A new feature for May 2026 is live! Our newest team member Seth analyzes the history of the Lamorn in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, what happened to their civilization, and how they parallel the Chozo from Metroid Prime. He also shares his theory on where the Lamorn’s story arc goes next. We hope you’ll enjoy reading what we hope is the first of many features from Seth!
SGDQ 2026 schedule is online – Bosses may Dread this one…
Games Done Quick has finalized its schedule for SGDQ 2026, and we will get to see a special category for Metroid Dread!
All Bosses will be defeated in this one, and the speedrunner Hobbit may use nearly every trick in the book! This run will mark the first time that Metroid Dread is ran in the Unrestricted glitch category in GDQ history.
Metroid Dread is known to have bosses that are difficult to fight at first, but the skilled Hobbit knows all of their moves already, so we can imagine how satisfying it will be to see them defeated as quickly as we used to be in our first playthrough!
This run will go live 10th of July, at 1:45 AM EDT / 5:45 AM UTC. We wish you the best of luck, Hobbit!
Summer Games Done Quick 2026 is live between July 5th – 12th,
benefitting Doctors without Borders!
Source: Games Done Quick
MercurySteam announces layoffs
Today, Metroid Dread and Metroid: Samus Returns developer MercurySteam announced they have conducted layoffs, or as they called it, “a workforce adjustment process.” Unfortunately, they are only the latest studio to make job cuts in what has become an unacceptably common trend in the gaming industry. MercurySteam didn’t provide an exact number of affected employees and have pledged to support them in their next chapter.
To the developers affected by these layoffs, the team at Shinesparkers want to thank you for your contributions to the Metroid franchise. You revitalized the 2D Metroid series and successfully realized two installments that fans had awaited for decades. We encourage you to lean on your industry peers, family and friends, and we hope you find your next opportunities as quickly as possible.
Source: LinkedIn
Neither version of Metroid Prime 4 sold 1 million
Earlier today, Nintendo released their latest earnings report, covering the fiscal year ending in March 2026. These reports include a list of games that have sold one million copies or more on both Switch 1 and 2. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is not on either list, suggesting that neither the Switch 1 nor 2 versions have sold more than one million individually.
This may sound ominous for the future of Metroid, but remember: according to previous reporting back in December, Beyond has sold one million units when the Switch 1 and 2 numbers are combined. Also, these sales figures only report physical sales, so digital is likely to be higher. All that to say, don’t assume this is a bad sign for our favorite Bounty Hunter. Even if Metroid Prime 4 wasn’t the smashing success Nintendo hoped for, it is not a death knell for the franchise.
Source: Nintendo
April 2026 News Roundup
Now that May 2026 has rolled around, we have prepared a roundup of the Metroid news we had in March. See below:
April 11 – In Search of Samus updated
April 14 – Samus Aran featured in one of Nintendo’s Gift Cards
We published one new feature in April, a wish list from Irene with what she’d want in a Nintendo Switch 2 update to Metroid Dread.
As always, we’ll have more content to share in May and throughout the rest of 2026, so keep your eyes peeled for that! As always, we’ll see you next mission.
Feature: Changes to Dread I’d like in an NS2 Update
Our newest feature is now available! Irene, our Deputy Director, came up with a list of things she would love to see in a Nintendo Switch 2 update for Metroid Dread. It was last updated with Boss Rush mode in April 2022, but Irene had some ideas for quality of life improvements that could be made to enhance the experience even further. For example, slight changes to the map for increased world building and new speedrunning strategies, new E.M.M.I. death animations, and a Randomizer mode!
On another note, this is our 100th feature since we relaunched Shinesparkers in 2017! The Shinesparkers team wishes to thank each and every one of you, our readers, for staying with us all that time, and ever since our original founding in 2010. We would not have made it this long without your support. Here’s to another 100 features!
Samus Aran featured in one of Nintendo’s Gift Cards
As reported by Nintendo Everything, Samus is featured in one of the eShop gift cards. The gift card for Samus is valued at $150, though in our hearts she is obviously valued infinitely more than that!
The main render of Samus as she appears in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is used for the eShop gift card, and it is only available digitally for the time being.
Source: Nintendo Everything
In Search of Samus updated
We’ve updated In Search of Samus, a feature written by yours truly in 2023 after an extensive investigation into Samus’s actresses. Today’s update adds five unknown actors and both of Samus’s new actresses from Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – Erin Yvette, the new voice of Samus, and Krystle Martin, who provided motion capture for her. The unknown actors appeared in a 1989 Toys “R” Us commercial, the North American Metroid: Zero Mission commercial, and a commercial for Beyond that was dubbed into Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese.
If you have any leads on who these actors are, and/or who played Samus in the Japanese NES Metroid commercial, Super Metroid commercial, or her child self in the Metroid: Other M commercial, please get in touch with us!
March 2026 News Roundup
Now that April 2026 has rolled around, we have prepared a roundup of the Metroid news we had in March. See below:
March 17 – Super Metroid added to the Nintendo Music app
March 17 – Dread and Prime Remastered on ‘Handheld Mode Boost’
We published one new feature in February, a recap of our #OperationMetroidPrime4 campaign from late 2025. On YouTube, we shared an extended cut of the live-action Super Metroid commercial, and an updated voice comparison video for Samus that features her new effort sounds in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and voiceover from her perspective in Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese commercials.
We’ll have more content to share in April and throughout the rest of 2026, so keep your eyes peeled for that! As always, we’ll see you next mission.
Feature: #OperationMetroidPrime4
Our newest feature is now live! From September to December 2025, we ran #OperationMetroidPrime4, a social media campaign in the leadup to Metroid Prime 4: Beyond’s release. We asked a question every day for 76 days to gauge what the community was thinking and feeling on everything from Vi-O-La to Myles MacKenzie. Now, we’ve compiled your answers into this three part recap feature, as a way to look back on predictions for the game. Find out which ones proved to be correct, and which ones were way off, at the link below!