After a recent advertising image spotted on Walmart’s website that indicated that Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Pikmin 2 would be joining the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack catalogue of GameCube games, Nintendo has released a statement denying these plans. In a statement to IGN, the company said the promotional image was the result of miscommunication between it and Walmart.
In its statement, Nintendo said that Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Pikmin 2 were included in the “Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics” image by accident on its part. Since then, the image has been removed.
“We recently provided a retailer with an image of Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics titles that incorrectly included games that are not planned for release at this time,” said Nintendo of America. “The image has been removed, and we apologize for any confusion.”
The Nintendo GameCube Classics were introduced alongside the launch of the Switch 2, and can be accessed through a subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was noted as being an interesting potential addition to the service, since the company was rumoured to have been working on a remaster of the title since as far back as 2023. These reports started to surface just months after the release of Metroid Prime Remastered. According to Jeff Grubb, Nintendo has been planning to remaster the second and third games at some point. Due to this, some believed that Nintendo hadn’t yet brought Metroid Prime 2: Echoes to its online service to sell more copies of the eventual remaster.
None of the GameCube Metroid games are currently available on the service. However, older titles like the original Metroid, Super Metroid, and even Metroid Fusion are available.
Metroid Prime fans can check out our review of the latest entry—Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The title was released just last month on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.
As for Pikmin, Nintendo had started teasing a new entry in the franchise with an animated trailer back in October. However, few details have been revealed aside from the fact that the trailer was created completely in-house by Nintendo Pictures. The teaser was largely focused on a baby left alone in a room by its mother and being confused when its pacifier popped out. While the teaser released on YouTube at the time had invisible forces at play, another version released through the Nintendo Today smartphone app confirmed that Pikmin were the source of the baby’s adventure.
The last entry in the series was Pikmin 4, whose producer had also noted that we wouldn’t have to wait too long to see a new release. “We’ll try not to let everyone wait,” he said in a 2023 interview.
Pikmin 4 was released in 2023, and has sold more than 3 million copies. It introduced a host of new elements to the franchise, including a new space dog named Otachi.
