Samus Aran will return in Metroid Ravenous, a side-scrolling sequel to Metroid Dread.
Announced during today’s Nintendo Direct broadcast, Metroid Ravenous will launch for Switch 2 on January 28, 2027. A trailer revealed Samus being attacked by strange enemies who zapped her energy. “It’s eat or be eaten,” she says in response. Hope you’re hungry.
If the game’s name sounds familiar, that’s because it previously popped up via a swiftly-deleted ratings board listing in Brazil. At the time, fans speculated that its name referred to Dread’s main antagonist Raven Beak — something now proven correct.
Metroid Ravenous appears to once again be the work of talented Spanish development studio MercurySteam, the team that previously collaborated with Nintendo for Metroid Dread, as well as Metroid: Samus Returns, the remake of Game Boy title Metroid 2: Return of Samus for 3DS.
“A surprise sequel after nearly 20 years, Metroid Dread brings back the legendary exploration and progression and merges it with excellent modern combat and some of the best boss fights ever,” we wrote in IGN’s Metroid Dread review, scoring it a 9/10.
For the uninitiated, Nintendo’s side-scrolling Metroid games are narratively separated from its first-person Metroid Prime subseries, though all part of the same overall franchise. Dread and Ravenous sit at the end of the series’ chronology to date, years after the events of last year’s Metroid Prime 4, so don’t expect any direct continuation of that.
Catch up on all of the big announcements in our roundup of everything announced in today’s Nintendo Direct broadcast, as well as everything announced in The Legend of Zelda Nintendo Direct that aired yesterday.
Tom Phillips
Tom is IGN’s News Editor and a veteran journalist with 20 years of experience in the video games industry.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
