The adowable girl is reader Landon's niece. Landon and his brother are life long gamers, and his brother made some flash cards of famous game characters. He showed them to his daughter over the course of about three days, and the darling child was able to memorize them all and dazzle us all. Bravo!

*applause*

The statue is crafted entirely in transparent resin, with over 25 LED lights incorporated to give it the unhealthy Phazon glow, and the who thing is mounted on a mirror base that ties the whole effect together. Standing at 11 inches tall, Phazon Suit Samus is very pretty, but also pretty rare at only 1,500 pieces worldwide, and pretty expensive at $224.99. If you've got the funds and are so inclined, hit up the order page immediately to make sure you get yours when they are released in early 2009. Hit the jump for two more pictures of this spectacular piece.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Metroid Prime Phazon Suit Next in First 4 Figures Metroid Line!

With the unique color scheme of black helmet and red visor, the Phazon Suit is awarded after defeating the Omega Pirate. Both Samus’ suit and gun are infected with pure Phazon. This gives the Phazon Suit an ability to protect Samus from the deadly effects of the deadly blue substance and shoot the Phazon Beam when standing in pools of Phazon. Just when Metroid Prime is defeated, the Phazon Suit is stolen and used to create one of Samus’ greatest enemies, Dark Samus!

First 4 Figures is extremely proud to present the ultimate version of the Samus Aran's Phazon Suit. First 4 Figures has used the official game files in order to create an extremely accurate recreation of the Phazon suit, with pose inspiration taken from official Metroid artwork.

Looks incredibly on its own and really completes a display when put together with the Varia suit and Gravity suit statues.

We completely reengineered the original Varia suit model to make the Phazon suit by casting it entirely in transparent resin, adding over 25 LED lights through the suit and finished it off by adding a mirror base which really shows off the lights. When the lights are turned off, an internal IC chip allows for the lights to fade out slowly. The statue is hand finished and hand painted with metallic paints to give an authentic representation of the suits. Comes packed in a foam interior full colored box with a card of authenticity.

The Phazon Suit is highly limited at just 1500 pieces worldwide.

Height: 11 inches across base

SRP: $224.99

[agentscarlet @ deviantART]

As Microsoft explained before, there's nothing illegal about creating or downloading such mods. But that doesn't mean Epic will pay you $1,000,000 for one. Their Make Something Unreal Contest bans the use of "third party intellectual property, including, but not limited to software, images, characters, logos, names and trademarks." Still, some pranks are so good, they're worth the free work.

Character - Samus Aran [UT3Mod via PS3Fanboy]

So, yeah, Kirby's about the same.
Ninty Retro [Image Shack via Digg via Infendo]

Mind you my time with the title has been brief, and my four hours of playing is only 20% of the overall game, but the important thing here is that I really want to experience the other 80%. While the first two titles were technically proficient and well-crafted examples of Metroid goodness, after a while I just didn't want to continue. I just didn't feel as if I was having very much fun. The Wii controls have changed all of that for me.

After the abysmal Red Steel I was truly worried about MP3. Hell, I was worried about any FPS game on the Wii for that matter. Everything was far too loose, and I never felt as if I were truly in control. I don't know what they did wrong in that game, but developer Retro Studios not only got things exactly right, I'd say they've defined what FPS controls on the Wii should be. After minutes of flailing around and making myself incredibly dizzy the Wii controls felt natural and fluid in my hands. The control stick movement combined with the Wiimote camera controls have been done before, but never quite this good.

The only real complaint I have is that during some of the morph ball sequences it was a bit hard to bomb jump correctly. One moment I;d be fine and the next I am banging myself against the wall over and over again like some sort of developmentally disadvantaged child. No wonder Samus always wears that helmet.

By far my favorite game mechanic thus far is the grapple lasso, which grafts onto your hand at an early point in the game. How it works is you lock on to debris, objects, or enemies with the Z button and then move the nunchuk like you;re casting a fishing line...because that's pretty much what you are doing. Yank it back and the debris goes flying out of the way in a very satisfying manner. You can easily imagine you are Samus casting out the beam of energy to snag your target. It made me feel pretty.

Speaking of pretty, the game is the best looking thing on the Wii by far. While by no means comparable to the level of graphics you'll find on the 360 or PS3, MP3 completely trumps the first two games in both beauty and scale, giving the game an epic feel while not sparing the small touches, like Samus's eyes reflected in the visor when you are in scan mode.

While the enemies I have faced so far have been pretty standard Metroid fare, the boss fights have been particularly impressive. One fight specifically had my jaw dropping at the sheer cinematic coolness of it all. I won't spoil anything, but if you don't think Balrog during the fight then you obviously aren't up to date with modern day Hobbit cinema.

And voices! I know that many Nintendo purists would argue that voices are unnecessary for a truly great gaming experience, but the addition of speaking characters just adds so much to the series for me. I particularly like the three helper bounty hunters that aid you in your mission, whose personalities go a long way towards appeasing those who feel Samus is lacking in that department.

I'd go into the music here, which is a truly competent score for a sci-fi adventure game, but as far as I am concerned there are only five musical notes that truly matter in a Metroid title. You know the ones. The rest could be bubbly j-pop for all I care.

I'm enjoying the hell out of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption so far, and that is saying a lot considering my general apathy towards its predecessors. It joins Twilight Princess and Resident Evil 4 as one of the few truly epic games on the Wii to date.

I spent quite a bit of time playing Metroid Prime 3 at last year's E3, so this year I only had two goals in mind: Confirm no one had fucked it up and check out this new free-aiming lock-on dealio. I am happy to report that the game still plays quite well and is a bit more of what it was at last year's E3.

The free-aiming, where you can lock onto a target and then roam around it, and still have to aim with your controller, seems to work quite well. I liked that it afforded me the ability to easily walk around a baddie without too much button jockeying, but that it still required a modicum of skill to actually aim and shoot.

It felt like it was the perfect balance for a light shooter, something that would go over well with both the hardcore and those new to the system and the idea of shooting things for fun.

The chunk of level I played through had a bit more of a puzzle element to it and worked quite well, it also showed off a bit of graphic flair (I particularly like seeing Samus' face reflected in her visor), but let's face it, the Wii will never be the PS3 or the Xbox 360 and, fortunately, Nintendo knows that, so it doesn't even try.

Metroid Prime 3 remains on my list of games I must get for the console when it hits, but isn't quite up there with such titles as Mario Kart (for it's addictive racing) and Super Smash Bros (because, I believe, I'm required to want this game).

Not only does flasher The Legend of Zelda and the Lampshade of No Real Significance have Link and a lampshade, but it has has Samus and Kirby. What's more, Samus is eating a burger and Kirby is shooting stuff! Delightful flash game. Brian Ashcraft

Play Here [Chimp Media Thanks, Chilly!]

I'm not sure if this is the coolest thing I've ever seen or the saddest. On the one hand, it has two of the biggest video game badass characters ever, first fighting against each other and then teaming up against a common foe. It's got a lightsaber dual, short-circuiting crotches, Matrix references, suggestive girl on girl action, and even a dance number.

All those things are great, but all mashed together along with fighting moves out of a wire-fu martial arts film makes the whole thing feel like a fanfic threw up on camera. Great dance number though. Michael Fahey

GameTrailers User Movie: Haloid [Thanks to Everyone and their Brother]

This Japanese Super Metroid commercial doesn't have quite the same panache as last week's Metroid II clip, but it's still a pretty good one. The funny thing about this clip though is that while the voice overs are in Japanese, there is nary a Japanese person in the entire commercial. At first I thought perhaps this was filmed for North America and then re-purposed for Japan, but I was unable to find an English language version. I did however find the North American commercial for the same game that you can see after the jump. Flynn De Marco

DeviantArtist, =transfuse (aka Ivan Flores), has an amazing little collection of Metroid fan art that he's created posted to his DeviantArt gallery. Each one was created digitally using Photoshop CS2, a Wacom tablet and a hell of a lot of talent. According to his notes, this particular piece took him only 36 hours which is pretty impressive considering most of us probably couldn't produce something like this in 36 months. Unfortunately, unscrupulous internet art thieves have taken Ivan's work and posted it on various sites with his signature removed and no links to his other works. Here at Kotaku we believe giving credit where credit is due, so kudos to you Ivan, your work is amazing and you deserve all the attention and sweet paying art gigs you can get.

Check out more of Ivan's Metroid works on his DeviantArt gallery or his personal site. (Click on the image above for a larger version.) Flynn De Marco

[Thanks, Scott]

Wow, Japanese commercials are so freaking awesome! This is a spot from 1992 advertising Metroid: The Return of Samus in Japan. Interestingly, the only time you see any actual gameplay footage is towards the end in a reflection in Samus' helmet. The comic book styling and use of what looks like an animated Samus action figure makes this commercial a real standout. Flynn De Marco

Usually, we just snicker when you gaming doofs get yourself inked with whatever fruity pixelated elf you're enamored with. "Whatever!" we larf. "You let us know how that pouty, effete Link looks on your treasure trail when you're sixty."

But this? Well, we have to admit. It's pretty cool. The guy who did it looks like an actual artist, not some jactitating boozer channeling the artist of the Zelda CDi games. We approve. Thumbs up! That's some great ink. Florian Eckhardt

Nintendo Fanboy Sleeve [Modblog]

Mark writes to say he and a friend stumbled upong a mishapen pumpkin that bears a striking resemblance to Samus Aran's gunship from Super Metroid while navigating the vine-strewn dirt paths of Burt's Pumpkin Patch in Dawsonville, Georgia. Hmmm, sorta. I hope Mark bought the thing and plans to carve it up so it looks just right.Brian Crecente

I'll look for any excuse to post quality fan art, so I was pleasantly surprised to see this link sent in by a couple of beloved tipsters. At first I thought it would be that Samus Aran piece by James "torokun" Chung, but no, it's something new altogether. From the artist, who obviously labored intensely over this digital painting:

I'm taking a visual design course this semester and for my personal project I decided to do three gruelling digital paintings of Samus Aran— as homage to the greatest video game character ever created. I spent over 50 hours toiling away at this (mostly trying to get the damn background to look interesting), but I'm still not satisfied with how it turned out. I may go back later and refine it a bit more, but after working on this almost every day for the past month I can't work on it anymore; I'm just too tired.

This is classy shit! Check out the full, uncropped piece at deviantArt. FYI, the artist's other pieces lean toward NSWF. Just sayin'. Michael McWhertor

One Girl in All the World by =transfuse [deviantArt]

1) Draw an oval.
2) Bisect it with a line.
3) Draw Samus Aran holding a bisected oval.
4) Add chiaroscuro.

We posted Jim from The Daily Drawing sketching Paper Mario on Friday, now here he is again. I dunno, I like this guy. He's done a couple more game drawings, including a Chocobo and Link. Very senescent to watch his disembodied hand work. Florian Eckhardt

Here it is dear reader, the only official Samus Aran figure ever produced! This was made back in 2003 by Joy Ride Studios, selling for around US $10. She has 12 articulated points; however, some, such as her shoulders, are restricted by her armor. The toy did include an unmasked Samus head! Though, we'd really prefer if this Samus kept her helmet on. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [VGB]

I love this little picture of Samus rocking out with her 8-bit guitar. What is she thrashing? Metroid tunes gone metal, naturally.

MetroidMetal.com is a place to celebrate the mysterious and hypnotic melodies from Nintendo's classic game series, Metroid.

These songs beg for more energy, so I've created this site to experiment with the genre that would suit these songs the best... metal.

Now if only we could get Torokun to do an image of a bikini-clad Samus climbing out of her mech-armor, sticking out her tongue and flashing devil horns. Florian Eckhardt

Metroid Metal (Thanks, Vincent!)

I'm just going to shut up and let Torokun's awesome Samus Aran artwork speak for itself. Aww, who am I kidding? I love to hear myself talk and love to read what I write. I'm just that egocentric! After reading about my penchant for the Metroid heroine's delicious space booty and somehow avoiding total disgust, he passed on a link to his deviantart gallery with the above, white-hot fanart.

Poking around the gallery led to me to more awesome video game inspired pieces by James, including this other shot of the blonde bounty hunter and this fantastic Katamari/Evangelion mecha mash-up. I'll be keeping my eye on future pieces from the artist.

A larger, wallpaper appropriate version of the intro pic is available here for your downloading and ogling pleasure.

Thanks for the heads up, James. And keep up the good work. Michael McWhertor

Torokun's deviantart page