New concept art has surfaced which suggests that Next Level Games, the developer behind Punch-Out!! for Wii and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, was working on a Metroid game for the 3DS.

The concept art, which includes one image of protagonist Samus Aran in her iconic suit and several boss characters, appear on an online portfolio belonging to artists Nelson "Dedos" Garcia and Xochitl. Their portfolio also has concept art for Next Level's Punch-Out!!, which they worked on as well from 2007 to 2009.

An unnamed source related to the project told Destructoid that it was real, and that it was shelved in favor Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, another 3DS game Next Level and Nintendo released last year. "It was about as bare-bones as it gets, but it was still pretty fun," the source said.

The most recent game in the Metroid series was 2010's Metroid: Other M, the Team Ninja-developed action game for Wii that many fans bemoaned for its treatment of Samus' character.

"We have the Prime style of Metroid game and we have the more traditional style of Metroid game," Nintendo's Shinya Takahashi said back in June. "We feel that we do need to take care of both of these styles of play. And the hope is that at some point in the near future we'll be able to share something about them."