Maybe it still is...

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was one of the games that helped turn the 3DS around back when it was struggling to inspire sales. It's a fantastic game, one of the best on the console. Sadly, it may also may be part of why we haven't gotten a new Metroid game on the handheld yet.

A former artist for Next Level games posted this art in his portfolio. It was reportedly part of a pitch Next Level games put to Nintendo requesting to make a new Metroid game. Destructoid has reached out to a trusted source related to the project who told us "Yes that is real. That’s the first I’d actually seen of that concept art, but a prototype was made before being shelved in favor of Luigi’s Mansion 2. It was about as bare-bones as it gets, but it was still pretty fun."

It's been a long time since we saw a new Metroid game, and even longer since the series lived up to its acclaimed legacy. While the art direction seen here would have been a little jarring to many fans, I have no doubt that Next Level could have produced something excellent with the franchise. It's a shame that this project never came together, but we can bet that it won't be too long now until Nintendo reveals one (or two) new Metroid games to the world.

Luigi's Mansion 2 developer Next Level Games apparently worked on Metroid prototype [Nintendo-Online]