Metroid Prime 4 was first revealed at E3 2017 at the tail end of Nintendo’s E3 presentation. A giant number “4” appeared floating through space, followed by the Metroid Prime logo next to it, and then a single line of text that said “Now in development for Nintendo Switch” in what appeared to be Arial Bold font. If it sounds like I’m embellishing the reveal a bit here, that’s probably because this is literally the only glimpse we’ve ever had of Metroid Prime 4. No release window. No gameplay footage. No concept art, environment render, or even stock pose of longtime series’ hero and planet-hopping bounty hunter Samus Aran. Just.. a logo.

In a subsequent press release, it was revealed that the game was in development in conjunction with frequent Nintendo collaborator Bandai-Namco, a studio that had previously worked with Nintendo on things like Mario Kart Arcade and the last few Super Smash Bros games. Even though we had little to run with other than speculation and the now seemingly concrete reality that we’d soon be playing a brand new Metroid Prime game at home and on the go on Nintendo Switch, excitement for the series to finally return to consoles was palpable as dozens of excited reaction videos of the logo reveal were released all over the world. A new Metroid Prime game was finally on the way and every future Nintendo Direct, live stream, and earnings call had the chance of bringing with it even more exciting news of Samus’ next big adventure.

Loading

Loading

Loading

Until it didn’t. Instead, Metroid fans got nothing but silence. Fast forward to January of this year - a year and a half after the initial reveal and nearly twelve years since the last true Metroid Prime game - and Nintendo once again was ready to talk about Metroid Prime 4, but this time around we got some bad news to go with the good news. In a surprisingly candid and transparent statement, series producer Shinya Takahashi announced that the current development of the game was essentially being rebooted because it wasn’t living up to the quality standards Nintendo expected from the franchise. Since we hadn’t actually seen the game at any point, we can’t be sure of exactly where it was in development, what was working well, and what wasn’t.The good news, at least, is that Nintendo decided to bring in the creators of the original Prime trilogy, Retro Studios, to collaborate on development and create something that would live up to fans’ expectations. Long story short, Metroid Prime 4 was back in the hands of the team that started it even though the game was starting to feel even further away from release than anyone had ever hoped it would be. Obviously, that left us with lots of questions. Would we ever see the original pre-Retro version of Prime 4? Was it far along to pass off working mechanics and assets to the new team, or is it being rebooted from scratch? And how many members of the original Prime teams were even still working at Retro? Most of it is a mystery, but at the very least, Metroid Prime 4 is still happening.And whenever it actually decides to show up, Metroid Prime 4 should feel right at home on Switch. Not only has the Switch taken Nintendo’s long-established console and handheld lines and merged them into one slick, laser-focused offering, it’s also become an incredible vehicle for taking long-standing and beloved Nintendo franchises and giving them a much needed shot in the arm. Breath of the Wild took a dependable but predictable 3D Zelda series and turned it into an open world physics-based survival games, and Mario Odyssey grabbed the best components of the Mario series and tossed in fantastic new mechanics and a seemingly endless amount of objectives. Suffice to say, it’s only natural to hope the long-dormant Metroid Prime franchise returns with a similarly fresh coat of paint. Not necessarily an entire franchise reboot, per se, but a crystallization of the series’ strongest traits, a shedding of some of its weakest, and a new foundation to push it forward for a whole new generation.After all, the most recently released game to share the “Metroid Prime” moniker was 2016’s Metroid Prime: Federation Force , a handheld exclusive, chibi soccer-inspired spin-off game starring goofy, generic space marines devoid of nearly all of the haunting, nomadic, pulse-pounding gameplay, lore, scope, and depth of the Prime’ series console counterparts. It was Nintendo’s attempt to bring the bleak sci-fi world of Metroid to a new generation of soccer-loving children for some inexplicable reason and it launched to mediocre reviews, lackluster sales, and a silent pact amongst veteran fans of the series to never mention it again until I trudged the whole thing up again in this paragraph. Sorry.Yet all along, Metroid Prime fans stayed hopeful for a new, legit Prime game to be announced, especially after 2007’s Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, an excellent closing chapter to the Prime trilogy that managed to evoke the best elements of the first Prime game while simultaneously adding smart new motion control features that took advantage of the Nintendo Wii’s innovate controller. Retro Studios then pivoted to focus on the very different but still equally acclaimed Donkey Kong Country Returns series, proving the studio is still very capable of releasing quality titles starring iconic Nintendo characters. Returning the series to the hands of the studio most responsible for making it soar to begin withAt this point in development, it’s safe to say there probably isn’t a ton of stuff to show us yet, at least gameplay wise. Nintendo recently announced that their E3 Direct will focus on Switch games for 2019 and there’s pretty much no chance in the galaxy that Prime 4 will get released this year. That said, Nintendo is known to end cap these presentations with a surprise or two, and at this point, we’ll settle for another brief development update where they show off some concept art of Samus’ new suit or even some renders of a planet or setting. Literally anything. In the meantime, a wonderful make-good would be porting 2017’s 3DS gem Metroid: Samus Returns to Switch.Or even better: putting the entire Metroid Prime Trilogy on Switch. That last one has been rumored for years now and would be a pretty awesome make-good for Prime fans desperately awaiting a legit sequel. Metroid Prime trilogy was original released for Nintendo Wii and was purchasable via the eShop as a Wii U game , but it would take some slight reworking to get running a Nintendo Switch due to the third game’s reliance on Nintendo Wii Remote motion controls. Honestly, we’d even accept a port of just the first Metroid Prime on Switch at this point. It’s an absolute classic that still holds up today and would be a great way to introduce new fans to the series while we slowly and patiently wait for a brand new game.Do you think we’ll see Metroid Prime 4 at E3? Let me know in the comments below.

Brian Altano is a host and producer at IGN. Follow him on Twitter