Metroid: Samus Returns - This needs to be on a big screen

If you were gaming before 1995 you are almost certainly aware of the awe and glory that was the Metroid franchise. I played the first one on the NES back in whatever year that way (the 80's somewhere) and it was unlike any other game that I, or anyone else had ever played. It's gameplay inspired half of the title of an entire genre of games that are referred to as Metroid-Vania games, a type of game that to this day is one of my favorites to play.

I was a late adopter of the Nintendo DS and only bought it after the Switch was released (which I still do not own) and the fact that there was a Metroid game available for the system was a big part of my reasoning for deciding to get this machine rather than a DS (the 1/4 of the price was a big part of the decision process as well.)

Metroid: Samus Returns is an absolutely fantastic game, but it suffers from being on a small screen and therefore, loses a lot of its potential appeal. I am not clear as to why they have never attempted putting this on a larger screen and I find it frustrating that this is the case.

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Maybe I am part of a shrinking demographic, but I don't necessarily require 3D 4K visuals at 1 billion FPS in order to enjoy a game. I feel as though gameplay and story are far more important than realistic graphics and the side-scrolling exploration games like Metroid are just perfect in my world. These days will opt for a side-scroller rather than a 3D game because so many of them are out there and you can get them for just about nothing whereas the latest and greatest 3D stories are going to cost the max amount, especially if the game is brand new.

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The game is actually 3-D in a sense of the backgrounds being distinguishable from the foreground, which is one of the major features of the Nintendo 3DS altogether. However, like most people, I generally turn this feature off because it kind of messes with my eyes and honestly, other than a few "wow" moments, it doesn't affect the gameplay at all. Essentially, this is old-school Metroid gaming with vastly improved graphics and sound that we had access to back on the NES and SNES and this is just perfect to me.

The thing that doesn't appeal to me is the fact that the only way you can play this game is on the 3DS and the screen on that thing is tiny, just like all handheld gaming machines.

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Plus, playing this game for any length of time is actually uncomfortable. They did as good of a job as one can possibly expect in the design of the 3DS, but this doesn't change the fact that you are essentially holding a rather large plastic rectangle in your hands at all times.

To make matters even worse, some of the projectiles and even enemies are a bit difficult to even see at all. This could all be solved if they were to port this game to something that can be played on a regular television and ideally, using a different controller.

I realize that this is a Nintendo exclusive and unless you want to do some serious tweaking and messing around with open-source emulators, you are not going to be able to play this game ever on anything other than a Nintendo machine, of which, at least for now, I do not own outside of the 3DS.

It is actually possible to play the games on any HDMI enabled TV, but you will still need to use the 3DS as the controller and the bottom screen is not displayed on your television. Plus it is a convoluted mess involving tons of wires and adaptors: This is not the answer.

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I really feel as though Nintendo would sell a ton of these if there was some way to play it on a regular television but at least for now, there are only workarounds and even then, it will display on the main screen at 240 to 480p, which is not acceptable either in my world.

I have not finished the game on my 3DS because I will not play games on a 4 inch screen when I have a 50 inch HDTV on the wall across the room: It just doesn't make sense.

The point of all this is that I feel as though this is a great game that would appeal to a lot of gamers older and younger alike.... all they have to do is make the damn thing.

There is a rumor than Nintendo "accidentally leaked" that this exact game is in the works for the Switch but they are yet to confirm or deny this.

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_{The leaked footage showed a kid playing Samus Returns on a Switch with custom paddles as well}

If so, there is your / my answer for this conundrum. In the meantime, this game is something I only play when I am taking a flight somewhere which at the moment, much like yourselves, is something I don't do a great deal of at the moment. I hope this ends up happening and if it does, I may finally shell out the hundreds of dollars to get a Switch. I still want to play that Zelda game everyone raves about anyway.