Nintendo has announced Metroid Prime: Federation Force will launch on the 3DS on August 19 in North America and September 2 in Europe. The European release date was confirmed on the Nintendo UK Twitter account.
The North American release, however, was revealed in a separate press release promoting Nintendo’s presence at PAX East.
“Also playable at the Nintendo booth is the Metroid Prime: Federation Force game,” it reads. “The sci-fi shooter that finds a squad of up to four players working together to combat space pirates launches exclusively for Nintendo 3DS on Aug. 19.”
Revealed at E3 2015, Federation Force is a Metroid spinoff that is being developed by Next Level Games, the team behind Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe is overseeing the project.
Gameplay is focused on multiple players cooperating to complete objectives. Federation Force will also feature Blast Ball, a 3v3 competitive game where teams compete to shoot a large ball into a goal.
The game’s chibi visual style, and the fact that series protagonist Samus isn’t the main character, resulted in fans criticising Nintendo for not doing the Metroid franchise justice.
Following its reveal, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said Nintendo knows what its fans want, but “will also push the envelope in developing something that we know is high-quality and that we know will deliver in the marketplace.”
He also compared the reaction to Federation Force to negative reaction to The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker‘s reveal. The game went on to become of the series’ most beloved.
“Remember when that art style was first shown. The uproar from the Zelda community was intensely negative. If there had been social media then, there probably would have been a petition to make that game go away.”
