BODY: For decades, Metroid fans have enjoyed a running joke: the hero of Metroid isn't actually a Metroid. The series takes its name from the parasitic alien creatures that bounty hunter Samus Aran spends most games blasting into oblivion. Now, with Nintendo's newly announced Metroid Ravenous, that gag may have finally reached its expiration date.
Nintendo revealed the title on September 9, and one detail lit up Japanese social media almost immediately. In the footage, Samus is shown wielding the very power of the Metroid — the enemy that gives the franchise its name. Fans responded with delight, posting variations of a single triumphant line: "See? This time the Metroid really is the protagonist."
The setup isn't entirely out of nowhere. Ever since Metroid Fusion, Samus has carried Metroid DNA within her, a thread that paid off dramatically in 2021's Metroid Dread, where she embraced her latent Metroid abilities to devastating effect. Ravenous appears to lean fully into that identity, letting players channel Metroid power as a core mechanic rather than a late-game twist.
That evolution reframes the long-standing fan joke into something closer to canon. Where earlier titles cast the Metroids strictly as prey, Ravenous positions their power as Samus's own — blurring the line between hunter and hunted that the series has teased for years.
The insider take
From Tokyo, it's worth noting how much of this excitement is a distinctly Japanese-language phenomenon. The pun works cleanly in Japanese fan communities, where "the main character isn't a Metroid" (主人公はメトロイドじゃない) has circulated for years as an affectionate tsukkomi about the series' naming. Nintendo, ever attuned to its home fanbase, rarely names things by accident — and Dread to Ravenous reads as a deliberate escalation of that hunger motif. Expect Japanese outlets to keep dissecting the title long before official localization details land.
Originally reported by AUTOMATON (Japanese).