Metroid Prime: Federation Force launches in late spring

‘Absolutely belongs in the Metroid universe’

Metroid Prime: Federation Force is coming to 3DS in late spring, Nintendo just announced.

Speaking during today’s Nintendo Direct presentation, producer Kensuke Tanabe spoke about the title’s development, which started in as 2009 on the Nintendo DSi. The development team eventually decided the portable’s hardware wasn’t capable of what they were envisioning for the project and scrapped it until the New Nintendo 3DS came along.

Tanabe also said his team “wanted to use this new game to tell the story of the battle between the Galactic Federation and the Space Pirates,” something Tanabe had imagined and wanted to do for more than a decade, but never had an opportunity to do.

Despite sporting a new group of protagonists and only featuring series protagonist Samus Aran in a cameo role, Tanabe asserts Federation Force is something that “absolutely belongs in the Metroid universe.” From the sound of it, it seems like Tanabe is well aware of the vocal contingent of fans who are upset over this spin-off’s existence and want a new mainline entry.