A mysterious rating for a project called Metroid Ravenous has been spotted on the Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Security site by Universo Nintendo (thanks, VGC).

The rating was swiftly removed, but a screenshot has been posted to verify its authenticity. Filed by Nintendo of America, it refers to a project in production in 2026, but further details are unknown at this stage, and no official announcement has been made by Nintendo.

So what could this be? Without speculating too much, given the short amount of time since the launch of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, it seems more likely that this could be a direct sequel to 2021’s Metroid Dread. It would therefore be the sixth mainline Metroid game in the series, the most up-to-date chronological story, and the latest entry to feature 2.5D side-scrolling gameplay.

But of course, it could be anything at this stage. Universo Nintendo states that the indicated platform is the Switch 2, so that narrows it down a bit, but anything further is mere speculation.

Whatever it is, we’re confident that developer MercurySteam, which helmed Metroid Dread, will want to work on something new in collaboration with Nintendo. However, it did also announce some unfortunate layoffs in May this year in what it called a “workforce adjustment process”, so who knows what its current status is.

Regardless, the studio did wonderful work on Dread, with the game earning a score of 9/10 here on Nintendo Life. Here’s what we said at the time:

“This is a super-slick, hugely entertaining and exquisitely designed entry in the Metroid franchise that plays better than anything we’ve seen from the series so far.”

So yeah, more of that please.