Nintendo finally dropped a crumb of information about the game formerly known as Metroid Prime 4, and the internet has already chewed it up, spat it out, and formed seventeen separate conspiracy theories. The title is *Metroid Prime 4: Beyond*. Wait, sorry, I'm being handed a correction. The title is actually *Metroid Prime 4: Ravenous*. Yes, really. Somebody at Nintendo looked at a thesaurus, found the word right next to "hungry," and said, "Ship it."
Let's be clear about what we know. Which is basically nothing. Nintendo released a thirty-second teaser that shows Samus Aran staring at a dark cave, a flicker of something with too many teeth, and a logo that looks like it was designed by an edgy fourteen-year-old who just discovered death metal. That's it. That's the whole meal. And yet, the internet has already decided this is either the greatest Metroid game ever made or a personal insult to everyone who has ever held a GameCube controller.
The phrase "Metroidvania" has been thrown around so much in the last decade that it's lost all meaning. Every indie game with a map and a double jump gets slapped with the label. But Metroid is the original. It's the reason we have the genre in the first place. So when Nintendo names a new entry *Ravenous*, you can bet your Samus amiibo that they're trying to signal something primal. Something hungry. Something that will probably involve a lot of shooting and a lot of backtracking through corridors that look suspiciously similar to other corridors.
Reddit, of course, has already solved the entire plot. According to a user with the handle Xx_SpacePirateSlayer_xX, the game will feature a new mechanic where Samus can eat her enemies to absorb their powers. This is based entirely on the word "ravenous" and absolutely no evidence whatsoever. Another thread insists that the game is actually a stealth sequel to *Metroid Fusion* and that the SA-X is back, except now it's "ravenous" and also maybe a vampire. Nintendo has not commented, because Nintendo never comments, because Nintendo is a multinational corporation that feeds on our speculation like a parasite.
Here's the thing. Metroid Prime 4 was announced in 2017. It was rebooted in 2019. It is now the video game equivalent of a lost hiker who keeps sending postcards from increasingly remote locations. We are happy to receive them, but we are also starting to wonder if they're ever coming home. The fact that we now have a subtitle and a vague release window of "sometime before the heat death of the universe" is supposed to be exciting. And it is. Sort of. But it also feels like Nintendo is dangling a steak in front of a pack of starving wolves and saying, "Look! Protein!"
Will *Metroid Prime 4: Ravenous* be good? Probably. Retro Studios knows what they're doing. The original Prime trilogy is a masterpiece of atmosphere and exploration. But the name is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. It promises danger, appetite, and a Samus who is maybe a little unhinged. If the game delivers on that promise, we'll all pretend we never doubted it. If it doesn't, we'll review-bomb it on Metacritic and go back to playing *Super Metroid* for the eight hundredth time.
Either way, the discourse is already here. It's loud, it's hungry, and it's not going anywhere. Just like Samus.
**Closing opinion:** Nintendo could have named this game *Metroid Prime 4: Grocery List* and we'd still buy it. The fact that they went with *Ravenous* just means we get to pretend the hype is about artistic intent instead of our own desperate need for a new Metroid game. Bon appétit, I guess.