Topic: Will we get Metroid Prime 2 and 3 remasters for the Switch 2?

When the Metroid Prime remaster was released, most people assumed Prime 2 and 3 would be remastered too before the release of Prime 4. But now 4 is coming and there's no info on 2 and 3. Is Nintendo just gonna release Prime 2 among the NSO Gamecube games and not bother with remastering it? What about Prime 3?

I've never owned a Gamecube or a Wii, so I was never able to play these games before the Switch era. I was thinking I want to play them in order, so 2 and 3 before 4, but now it looks like that might not be an option. 😐

I think they'll just appear on NSO. I still think there's space for the GC Zelda games later but in the short term I think they'll look elsewhere. I expect for the next few years the library will be padded with light Switch releases and Switch 2 Enhanced versions of Switch games rather than the remasters we've been seeing on Switch lately

Isn't Prime 3 a Wii exclusive game? So they can't add it to the NSO unless they're gonna include Wii games there too. Which I guess could happen, but probably not for a while.

@Polvasti
They have fairly regularly released platforms for NSO. I could see DS being the next platform but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Wii isn't that far behind. So yeah, if we're talking medium term? I would say Wii on NSO is very, very likely

Probably GC this year, DS next year (across both Switch and Switch 2), then Wii after that. Maybe a shuffling of the tiers pulling N64 and GBA down to the regular tier. Maybe they drag Sega in again and do Dreamcast or Saturn. I think it's all very possible

But Wii is right at the top of that list I'd say. More likely than remakes of Prime 2 & 3

Well, it definitely looks like we're gonna have only Metroid Prime 1 and 4 on the Switch/Switch 2, with no remasters of 2 and 3 in sight. I guess I'll be saving money since I won't be buying Prime 4 at launch, then.

@Polvasti
From what I've seen online about MP4, you don't need to have played 1-3 to understand what's going on. That being said I personally bought a 1st gen Wii so that I could play MP3 and as a bonus I'm able to play my old GC games. I would say it was worth doing with Wiis being very cheap and echoes is fantastic although quite difficult. If I'm honest I'm playing through MP3 at the moment and it just isn't on the same level imo.

I enjoyed the Prime Trilogy on Wii, although that is no longer the case since there is a 4th one. Anyway, maybe we will get a 3 game collection like Mario 3D All-Stars or something like that

I might be in the minority, but I don't think Nintendo's going to release Wii games on NSO. There are too many that have been remade for Switch that I think that's the norm going forward, especially when you consider that the big Mario and Zelda titles exclusively for Wii have been ported over, not to mention games from the Kirby, Donkey Kong, and Xenoblade series.

I think Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 have set the precedent for how Nintendo is handling Wii games: they'll get physical releases potentially bundled together and a cheaper, individual digital version. Maybe this is even how that rumored Virtual Console reboot is happening.

Around the time Metroid Prime Remastered was being rumoured, there was also rumours that MP2 and MP3 wouldn't be remastered, but would be mostly straight ports released as a combo pack for Switch (much like Pikmin 1 + 2). Of course, this was years ago now, so plans may have changed. Perhaps we'll see Wii games on NSO in the not too distant future, where MP3 would be a shoe-in for the service.

I wonder if the strategy is to use Prime 2 and 3 remasters like the one done for Prime 1 (rather than Pikmin 1+2 style ports) to fill in the Metroid drought post-Prime 4. We got Dread in October 2021, Prime Remastered in February 2023 and Prime 4 in December 2025. I think it's a relatively safe guess that MercurySteam is developing Metroid 6 and that'll probably be 2027 (2026 is already very packed with smaller franchises that I don't think there's room for Metroid to be there as well) but after that who knows what the fate of the franchise is.

@Grumblevolcano You could be right. As much as I would have greeted Prime 2 & 3 getting the same remastering treatment that Prime did, it always felt like a bit of an iffy idea, expecting Nintendo to saturate us with the Prime trilogy right before releasing 4.

Nintendo have shown plenty of willingness to make the most of their back catalogue, so I would agree that there's no reason to give up on 2 & 3 just because 4 is about to drop.

@gcunit I'd actually really like Nintendo to just include P2 and P3 within the GameCube app on NSO.... as opposed to selling us remasters. As solid as the P1 remaster was/is, and I believe it sets a great standard, I'd love just to have some actual games provided within the NSO service. The drip-feed approach is getting a little tired, as is the constant selling of remastered legacy titles (as solid as those remastered titled may be)

As much as it would make sense and probably help Metroid Prime 4 in sales...just having everything available on one system, I'm going to say no, we will not get the other 2 games anytime soon. Maybe at some point down the road, but I doubt we'll see a remaster of either. I really hope I am wrong about this one.

I would say the exact opposite. No one seems to take into account storage issues. With hardly any games available physically now and Switch 2 games looking to be absolutely massive in the coming years, I don't see Nintendo adding another system who's games are multiple gigs in size. Just imagine how giant that Gamecube app is going to be a couple years from now after they've filled it up nicely.

Nintendo would actually get more backlash for the inevitable LARGE price increase for a Wii tier of NSO than for Wii remasters ala Galaxy 1 and 2. (as proven by how little backlash the Galaxy remasters got all things considered) Considering how much better NSO has looked compared to other services' price increases, they should take the W by not doing it.

Also I'd pay 40-50 bucks for Prime 2 and 3 remasters, each, so yes, obviously they should do that.

EVERYONE seems to take into account storage issues. The issue is that they all seriously overestimate how much of an issue it is. Most Wii games compress and trim to around 1-2GB. We're talking a fairly sizable collection of Wii games before storage is an issue here

Most first party Wii games are quite small, but the Metroid ones are among the exceptions. Both Trilogy and Other M come in at around 7GB and Prime 3 by itself is around 4GB. Some other big ones are The Last Story, Xenoblade and Brawl.

When the time comes to cross that bridge, I'd think it might be a good idea to redesign the app so that you don't have to have all the games installed at once.

Nintendo barely scratched the surface for GBA games before GCN got added (also key N64 games like DK64 and Smash are missing) so I'd imagine GCN would only have like 15 games max before the next system post-VB gets added (probably DS) and then GCN additions really slow to a crawl (e.g. 2 games a year).

I have a Celeron laptop that can emulate most Gamecube games at full speed and that is right at the maximum of the laptops performance, it has a passmark score of about 2100 for the CPU and the Switch 2 is about 2000 passmark CPU score. When it comes to wii emulation only a subset of wii games run at full speed, most don't. When it comes to emulation its more about CPU performance than GPU performance. The GPU of the Gamecube was about 8 Gflops and the wii was pretty much the same GPU just run faster at 12 Gflops. Even my humble laptop has no problem with this with its 120 Gflops of performance. My point is the Switch 2 is right at the same level of comfortable Gamecube emulation with its CPU performance but to go to wii would require reworking such games to work on Switch 2 that costs money. I think Nintendo has purposely stopped at Gamecube because that is something easy and cheap to do on Switch 2.

I have a all in one pc, quite an old model and that has a i5 that is about 6000-7000 passmark CPU score and that comfortably emulates pretty much all wii games at full speed. In fact when you unlock it you often see it can go to 300% performance or more. Ultimately I think the Switch 2 CPU performance level is comfortable for Gamecube emulation but not quite enough for wii. I also have an android tablet that has passmark CPU performance of around 4000 and that is full speed Gamecube emulation but I haven't really played about with that much to see how it performs with other consoles and titles and maybe haven't optimised the settings yet either.

Powerpc is a weird CPU architecture and seems to take a lot to emulate it on both x86 and ARM architecture. Many Switch emulators now run the ARM code natively on ARM devices which can be really impressive for the performance levels on tablets etc.

Lastly people with modded Switches which use overclocking utils can double CPU performance which puts them around 1200-1400 passmark CPU score and at that level I believe a subset of Gamecube games run at full speed but most don't but most admit I don't have a modded Switch myself just something I've read on forums etc. So roughly 2/3rds Switch 2 CPU performance and they are struggling to get full speed Gamecube emulation.

I agree ( at least anytime soon ), and would add the big reason why: motion controls. Not only would Wii games require significantly more horsepower to emulate than Gamecube titles ( which are already apparently pushing the boundaries of whats practical from NSO ), but most of them would probably need bespoke control reworking.