Metroid Ravenous’ Surprise Reveal Was Secretly the Star of Nintendo’s Busy Week

It was quite the week for Nintendo. A pair of back-to-back Direct showcases gave fans a lot to talk about, even if not all the news was equally exciting. The headliner of the week, of course, was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. We finally got a deep look at the upcoming Switch 2 remake, which sparked plenty of emotions thanks to its polarizing art style and introduction of a jump button. No matter how fans feel, it’s bound to be the biggest game of the Switch 2 era so far.

But that’s not the game occupying space in my brain following Nintendo’s busy week. That honor belongs to Metroid Ravenous. Samus’ new 2D adventure, which is set to lead the 2027 charge on Jan. 28, is looking like the Switch 2’s most stylish, exciting exclusive to date — at least based on a strong debut trailer that features Samus eating her enemies. We’ll only have to wait a few short months to find out if it lives up to its predecessor, the Game of the Year-nominated Metroid Dread, but it’s a good reminder that Nintendo’s current remake craze is paying off in the long-run.

The road to Metroid Ravenous started with a remake. Nintendo shocked Metroid fans back at E3 2017 when it revealed that it was remaking Metroid 2: Return of Samus as Metroid: Samus Returns, a full reimagining for the Nintendo 3DS. Even more surprising was that development on it was being led by MercurySteam. It sounded like a left-field choice, given that the team had no real connection to Nintendo, but it made perfect sense given that the studio was behind 2010’s well-received Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Why not hand the keys to a small developer who already knew the Metroidvania genre?

That gamble paid off. Metroid: Samus Returns launched to critical acclaim and revitalized the series at a time when it seemed all but dead. A less ambitious publisher might have tasked MercurySteam with moving on to a Super Metroid remake there, but Nintendo instead gave the team free rein to develop an original Metroid game next. Everything MercurySteam learned remaking Metroid 2 got put to good use in Metroid Dread, a game that built on that game’s combat and exploration foundation while pushing the series’ cinematic direction. That might not have been possible without learning the ins and outs of a Metroid game first through a remake.

That’s a playbook Nintendo has used to great success in the last decade. Its remakes often feel like proving grounds for external partners who are given a chance to show what they can do within the safe confines of a remake. It proved successful for Grezzo, the developer behind 2019’s delightful The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake. The team passed its audition with flying colors and went on to get experimental with The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, an original game that looked to reinvent the top-down series formula by casting the player as Zelda herself and putting an even heavier emphasis on puzzle-solving.

Metroid Ravenous is a long-term continuation of that cycle. MercurySteam finds itself in a solid enough standing that it has once again gotten the flexibility to experiment with Metroid rather than kick out another remake. (Though Nintendo has yet to formally confirm the studio developed it.) Samus’ enemy-eating powers look like a fresh way to further iterate on Samus Returns’ foundation without playing the hits. That’s enough to make me more excited about it than an Ocarina of Time touch-up that doesn’t seem to be changing the original much on a gameplay level.

This is the ideal pipeline for video game remakes. As tiresome as they can be for players who don’t want to keep revisiting old games, they can lay the groundwork for something more interesting down the line. I don’t care much for this year’s Star Fox, a needless remake of Star Fox 64, but I love what it’s bound to spark next. Developer Velan Studios proved itself on the project, showing that it could nail the series’ fundamentals, push its storytelling potential, and even make a pretty fun multiplayer game out of Star Fox. I want to see Velan get the keys to the series moving forward so it can put everything it nailed into something new. The same goes for ArtePiazza, which did a respectable, if overly safe, job remaking Super Mario RPG in 2023.

Keep that in mind the next time Nintendo reveals a project like the Ocarina of Time remake. Whether you love or hate its existence, Nintendo has proved that there’s a long-term payoff to its remake strategy. What’s boring today could end up setting the stage for the most exciting Nintendo Direct announcement five years from now.