That being said, Metroid is not really in its glory days anymore. The best of Metroid is behind us and Nintendo hopes to capture the magic of the first few Metroid games with the upcoming Metroid 4. However, before we ever see Metroid 4 materialize, rumors of potential remakes of the original games coming out have been floating around town for long. Today, we add to that in the from of a fresh rumor coming from one of the industry’s most reliable names. Jeff Grub, during today’s Monday Mess Mornings show, revealed that he’s quite confident about Metroid making a big comeback very soon.
Metroid is coming back
According to Jeff Grubb, Metroid Prime 1 remaster/remake is Nintendo’s big Holiday game for this season. It’s supposed to be a major overhaul of the original title, modernized for the Nintendo Switch. It will reportedly feature dual-joystick controls and motion-controlled gyro movement, both of which weren’t present on the original GameCube release. Moreover, remasters/remakes of Metroid Prime 2 and 3 are also in the works, as Jeff Grubb mentioned that they’re also “pretty much done“. Knowing Nintendo, they’d want to milk the titles as much as possible and release them some time later. So no word on their release windows yet, but expect them to debut in 2023, possibly as part of a two-game bundle. Despite significant efforts going into this project, Jeff Grubb mentioned both of those games won’t receive nearly as much of a upgrade as the original Metroid Prime (remaster/remake) coming this Holiday. We’ll still see the updated controls make their way on to the sequels, but expect a much less impressive visual flourish, compared to Metroid Prime 1. My educated guess leads me to believe that Metroid Prime 1 is being remade while the two sequels are being remastered. That would perfectly explain how the original is rumored to feature revamped controls better suited for today. In fact, rumors from last year suggested that a reworked Metroid Prime had finished development over summer. Moreover, Metroid Prime 2 and 3 don’t look too outdated for their time, especially considering they’re Nintendo games. Honestly, the sheer nostalgia factor will convince enough gamers to buy into these remasters/remakes that Nintendo doesn’t need to do too much, and I think the company knows that. Lastly, Jeff Grub mentions that apart from being an absolute cash cow for Nintendo, these remasters/remakes also serve another purpose. Apparently, the updated controls and changes made here will be representative of the larger changes we’ll see in Metroid Prime 4, so these games are almost sort of an appetizer for that. Obviously, all of this is still a rumor, so take everything you just read with a hefty grain of salt. There’s no way of knowing if these games are actually releasing, or even in development, as of now. However, given Jeff Grubb’s reach in the industry and his track record, he’s likely not far off. Nintendo should hold a proper Direct Showcase to announce anything of this scale and Jeff Grubb says it will. Just a few hours ago, the company announced a Direct Mini Partner Showcase for June 28th, but it’s only 25-minutes long and, more importantly, meant for third-party releases. So don’t expect any miracles. If this rumor is indeed true then we should be hearing from official channels very soon. Till then, optimism is your best friend, but being a Nintendo fan, you probably already know that.
