In an effort to get into blogging more frequently, I thought I’d fill you in on how my search for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption went today. Technically, today is the official release date, though I had never really expected to find it today. In most places in Canada (and, I expect, most places in general) it is quite hard to find games on the day they are advertised as coming out unless they are a really big title. Now, MP3:C is a really big title, from a commercial and gaming standpoint. Nintendo, however, seems to do this thing where they don’t tell the retailer when their games will get there and don’t ship them until the day they are supposed to be sold. This is great for preventing stores from breaking the ’street date,’ (See: BioShock) but it causes a lot of problems for people like me, who love buying games the day they are supposed to be available.

I started out by making a list of all the stores I wanted to contact, which resulted in a list of 3 Best Buys, 5 Futureshops, 6 EB Games, an HMV and the Wal-Mart, Zellers and Rogers Video in the city I live. Spoiler: not a single one of them had it. I can assure you if they did I’d be playing the game rather than writing this. The closest I got was at the second closest EB Games to me. While all the others had said, We don’t have it, it’s due out tomorrow anyways. (Which is wrong, but I didn’t feel like arguing with so many people) this location told me to call back after noon as they were expecting a shipment. When I called at 1:30, they said they weren’t getting it after all. If nothing else, the conversations supplied me with some interesting - and sometimes amusing - answers.

One of the first locations I called seemed to have a broken machine, I’d connect to the department, etc., etc., and then after a certain number of rings it would reset back to the main menu. I noted this as a bad sign and moved on with the list. One employee at my local EB seemed convinced that the release date was tomorrow, but I later went to that location since it was right beside where I had lunch and a different employee confirmed that they didn’t have any copies regardless. One EB Games guy put me on hold (Read: Told me he was putting me on hold and set down the phone.) I could hear the customer ask something along the lines of Why are so many people calling you? To which the reply was He’s probably another guy calling about Metroid. As soon as I asked if they had the game at Wal-Mart, I was asked Why is everyone calling about this game? I assumed it was a rhetorical question, but he seemed to want an answer. I basically told him because it is supposed to be on shelves today and could he please check if it was. By far the best answer, though, was the following.

Hey, I was wondering if you had Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in for the Wii. I asked, just as I had with all the other stores. Well, I know we don’t have it for 360… I had to stifle a laugh. …Could you check for me if you have it for the Wii, please?

It wasn’t totally that he said it wasn’t on a Microsoft console, though, I suspect most gamers with one of the two consoles could tell you it wouldn’t be. What I couldn’t figure out was why he would even mention what it wasn’t for. The way he said it made it clear he hadn’t misheard me. If I called asking for Generic Sports Game ‘08 for the PS3 would you tell me you had no copies for the DS? No, it’s irrelevant. Gah. I can’t even get a job at these places and show up these guys because you have to be seventeen to sell M-rated games.

So, one more day isn’t a big deal, though I did have to spend most of the day finding ways to mundanertain myself. GameTrailers finished their “The Metroid Retrospective” series today, too, which I enjoyed. And I think it was they who put it best: Metroid fans are nothing if not patient.

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