Nintendo Brass Talks About the Future of Metroid

Nintendo’s roster of beloved, iconic franchises is so deep that they can’t address every one of them at a single E3 event. With new Mario, Zelda, Yoshi, Star Fox and Smash Bros titles to show off, Metroid was the odd man out this year.

Kotaku’s Stephen Totillo, unsatisfied with no update on the classic sci-fi series, spoke with Nintendo’s top dogs and learned that, while plans are in motion, it will likely be a while before we get any concrete information on a new Metroid game.

Speaking first with Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto, Totillo was directed to Shinya Takahashi, head of Nintendo's Software Planning & Development group, current curator of the Metroid series, who informed him that internal discussions about Metroid are happening, and are two-pronged. Takahashi stated, “So at this point we have two different types of Metroid games. We have the Prime style of Metroid game and we have the more traditional style of Metroid game. We feel that we do need to take care of both of these styles of play.” No further details were revealed about the potential projects, but Takahashi said, “the hope is that at some point in the near future we'll be able to share something about them.”

Totillo asked both Takahashi and Miyamoto which style of Metroid game they prefer; Miyamoto chose the 3D Prime version, while Takahashi likes both styles equally.

It’s been almost seven years since we’ve played Metroid Prime: Corruption, the last new 3D Metroid game, and almost four years since the last Metroid game of any kind, Metroid: Other M. The series’ star, Samus, will appear in two forms in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. game, but we’re still eagerly awaiting the announcement of a new core Metroid title. Based on this conversation, that wait will eventually pay off. Hopefully, we’ll soon have some idea when that will be.