Is Metroid Dread Worth it ? (Nintendo Switch Review)

Judge Dread

Having been sitting on the sidelines for nearly 20 years while many other games get credit for being the best 2D Metroidvania around including Ori, Hollow Knight, Shadow Complex and many others, the queen has returned to take her rightful place on throne she created, but is the seat still available or has Samus lost touch?

The good news is that Metroid still belongs near the top of the genre that it helped create thanks to great development from MercurySteam, the same team who developed Metroid Samus Returns for the 3DS. Both Samus Returns and Metroid Dread have been developed in collaboration with Nintendo and series creator Yoshio Sakamoto.

First Time Bounty Hunters

Having not owned a Nintendo handheld since the Gameboy, there have been many missed entires since including Metroid Fusion on the Game Boy Advance in 2002, which is the prequel to Metroid Dread. There are likely also a lot of owners of the Switch who might be coming to the series fresh having never played any of the first four entries in the story line.

Metroid Dread does a good job at the start by filling players in on the story line up to this point whether you are brand new to the series or if you have been there every step of the way. It’s done in a very movie of the week style that had me concerned as that is the first thing you see when playing Metroid Dread but those fears are quickly assuaged once you start exploring as Samus and see the passion that went into this project.

If you have come to Metroid Dread to play an excellent Metroidvania, then you have come to the right place.

Pretty Dangerous

While not eclipsing the benchmarks in the genre set by games like the visually stunning Ori and The Blind Forest or the artistically oozing Hollow Knight, Metroid Dread still holds its own. Little details go a long way to help the immersion on planet ZDR. Wildlife scatters when weapons are fired, the ground glows around Samus when the charge rifle is used and the industrial world in the background has some great lighting effects such as lighting leaking through ventilation fans.

The worlds that Samus explores feels vast but it never feels insurmountable as the game is broken up into many different sections which are traversed by loading screens disguised as trains or teleportation. These areas are different enough from factory machinery to laboratory to underwater stations that exploration never feels like a chore, especially since in many of the areas the is plenty happening in the background to flesh out the universe.

Joycon Drifting in Space

Metroid Dread has very tight controls which is bolstered by great design and animations. Due to this, a lot of the frustration is mitigated with games that require tight precision. Samus auto clambers to areas that can sometimes seem just on the edge of reachability and she also automatically turns into a ball when tunnel is at the right height. Playing Metroid Dread is perfectly serviceable on a launch Nintendo Switch in handheld mode but Metroid Dread feels the best when playing docked using the Pro controller.

Metroid Dread also sees the return of the deflect mechanic which was introduced by MercurySteam with Metroid Samus Returns. This was a smart addition to the Metroid formula which is a great was to add a level strategy and timing to her arsenal. It also fits into the idea that Samus is a bad ass bounty hunter and no matter the size of the alien, all she needs is the right window of opportunity to disarm and disable a foe.

Metroid Dread runs very well on the Switch with a near flawless frame rate that runs at 60 frames per second that feel like a requirement for the accuracy needed for a modern metroidvania. There was only one point in the game where the 2017 Hardware reared its ugly, outdated technology head and this was during some random portion of the underwater lab when Samus battled some random fish. Its possible that different people might experience different hiccups but outside of that one minor hiccup, the entirety of the game the performance was very impressive.

The impressive performance is also boosted by the minimal loading screens which only take place at the beginning of the game, right after death for a second or two and between major hubs, which even then are disguised by animated sequences such as elevator rides.

What a Blast!

Metroid Dread has followed the series blueprint to the decimal point. Pacing is excellent and you always feel like you are making progress or moving forward. Even at times where you might feel like you are going in the wrong direction, Samus always manages to end up in the right spot and this is a true credit to the level design.

The areas feel distinct enough, which help you understand if you are where you are supposed to be and the map features icons for different types of doors that make it easy to find an area to explore if you are feeling lost. Chances are there is a door that you can now open that is available on the map.

The platforming is difficult yet accessible, the enemies can range from easy arm blasting material to constantly challenging from beginning to end, and the bosses and EMMI provide an level of challenge and frustration that eventually lead to a massive sense of accomplishment.

It would have been nice to see some of the bosses in Metroid Dread have a health gauge as some of the frustration could be avoided if you knew that each attempt you were improving. Instead you just have to kept dodging and attacking hoping they change to their next form and hope for the eventual defeat.

and the EMMI award goes to….

The one big addition to the Metroid formula and the Metroidvania blueprint is being the prey and not the predator. In Metroid Dread, there are sections which you are pursued by EMMI’s. EMMI’s are massive robots that are designed to protect certain areas. They do this using patrol routes and sonar. Just the sound of these robotic hunters coming closer added a level of suspense to Metroid Dread as being caught by one usually results in instant death.

The good news is EMMI areas never overstayed their welcome and the mini game in which you attempt to escape the robotic clutches of death had me hooked from the very first capture because it was always a fun challenge that always felt random.

These sections are also well spread out across the game and it’s very clear which areas are patrolled by the EMMI’s. Samus also gains some suit abilities which aid you in escaping capture and even better. Eventually you will gain access to a room where you find an Omega Blaster, which is the only way to defeat the EMMI’s. Once defeated using the very limited Omega Blaster, you are then free to explore their patrolled area at peace for the remainder of the game.

Metroid Zero Omission

Metroid Dread is a pretty flawless game from the pacing to the visuals to the animations to the level design and anything in between but there are a few small gripes that keep it from being perfect.

It would have been really great if Metroid Dread had some in game achievement system or even some in game stats so that I can see how many times I died to an EMMI (lots) or how many times I was able to perfectly time an escape (little). Another big gripe that I have about Metroid Dread is the omission of a journal, beastiary, compendium or whatever you want to call it.

Some of the greatest entries in the Metroidvania genre such as Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, and even Metroid Prime include a log book. Some type of journal so that you might see and learn more about certain types of enemies. Even in some games the more you defeat a certain type of enemy, the more lore and information gets revealed about the species. This is a nice way to build out the world while giving players some incentive. This goes a long way during times where you might be lost and looking for you next path forward that at least you are gaining something small at all times.

The artists and creators of these games spend a lot of time designing, creating and bringing these enemies and species to life and this is also a nice way to show them how important the inhabitants of the world are to the game.

Finally, on the list of small gripes with an otherwise excellent entry in the franchise, is that in 2021 some mechanics to activate a machine to drain water from an area still only requires just shooting something. It would have been nice if some light puzzle solving mechanics were required to activate some mechanisms.

It’s also a shame that MercurySteam’s first entry in the series, Metroid: Samus Returns on the 3DS from 2017 which was a remake of the 1991 Gameboy title Metroid 2: Return of Samus didn’t get ported alongside Metroid Dread or included in a special edition or something as playing 2D Metroid on the Switch feels fantastic. Knowing Nintendo with what seems like it will be the most successful Metroid game of all time thanks to thirst from the community plus the install base of over 89 million Switch users, the company will port it to the hybrid system in about a year at full price.

Verdict

When its all said and done, Metroid Dread doesn’t add much new to the genre or even the franchise but that’s okay. There is a reason that Metroid as a franchise has resonated with fans for over five different decades and spawned a genre of its own. Metroidvanias are a tested formula that many developers are still emulating with fantastic entries like Hollow Knight and Ori. These entries didn’t do much new either other than art and story because the core of these games are following the same blueprint set out many years ago.

Metroid Dread doubles down on what made the series iconic and also adds in plenty of small touches that go a long way in establishing this universe without any dialogue from the protagonist. The way the cinematography pulls out during some sections to give a true sense of the isolation and the vastness of the world that Samus explores from a colossal alien autopsy in the laboratory or prehistoric marine biology in the underwater research station.

It can also have the opposite effect when the camera pulls in really tight sometimes that we see a sense of fear and dread within Samus. All of these feelings and emotions are earned by design and not forced by dialogue and narration.

Metroid Dread doesn’t reinvent the wheel but as the saying goes, you don’t mess with perfection. Having founded the genre in the eighties and heading into the fifth decade of Metroidvania’s being a staple of gaming, it’s clear the Metroid formula is perfection.

9/10