game both pretty and pretty fun but i would trade in the several recycled bosses for one big grand boss on the same scale as the other major cool huge ones in this game. also despite the emmis being the whole marketing thing for this game they make for some of the worst gameplay. also early on in the game things are way too streamlined and i wish i couldve explored more early on before being forced to progress through like half the story. love metroid though so it's hard for me to hold any strong convictions against this game at it's core because metroidvanias scratch that good itch on my brain

Dread llega a la Nintendo Switch después de lo que pareció una eternidad para demostrarnos porque existen los metroidvania, entregando un mundo interconectado lleno de peligros, mejoras, secretos y una historia bastante sorprendente teniendo en cuenta a lo que el género nos tiene acostumbrados. En esta entrega Samus es más ágil que nunca debido a las nuevas características gráficas que son posibles gracias a la potencia de la Switch. La calidad del título no se improvisa y por donde se mire hay detalles que solo se ven en las grandes producciones de la industria, con animaciones impecables y un trabajo sonoro inmersivo. Es muy agradable volver a este universo lleno de parásitos, peligros y razas alienígenas, controlando a la cazarrecompensas más hermosa y poderosa del universo. La espera fue larga, ojalá no suceda lo mismo en la próxima oportunidad.

This game was pretty fun when I first got it. It was really fun to explore the different areas for the first time and it was cool to keep getting new power ups and abilities as rewards for exploring. The boss fights were all interesting and kept you on your toes when doing it for the first time. All of the cutscenes are also animated really well. Also, the robots did their job well since I was terrified every time I had to enter their areas. Being chased by them was enough to get my adrenaline pumping.

The only part that got annoying was trying to collect everything from all of the areas, but that was expected. I stopped playing this game when I first got to the final boss and I just came back and finished it today after several months and all I had left to do was collect the rest of the items and defeat the final boss. After doing some re-learning of the controls while item hunting, I was able to defeat the final boss after a couple of tries without too much trouble.

As I said already, the only part that I didn't care for was trying to collect everything in the whole world, but that is just part of all games of this genre. But, the only thing that really made me annoyed while doing it was that there were icons all over the map, even for things that were no longer there or usable, so I wish they were removed from the map after being used. This would probably make the late-game more enjoyable and slightly less tedioius.

Best game in the 2D Metroid franchise, perfected the Metroid formula It really feels like a love letter to everything Metroid with how it mixes everything that's great about every single one of them like the Gameplay from Samus Returns making Samus feel incredible to control than ever, Or having the great story beats of fusion with the E.M.M.I. feeling what I thought the SA-X should have been. All in all Dread is just perfect from start to finish and I honestly wouldn't be upset about this being the end, It's just incredible I love Metroid.

Metroid Dread sits in a strange space, albeit one that Nintendo exclusives often inhabit. A place where the incredible pedigree of game design is clear from the very start of the game (and sometimes made apparent to the audience through audio cues that adapted from titles that came out 30-40 years ago). At the same time, these games tend to exhibit oddities and, in my opinion, design mistakes that make them appear amateurish and poorly planned - a quality that Nintendo games rarely display, if you ask the average gamer. Describing Metroid Dread probably makes the point for me, in many ways.

Firstly, the animation is wonderfully executed. Samus navigates the world with a smoothness that other 2D platformers rarely replicate. There is a childish quality to it too that I really appreciate. Samus turns towards the came before saving for, instance. She adopts a questioning posture, almost addressing you directly, "Do you want to save?". It's almost a The Office shot of Jim turning towards the camera and giving a 'What can you do?' pose. By the end, that comparison was making me laugh every time I saved. Samus communicates with you in really subtle ways, through excellent animation work.

I love that the game often presents obstacles that clearly need specific new abilities and then subverts expectations by giving you a different one. The chronology of each ability rarely fits with the chronology of when matching obstacles are presented to you. The abilities are really well-designed, except for the rolling space jump, which I now think is a deliberate janky addition made by the developers in all 2D Metroid games to annoy me, specifically. The game also demands that you use your abilities in smart ways and often in combination. I love that each ability has a use case and its use cases are potentiated by the additions of other abilities. It's clear that real care has been put into designing these and the game world, in conjunction.

Despite all of these details, I have four specific issues with this game that brings it down from 5 to 3.5:

1. Enforced game length through fights with repeated and minor evolutions of Mawkins. I beat the game in 7 hours. It would have been 5 had it not been for the repeated Mawkin fights. I appreciate each one having minor evolutions of the last, but it's never enough to justify that many battles

2. E.M.M.I.s - I liked the first 3 or 4. I like that each teaches you how to use your newly gained abilities efficiently. I especially like that I managed to sucker punch the purple one three times in a row, after getting the omega cannon, allowing me to finish him off. But by the end, the repeated usage of them, much like the Mawkin's, made me weary and annoyed.


3. Enforced 'fake' non-linearity. The game often shuttles you from one place to another and then back and forth over the course of the game. It makes you feel like the game is non-linear (and that it is allowing you freedom to explore), but it's quite clear, once you get through 1/4th , that the game is almost entirely on rails. Veering away from the obvious path often results in drawn out backtracking which maybe rewards you with extra rockets, a resource that gets replenished incredibly quickly anyway.

4. No resource management. You don't have to be economical with your rockets and you don't have to hit with that many of them, as a result. They are replenished way too quickly. Just use your rockets, they do more damage. This is not good game design.

Last boss fight is difficult but amazing and a joy to overcome. I wish more of the boss fights had eased us into that difficulty curve. It was quite a substantial jump up in difficulty.