Metroid Ravenous was first shown during the September 9, 2026 Nintendo Direct. At first, we get to hear some narration from Samus Aran, explaining what has just happened to her. We see a flashback showing the assailants (now known as Space Ninjas), and what is seemingly Samus falling down a chasm from the surface of a moon.
Following that, is a series of clips showing cutscenes and gameplay segments for this upcoming game. As hungry as I am for a new Metroid, I chose to rewatch this trailer countless times, going frame by frame to see if I could find anything interesting. What’s next will surely satiate you…
The User Interface
Ravenous does away with the traditional user interface, opting to go with a radial interface and a new missile count, both forgoing numbers.
I might read a bit too much into it, but the lack of numbers and precise measurements makes me think the developers want us to judge by feel and instinct. Vibes if you will.
In games like Metroid Dread, if I’m already familiar with an enemy, I may intentionally bump into them either to damage boost or dodge a stronger attack, knowing that I still will have energy to spare. With the radial health bar, it may be harder to judge these kinds of situations. You can count the missiles, sure, but you might have to pay attention this time and count on your own.
Aside from the health bar and the missiles, we also have the diamond-shaped icons. These stood out to me, and at first I struggled to find out what they mean. Based on one clip however, I think we can safely assume they are one thing:
Energy Tanks!
When countering an enemy, Samus can choose whether or not to consume an enemy or to shoot it. When doing the former, we can see that her health is getting replenished. The one clip I’m alluding to is this one right here:
It shows us that when the radial health bar gets full, a diamond gets to be filled. Now to be fair, this is not hard evidence that they are Energy Tanks, but given they share the same colour as Energy traditionally is, it’s pretty likely.
One thing to note is that, so far, we’ve seen four of those diamonds at most. I imagine we could have more Energy Tanks than that, but I wonder if Ravenous wants us to feel hungry, and to have the dance between Eat or be Eaten be tighter than it was ever before. Perhaps we actually will have a low amount of E-Tanks?
That is just speculation on my end, and while it’s ludonarratively coherent (sorry Deadweight I had to), I could be wrong.
Now, how do I know the radial health bar depicts her energy in the first place? When getting knocked off by one of the Space Ninjas, we see that around 75% of the bar gets depleted, solidly indicating that this represents Samus’s current energy status. Also… life energy is commonly depicted as pink in the Metroid series. Some of the bosses also have a similar health bar, which is novel for 2D Metroid, that further solidifies this.
As for the second radial bar that is cyan in colour? I couldn’t really tell. It is divided into six segments, and they can be filled partially. The line that divides the third and fourth segments is lighter in colour, possibly indicating that it might be wise to have that gauge filled at least halfway, or that you perhaps get to use the Metroid Suit around that point.
The bars above the missile count are likely representing Samus’s Aeion Gauge. Unlike Samus Returns and Dread, it is now segmented into multiple parts. It seems like you start with three of those, and you can now find additional bars inside the moon Samus finds herself in. So far I have spotted three of them!
While they are now in discrete sections, I believe they still work the same as before, as the Aeion Gauge is filled gradually whenever Samus shoots an enemy after countering them.
There is one kind of lore detail I do wonder about now though. In Samus Returns, the Aeion comes as a natural source from Planet SR388. While in Dread, Samus produces this Aeion by herself as soon as she gains the Phantom Cloak, and no enemies drop Aeion. Now with Ravenous, it seems that Aeion is once again collected through the wildlife.
Does that mean that the moon in Ravenous is also a natural source for Aeion? For now we can’t tell if it is, but since common enemies drop Aeion, and there are Aeion Tanks out there, I am inclined to believe that’s the case.
Two other UI elements I’ve noticed, is that Samus’s current suit is now reflected on the main HUD. That is a very curious decision. It could very much be a stylistic one, though with how it seems like Samus can summon the Metroid Suit in certain parts of the map, it might be an indicator for what state she is in. After all, it has shown to change colour depending on the Suit that Samus is wearing.
The last UI element I’ve noticed is that there’s a snowflake below the Suit Indicator™. At first I thought it was the Ice Missiles, though in one of the clips, I see it flashing as if to show that Samus is protected from the cold. Starting from Metroid Fusion, Samus has become weak to the cold. It seems to be the case for Ravenous as well, though given Samus has this snowflake icon even in her Power Suit, I suspect it is an ability you acquire separate from her Suits, which definitely is interesting!
Seems like there is room for more of those indicators. I personally predict that we will have a ‘Gravity Indicator™’, as there are rooms with a purple background that feature doors that have an icon in the same style as the snowflake. There’s room for an additional indicator, and I think the UI hints at there being three in total:
I wonder if this means there isn’t a Gravity Suit in this game?
As for hot rooms, it seems like the Varia Suit will work as it usually does, since there’s no indicator besides the Suit that Samus will withstand extreme heat. That’s all I got for the UI, let’s move on to a different topic.
Abilities
One of the first gameplay clips shown is a new ability, which is much akin to that of the Beam Burst featured in Samus Returns. It does not consume any Aeion however, and it seems like Samus’s regular beam will fire rapidly as you hold it. Not confirmed, but it might be that the Charge Beam is no longer to be found, which is very interesting if that’s the case!
We see something that resembles the Charge Beam once Samus counters an enemy, though it could be explained by the fact that Samus uses her Metroid powers to increase the shot strength. This is pure speculation however, but I will note that her left arm is glowing after a counter attack, so it is a plausible explanation. Not to mention that Samus has historically been able to fire those types of shots without the need for the Charge Beam (“hat’s up with that honestly?)
Morph Ball and Morph Ball Bombs return once more! While we don’t see the latter being used, we can tell that Bombs are available since we can see Bomb Blocks in the trailer. There is also a curious enemy that drops bombs that are much like Samus’s… Bombs. The doors are locked, and she entered the small arena via Pitfall Blocks, so I presume this enemy is the key to unlock Morph Ball Bombs or an upgrade like Cross Bombs.
Spider Magnet appears to return as well. It was a new ability in Metroid Dread that let Samus cling into blue magnetic surfaces. It is not a certainty, but the placement of those is quite reminiscent of Spider Magnet. On that note, I will also say that the Grapple Beam is likely to return. There is a block greatly resembling the Grapple Beam Block in the clip where we see the High Gravity™ room, and the Spider Magnet strips in that room are placed as if Samus can latch onto them as a way to navigate those rooms.
There is a new ability that acts just like the Flash Shift. It is currently not mentioned by name but it lets Samus travel side to side and up and down. It also lets Samus “Flash Shift” through certain walls, which are marked on the map with diagonal lines. What’s curious about this iteration is that it doesn’t seem to consume Aeion. It also doesn’t have any visual indication of a cooldown. As it stands, we’ve seen it used 3 times in a row at most, which matches Dread’s limitations for Flash Shift.
We can see Samus run on water on the same clip that shows the new Flash Shift-adjacent ability. We do not know what it is called, and it could by all means be a temporary Ability that Samus gets to do, like how she’s able to Ballspark without the Speed Booster and the Spring Ball in Kraid’s Lair in Zero Mission. It is likely a new ability though.
As for Missiles, while we haven’t been properly shown anything new, we see two different kinds of Missile explosions in Ravenous. The first one is the standard explosion that expands from the center. This Missile emits a red light and is presumably the standard Missile. There is also a different type of Missile however, which emits a green light whose explosion expands outwards from the direction it was shot from. I am willing to bet that these are Ravenous’s iteration of Super Missiles, and perhaps they gain the power that Diffusion Beam had in Dread, which was to expand explosions to hit through terrain.
I am inclined to believe this is the case, as we see a green Block on the mini map on some clips, and these blocks are surrounded by other blocks whose perimeter is represented by dotted lines.
I believe this is taking the Blob mechanic from Dread where you sometimes explode the level geometry to open up new paths. It is an ability that fits Super Missiles quite well. The explosions that come from these Missiles are much like the Dread Diffusion Beam in terms of colour, so I’m certainly convinced that’s the case!
If this ends up being true, I believe it’s all the more likely that we don’t see the Charge Beam in Ravenous.
These are all of the abilities that I could see from the Announcement Trailer. Feel free to comment on anything you think I was missing! I’m very interested to learn about Samus’s capabilities in Metroid Ravenous.
As for the map design? I’ve noticed one thing.
Blue Interdimensional Zones
Much like Metroid Dread, the mini map shows us the exact in-game level geometry. Certain rooms have their background be a specific colour, like save rooms are yellow, hot rooms are red, and, in Dread, cold rooms are blue. The E.M.M.I. Zones, however, were either white or green, which indicated whether or not the E.M.M.I. was defeated in that area. Those zones were marked with a thick border, indicating that they were of interest.
We see that in Metroid Ravenous as well, but this time these zones are blue. What are they for? I believe we already have the answer:
That’s right. These zones are where we will have a one-on-one battle against these fearful Space Ninjas. I do not know how these areas will otherwise work. I’ve noticed that the boundaries between the regular playing field and the blue zones are connected to regular beam doors. This might indicate that these zones won’t have as big of an impact on the map as E.M.M.I. Zones had. At least I hope that’s the case!
These Space Ninjas are said to believe that devouring their opponents makes them gain power. I wonder if the same would be true for Samus?
Smaller observations
The suit design and ship design from Metroid Dread is more or less the same, the ship internals also appear to be the exact same, down to seeing the ico sphere and ADAM’s interface.
We see Samus prepare a Missile when getting stabbed by one of the Space Ninjas. I believe that Samus will shoot at the ground to escape, as there is a hole on the ground in one of the clips.
It is a popular theory that we see the Mawkin ships that went missing in the ending of Metroid Dread. It’s a theory that makes sense and is quite likely to be true. My only thoughts against this theory is that the ship, although similar in shape, has a different design, and there are no signs of X-infected enemies on the moon. Typically the X would consume entire ecosystems as fast as possible, and by the end of Metroid Dread, we are told to assume that all living beings are X. That being said, I wouldn’t be against it being the case, and I could be wrong in the first place.
A minor observation I’ve made, is that the surface of the moon bears a resemblance to the patterns we see in those blue rooms in Ravenous
The clip containing the Mawkin shows Samus in her Power Suit. They are not X-infected, as their eyes are glowing red.
A theory I’ve heard from Ivy (yabi.bsky.social), who were kind enough to let us document the backside of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond’s box art, noted that the scene might be a memory of some sort, where Samus gets to meet the Chozo featured in the ‘Chozo Archives’ (note how the spear has two points). The clips containing those have an apparent film-grain effect when switching scene. I’m not sure if this would be Samus’s memory, or if she meets a Chozo that shows her what happens. In any case, I’m very interested in this scene, as we might learn new Chozo words from it!
Speaking of Chozo… WHERE ARE THOSE TRIANGLES? Sorry for having a personality for a bit here, but ZDR contained plenty of Chozo words composed of triangular glyphs. What was cool about them is that they formed actual factual words in Chozo! Did they create an entire language for one game, only to not use it for this one? I hope not.
A gameplay observation I’ve made is that when Samus lunges to consume an enemy, there’s this Flash Shift-like effect that appears. I wonder if it means that, if you want to ‘eat’, you need to first press X, then press A. That would make sense in that the X button is in the middle, and you either choose Y to shoot, or A to consume, being two buttons in the opposite direction. That’s just a guess on my end though, and maybe I’m just reaching here. If I’m right though I’ll promise to be smug about it!
I also notice that, when devouring certain enemies, there’s a damage counter below Samus’s health bar. As of now, I think it’s just some cool flair they added for boss finishers.
That’s all I have when it comes to any noteworthy observations. Feel free to make a comment if there’s more to the trailer that I didn’t mention!
Written by: Irene
Header by: Irene