US, August 27, 2007 - In 2005, IGN got hold of an official internal Nintendo software list that revealed a number of key DS games set to be announced in the future. All of the games on the list, including titles like Super Princess Peach, were eventually announced and released. All, that is, except for one -- a project known simply as Metroid Dread.
To this day, Metroid Dread, thought to be a traditional 2D sequel in the Metroid franchise designed specifically for Nintendo's dual-screen handheld, has never publicly been acknowledged by the mega-publisher. But an unofficial nod to the project has been found hidden within the 20-hour adventure of fantastic Wii first-person adventure Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, developed by Retro Studios.
Players who journey deep enough into Samus Aran's Wii quest will eventually land at the
, where they will be able to use the bounty hunter's scanning ability to seek out background information about the race, as well as other lore. Doing just that, we stumbled upon a panel with the following message, quoted verbatim below:
"Experiment status report update: Metroid project 'Dread' is nearing the final stages of completion."
Only two conclusions can be drawn from this message. One, Nintendo is indeed still planning to release the DS game and gave Retro the okay to hint about it in Prime 3. Or, the Texas-based developer is just having a little fun at the expense of Dread hopefuls. Either way, it's a great hidden inclusion in Corruption and we could not resist kick-starting the Metroid Dread faith again.
We've just reviewed Metroid Prime 3 and posted new media. Check it all out at our sister-site, IGN Wii, by clicking right here.