Despite being notably absent from last week’s E3 conference – hey, you can’t have everything, right? – there is still hope for news on a new entry in the popular Metroid series in the near future, according to Nintendo.

Not that we’re complaining – with new Star Fox and Zelda games confirmed at E3, among a plethora of other announcements, Nintendo fans weren’t left wanting last week. However it’s been some time since a Metroid game has graced our screens – 2010 was the last instalment, or 2004 if you’re thinking back to the 2D style.

But here’s the good news – Shinya Takahashi, Nintendo’s General Manager of Software Planning & Development, revealed to Kotaku during an interview that Nintendo are thinking very hard about what to bring to the series next:

So it has been a while since we released the last one and we’re having discussions internally about what we can do next. So at this point we have two different types of Metroid games. We have the Prime style of Metroid game and we have the more traditional style of Metroid game. We feel that we do need to take care of both of these styles of play. And the hope is that at some point in the near future we’ll be able to share something about them.

Are you looking forward to more Metroid news? What type of game would you like to see for the series’ next instalment?