Nintendo just gave 2D Metroid fans a reason to cheer. Metroid Ravenous was revealed at the September Direct, and it lands on Switch 2 on January 28, 2027. It’s a brand-new side-scrolling entry, and it looks appropriately brutal.
The timing is notable. The last original 2D Metroid was Metroid Dread back in 2021, and it was a hit. Since then, the spotlight has been on the long-awaited Metroid Prime 4. So a surprise new 2D chapter is exactly the kind of reveal that gets longtime fans talking.
What Metroid Ravenous is about
This time, Samus is in real trouble. She crash-lands on a hostile alien moon, injured and stranded. Her mission is simple but grim: survive, and find a way home. The trailer sums up the tone in three words — “eat or be eaten.”
That framing is a shift for the series. Metroid usually casts Samus as the apex predator. Here, she’s the one being hunted, at least at first. The desert-moon setting reinforces that vulnerability, and the trailer even teases five mysterious cloaked figures stalking her.
New powers for Samus
Ravenous also hands Samus some fresh tools. Chief among them is an energy-draining ability that absorbs life force straight from enemies. On top of that, she can dash through walls, run across water, and parry incoming attacks — the last one carried over from Dread. As a result, the moment-to-moment combat looks faster and more aggressive than usual.
Those abilities also hint at clever level design. Wall-dashing and water-running are the kind of traversal tricks that Metroid loves to build entire areas around. Naturally, that suggests a map full of secrets to unlock.
When Metroid Ravenous launches
Mark the date: January 28, 2027, on Switch 2. Amiibo figures arrive the same day. For fans, it’s the cleanest headline from a packed Direct, and it slots neatly into the wider metroidvania boom we’ve been tracking. Still, nothing scratches the itch quite like the real thing — and Metroid Ravenous is now less than five months out.
Source: Nintendo
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