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Metroid Prime is the 3D first-person-adventure series that debuted on the Nintendo GameCube. The third game in the trilogy appeared on Nintendo Wii, along with Metroid Prime: Trilogy, which featured new Wii motion controls for all three games, as part of Nintendo’s New Play Control! series on the Wii. There were only a handful of games released as part of the New Play Control! lineup but the overall consensus for the titles was positive and that the new Wii controls improved the games. Other than Nintendo’s 2017 announcement of Metroid Prime 4, which has since been delayed on more than one occasion, the Prime series has been dormant — until now.
Fans do what Nintendon’t?
Prime 2D is exactly what its name implies; it’s a 2D reimagining of Metroid Prime that just saw its first playable demo released. It’s been in development by a small but dedicated team for over a decade. The latest update was framed as an April Fool’s joke but today it was revealed progress was much further along than the previous update conveyed, which even featured fake screenshots. As of writing on April 5th, there’s a playable demo available and it’s been downloaded over sixteen thousand times.
It’s only a matter of time before Nintendo intervenes to protect their intellectual property as usual and keep the world from experiencing too much Metroid-related fun. It stands to reason though it won’t disappear entirely even if it’s taken down, since it’ll likely get backed up by at least a few people out of the sixteen thousand plus people that have already downloaded the playable demo.
Why aren’t Metroid Zero Mission and Metroid Fusion on Switch?
It’s nice to get something Metroid related though, even if it’s unofficial and not from Nintendo. August 2021 will mark the 35th anniversary for the series and the first appearance of the resourceful and badass bounty hunter, Samus Aran, and Nintendo hasn’t uttered a word about the series. In fact, after their recent celebration of Mario, my confidence in them even acknowledging Samus’s 35th birthday in a tweet is pretty low. The last time the series was acknowledged was when Nintendo announced development on Metroid Prime 4 was restarting and that it would be rebooted again.
The good news from that announcement though was that Retro Studios was taking over development. They’re not only the creators of the Metroid Prime series but also developed Mario Kart 7, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Go check out the playable demo of Prime 2D while it’s easy to find and play Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze when you’ve finished if you haven’t played it yet. It’s quite honestly one of the greatest platformers ever made and will give you confidence in Retro Studios while you wait for Metroid Prime 4 to be finished.
I really hope that Prime 2D gets finished because what’s been available in this demo is very promising and honestly, it’s exciting to experience this part of Metroid with a 2D perspective and style. I really like the Prime trilogy and am absolutely looking forward to the fourth entry, but Zero Mission is one of my favorite games both in the Metroid series and just period. It’s an incredible game and I’d love to experience Prime in the 2D aesthetic. It’d be really great if Nintendo hired Team SCU and let them remake Metroid Prime 2 in this style after finishing this release, much like Sega did with the Sonic Mania development team. It’d be a great way to embrace the community, while also giving everyone something to play while we wait for Metroid Prime 4.
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