Can’t Say No to More Metroid, Can We?
Metroid Prime 4 wasn’t the only Metroid announcement this morning. During Nintendo’s E3 Treehouse event, Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime unveiled Metroid: Samus Returns for the Nintendo 3DS.
It harkens back to the classic side-scrolling gameplay the series is known for before the Prime series took it to first-person and it’s looking good. Really good. In fact, it is a “reimagining” of Metroid II: Return of Samus from the original 1991 Game Boy release. It is being developed by MercurySteam, the team behind Castlevania: Lords of Shadow — Mirror of Fate. Hmm, this might explain why Nintendo shut down that Metroid II fan project.
According to the lengthy in-depth stream, Samus will have some new abilities in her new adventure including a Melee Counter and full 360-degree free aiming. There are also new Aeon Abilities that function as upgrades for Samus that aren’t your traditional suit upgrades. For example, the “Scan Pulse” upgrade will let you see more of the mini-map, uncovering secrets. Just like in Metroid II, Samus will be hunting Metroids down (40, in fact) and some will even have different evolutions.
This was definitely a nice surprise from Nintendo especially coming shortly after the Metroid Prime 4 Switch announcement. What are your thoughts on Metroid: Samus Returns? Sound off in the comments below.