August 6th, 2026 was the 40th anniversary of Metroid, one of the few videogames in history to be so influential it has a whole genre named (at least partially) after it. You'd be forgiven for not realizing last Thursday was such a significant date because Nintendo seemingly forgot itself—and not for the first time.
But the anniversary didn't go completely uncelebrated. Posted to the Metroid subreddit last Thursday, a new fan game called Metroid Prime Origins marked the occasion with a "a fully complete adaptation of Metroid Prime for the GameCube in 2D, complimented by a fake-bit aesthetic." I've played the first hour or so, and it's an extremely polished, great-feeling Metroid game that could pass as the real deal if Nintendo ever actually made throwbacks this cool.
