Nintendo has had a pretty good run so far this year. The Nintendo Switch has proven to be wildly successful, and well on its way to dethrone the Wii as Nintendo’s best-selling home console of all time. Their press conference at E3 this year promises even more games for the Switch, making the future of Nintendo look very bright. A few new games were announced, including a new Pokémon game and Super Mario Odyssey coming in October. Probably the most surprising announcement for longtime Nintendo fans was the announcement of not just one, but two new Metroid games!
The first is the totally shocking (but very welcome) announcement of Metroid Prime 4, currently being developed for the Nintendo Switch. Its been ten years since the last Metroid Prime game, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption came out (we’ll all just ignore Metroid Prime: Federation Force). Though some fans were initially dissuaded from the sudden change from 2D platformer to first-person shooter, many fell in love with the Metroid Prime trilogy, and many critics consider the first to be one of the greatest video games of all time.
Sadly, given how early Metroid Prime 4 is in development, not much was revealed. But not all is lost for fans of the intergalactic bounty hunter, as Samus Aran will be appearing this September in Metroid Samus Returns for 3DS. After Nintendo finished all their major announcements at E3, they just casually announced Metroid Samus Returns on Twitter. They also revealed that MercurySteam, the development team behind Castlevania: Lords of Shadows, is developing the game.
The game is a remake of Samus’ Game Boy adventure, Metroid II: Return of Samus. New features inlcude 2.5D graphics, a melee counterattack, and the ability to aim the arm cannon in any direction you choose, as opposed to the original’s restriction of straight up and to the sides.
Metroid Samus Returns is slated to come out September 15th for the Nintendo 3DS.