If you’ve ever listened to our show before, then odds are you’ve probably heard me mention the Metroid series at least a few times. This was the first video game franchise I ever interacted with as a kid, and I can still picture 10-year-old me crouched over the GameBoy Advance SP station at the back of our local Target, replaying the first 10 minutes of Metroid Fusion over and over and over again. It was so moody… so DARK. I loved it and I was hooked immediately. No wonder my love of this series immediately preceded my emo phase that would follow in about 4 year’s time.
Metroid Fusion was a seminal moment in my childhood, but the story for the series stopped there. I always loved the Prime series, and while Metroid was more popular than ever in the early to mid 2000’s, I always wanted to see what happened after the end of Fusion. Metroid fans the world over were greeted with prequels, spinoffs, remasters and reimaginings but never a true sequel. At least… until now.
Metroid Dread has, in a way has been a game developed over the course of nearly 20 years, and the mere fact that it exists, truly does fill me with joy in a way that no other game on this list can. This is seeing something truly special to me as a kid grow up with me and be released in a package that just feels so completely and utterly polished. The Metroidvania genre that Metroid helped create has blown up over the past few years and produced some true all timers. Axiom Verge 1 & 2 were both incredible examples of iterating on the classic Metroid formula and giving the player some incredibly fun weapons and movement upgrades to play with. Steamworld Dig 2 introduced an adorable mixture of genre’s, blending cute Steampunk robots and putting them into a Wild West setting. Perhaps the greatest example of the genre being is encapsulated in Hollow Knight, the tightest-controlling game I’ve ever touched, with some of the best boss battles ever designed in a 2D game. I’ve never EVER had my ass handed to me quite as hard as my first time through Hollow Knight’s world, and never had quite as much fun.
It seems a little unfair then to have to compare Metroid Dread to the games that followed it, that were so inspired by the series that came before, but genuinely pushed the genre forward. In the lead up to Dread, I couldn’t help but notice this feeling of apprehension that was growing in my chest that this game might not live up to the years of expectations that I was building up for it in my head. Indeed, after seeing just how many great games that Metroid had inspired, would the original series live up to those that had come after? Could it truly push that genre forward in a meaningful way? And lastly, if this game flopped, would Nintendo finally be pulling the plug on this much-loved series that has never seen the stratospheric levels of success that Mario and Zelda have seen?
October 8th of 2021 couldn’t have come fast enough for me. I was BEYOND excited for this release, so much so that I repeatedly told my fiancé how big of a moment this was for me. I talk about games with her all the time, but she could tell by the crazy look in my eyes that this was on a whole new level. Midnight rolled around and my fiancé joined me in front of the TV to experience the next generation of Metroid games…… but what she wound up viewing over the next hour and half was me coming to the quick realization that half a box of wine was over the recommended amount for the precision that Dread was asking of me. I saw the Game Over screen approximately 20-30 times that first night and went to bed feeling a little disappointed with my experience. The next morning (with a sizeable headache) I realized that perhaps this wasn’t the optimum way of experiencing this game. So, I went back in, and this time I was prepared. I was ready. I was able to try and try and try again. I got gud.
In all seriousness though, Dread is a difficult game, but not one that I would consider to be unfair. The E.M.M.I sections were tense and required a level of patience and careful planning that was equal parts fun and frustrating. The regular enemies peppered throughout the world were difficult, and they hit you. HARD. One of the biggest differences between Dread and any other game in the Metroid series is just how little health you’ll have at any one point. Dread treats your energy tanks more like heart pieces in Zelda, in that you get hit just once and that whole chunk of health is gone. But my God, the way that Samus can move through the world, and the sheer amount of movement options that you acquire through Dread more than makes up for this. Samus has never felt this good to control in any game, and everything you do in Dread just feels so precise.
Narratively, if you’ve been a fan of the series, this has one of the most compelling stories in a Metroid game. If this is your first Metroid game, going to feel like an exposition dump of Sci-Fi nonsense, which to be fair, even in the context of being a fan of this series, it’s hardly ever been the most eloquent in telling a story. Nevertheless, the gameplay more than makes up for the somewhat shortcomings of the story, and it leaves the player with an ending that basically sets up the entire galaxy to be at play. With the folks over at Nintendo reportedly being very pleased with the way Dread has sold and been critically received, surely this marks a bright new future for the series.
Metroid has been with me for most of my life, and it still has a special place in my heart now that I’m in my 30’s and I couldn’t be more excited for the future of the series. Now we just need to see an update on Metroid Prime 4…. That’s got to come out eventually…. Right??
