I have very few complaints from last week’s Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. The new handheld looks amazing, Mario Kart World looks amazing, Donkey Kong looks amazing. I’m excited to try out the new Joy-Cons in mouse mode, and even though I know that stupid camera is going to be a piece of junk, yeah, I want one. It’s all pretty exciting stuff, and the only things I’m really concerned about are the price tags ($80 games mean less room for risk taking), and that Nintendo expects us to buy Welcome Tour, the Switch 2’s goofy little tech demo, that looks like the most pack-in game of all time. Was nothing learned from 1-2 Switch? Apparently not.
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I do have a question, though. I swear I’m not complaining. I don’t want to come off as entitled here – because what I’m after is not something Nintendo has ever officially promised us. But I just have to ask: What the heck is going on with the Metroid Prime 2 and 3 remasters? I know all we have is unconfirmed rumors about them, but come one. They must exist. We need to play them. I just don’t understand why we haven’t heard a single word about them yet, and after this week’s Nintendo Switch 2 reveal, I’m just as confused as ever.
It’s Called The Metroid Prime Trilogy
A short history on the remastered Metroid Prime trilogy: Rumors have been circulating about remakes/remasters of the first three Metroid Prime games for nearly six years. Back in 2019, then-Game Informer editor Imran Khan claimed that the Switch version of all three games was “long done” and supposedly sitting on a shelf at Nintendo, ready to ship at the right time. Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grub made the same claim just a few months later. Reputable journalists claimed for years that all three Prime games were Switch-bound, but it never happened.
We did eventually get a remaster of the original Metroid Prime in 2023. It was an exceptional remaster, well-received by reviewers, and considered a success. After it launched, the rumors about its sequels shifted. It was now claimed that Prime 2 and 3 were coming to the Switch, but as ports rather than full remasters. Evidently Retro Studios had its hands full with Metroid Prime 4 – understandably – and was only able to ship a remaster of the first Prime.
Two years later – and mere months away from the release of Metroid Prime 4 – we still don’t have Prime 2 or 3 on the Switch. At this point, it’s looking like we never will.
Metroid Prime 2 And 3 Have Been Memory Holed
We’ve had two Nintendo Direct live streams in the last two weeks. Metroid Prime 4 was mentioned in both of them, Metroid Prime 2 and 3 were not mentioned in either of them. I fully expected to see these ports get a release date during last week’s Nintendo Direct, which focused on all the games still coming to the original Switch this year. Surely Nintendo would want players to get the full Metroid Prime experience before the release of Metroid Prime 4. Especially when Metroid Prime Remastered went over so well. Especially when there’s relevant story details that seem to connect to Prime 4. Right? Apparently not.
After the Direct, some of those same insiders were now claiming that Metroid Prime 2 would be coming to the Switch as part of Nintendo Switch Online’s upcoming Gamecube catalog. Well, NSO’s Gamecube launch lineup was revealed during this week’s Switch 2 Direct, and the games revealed were The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Soul Calibur 2, and F-Zero GX. We also got a teaser for future virtual Gamecube titles, which includes the likes of Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi’s Mansion, Pokemon Colosseum, and Chibi-freaking-Robot… but no Metroid Prime.
I don’t know what to think anymore, except to think that those “reliable” insiders might not be so reliable anymore. I believed it because it made sense. With the Wii Shop Channel and Wii U eShop shut down, the only way to even get Metroid Prime 2 and 3 right now is to find used GameCube copies. Nintendo should want these classics to be accessible, especially with a big sequel coming soon. If it’s true that they’re just sitting on a shelf somewhere ready to ship, then I cannot fathom why we don’t have these games today, or at the very least an announcement of when they’re coming. It would be a shame to launch Metroid Prime 4 without giving fans a way to play the entire series on one system, but it wouldn’t be the most outlandish thing Nintendo has ever done.
Metroid Prime Remastered
- Released
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February 8, 2023
- ESRB
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T For Teen due to Animated Blood, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Nintendo, Retro Studios
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
- Engine
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Retro’s in-house game engine