The long-rumoured Nintendo Switch remaster of Metroid Prime will reportedly release this holiday.
Word comes by way of VentureBeat‘s Jeff Grubb, a reliable industry insider, on Giant Bomb’s ‘Game Mess Mornings’ podcast.
On the show, Grubb said he’s been told “pretty definitively” that the remaster is “one of [Nintendo’s] big holiday games.” He added that this lines up with the 20th anniversary of Metroid Prime in November.
However, as previously rumoured, this remaster is apparently only set to include the first Metroid Prime. According to Grubb, remasters of the second and third games are “pretty much done,” but Nintendo is holding them for release later.
Grubb went on to say that the remaster of the first Prime will be more extensive than what’s being done with the sequels.
“I think that game would be designed in a way by Retro Studios, who’s also making Metroid Prime 4, so that they can communicate to fans what to expect from Metroid Prime 4. To get used to things that might change.”
Some of this, he suspects, will include dual analogue controls and gyro aiming support. The sequels “will probably get updated controls and things like that, but they’re not getting quite the same overhaul as Metroid Prime 1,” Grubb said.
Metroid Prime and Prime 2 were released on the GameCube, with Prime 3 launching on the Wii. While the trilogy was later made available on both the Wii and Wii U, these games have not been playable on the Switch due to the system’s lack of backwards compatibility. Therefore, fans have been hoping that a port or remaster will happen.
Metroid Prime 4, meanwhile, was originally revealed way back in June 2017, reportedly under development at Bandai Namco. However, Nintendo announced in January 2019 that the project “[had] not reached the standards we seek,” and development was therefore being restarted by original Prime studio Retro.
Although the wait for a 3D Metroid on Switch has been quite long, a well-received 2D entry in the series, Metroid Dread, did release on the platform last fall.
In other Nintendo news, the company has confirmed that a ‘Direct Mini’ presentation focused on third-party games will air on June 28th.
Image credit: Nintendo
Source: Giant Bomb Via: GamesRadar+
