Samus ends

[okey]

Yes. Who you callin' generic?

I can only speak for myself here but a big part of Metroid's appeal is that you fight monsters instead of infantry. Infantry are boring.

It doesn't even have to be the Federation in the way we'd expect. Think about it. In Metroid: Other M, we were actually fighting Federation troops. Well, a failed experiment to create them, at least.

Ridley clone, metroid clones, space pirate clones...

[SLtheFMA]

Nintendo isn't the kind of company that would end a series with a game that ends the life of a main character. If they were to end it I think they would try to make the best possible game they could, but the game wouldn't reflect the feeling of the series ending.

I don't think Nintendo would openly say that "this would be the last Metroid game they would be making."

[1upD]

Yes. Who you callin' generic?

I can only speak for myself here but a big part of Metroid's appeal is that you fight monsters instead of infantry. Infantry are boring.

You raise a very good point. But think about it. Do you really fight only monsters instead of infantry? A large chunk of the Prime trilogy's combat is against the Space Pirates. Zebesians have also been a major enemy in most of the classic games. Nobody ever said that making the Federation into the enemy means you can't fight monsters anymore. To the contrary, I think they'd want to avoid having Samus fight Federation troopers whenever possible.

It doesn't even have to be the Federation in the way we'd expect. Think about it. In Metroid: Other M, we were actually fighting Federation troops. Well, a failed experiment to create them, at least.

Ridley clone, metroid clones, space pirate clones...

Another good point. I still think bio-engineered creatures like the Nightmare (and of course more metroids) would make for fascinating enemies. Maybe something like the bio-engineered creatures from the Metroid 1.5 draft would fit.