At the gates of the dawn of a new generation of Nintendo gaming, it is only natural that we, as huge fans of the company's major franchises, start wondering where they will be taken next. And, like all other Nintendo properties, Metroid and Samus are faced with some quite interesting paths ahead of them. The number of possibilities is vast, and making the right choice as to which road to follow is very critical for a franchise, which after stunning the gaming world with a series of flawless masterpieces that date way back to Super Metroid, stumbled on Metroid: Other M: a game that caused a considerable split on the fanbase, and that was arguably one of Nintendo's most polemic games ever. Samus is most certainly ready to set off on some new adventure on new planets previously inhabited by some intriguing civilizations, but it is up to Nintendo, or whoever ends up handling the development of the next installment of the franchise, to choose with which perspective we will be a part of the upcoming epic.

When it comes to gameplay styles, Nintendo is faced with three basic options: they could embrace the sidescrolling tendency that was very visible on many Wii games and produce a highly artistic, glorious HD companion to Super Metroid; they could, once more, bet on the curious blend of action and more linear exploration found in Other M; or they could simply go back to the seemingly fail-proof first-person gameplay boldly pioneered by Retro on Metroid Prime. As appealing as the first option sounds, it could, in a smaller scale, be pulled off on the Nintendo 3DS. In addition, it would be a terribly awful shame to waste the opportunity to give Metroid the chance to extend the tentacles of its immersive world to gargantuan degrees on a platform with as much power as the Nintendo Wii U. Metroid Other M's take on the series, while a nice little detour, was not entirely successful in delivering what the average player expects from a Metroid game, which is heavy exploration and revealing backtracking moments.

The most interesting option for the Nintendo Wii U is, then, going back to what Metroid Prime offered: which is a very immersive first-person take on Metroid's bizarre alien worlds. Arguably, it can be qualified as a tired formula, given how it has been used three times - four, if you count the decent Metroid Prime: Hunters - during the past decade. However, the fact that we are five years removed from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a considerable variable that might indicate that, one or more years from now, on the release of the next Metroid game, there might be a huge audience out there that is either thirsty for more first-person action or that has never gotten the chance to enjoy a Metroid game of that kind right on the context of its release. With a few tweaks here and there, some of which will naturally be provided by the tablet controller, Nintendo could make the gameplay refreshing enough to warrant the development of another game of that kind.

However, gameplay is, by a considerable margin, not the most interesting point of discussion. That award surely goes to the game's storyline treatment. Out of all Nintendo franchises, there is no other that comes remotely close to Metroid when it comes to storytelling potential. Samus, more than an iconic character, is - or at least was until Other M - a woman with generally obscure thoughts, emotions and intentions. Other M was extremely valid as the first attempt to build an actual personality for the character, but there is clearly much more that can be done to turn the resounding silence of Metroid into a more cinematic experience when it comes to plot development. The negative part of a focus on voiced cutscenes is that, nowadays, that is the boring norm of the industry, and Nintendo is usually at their best when they go against the flow; however, it would still be somewhat sad to see another chance to infuse more character into Samus be thrown away.

Between total silence and too much talking, lies Metroid Prime's unique take on storytelling, which consisted in making the player an active part of plot-discovery, instead of a passive cinematic-watching one. Scanning objects, scenario parts and, especially, computers with valuable log not only was a lot of fun, but it was also a very engaging and rewarding method for revealing the plot, and, to top it all off, it also pushed gamers further into exploration of their surroundings, something that played right into the hands of Retro Studios' downright mesmerizing attention to detail. As if mute Samus, active storytelling and cinematic plot development were not enough, there is also the question of whether or not Samus should receive external interference on her adventure. The original Metroid Prime, like the early Metroid games, was extremely radical in that sense, placing Samus absolutely alone in a weird hostile planet. Ever since then, though, the scale of external contacts has steeply grown, with Echoes having a small amount of it, Corruption featuring fellow hunters and a little participation of the galactic federation, and Other M completely blowing it up by making Samus part of a team exploring a ship.

If both extremes have already been explored, then, maybe, the best option is finding the balance between both. The scanning of the surroundings was just too fitting for the franchise for it to be done away with, and Samus remains a very intriguing character. Then, perhaps Nintendo could find some nice results in making players scan for story and extra information regarding the context of the adventure or of the location, and, at the same time, punctuate the game's run with moments where Samus' thoughts are somehow revealed to the player, whether through distant interaction with some absent character - like it was effectively done in Metroid Fusion - or through lonely character development through texts or monologues, for which the tablet may come into play at some level.

One thing is for sure, regardless of the decision of which way Metroid must go next, the series is most likely destined to be a key component to the Wii U's success, and Nintendo will certainly find a way for the game to make some relevant and unique use of the capabilities of the system. Everybody certainly has an idea of how their perfect next Metroid game would be, but one thing is shared among all Nintendo fans: our wish to be surprised by Samus' next adventure and that Metroid's next installment becomes another remarkable entry for a franchise that in Super Metroid and Metroid Prime has two titles that are invariably ranked among the best games of all time.