Other Sleep

This is a bit of a weird one, I admit. It didn’t really hit me until this week.

Metroid is by far my favorite videogame series, so long as we pretend that Other M didn’t happen. There’s a number of reasons why, but the biggest one is simply ATMOSPHERE. Nearly every game in the series has Samus Aran, intergalactic bounty hunter, stranded by herself on some hostile planet or space station. You’re completely by yourself, exploring subterranean labyrinths and fighting off hordes of nasty things that want you dead. It’s a suffocating sense of isolation, and everything in the games, from the level design to the music and sound effects, is in service of that atmosphere of utter loneliness.

A lone female protagonist versus freakish monsters? Yeah, that is kind of what Other Sleep is about, isn’t it? Ninel is no badass like Samus, I admit, but the atmosphere of those games has certainly been an influence on the dreams that she has.

Another thing is, when I’m working on the comic in Photoshop, I’m kind of picky about the music I listen to, and it dawned on me that this week I’ve been listening to a LOT of music from the Metroid Prime games, especially this track:

That moody, creepy, synthesizer stuff pushes all the right buttons for me. I also have been listening to Metroid Metal a lot, which exceptionally good, they come highly recommended.

(CHAPTER 2 IS ALMOST FINISHED. TRUST ME. I AM SO CLOSE)

[Brett]