New rumors from a pair of leakers state that a new 2D Metroid game and a brand-new Paper Mario title that’s a “return to form” will be hitting the Nintendo Switch sometime this year.
The rumors come from “reputable” leakers Sabi on Twitter and Zippo on gaming forum ResetEra.
Sabi on Friday stated the new Metroid game will not be the officially-announced Metroid Prime 4, which recently restarted development with Retro Studios at the helm, but will instead be related to 2002 Game Boy Advance title Metroid Fusion.
Having looked into it for a bit, I find it reliable enough to complete back the mentions of Paper Mario and Metroid (not prime 4) for 2020. I’ll tweet out the details I back based on talks I had.
— Sabi (@New_WabiSabi) January 18, 2020
“Paper Mario going back to how it was, in 2020,” Sabi says. “The 2D Metroid game does in fact seem to be related to Fusion, also sounds as though it’s set for this year.”
When asked what “related to Fusion” meant, Sabi replied that the game will be a sequel to Metroid Fusion.
The person I know is legitimate mentioned it being a sequel I believe.
— Sabi (@New_WabiSabi) January 18, 2020
The same day Sabi tweeted this information, ResetEra user Zippo stated that they were told “Paper Mario is coming this year, and is a return to form. No idea when it’s being announced. Not a remake.”
Paper Mario games post-Super Paper Mario for the Wii have been notoriously controversial with fans of the series for abandoning the RPG elements of earlier games like the original Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
By stating this alleged new Paper Mario game is a “return to form” and “going back to how it was,” these leakers appear to suggest the series will be returning to its RPG roots.
Sabi is known for leaking significant non-Nintendo game announcements prior to E3 2019 like DOOM Eternal’s multiplayer offerings to details on Microsoft’s Xbox Series X (then known as “Project Scarlett”); they leaked so much information that they reportedly even received a phone call and email from a Nintendo lawyer warning them not to leak any of the company’s E3 2019 announcements.
While we cannot find any instances of game information Zippo has correctly “leaked” or revealed ahead of time, ResetEra moderator Quinton says that “Zippo is in fact a legitimate insider.”
These Paper Mario murmurings aren’t new to Zippo, either: The ResetEra member has been claiming a new Paper Mario is headed to Nintendo Switch since at least September 2019.
“Just to give a bit more info on this, I have no idea when Paper Mario is being released, I’m guessing next year, but I don’t know that, all I know is that it’s happening and that it’s well into development,” Zippo wrote on September 5th, 2019. “I also have no idea when it’s being announced, could be next E3 for all we know.”
Zippo has not joined Sabi in claiming a new 2D Metroid game is coming this year; in a ResetEra thread about the rumors, they state, “I can’t take any credit for that Metroid rumor. It’s been rumored for years now.”
What do you think of the rumors? Could we truly be seeing a new 2D Metroid and Paper Mario game this year? Let us know in the comments!
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Written by Daniel Dell-Cornejo
Daniel is an editor at Nintendo Wire. Always with his head in the clouds, he is never apart from his creative thoughts – a blessing for an aspiring fiction writer. As a journalist and lifelong gamer, he aims to provide readers with the very best in Nintendo coverage.
