I suspect Jones Soda Co's Fufu Berry Soda featuring Samus from Metroid Prime Hunters is probably just a label-job by some fans (I couldn't find this on the Jones website), but it' still pretty cool. It would be neat it they started selling it. It's got to taste better than that god-awful Final Fantasy Potion. Brian Crecente

Metroid Soda [Cathode Tan]

A couple months back, we posted about the Nintendo DS VoIP headset that would be launched in Japan on September 14th. Well, that's either yesterday or tomorrow, by my chronological reckoning.

Well, the first pics have been released, courtesy of Famitsu. It looks pretty swank. The headset is going for only 1200 yen, which is around 10 bucks in non-moon-man currency. You can use it to smacktalk in Metroid Prime: Hunters and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.

But as I wrote when we originally posted on this: "Where the hell is Skype for the DS? I will never, ever browse the Internet on the DS, but make long-distance phone calls far cheaper than I could make on my mobile phone? That's just fills my sack with sunshine." Quoted for muddafuggin' truth. Florian Eckhardt

Nintendo DS Voice Over IP headset [Plastic Bamboo]

The beautiful Irish weather continues unabated even as I seethe. Instead of sitting in my basement, mastering my Dead Rising zombie disembowelments, decapitations, defenestrations, gelatinations, I'm forced to go outside and stroll in the sun, muttering obscenities under my breath. I resent every second in the sun, every molecule of darkened melanin bronzing my godlike skin.

The other day, I was walking in the park, when a small child skipping jump rope absent-mindedly accidentally hit me with his loop of rope.

"Sorry, mister!" he said with an innocent, earnest smile.

I twitched dangerously, "What did you say to me, you LITTLE FRICKIN' PUNK?" I gradually elevated the volume and shrillness of my voice with every phoneme until by the last word, I was screaming. A few hours later, local Gardai found his jump rope flossed through him and being used to dangle him squirming from a tree. In retrospect, I may have overreacted.

Such is my ill humor over the summer's insidious attempt to thwart my gaming. But the other day, something occurred to me: I have a DS Lite, hello! So I'll spend the weekend sitting in the cursed sun, playing Tetris DS and Metroid Prime: Hunters. On the former title, I need to get 200 lines to unlock Korobieniki... I got 199 lines last night, lost, and went on a Jack the Ripper style rampage in Temple Bar. On the latter: those of you who suggested that I really needed to use the thumb pad were dad right, and the helpful people at GAME on Dawson Street were able to supply me with one for free (it never did come with my DS Lite, apparently). So it's all good, although still cramps my hand fairly quickly; another criticism is the music really doesn't feel like Metroid.

Enough jabbering. What will you be playing this weekend? Florian Eckhardt

The word goes forth: MPH players beware! You got incoming cheaters and they like it when you cry. Says savvy 4 Color Rebellion:

Thanks to a trainer officially released today for the game, hackers now have the ability to boot into the NWC with the trainer active, and do any or all of the following things:

* Infinite Energy
* Infinite Missiles
* Infinite Sub-Weapon
* Hold B To Levitate

The worst part is, according to the NFO, the trainer was created SPECIFICALLY to barge into Wi-Fi games, spreading general dickery all around - like a cancerous cyst, spewing pus everywhere. Beware, gamers. The onslaught commeth.

Disgusting. The very worst kind of shitweaselry. I await foam-flecked commentary on the state of the game, your scores, and detailed recountings of the day's triumphs and trials. Do tell. Eliza gauger

Warning: Incoming MPH Cheating [4 Color Rebellion]

I can tell you what I'm damn well not going to be playing this weekend. Metroid Prime: Hunters. While the Gamespot review wanks off about the incredibly fluid, intuitive control scheme, my experience is directly opposite: I'm about ready to gouge my stylus through the lower DS screen in frustration.

Who can play a game this way? The stylus works okay as a mouse, but holding the DS in the air with one hand and using the stylus with the other quickly leads to hand cramping. I can balance the DS Lite on my knee, except then, I can't actually see those tiny orbs floating around shooting at me. As near as I can tell, the only comfortable way to play this game is hunched over your DS at a desk, squinting. Unfortunately, I like my portables portable... as in not requiring a stationary flat surface to play on.

So that leaves me pretty much out of ideas. I've been in the mood for a Diablo-like, but unfortunately my torrent of Titan Quest hasn't finished yet. Note to Ironlore's lawyers: just kidding. Actually, I don't really know if it's been released over in Europe yet. All signs point to 'no'. Perhaps it's just time for a Diablo 2 hardcore run. What the hell... it was on sale around the corner for 40 clams. Purchased.

Comment section, people. You know the drill. Florian Eckhardt

Alex over at First 4 Figures sent word that they've just signed a three year deal with Nintendo to make toys and action figures based off Metroid properties. As usual, these toys look a lot better than the rubber-headed He-Man homoeroticism dolls we played with as kids.

Figures being developed include Varia Suit Samus (Metroid Prime,Light Suit Samus and Dark Suit Samus from Metroid Prime 2, Just Plain Samus, and Kanden, Sylux, Noxus, Spire, Weavel and Trace from Metroid Prime: Hunters. No bikini Samus though — a blow to every Metroid fan's crotch.

Metroid Prime Toys at First 4 Figures

New York City gaming club WiFi sends word that one of their members was the winner of the Metroid Prime Hunters DS tournament held at the Nintendo World Story with Reggie Fils-Aime.

The first place prize was a two-of-a-kind Metroid Prime Hunters crystal. (Penny Arcade won the other one in an unrelated door prize drawing for the press at another event.) Reggie ended the finals match with -1 kills. Pwned.

The winner, Brian Chi, leant the prize to the president of WiFi, who was kind enough to take some pictures and send them our way.

[Thanks Nintendist]

Echelon writes to tell us about a cool new feature added to DSMeet.com. The site now has a Metroid Prime Hunters leaderboard that automatically updates from NiWiFi so you can track the worldwide champs of the game. As of this writing the top gamer was Crazy_Sparda with 830 wins out of 955 games, which is an 87 percent win ratio. According to the site. C_S has devoted two days and 19 hours of his life to the game.

It's a pretty cool set up for Metroid FPS fans.

Metroid Prime Hunters Stats [DS Meet]

GAR0 has posted a little guide to NiWiFi play for Metroid Prime Hunters in the Nintendo forums. Here's a taste, hit the link for the full-on guide.

NOXUS
Description- An ice themed hunter with strengths to match.

How to use: Get your special gun and charge it. Get in close to an enemy and release it. Then fire at the head for better damage OR if you're quick, switch guns and hit in the head with that. Keep an eye on your ammunition. Your ammo runs out quickly if you freeze your opponents often. The regular shot of your special gun bounces off of walls, so if it misses on the first shot, you still have a chance to hit an opponent with that shot.
How to beat: Stand clear when you hear he's charged, and don't get in to close because if he freezes you, anyone with a powerful gun will come in and headshot you for a kill. You avoid his freeze by jumping and running, and you should be all right. Use your guns against him, his is slow.

ALT-FORM: VHOSCYTHE

How to use: Hold L when and watch the blade get bigger and more deadly. Hit your foes with it whenever you can, but it takes a second to reach full power. Use when you want ammo or escaping headshots. This is also good for people with slow guns if you can get in close.
How to beat: Get to higher ground, then hit him hard. He can't hurt you severely and quickly, but it does damage if he hits you. Jump and get to a ledge. He will switch to BIPED when he realizes he can't hurt you anymore, then hit him with everything you have.

UNIVERSAL TIPS REGARDLESS OF CHARACTER
Remember to keep your health up, always try to have it over about 80 unless you're about to kill and you're not taking much damage.

Get your special weapon whenever you can. It's the black orbs that beep when you get it.

To switch your third weapon, press the upper right part of the touch screen and drag thumb to the icon of your choice. Top icon is your character's special gun.
Find the character you're best with and excell with him/her.

When shooting, don't aim AT your foe unless that human is weak in the upper story and standing still. Account for the time it takes the weapon's attack to reach your opponent.

Metroid Prime Hunters Guide [Forums]

Best Buy [Official Site]

I was just about to walk out the door when the friendly neighborhood FedEx guy delivered a copy of Metroid Prime Hunters for the DS. I ended up spending about half an hour playing a few rounds of online games.

I noticed several things: This game kicks ass and I need glasses.

The only bummer I ran across in the very brief amount of time I spent playing was that you can only trash talk with people who are already on your friends list. In other words, you can play a pick-up game and then talk to the people afterwards. That kinda sucks.

More details later in the week. For now, I've got a plane to board.

The game drops today, but here's a clip that shows the different ways to play WiFi. Think of it as an instruction booklet, but all blurry and fuzzy.

Watch Here [YouTube] Thanks, Ben!

According to NST game designer Richard Vorodi, Metroid Prime Hunters at final testing, was just a little shorter than Retro's Metroid Prime. Whether that is a run-through of Metroid Prime for the first time or a second or third run through MP wasn't clarified. But, according to Nintendo, the game has some meat to it.

Visually, the levels look incredible, the visor and guns really push the DS hardware to a place where it hasn't been before. It looks like Metroid Prime in the palm of your hand. Prime enthusiasts will be pleased by this. How does the game play? There's a full run down after the jump.

The biggest adjustment to the series is obviously the touch-screen based controls for adjusting the "look" and targeting. The lock-on mechanic is gone which will add a different dynamic to the game's boss encounters.

Unlike other Metroid games, in Prime Hunters your suit is pretty much finished at the outset. Sure, there are the requisite energy tank and missile upgrades, but you'll already be jumping and morph balling like a veteran bounty hunter. While this might be off-putting to some who enjoy the collect-a-thon aspect of the Metroid series, or demand that it be there for the sake of "history" - ultimately when facing the game's bounty hunters (and you face one very early on) you'll be happy Samus' suit is already tricked out.

Switching into morph ball mode is done via the touch screen (just like switching weapons). When users click the ball icon in the lower left Samus shifts into morph ball and the L trigger releases her bombs. Yes, bomb jumping is there and is a part of the game. While the multiplayer is something exciting and interesting to see in the Metroid world, the single player of Prime Hunters may end up being its stand-out feature. Assuming it is the lengthy, well designed adventure all signs point to it being, the DS may have another "must have" title in its library.

Also, gamers won't be chatting during the fragfest as the VOIP isn't available while running around the maps blowing each other up. It's there for pre and post-game trash talk.

So, how does Metroid Prime Hunters play? Handheld gaming and First Person Shooter aren't exactly the peanut butter and jelly of the gaming world. The screens are small and it's tricky enough to be precise with dual analog sticks. But Metroid Prime Hunters doesn't have analog controls. Players move with the d-pad, fire their weapon with the left trigger and look around with the touch screen. How does the stylus work as a targeting mechanism? More after the jump.

To call a stylus-based look in a game is touchy, if you can pardon the pun. However, NST combatted the touchy stylus controls by including a bunch of customization for the game's controls - including a look sensitivity adjustment. The control scheme for Hunters might not feel perfect from the beginning, but if players spend enough time with the game and try and tune the controls and the look sensitivity they may find a setting and set up that works for them.

Each character in Metroid Prime Hunters has a bipedal form and an alt form. These alt forms are all essentially variations of Samus' morph ball with different attacks and abilities (one bounty hunter can climb up walls in its alt form). This, coupled with some weapons being more powerful in the hands of certain hunters, leads to a teeter totter of balancing issues. Now, in a couple hours of multiplayer play, it's pretty hard to detect an imbalance in multiplayer play, but when the game hits retail it's something that will be looked at closely.

There's a wealth of multiplayer modes and maps to play. Each one of the game's 30 maps (they aren't all available from the start) are playable online in a variety of modes ranging from a slayer gametype to some modes that are similar to a CTF one flag with four players racing for the prize or 2v2 teams can be formed. Players can acquire new characters to play online via progression in the single player mode - beating one of the bounty hunters in single player unlocks them for online play. Or, if someone in multiplayer is playing a character you don't have, and you kill them - now you can play as that character in multiplayer.

After stumbling walking back up to my hotel room in Seattle, I fired up the unofficial Kotaku laptop. It's the "unofficial Kotaku laptop" because I'm the only one who uses it and I've had it since college. It runs like a pre-Pentium computer. As a joke, once I tried to load World of Warcraft on to the machine. The joke was on me. It can barely handle Oregon Trail - many rivers have been forded, but no more. Logging in to check my email, the old cow just up and died. Smoke, whining noises and the sounds of disappointed Kotaku boys and girls who'd have to wait until I returned, got pulled over racing home from the airport to post frantically to compensate for my absence. My mother told me once that absence make hearts do something. I don't really care, unless it fixes laptops.

Instead of putting us to bed early, Nintendo took us out for a night on the town (sort of). They brought us by the busload to the Redhook brewery for a dinner and a tour. What did we tour? The giant, beer-making facility that is Redhook. In case you needed to learn something new today, you can get it out of the way early: The Redhook Brewery in Seattle provides all of the states west of the Mississippi with their Redhook beer. Be enlightened.

After learning that "Wort" was, in fact, something other than what the Elites in Bungie's Halo series say, we dined and "tested" a variety of beers. Some of us "tested" more than others.

Leaving the frigid, frozen tundra of Detroit for the not-as-cold, damp gloom of Seattle is actually a good thing, especially when it's on Nintendo's dime. But why were they flying people out there this week? A bunch of journalists were brought in to run through Metroid Prime: Hunters, a game that began somewhat auspiciously as a slapped together demo for the Nintendo DS? Remember that? It might be better if you didn't. Whether you played it or not, Prime Hunters has changed considerably, but is it for better or worse? Keep checking back.

The site also has profiles on all of the bounty hunters and tons of videos of gameplay. Once the game launches, you will be able to track stats on the site as well.

I can't friggin wait.

Metroid Hunters [Official Site]

British Gaming has more screens of Metroid Prime Hunters than anyone would want to see. That would be 42. Actually, that's like four times more than anyone would want to see.

42 Metroid Prime Hunters Screenshots [British Gaming]