Summer Games Challenge 2017 - Begin when ready!

[Key-Glyph]

Samus Key Aran
Bounty log
Stardate 41830.2...

Ridley is dead -- but the baby metroid is not here. I continue my search; but knowing that it is no longer imprisoned, that it has escaped... there is hope for it yet!

I race on!

Samus Key Aran, end log!

[Key-Glyph]

Samus Key Aran
Bounty log
Stardate 41906.1...

I record this log from the surface of SR388, where I have stayed for the past eight days to think. And grieve.

Mother Brain has been destroyed once again, along with the monsters protecting her. When I forwarded this news to the Galactic Council, they publicly announced my "mission" as if it had been their own edict and proclaimed it accomplished in the same breath. They cobbled together old clips of my service footage and immediately released the new medley as fresh propaganda for their corruption. Just as they manipulated the world's interpretation of the baby metroid's arrvial on Ceres Station with that ridiculous staged photograph, again they've used me as a pawn to simultaneously promote and obfuscate their agenda.

The baby metroid...

It is very difficult to process what has happened, what my influence in these events has caused. The true mission -- my self-described mission, orders born of my own heart and a desire to protect the exploited -- has failed. The hatchling, grown massive, recognized me as its mother and... I was trying my hardest to tell it to run, but it continued to shield me, and it waited too long.

My baby metroid was born into a world in which all its kind were dead -- murdered by me, a soldier too bound by her sense of duty to abandon what she knew was wrong. I, its mother, handed it over to strangers who chose to experiment on it in lieu of care. It was subsequently captured and subjected to more experimentation and captivity. When I finally caught up with its captors, my baby metroid fell to protect me and my unforgivable hubris. I could not even comfort it. How could it know my feelings as I knew its own, as it restored my life, a hair's breadth from death? It is too much to bear.

For one short moment, that one wonderful and confusing moment in which it hatched, it was safe and happy. Everything after was suffering. And it was all caused by me, the one being it loved and trusted.

I sit here on SR388 to feel the full weight of this loss, of what I have done. I knew I could never forgive myself for what I did to the Mother Metroid... but this? What sense is there to make of this tragedy? My motives may have changed over these past missions, but every time, the result was the same: devastation at my hands. My baby metroid and I should have aimed for the distant stars after I found it here. We should never have gone back. We should have disappeared. To meditate on its short, pitiful life is... my heart breaks. And the cracks fill with self-hate.

I am not sure how to carry forward from here. I am consumed with regret. I do not know how to atone. I don't think I can.

Samus Key Aran, end log.

[marurun]

You are going to LOVE Metroid Fusion's story...

[Key-Glyph]

You are going to LOVE Metroid Fusion's story...

I've decided -- based on lot on your input, actually -- that I will definitely do Fusion next summer to continue my Metroid tradition. Looking forward to it as much as I was to Super! No spoilers though please. I've been going into all of these blind!

Now that school is back in session, I'm considering my Summer Games Challenge officially closed. Here's the final tally:

CORE: 5/5

1. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (AppII)
2. Tecmo Bowl (NES)
3. Monkey Island 2 (XBLA)
4. Contra (NES)
5. Super Metroid (SNES)

ALTERNATES: 2/5

6. Lemmings (GEN)
7. X-Men (GEN)
8. LOOM (ScummVM)
9. Ultima III: Exodus (NES)
10. Star Fox (SNES)

I'm super pleased that I managed to tackle everything in my Core list. These last two summers I've always beaten at least five games in total, but that's after subbing in entries from the Alternates list (which is what the alternates are actually for).

All in all it's been a really emotional journey. Two games required serious immersion, two had compassion for teammate NPCs fundamentally hardwired into the gameplay, one made me sob. It's been a real ride.

[marurun]

You still have time to wedge in Loom. It is a quick game to play, and a delightful story experience.

[BogusMeatFactory]

You still have time to wedge in Loom. It is a quick game to play, and a delightful story experience.

BOBBIN THREADBARE DIED FOR OUR SINS!!!!

[Key-Glyph]

I don't feel the need to wedge it into the summer thing. It's probably just going to be the next thing I play. The plan is to hook the laptop up to the living room TV and co-op with my husband.

I've started it about five times and then got distracted by life -- and I mean, this is going all the way back to 2012. I've been falling off this horse for five years!