Nintendo Continues To Neglect Metroid Series

Nintendo held its Nintendo Direct event Saturday, live streaming it to the globe via its website. During the event, Satoru Iwata, Nintendo CEO, unveiled plans for releases, covering many of the company's A+ brands, including the Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong series. So what's missing? Metroid.

It's very disappointing that Nintendo yet again failed to announce an upcoming Metroid title, which has not seen an original release for the Nintendo 3DS or the Nintendo Wii U since each system was launched. The Nintedo 3DS hit the market in early 2011 and has yet to be supported by the release of an original Metroid game. Meanwhile, the Nintendo Wii U has been available since the fall of 2012 and has suffered from weak sales figures. It too, has yet to see an original Metroid release. To that we say, where's the beef, Nintendo?

Metroid is one of the most memorable and beloved franchises in the Nintendo universe. It's inexcusable for Nintendo to continue to ignore a series that's so intertwined with the company's history, much as Mario and Zelda are. Like Microsoft, which failed to make crucial apps available on Windows Phone 8 at the time of the mobile platform's launch, Nintendo should have released games for all of its flagship franchises, including Metroid, at or close to the system's release.

Doing so would have increased Nintendo's chances of enticing gamers to buy instead of holding out in favor of the new Xbox or PlayStation 4 that are on the horizon. Now that EA has reportedly dropped its support of the Wii U platform, Nintendo needs to do everything it can to embrace its big franchises more than ever if it hopes to maintain its status as a significant player in the console wars. Despite the fact that Nintendo didn't address a new Metroid title for the 3DS or Wii U, it's certainly possible that Nintendo could make a Metroid announcement at E3 next month, saving some big bullets in its chambers for the big show. We're hoping that that's indeed the case.

What do you think of the Nintendo Direct event? What do you think of the announcements that Nintendo made during the event? Are you disappointed that there were no Metroid announcements? Sound off in the comments below.