'Metroidvania' games are something beyond what Metroid and Castlevania creators ever planned, but has become a genre itself. Both IPs are kind of lost nowadays, but with Koji Igarashi out of Konami and Nintendo more open that ever to licensing, the future could be different.
Even though he has a name in this industry, he "[doesn't] feel that I'm a big deal at all. I feel like I'm just a creator, trying to make the best game I can with everybody else". Many people see him as a triple-A director, though, so would Igarashi like to make a Metroid game if Nintendo approach him and fans demand it? "I would be incredibly honoured", he said in a recent interview.
Or maybe it is too late. When Igarashi proved himself a great creator with games such as Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night, Nintendo was already thinking of turning Metroid into a 3D game.
"Nintendo is very careful about protecting their IPs and making any changes to their games. Around the time that I was proving that I could do multiple titles and do them well, Nintendo had shifted to Metroid Prime and they were having success turning their 2D games into 3D. So they probably decided from that point on that Metroid was going to be a 3D game series, and by that rationale, my style of games didn't really fit their criteria. That would be my guess."
Koji Igarashi is involved with his very first game out of Konami, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Knight, which he just introduced on Kickstarter, with DICO and Monobit as new development partners. Would you like to see him venture back into Metroid?