Move along, this isn’t a hint about the 2D Metroid you’ve been looking for.
Metroid fans everywhere have been abuzz for the last several weeks with the tantalizing tease of the fabled Metroid Dread game found tucked away in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Meticulous players quickly found an out-of-the way computer panel in the second half of Prime 3 that offered the following tease: “Experiment status report update. Metroid project ‘Dread’ is nearing the final stages of completion." Metroid Dread, of course, is an infamous name to Internet rumormongers, which allegedly appeared on some early E3 documents in 2005 and was reported on in an issue of Game Informer as being a new 2D Metroid installment. Since then, speculation has run amok as to whether or not the game actually existed and whether or not Nintendo would ever confirm the title. Many assumed that the Dread reference in Prime 3 was all but confirmation that Dread is real.
Retro Studios' Mark Pacini, director of Prime 3, told MTV’s Multiplayer Blog that the reference had nothing to do with the over-rumored DS game. “It’s not what you think it means," Pacini said. “It was something that was overlooked and wasn’t in any way indicating anything about the handheld game. We know no information about the handheld games." Pacini went on to explain that the mention of Dread was actually a reference to a narrative thread contained in an earlier version of Prime 3 that Retro eventually chose to take out. The fact that the scan-able object remained in the game was an oversight, and “a complete and utter coincidence," according to Pacini.
Earlier this month, UK games site CVG reported on a statement to them from an unnamed source at Nintendo claiming, “Nintendo is not making the 2D Metroid at this time." While these statements may still prove a little porous for many die-hard believers, those looking for a 2D Metroid fix may have to content themselves with the Virtual Console for a good while yet.
