Longtime Metroid producer Yoshio Sakamoto was interviewed recently by Game Rant regarding Metroid: Samus Returns. While the game has been met with critical acclaim, many people have criticized Nintendo for and wondered why they would choose to put the game on an older handheld console at the end of its lifecycle, as opposed to the newer and much more powerful Switch console. Here’s what Sakamoto had to say:

“One of the themes we chose to stick with this time [with Metroid: Samus Returns] was utilizing both 3D visuals and a dual screen setup. In fact, I’d been interested in creating a Metroid title that allowed you display the map constantly on a second screen and interact with the elements of the UI by touching them since the time of the original DS.”

This is especially interesting. Metroid Dread was a 2-D sequel to Metroid Fusion rumored to be in development for the original Nintendo DS in the 2000s. Little has ever been said of it, but in 2015, an anonymous source at Nintendo Software Technology revealed that they had seen a prototype of Dread on the DS, which was reported in a video by game researcher Liam Robertson. Later, Robertson mentioned in a follow-up video that the Dread prototype featured a Map on the bottom screen, with gameplay on the top screen. This likely means that Sakamoto was talking about Dread.

With this revelation, is it possible we’ll ever learn more about this mysterious game that never was? Time will tell.

Source: Game Rant