If there's one thing the world of gaming never runs out of, it's our heroes. But what is it that truly makes someone hero-worthy? Is it the boostified coiling guns? Flashy magic spells, raw strength, or just plain old Sawyer smarts perhaps? Nah, we won't give you the "it's because of their pure heart and honest intentions" spin. We know the answer - it's the way our heroes shred the tiniest bits of the villains.

Ninja9393 probably had that in mind when he came up with the new features for his 'brew - Metroid: Return of the SA-X. Although it's a pretty long list and packs a heavier "punch" than its earlier versions, the most notable feature, and definitely one that has the best impact on the game's development however, is the addition of enemies.

Yep, a hero won't be kickass if it has no enemy to own. So in this version, Ninja9393 included a crouched alien thingy for our character to do every hero's favorite pastime - mess up the game with the villain's blood smears. Here's the changelog:

-Enemies(space pirate)
-Collision
-Ability to kill enemies(may take 10-20 shots)

To be added in the next release:
-The story
-Ability to play either as the SA-X or The Fusion Suit Samus.
-More rooms
-Cutscenes

For future releases, Ninja9393 said that a major enhancement could be the option to play either SA-X or Samus. We love our heroes but it's nice to feel "evil" sometimes right? He also added that he did this so the game could have two stories and richer gameplay later on.

Download: [Metroid: Return of the SA-X 2.75]

Ninja9393 has just released v2.5 of his PSP homebrew game Metroid: Return of the SA-X. Though only a work in progress, the game already looks impressive. At the moment, the creator's only concern is the in-game music and he is currently requesting for assistance on how to fix this issue.

In the meantime, improvements for this version of the game include:

• Missiles (square button)
• new intro (all about the ninja's)
• intro talking thingy
• music (thanks joeBro)

The creator has noted that v3.0 will have A.I. and collision.

This game is starting to get built from the ground up with smooth transition screens, a screenshot function as well as a proper exit sequence. The stage is also currently limited to three screens, but we can't wait to see how this will look once A.I has been added and once stages have been finished.

Download: [Metroid: Return of the SA-X v2.5]

Ninja9393 has released an updated version of his homebrew game for the PSP, Metroid: Return of the SA-X, updating it to version 2.0 today. This 2.0 update adds some great new animation, making an amazing difference to the overall quality of the graphics, as well as the addition of another room that you can enter amongst other features. Here's the changelog:

• New animation
• Ability to go into 2 rooms (walk through the blue door)
• Health bar
• Game over screen
• The ability to kill yourself using r trigger
• More organized scripts

You can also expect missiles (due to a few issues) and music in version 2.5 which will be released at a later date.

Download: [Metroid: Return of the SA-X v2.0]

I am in awe that Zion can find the time in his busy schedule to even code. And not just code, but code with such fervor that in July alone he has made games like Snake and three releases of Future Resurrection, plus joint projects with fellow coders like MexicanSnake for Lua Wormz and ninja9393 for Metroid: Return of the SA-X.

And after taking a 15-minute break from coding his "secret" game, he found time to re-code his picture viewer application called Z-Mix. It now functions like an automated slideshow complete with background music. The best thing about it is that you can customize it using your own pictures and music.

If you want to use your own pictures, make sure that they are 480x270 in size and in .png format. Proceed to renaming them to "slideshow1" and so on and so forth. Changing the music would require you to use the modplug tracker and convert the .wav file into a .it format. After conversion, just rename it to "bkmusic" and place it in the folder.

Download: [Z-Mix v2.0]

ninja9393 is now releasing v0.5 of his Metroid: Return of the SA-X homebrew. It first came out around the 15th, asking for people to become the initial testers for its Beta 1 release. And not only interested testers got on the ship, but other coders like Zion, gizmo356 (both co-coders of the game) and jman420, took interest in the project as well.

There have been a lot of comments on the game's animation, codes and all in its previous release. Apparently, there's a problem with how it was coded displaying more than two frames at a given time. But really what game doesn't have at least one glitch in its first stages of development? What is more noteworthy is that there are a lot of people who offered their help, from testing (ziofire, mesosade, jOeBrO and Cloud_35), coding, to animation and graphics (Shadowblind and acn010).

After installing the game, I found the menu screen such an eyecandy. The colors are vibrant and the layout is nicely done; we have to credit OneCrzyAzn for that. When you reach the gameplay screen, there is an itsy bitsy version of bounty hunter Samus Aran smack in the middle. Maybe the first thing that you're going to try is to shoot at something, but sorry to burst your bubble, ninja9393 says he is still perfecting the shooting part of this game. Meanwhile why don't you just go ahead and try out the things she can do, like jump and walk around. I had to let out a guffaw when I saw her walk those tiny legs. The animation is indeed too fast as yaustar pointed out.

The game has very good potential. Especially with all the support coming in from the whole community, it could be every piece as good as the original. Keep up the good work guys!

new in v 0.5
menu
new sprite
jumping
animation
credits
new background

To do:
bassicly a lot of things that arent east
this alpha is for everyone

Download: [Metroid: Return of the SA-X v 0.5]