Metroid Ravenous Leaked

One of my overblown expectations for the June Nintendo Direct included the announcement of a new Metroid project by MercurySteam, which didn't happen. But it looks like we might be still getting one in the near future.

The Ministry of Justice and Public Safety in Brazil temporarily listed a rating for an upcoming Nintendo title, called Metroid Ravenous. This was certainly by mistake and has been removed already, but the internet sees everything and never forgets, so you can find some screenshots of the matter, originating from UniversoNintendo.com.

Well, this is certainly exciting. MercurySteam could have been working on a Super Metroid remake and that would have been awesome as well, but amidst the current wave of remakes of beloved classics from the 90s, it's probably best to follow up directly on Metroid Dread, which came out in 2021 and was absolutely fantastic. After having waited 19 years between Metroid 4 and 5, shortening that wait to five years would certainly be a refreshing change of pace for the franchise, right in time for its 40th Anniversary.

The title "Ravenous" indicates that Samus is not yet done facing her dark Chozo connections, as revealed by the antagonist Raven Beak. But now that the cat is out of the bag and the bag is out of the river, Nintendo might as well release a trailer for the game as soon as they have one ready. Show us what this is about.

Mario Kart World: Drill and Boomerang Rally Added

After the addition of Bob-omb Blast back in March, the latest update for Mario Kart World adds some new features as well, and promises a series of similar free content updates for the future. With version 1.7.0 they have added two new rallies for the Knockout Tour: the Drill and the Boomerang Rally.

It's probably the easiest way to expand the game, without actually adding anything. Out of the 202 routes, which are connecting the different courses, only 62 were used in the Grand Prix mode and the Knockout Tour. The rest has been exclusive to the VS Races and Free Roam mode. So, it makes a lot of sense to utilize them for additional Knockout Tours.

Ideally, there would be custom or random rallies for the Knockout Tour, but having more dedicated rallies certainly is more convenient when playing online. Custom rallies would require the players to vote for six courses one after another, instead of just a single rally. And nobody has the patience for that.

You can access these new rallies in a similar way to the Booster Course Pass cups in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where you now flip between two rows via the L and R buttons. Next to the two new rallies, there are open slots for six more, which they are going to add in future updates.

In addition, you can now use your sticker collection in the Photo Mode. It's almost strange that this wasn't in the game already, especially since Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury had a similar feature. And this is finally adding a little more value to collecting all these stickers.

The update even got its own trailer. And you can find the full patch notes on Nintendo's website, where there have been a number of tweaks. For example, they have raised the acceleration of characters and vehicles with low acceleration.

If they add two more rallies per update, then this means that we will be getting three more of these updates, hopefully each of them also coming with their own additions. These could include 200cc, more outfits, and potentially even new drivers. (See here for more ideas.)

And it doesn't look like they are interested in adding more Knockout Tour rallies via paid DLC, if there's going to be any. However, this fits the general idea that paid DLC would probably expand the world with new islands around it, e.g. DK Island. And these islands wouldn't connect as nicely to the rest of the world, so they may not contribute to the Knockout Tour in any case. Each island could serve as an individual Grand Prix cup, however, with four new courses per island.

Hopefully, they will release new magnets on the Nintendo Store once all rallies and eventual DLC cup have been released. I need my fridge trophies.