Of all the games announced between the E3 2021 and the Summer Game Fest’s events, few were met with as much excitement asMetroid Dread. It isn’t just that its announcement was a major part of Nintendo’s E3 games showcase, it’s thatMetroid Dreadwill be the first major release in the 2D game series since 2002’sMetroid Fusion. It’s no surprise then that in the wake ofMetroid Dread’s reveal, a surge of excitement has grown for all thingsMetroid,even leading to sales rising for classicMetroidgames.
Fans tracking the Best Sellers list on theNintendo Wii U’s eShopnoticed an exciting trend followingMetroid Dread’s announcement.Metroidgames available through the Wii U digital storefront skyrocketed in popularity following Nintendo’s E3 event. Twitter user pigs4ben snapped a couple of photos of the Wii U eShop showing that three of the top four games in the Recent Best Sellers list came from theMetroidfranchise.
RELATED:Metroid Dread Tops Amazon Best Sellers Charts Among All E3 Game Reveals
The three games that made the list started with, unsurprisingly, the two2DMetroidgamesavailable for sale on the platform. The top rank went toMetroid: Zero Mission, the Game Boy Advance remake of the originalMetroid. The second-rank position went toMetroid Fusion, which is technically the fourth game in the 2DMetroidseries. It too was originally released on the Game Boy Advance and was released on Wii U as a straight digital port.
The third game that made the list on the Wii U’s Recent Best Sellers list is theMetroid Prime: Trilogycollection. TheMetroid Prime: Trilogycollects all three of the originalMetroid Primegames in one package, which was originally released on the Wii and then was available digitally for the Wii U. It just goes to show that there’s a lot of excitement for a potentialMetroid Prime: Trilogyrerelease on the Nintendo Switch.
Speaking of the Nintendo Switch, there’s no way to tell if a similar sales phenomenon happened on Nintendo’s newest platform. That’s not because the Switch doesn’t have a Best Sellers list, though. It’s because Nintendo hasn’t made anyMetroidgames available via the Nintendo Switch’s eShop. The onlyMetroidgame available on Switch isSuper Metroid, and only through a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.
It remains to be seen whether Nintendo’s lack ofMetroidports for Nintendo Switch will prove to be a mistake. Clearly, there’s already evidence that Nintendo fans want moreMetroid. The Wii U eShop game sales prove that.Metroid Dread’s release later this yearmay be just what it takes to persuade Nintendo to start bringing some of those classic 2D games to Switch.
