One Ticket to Zebes, Please

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto today confirmed that an internal development team at is working on a Metroid title for a Nintendo console.

Although Miyamoto said he was not directly involved with the project, he told IGN that he drops in on the responsible team once in a while to see how the game is doing. Miyamoto divulged no other information on the sequel, but IGN64 suspects that it may utilize the acclaimed Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D graphics engine or technology based on it. Unfortunately, Miyamoto would not comment whether Metroid would hit Nintendo 64 or its more powerful successor. Incidentally, Miyamoto also commented on the fact that he has not begun work on another Zelda title later during his keynote address at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose.

For all of you who have never played a Metroid game, Metroid titles appeared on the N64's predecessors, the SNES and the NES, and the Game Boy. All three Metroid titles are side-scrolling action-platformers that mix the ingenious puzzles of Zelda with a gritty sci-fi world and lots of cool weapons and power-ups like ice beams and X-Ray vision. The games star a female bounty hunter named Samus Aran who, protected by a special bio-suit, is out to stop the conquest of the universe by a band of space pirates, led by Mother Brain. In case you're wondering, Metroids are life-sucking jelly fish-like creatures that can produce incredible levels of energy.

There are currently three Metroid games:

• Metroid (Nintendo Entertainment System)
• Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy)
• Super Metroid (Super NES)

A new Game Boy Color version of Metroid II is currently in the works as well, but Samus Aran has also made several appearances in other Nintendo, including Tetris, Galactic Pinball, Kirby Superstars and the Nintendo 64 fighter Super Smash Bros. which will make its US debut this April.

We will have more on this exciting development soon.