Your reporter Ben Jackson had veritable orgasms over the original title; so thought this new update of the brand deserved a little of the limelight too… read-on in this quick-look to discover a little about what the big ‘N’ has planned for all you fanatics.

The wait is finally over for all you fans… Samus will be with us again soon, this time on the Game Cube. It has been a long, long time since we last saw Samus Aran in action, she was in Smash Brothers, kicking Yoshi’s arse, but she hasn’t been in her own game since Super Metroid on the SNES and that was way back in 1994. In case you didn’t know, Samus Aran was the original hard woman of gaming, forget Ms. Croft, Samus goes alone to distant planets, not an Egyptian bazaar. Granted she’s not too sexy with all that armour on, but it allows her to kick some serious alien butt, so we’ll let her off. The big shock this time is the fact that Nintendo have allowed another developer to create this title, given the fact that Metroid has such a huge fan base, this could be viewed as a mistake… but Nintendo haven’t just given Metroid to any old losers, the title is in the capable hands of Studios of Texas. Retro is made up of former Id software and employees... this might explain the next shock for all you Metroid fans…

First off, if you are expecting an updated side-scroller, you will be disappointed. Metroid Prime is shaping up to be an FPS, with not a sprite in sight. Although at this stage it is unclear whether the game will be wholly viewed from a first-person perspective, or from a mix of first and third; as indicated by early screenshots. If you want traditional Metroid, look to the Game Boy Advance, Samus will be making an appearance there too with Metroid IV. This doesn’t mean that this game will not feel like a true Metroid game however, not by any means. The game looks very much like all the others in terms of style, there are plenty of derelict ships for you to explore and even a few ancient cities for you to meander through, if you can eliminate all of the terrible inhabitants of the planet first! The creatures that inhabit this planet look very similar to the beasts that we encountered in Super Metriod, accept that it’s in glorious of course. It all looks very promising indeed, I just hope that there are some huge beasts to compare with Super Metriod’s Ridley and Mother Brain. Oh, and I hope the Metroids are back, naturally, although we’re not sure if they are. Wouldn’t be a Metroid game without them though!