I told you not to expect Metroid at E3. A lot of people didn't believe me, but I told you. Of all the Nintendo series that were showed off at E3, Metroid was basically the least likely to show up, simply because a new Metroid game had been in development for, at the absolute most, six months-if a new Metroid was in development at all. That last caveat remains elusive, but we know one thing for sure, thanks to the valiant heroes at Kotaku: the Metroid series will return.
The no-show of Samus Aran in any form besides Super Smash Bros, while no means surprising, was still disappointing. And Nintendo knows it. Kotaku sat down with Miyamoto during E3--you should read the full transcript over there--and editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo got him to admit that Nintendo has a future planned for both 2D Metroid and 3D Metroid-in particular, Metroid Prime.
According to Shinya Takahashi, who runs one of Nintendo's development divisions, the company is "having discussions internally" about the next step for Metroid, but they feel that "they need to take care of both" 2D and 3D Metroid. "Take care of" presumably doesn't mean mind-wiping everyone who has ever played either; it presumably does mean making another game, at some point. Then he released Nintendo's favorite cryptic non-response: "The hope is that at some point in the near future we'll be able to share something about them."
Nintendo loves lines like that, and I wouldn't read too much into it. It's tempting to read that and assume Retro Studios is, in fact, developing Metroid Prime Wii U as we speak-and they may very well be doing so, something which Nintendo is on the record about wanting. But there's no way of knowing. Even Miyamoto's statement that there's a lot more that the Prime series could do, which seems to suggest that the Prime series in particular will come back, could just be a tease. The same kind of tease that led us all to think we were going to get Majora's Mask 3DS this year.
The point is, we may not be getting Metroid this year, we may not be getting Metroid next year, and it might not even be in development-but Metroid is going to come back. Eventually.
And that alone is music to my ears.
