Metroid Prime Federation Force
The Federation soldiers players can play as in the new Metroid Prime spin-off. Nintendo

Nintendo has announced a new Metroid game for 3DS. Called Metroid Prime: Federation Force the game appears to follow exo-suited soldiers on alien planets, but not the series' iconic heroine Samus Aran.

The brief trailer showed third person and first person gameplay - the latter familiar to fans of Retro Studios' Metroid Prime series - and promised the game would be released some time in 2016. You can watch the trailer below...

Federation Force is a 4-player co-op game set in the Metroid universe.

Nintendo also announced Blast Ball, a 3v3 competitive mini-game included in Federation Force in which teams compete to shoot a large ball into a goal.

The Metroid series hasn't been seen or heard of since Nintendo partnered with Team Ninja for Metroid: Other M, a Wii exclusive title released in 2010 to negative reviews and poor sales. Fans have been clamouring for the series' return ever since.

This may not have been what they were expecting, but it's something.

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