Metroid, a new 2D game ready to be released?

Metroid

Nintendo game fans really miss Metroid on the current Nintendo Switch, or more generally on the TV screen. In fact, we remember how the excellent Metroid: Samus Returns had been a great success, making many hope for the great return of the series. In the last five years, however, the only news we have had has been the restart of the development of Metroid Prime 4 and the consequent postponement of the release date on Switch. However, in the last few hours a rumor is fueling the hopes of fans.

There was already talk of an alleged new Donkey Kong game in development at MercurySteam, but the leaker Zippo has revealed interesting news also for the Metroid series when asked about a new 2D game: “It exists two hundred percent and is, in fact, already completed. The only thing Nintendo has to do now is announce it. The company is extremely happy with how the title turned out. The only other thing I've heard is that it runs at a very stable 60 FPS ".

Although, as always, we advise you to take this news as a rumor, we can only highlight two possible details that could give credit to this voice. The first is that Nintendo very often announced past titles once development was complete, as was the case with Paper Mario: The Origami King, for example. The second proof is that MercurySteam had already developed Metroid: Samus Returns and would be the best software house to make a new 2D game in the series.

Zippo concludes his statement by revealing that, according to him, the title could be revealed during E3 2021 next month, during the Nintendo conference. If the company were to really unveil the work during the digital version of the fair, then we could also expect a release towards the end of 2021 or at the latest by the beginning of 2022. In short, we just have to wait for more information and any confirmations from part of Nintendo. Moreover, if you are interested in metroidvania we suggest you to retrieve our editorial!

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Former Metroid Prime Lead Designer Targeted With Abusive Messages

Earlier this week, Michael Wikan - the former lead designer of all three Metroid Prime games - revealed on Facebook why he didn't think a Switch port of the Metroid Prime Trilogy was likely to happen.

In short, he doubts it will be released, as Retro Studios no longer has 'functional editor tools to work with the Prime code base' and as a result, everything would have to be 'brute-force' hard coded. Metroid Prime 3 alone would apparently be a 'herculean effort'.

Sadly, Wikan's comments appear to have upset some people within the Metroid community, and the former Retro Studios developer is now apparently being targeted with abusive messages. This information was shared by the Metroid fan website Shinesparkers:

'We have been informed that the developer mentioned has been targeted with abusive messages directed at his personal account on social media. The Metroid community is better than this, please be kind.'

As highlighted by much more reasonable fans online, Wikan never actually said a trilogy release wouldn't happen, he just said he was 'pretty skeptical' and believes it would likely require a lot of hard work to make it happen - especially the third game.

These latest comments about the Metroid Prime Trilogy follow on from years of rumours, Switch listings on retailer websites and insider predictions. Back in 2019, Imran Khan - who was with Game Informer at the time - said the trilogy collection for Switch had been 'long done' and Nintendo was just waiting for the right moment.

The fact Michael Wikan was a former lead designer on all three Metroid Prime games - no matter how long ago it was, means his comments are definitely worth taking into consideration.