Recently there have been some rumours floating around that a remake of Super Metroid and the Metroid Prime Trilogy are heading to Nintendo Switch. Regardless of how legitimate these rumours are, they got me thinking about my love for the Metroid games, and why we need some on the Switch.
Beloved
The Metroid games always come up when you chat to a Nintendo fan, so it’s no coincidence that they’ve become one of the most loved series in Nintendo history. The games ave always introduced something new and different with each game, and I think that’s part of why they’re so much fun to play. I still have fond memories of playing Metroid 2: Return of Samus on my GameBoy. I had no idea what I was doing, which is always the way, but the game slowly explained everything through the environment, and the abilities that Samus picked up along the way. I think it’s this gameplay format, which went on to become the metroidvania genre, that turns every game into a story, and a journey that players remember for a lifetime.
Groundbreaking
As I’ve already pointed out, the Metroid games went on to be part of the creation of the metroidvania genre. Any game that slowly provides new abilities that unlock new areas in the game, with a huge open format, is basically a metroidvania, and games as recent as Blasphemous use that genre, leaning on the rules outlined by games like Super Metroid. I don’t see why at least one of these groundbreaking games wasn’t a launch title for Nintendo Switch, let alone a new entry in the Metroid Prime series. But this has always been the case, Nintendo takes their time with their flagship games because they know they’ll be incredible, even if that comes at the expense of new players for their hardware early on.
Metroid Prime
The Metroid Prime series is probably my favourite Nintendo series of all time, beating Zelda by a long way. The games had everything I love, they were first person, had open worlds to explore that made you feel clever as you unlocked new areas, and an incredible sci-fi setting. The Wii version of the trilogy was a particular highlight, and I even purchased a Wii before a PS3 largely because of the third game in the series.
We were told that we’d have a Metroid Prime 4 on Nintendo Switch, but I, and everyone else, still hasn’t seen that game appear yet. I think that the Metroid Prime games were made to be played on the Switch, just like they were made for the Wii, the GameCube, and even the Nintendo DS. Nintendo fans new and old need to experience the awesome universe found in these games, or just the Metroid universe as a whole, because it’s a really fascinating take on sci-fi that I’ve seen in very few other mediums.
Please Nintendo, give me Metroid Prime 4 in 2020.