The Nintendo Direct on September 9, 2026 had a lot of announcements, but nothing hit quite like the reveal of Metroid Ravenous. The new 2D Metroid entry was already rumored for months — a Brazilian ratings board leak had pointed to it earlier in the year — but seeing it confirmed in full with nearly two minutes of footage, a hard release date, and a Special Edition announcement was the kind of Direct moment that makes people lose their minds in the best possible way.
The one lingering question after the showcase was who was actually making it. Nintendo didn’t credit a developer in the trailer or any associated press materials, which was unusual. That ambiguity lasted about 24 hours before MercurySteam, the Spanish studio behind Metroid Dread, quietly answered the question themselves on social media. Here’s everything confirmed about the game, what we know about MercurySteam’s involvement, and why this announcement carries more weight than just another sequel reveal.
MercurySteam Confirms They’re Behind Ravenous — With a Ninja Emoji
After the September 9 Direct, MercurySteam’s social accounts were conspicuously quiet despite the internet immediately assuming they were behind Ravenous based on the obvious visual and gameplay similarities to Metroid Dread. Eurogamer reached out to both Nintendo and MercurySteam for clarification and heard nothing back — typical Nintendo behavior pre-launch, but notable for the studio itself.
The confirmation came in the most MercurySteam way possible: the studio retweeted the official Metroid Ravenous trailer with a ninja emoji and a heart emoji, then posted the same trailer to their LinkedIn page. It’s not a press release, but it’s not nothing either. A studio doesn’t retweet a game reveal with a ninja emoji unless they made it. Wikipedia and multiple outlets have since confirmed the game is developed by MercurySteam in collaboration with Nintendo EPD, the same partnership structure that produced Metroid Dread in 2021.
Series producer Yoshio Sakamoto is also expected to be involved in his usual capacity, though his specific role hasn’t been officially detailed for Ravenous yet.
The Story Setup — Samus as Prey
Metroid Ravenous picks up after the events of Metroid Dread, continuing the thread that Dread left hanging at its conclusion — Samus’s growing biological connection to Metroid energy and what that means for her identity as a bounty hunter and as a being. The game’s tagline says it plainly: “It’s eat or be eaten.”
The setup, as delivered in Samus’s own narration during the reveal trailer — and yes, Samus talks throughout this trailer, which is itself a notable departure from the character’s traditionally silent presentation — goes like this: Samus’s ship crash-lands on an unknown moon. She is immediately ambushed by a group of five mysterious assailants described as Space Ninja assassins, each wearing cloaks and wide-brimmed hats that obscure their faces. These figures visually evoke Chozo warriors clad in black samurai-style armor, though their exact identity hasn’t been officially confirmed.
The attack leaves Samus severely wounded — and the trailer shows her Power Suit being pierced, which is not something you typically see in Metroid games and which carries real narrative weight given how central the suit is to her identity and survival. Stranded underground on a hostile moon with depleted resources, Samus must navigate an underground labyrinth, gain new abilities, and fight her way back to the surface. The catch: to survive in this environment, she has to use her Metroid biology to feed on her enemies.
Samus’s narration captures the tone: “I was attacked by unknown assailants and sustained grave injuries. I don’t know where I am. Getting back to the surface won’t be easy. My chances of getting off this moon are slim at best. Still — I will survive. And I will make it home. Even if I have to feed on my enemies to do so. It’s eat or be eaten.”
New Abilities and Gameplay — What’s Actually New
The headline new mechanic in Metroid Ravenous is the energy siphoning ability tied to Samus’s awakened Metroid instincts. The flow works like this: stun enemies by countering their attacks, then activate the drain ability to absorb their life force. The energy dissipates into nothingness once consumed, and Samus grows stronger. It’s a predator-prey loop built directly into the combat rhythm rather than just into the story framing.
The trailer also showed several other new and returning abilities:
- Phase Dash — a traversal ability that lets Samus warp through walls and environmental obstacles
- Water running — Samus can sprint across the surface of water rather than sinking
- Parry system returning from Metroid Dread, looking as satisfying as ever
- Counter-grapple — Samus can interrupt enemy grapple attacks mid-fight
- Brutal finishing attacks following successful drains
- The Metroid Suit — a new alternate armor form tied to Samus’s Metroid biology, seen in the amiibo design and described as “overwhelming power”
The visual style stays in the 2.5D lane MercurySteam established with Dread — side-scrolling gameplay with full 3D geometry and cinematic cutscenes punctuating the action. Ravenous appears noticeably more colorful and more vibrant than Dread’s oppressive atmosphere, which was deliberately claustrophobic and dark to reinforce the horror of being hunted by EMMI robots. Ravenous looks like a different flavor of tension — more aggressive and predatory than fearful.
The five Space Ninja assassins who ambushed Samus are spread throughout the underground world and serve as the game’s major boss encounters — one-on-one battles described as “up close and personal” with enemies whose powerful weaponry is designed specifically to counter Samus’s established toolkit.
The Special Edition, Amiibo, and What’s In the Box
Nintendo went all out on physical product support for Ravenous, which is particularly welcome given the broader industry shift toward digital-only releases. Here’s the full lineup launching on January 28, 2027:
- Standard Edition — physical and digital, standard pricing
- Special Edition — includes the physical game, a SteelBook case, and the exclusive Samus (Metroid Suit) amiibo. This is the only way to get the Metroid Suit amiibo at launch
- Samus — Metroid Ravenous Series amiibo — sold separately, depicts Samus with her devouring powers activated
- Chozo Statue — Metroid Ravenous Series amiibo — sold separately, notably described as larger than standard amiibo size. A Chozo Statue as an amiibo is a nod to the in-game Chozo Statue items that have been a staple of the series for decades
- Samus (Metroid Suit) — Metroid Ravenous Series amiibo — Special Edition exclusive, depicts Samus in the new Metroid-derived armor form
Specific amiibo functionality details haven’t been announced yet and will be revealed closer to launch. Pre-orders opened on September 9 following the Direct reveal.
Why This Game Matters — The Bigger Metroid Context
Metroid Ravenous is the sixth mainline 2D Metroid entry, following Metroid, Metroid II, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid Dread. It arrives at a genuinely strong moment for the franchise after years of relative quiet. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond launched in 2025 on the 3D side to excellent reviews, and the series celebrated its 40th anniversary in August 2026. Having both the 2D and 3D branches of the series active simultaneously is something that last happened in a significant way back in the early 2000s with Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion launching within weeks of each other in 2002.
Dread in 2021 was a watershed moment for the 2D branch specifically. It ended a 19-year gap in mainline 2D Metroid releases, received universal critical acclaim — Eurogamer gave it their Essential badge, calling it “a stylish, visually sumptuous return for 2D Metroid” that “proudly sits alongside the series’ best” — and sold over 3 million copies, making it the best-selling Metroid game of all time at launch. That commercial success gave MercurySteam the credibility and resources to come back for a follow-up, and the five-year turnaround time is in line with what a well-resourced studio produces for a title of this scope.
MercurySteam’s Recent Turbulence Makes This Extra Meaningful
It’s also worth acknowledging what MercurySteam has been through since Metroid Dread. The studio poured significant effort into Blades of Fire, an original action game published by 505 Games that launched in 2025. The game received generally positive reviews but commercially underperformed significantly — 505 Games described it as resulting in “higher-than-expected write-offs.” That financial pressure forced MercurySteam into a round of layoffs and studio restructuring earlier in 2026, which was painful for a relatively small independent Spanish studio.
The Metroid Ravenous announcement therefore carries some genuine relief alongside the excitement. Getting back to work on Metroid — the franchise that put MercurySteam on the global map — with Nintendo’s full backing and resources is exactly the kind of project a studio needs after a commercially difficult period. The ninja emoji retweet felt less like a formal announcement and more like a team that had been quietly grinding through development, weathered a difficult stretch, and was genuinely happy to finally be able to hint at what they’d been working on.
Metroid Ravenous launches exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 on January 28, 2027. Pre-orders are live now. For everything else coming out of the September 2026 Nintendo Direct and what’s happening across gaming right now, check out our coverage of the massive EA and Savvy Games merger situation and the GTA 6 DualSense controller stock tracker — two very different stories that are both defining what gaming looks like heading into late 2026.
