better note though. We went and talked to the Vice Principle again after school and explained the situation. Thankfully he was understanding of my plight & gave the system back to Patrick with a firm warning not to bring it to school and play it again.
I borrowed his Game Boy and Metroid II a few times after that or just played it at his house. Thankfully the situation went from a stressful one, to a story we can tell and laugh about years later.
The iconic opening