Replay & re-review:

Metroid Dread is probably the best 2D metroid and a crowning jewel in the metroidvania genre, upon replaying pretty much all of the 2D games in the series I feel like I now appreciate this one so much more. MercurySteam’s take on metroid is quite distinct from the old school nintendo approach but I think its awesome, the heavier action focus and smoother traversal fit metroid like a glove, plus dread in particular is just so fast and lean in how it plays that it makes most other metroidvanias feel sluggish by comparison, at least in their general movement.

I think what has boosted my appreciation of this most of all is how it is a labour of love and it really understands what made the original games (especially super, fusion & zero mission) so good. There was a long hiatus between the official 2D metroid entries and samus returns, while still a good game, was still a remake, so its great to have a full-scale new entry, one that concludes this arc of samus’ story and delivers everything that fans wanted. There are so many neat little references to old metroid games and i’ve come to love the horror and isolation of these games more and more, which dread brings out in full force. One of my major complaints originally was a lack of identity in its areas which, upon a replay, I have come to disagree with, there’s tons of neat details in its areas and they are much more distinct than I gave them credit for. You have the bubbling lava caverns & geothermal plant stationed on cataris, the ancient and sprawling jungle of ghavoran and the clean, futuristic sanctuary of the chozo in ferenia. Not only this, there’s tons of little details like the biological research and construction of EMMIs being undertaken in the background of Dairon, you can even see the machinery operating on Experiment No. Z-57 which is a great moment. This kind of foreshadowing reminded me of fusion a lot, which this game (being a sequel to fusion) seems to take more than a few notes from, since later in the game you must exterminate experiment no. Z-57 after it awakens and disturbs the geothermal facility on cataris. The moment you’re told about this and guided to the boss is an excellent little detour that is reminiscent of the leadup to nightmare-x in metroid fusion, its those kinds of moments that I love most and dread has plenty of them.

Similarly another of dread’s biggest runaway successes is the perfect pacing and finely tuned staggering of upgrades. Dread will push you and push you before it rewards you with that one upgrade you’ve been desperate for, be it the morph ball, the gravity suit or the space jump. But it does this with some excellent game design that sees you explore all kinds of areas more quickly than you might expect, but with restricted access to each that slowly but surely opens up as you make progress. The leadup to the gravity suit is one of the most interesting since it somehow feels like you’ve gone too far and you should have it by now, when infact you’re doing all the right things and then bam, you destroy the supports sending a platform cascading down which literally smashes through the map and allows access to the gravity suit at long last, awesome stuff. Dread does this a lot and as I touched on in my previous review, i’ve never felt simultaneously so guided by an invisible dotted line, yet so in control of my own discoveries and progression, there’s finely tuned intentionality in its design, but it feels so natural and organic in how you as a player make that happen, I love it so much. But, with this being said, one gripe with that design approach is that if you miss one single step on that invisible line, it can send you wildly off course into an area far from where you’re supposed to be, meaning finding your way back to said ‘line’ and backtracking through multiple areas can and probably will cause you some annoyance, but it doesn’t take long to get back on track since dread is such a fast-paced game.

The other runaway success of this game is its presentation and flavour in its visual storytelling, animation and even its writing. There’s a good story here too which neatly wraps things up and introduces a genuinely great villain, probably the best the franchise has seen in Raven Beak, a chozo and leader of the ‘mawkin’, a chozo warrior tribe. Raven Beak’s relation to Samus, the fact he spares her on her first encounter to see her realise her full power as a metroid and his final confrontation with samus all add to his character and personality as a power-hungry menace who wouldn’t be out of place in star wars. The guy has a throne on his ship and is willing to kill & clone his ‘daughter’ to create an unstoppable army, what a dick, but he’s so great and that final boss fight is incredible, even better than I remember.
Other standout moments include every time samus stands still and looks like a badass while a boss fucking dies brutally and samus’ first encounter with quiet robe, also the first time we hear her speak outside of other m if im not mistaken and the moment is SO earned. In some ways it feels like they wanted to channel doomguy in samus for dread but instead of hate, samus’ oozes confidence and determination, she is such a badass. The one line she is given + the screaming at the end give just enough extra flavour to heighten the emotion and the drive behind samus and the former feels earned because of samus’ history with the chozo.

Ontop of this, all of the animations, ui elements and effects in this game are absolutely spot on, there’s an almost perfectionist tendency to them, they’re that good. The slightest bit of film grain or dramatic lighting or use of interesting framing in cutscenes can add so much to the vibe and drama of a piece of visual media and dread does this constantly. All of the cutscenes, though short, quickly establish the scene and tell you all you need to know in a matter of seconds. The general control and fluidity of everything you do in this game just feels right and though I haven’t gone for the 100%, the game clearly puts all of it to good use. Even though the most casual of players could still beat this game there’s such a high skill-cap since you’re given plenty of moves to work with and are rewarded for well-timed plays like counters and flash-shift dodges, the pace and satisfaction in the action is unlike anything else that i’ve seen in the series except maybe samus returns but then, that almost felt like the somewhat weaker precursor to this. By the late game, dread basically becomes a fully fledged action-packed romp and it is peak.

Meus amigos! como deixei essa masterpiece passar em branco, que jogo maravilhoso, extremamente divertido, desafiador e com um level design perfeito, sem dúvidas um dos melhores Metroids.

A coisa mais foda desse game são as boss fights, que são bem desafiadoras, é extremamente necessário decorar o padrão de movimento dos inimigos para fazer a run perfeita, e cada morte vale a pena (Vai por mim) pois você aprende, e volta lá e faz a run NO DAMAGE! não tem sensação melhor.

Talvez as mecânicas de gameplay afastem uma galera por causa dos botões, são muitos e creio que não foram muito bem adaptados para a quantidade de skills. Que jogaço! Como é bom ter o Switch Pro 👀

good game but tries to dump too much shit on you resulting in a game that feels awkward to control at least in my experience - the double jump shit worked like half the time and like every bumper being utilised to shoot out a different thing was hard to keep track of, the emmi units were fine at first but gradually got more and more tedious to deal with, it was more or less the same but they would gain abilities that felt bs to deal with, although the stealth aspect was much appreciated and i think that cloak shit was really cool.

the boss fights themselves were by far the strongest part of this game, rarely did they miss and when they did it felt like more of a me thing than the game itself - although the fight against raven beak had a really awkward 2nd phase that lasted kinda long since it relied on you parrying his 1 attack he would only do every like 30 seconds.

but enemies that weren't major bosses were so jarring man, they were fun the first time but i think you fight like 9 chozo warriors or some dumb shit by the end, it gets soooo monotonous. i don't see how it's excusable to repeat the same fights over and over in your game to pad out time. luckily, they weren't the hardest fights in the world but upon entering a room and seeing the same guy i just killed 15 minutes prior wasn't a fun experience, and it only seemed to multiply towards the end of the game; you eliminate 2 of the 7 emmi units in the span of like 10 minutes.

music was also kinda bland but i don't think that's an unpopular opinion. mercurysteam should hire someone else to do their music because music can elevate a particular scene or atmosphere tenfold.

the game still had a lot of merit though, the exploration was really fun and well thought-out, the map had a lot of backtracking but it was very cleverly designed. like, the game doesn't give you the morph ball for a hot minute but when you finally get it, you gain access to whole new crevices and stuff which you didn't before. i didn't get lost too many times unlike the 2 other metroid games i've played (prime 1 and prime 2), but there were some instances where it felt kinda random... like ok i had to shoot that wall in the top left corner of this room bro, cool. but those moments were really far and few between and it didn't take away from the overall experience of the game.

the story was pretty compelling and definitely carried the latter parts of the game for me. i think it could've been dispersed better but it wasn't awful. definitely intrigued to see where the series could go from here. overall this game is very fun and i recommend it, although i do think it is overhyped slightly. pick it up if you haven't already, a good introduction to 2D metroid for me. i think zero mission is next on my agenda.

I would have to say that Metroid Dread has become my personal greatest game I played in the last 10 or 15 years. It's setting, the movements, the boss fights, the ambience, everything is tied together so well that I don't know how they can top Dread with a sequel.
First the Gameplay and Controls, It's standard Metroid fare here, but what you have is a control scheme that not only uses about every button on the controller, but it does so in a non-complicated way, it's almost seemless! Traversing though planet ZDR felt so damn smooth it was like cutting through butter!
Planet ZDR also has some interesting baddies waiting for you that will have you killing through them, both old and new are here. The biggest addition is the E.M.M.I. They are truly terrifying, thankfully they are in their designated areas otherwise this game would be alot more stressful. They search for you and can see through walls or even hear you...they're super scary! And the boss fights here also make you feel like a genuine badass as you fight through them with a crazy aresenal.
I can't say much more without spoiling it, and it shouldn't spoil it if you haven't played it yet. If you are a fan or Metroidvanias this has to be on the top of your list and should be respected!

A near-perfect, adrenaline-filled return to my favourite franchise of all time. Metroid Dread deserves the title of a Metroid game and MercurySteam went above and beyond to create one of the most exhilarating experiences I've had with the medium.

Where Samus Returns struggled with living up to the hype and of remaking a classic game, Metroid Dread has no need for that. By making a completely original game, MercurySteam's chains that were dragging them down are completely released, and damn does it pay off. This game is an unbelievable, blood-pumping experience from start to finish. The parry is still here, but it's improved by it being able to be utilised while moving, allowing for some fast movement, instead of having to pause the entire game to do on, ruining the flow of the game. This is exactly what Metroid Dread excels at, flow and movement, the entire game is built around moving you at a solid speed, whether that be through powerups or aeion abilities, sliding underneath obstacles or just blazing through enemies with a shine-spark.

For the actual gameplay, most powerups return, your typical beam, space jump, suits etc but what stands out are the Aeion abilities, and god damn are they some of the coolest things in the franchise. Firstly, the Phantom Cloak, while it doesn't necessarily help against EMMI's at times, it is still awesome to see Samus turn completely invisible, my only problem with it is that charging it back up is a pain as you have to be moving for some reason, which completely negates the power it has. Next, the Storm Missiles, what an amazing idea, being able to lock onto multiple targets, not only does it have some really cool ways to obtain hidden secrets, but it helps a lot in boss fights. And finally, the Flash Shift, by far my favourite and dare I say one of the best "powerups" in the entire franchise, using this is so damn fun. Zipping around the entire map effortlessly and evading attacks is so exciting, the game just has such a good idea of what makes movement fun.

As I mentioned in my Super Metroid Review the core element to a Metroid game is exploration. Dread breaks quite a few of the rules but it does so subtly, instead of giving you complete freedom like in Super Metroid, Dread restricts you but not in the way Fusion does. The game isn't innately linear, yet it will block off areas you're not supposed to access "naturally", and so your way forward is always clear (except for a few moments). I find this method to be a great idea, it loses the factor of being frustrated at not knowing where to go while not giving you completely clear instructions. And god damn, is exploration here an absolute blast, the environments crafted are so fucking gorgeous, every individual sector has its own atmosphere. Lava lurks beneath your feet in Cataris, when you first arrive at Dairon, the power is out, robots and monsters are being revived or built in the background, a storm rages outside Burenia, ancient architecture makes up most of Ferenia, and my personal favourite area, Ghavoran. As soon as you are transported there, a jungle ecosystem is shown, animals move in the background, you confront spiders and other insects. There's such a wide variety of areas that it feels very similar to Fusion, just amplified tenfold.

"Dread" is the atmosphere that encompasses the entire game. The EMMI are practically an unstoppable force even when you learn how to defeat them. As soon as you enter one of their "areas" the tension immediately rises. Mechanical noises loop in the background, the room is enshrouded in mist, the EMMI tracks you through sound so your movement must be more precise. If you're caught then you must dash towards safety, if you fail then you're practically dead, parrying the EMMI is meant to be a lucky chance. The game makes you confront the EMMI indirectly before you're powerful enough, a great way of raising the pressure.

However, this also creates a steep difficulty curve, the last 2 EMMI's are pretty unfair and being able to freeze the player from across the map is frustrating, especially when a lot of the time your Aeoin abilities don't even work properly. I died around 100+ times on my playthrough, and even excluding the EMMI's, this game is way more difficult than its predecessors, enemies hit you like a truck and boss fights are a lot more challenging and require a lot of skill and understanding of the mechanics for the player, which culminates perfectly in the final fight (which I won't spoil). Another part which has increased difficulty is in obtaining the extras, damn do some of these require a strong comprehension in everything, and a shit ton of them are really difficult to obtain, something I appreciate a lot. The only other gripe I have with the game is the lengthy loading screens, they tend to break the immersion.

Apart from that, holy fucking shit is this one of the best returns to form I could have ever asked for. Metroid Dread is ultimately a must-play that completely wipes the floor with many new games and lives up to the standard of a Metroid title, a resounding masterpiece that I will go back to experience again sooner or later.
9/10

Every once in a while I go "huh, Metroid Dread came out. I never thought that'd happen". And I'm glad it did, because it's really good. I'll always like the Super Metroid/Prime direction of a more pensive and atmospheric game, but I respect the more action-driven direction and I think Dread perfects it. Finally there's some actual exploration, which Fusion/Zero Mission/Samus Returns kinda ruined with their handholding. Dread has that too, but it does it by nudging you in the right direction with clever world design rather than just telling you where to go. I still think Super Metroid is unbeaten int hat regard but that's ok. Dread's doing its own thing, and as an action game it's pretty hard to beat. All the bosses are great, the EMMI sequences are cool, though they perhaps get a bit repetitive, and overall I had a great time with it.

Eveyone has their "game of life". For me that game is Metroid Fusion, so I have to admit that it'll be hard to be completely unbiased this time.

Starting Metroid Dread brought me right back where I left it's predecessor all those years ago, and that already felt like a surprise. The story won't make much sense to those who haven't played any other game of the series, but you won't lose too much this way; it's a fun and enjoyable story with some fan service and some twists for those who know the games though.

I Think Metroid is at its best when it's in pixel art, but I was pleasantly surprised with the art direction here. It captures perfectly what metroid is all about: exploring scary alien places, and disintegrating monsters. The cutscenes were really, really good and fun to watch/interact with. The sense of dread and exploration is accentuated by some great background art. It never feels scary as its predecessor, but the atmosphere is there (probably, again, this depends on my preference of pixelart over 3d). The ost is good but not memorable, and only a few of the tracks captivated me.

Metroid Dread is as much metroid as you can be. The game isn't too long, but it's so fine tuned as a metroidvania that it doesn't feel unsatisfying for being too short nor diluted. The enemies are all fun to destroy and even when you don't have many abilities, the general flow of the game feels fantastic. Speaking of the abilities, you'll be equipped with all the classic metroid ones, and some new ones that don't revolutionize the formula, but make it a bit fresher. All the bosses are a lot of fun to beat, and the recurring ones change that tiny bit everytime so that they don't become boring (The E.M.M.I.s are a bunch of bitches but their sections of the game always put you on edge). Upgrading samus is always the best feeling, and as i play more metroidvania I came to the conclusion that Metroid games still are the very best ones in that specific aspect. The shooting is a lot of fun, and you're equipped with a lot of abilities that often change how you play. There' also a billion little secrets, that always reward you with more life or ammos (often understanding how to get to a certain reward is better than the reward itself). Not everything is this good though: I really don't like how the map works, and it often feels confusing. Travelling from place A to B is always an hassle, and as much as I like the movement in the game, some kind of fast travel would have been very much appreciated. Also the level desing, while not bad per se, is very weird. In the first half of the game you aren't able to explore as much as you'd like, and if you make the wrong turn, you'll be blocked from accesing that certain area for quite a while. I don't really understand the reasons behind this choice, and much less i understand why the world is separated in watertight compartments from which you can move only with predifined routes, expecially since thery're never easy to access.

This is not a perfect game, not the best Metroid or Metroidvania, but I very much enjoyed it. The flow of the game and general movement feel so good that you can forgive its faults. In the end I found what i had hoped, i.e. a really fun, and a bit nostalgic and old designed, game with a lot of heart but also a lot of Game.

I've finally reached the end of my 2D Metroid binge, and I have to say, I am floored, Dread did not disappoint at all. It fixed pretty much all of my complaints with Fusion, and somehow cherrypicked all of the best aspects from every previous 2D Metroid and fused them into a single game to make what's in my opinion the best Metroid game, and a fantastic climax to the 2D series. You have the fast, fluid and responsive gameplay of Zero Mission, the quality of life improvements of Samus Returns with its Block Scanner, Map Markers, Free Precision Aiming, and Teleporters, the atmosphere, exploration and sequence breaking of Super, and the more spooky, story heavy nature of Fusion, all in one game. This entry leans more heavily into the difficult action game nature the series has only briefly touched upon in earlier games, and I love it for that as a big fan of action games with tough bosses that you have to react to on a dime and counter effectively.

That said, holy crap this game is even less suited for newcomers than Fusion was, it really should not be your first Metroid game unless you're familiar with Metroidvanias and are adept at action games in general. Not to mention the story is essentially the climax of Samus's journey throughout the series and a lot of things will come out of nowhere without the proper context.

As always, I'll start by talking about the gameplay and game as a whole, then segue into my thoughts on the story later, with a spoiler warning when I reach that part. You have been warned.

First things first, holy crap this game looks like an actual Playstation 4 game graphically, which is somehow running on Switch hardware in 1080p 60 FPS flawlessly! I was floored when I saw Dread's presentation, the big budget action cutscenes paired with the amazing artistic direction for the planet of ZDR look and feel amazing. I played this game entirely on handheld mode, and it STILL looked that good! I can only imagine it somehow looks even more immaculate on a big screen HD TV. If this is the new direction Metroid is going to go into with future games, I'm all for it.

Now for the gameplay. As I said before, Samus has never felt better to control than in this. She moves so fluidly and her animations also have so much polish and nuance to them that say a lot about her demeanor and character. The bosses are no slouch in this department either, and they're way more fun to fight than they've ever been. Not that I think Metroid boss design in previous games has ever been bad, but I always felt they could've leaned harder into the action aspects where you're bobbing and weaving around enemies a lot better, when usually that's not the case. But as soon as this game introduced the Flash Step dodge mechanic to complement the dodge slide, I knew that I was in for a treat. No good action game is complete without a solid dodge option to make evading bosses that much more feasible and smooth, and Dread doesn't disappoint here.

Dread thankfully is very good at providing Samus very great spacious arenas to fight her opponents in, which makes the game very fair despite its great challenge. There was only one mini boss in the forest jungle area where I struggled to beat them because of the arena being a lot more confined which made it super hard to avoid their red arm attacks, but other than that I didn't have any complaints with the bosses in this game. The final boss especially takes the case as not only the most epic and satisfying final boss in the series, but also as the most fun. Such an incredibly designed multi-phase fight that really puts everything you've learned throughout the game to the test, and it was really fun for me to figure out and react to the patterns. I only died three times to it (twice in the first phase, and once in the third), but I chalk that up to my experience with other equally as tough action games that require precision aiming and high maintenance reaction time, those games being Kid Icarus Uprising's 9.0 difficulty and Hardest Boss Rush mode, and Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix's Critical Mode and incredible boss design.

The level design is still the standard Metroid fare but polished to a shine. You have your great cool looking alien environments, with incredible level design of gently guiding you in the right direction to go without holding your hand too hard. This is the first Metroid game where I was able to complete the entire game without ever getting stuck and needing a guide to complete the story! I chalk that up to my previous experiences with the series however, as every previous game had me stumped at one point where I needed outside help. (In Zero Mission, I got stuck because I couldn't find one block I needed to bomb to progress. In Samus Returns I got stuck since I didn't realize this one area could be grapple beamed. In Super I got stuck since I didn't realize the glass tunnel could be power bombed. And in Fusion I got stuck since I didn't realize you could literally shoot through blocks with the laser and not missiles.) So to finally beat a Metroid without needing any outside help felt so satisfying, especially since you don't get the Aieon Pulse scan to find hidden blocks until really late into the game, so everything else was all on my own exploration and intuition, and it felt very rewarding.

The item power up progression in Dread was as satisfying as usual, even moreso in this game with all the tools you get to have different options in battle, which enhanced the usual sense of empowerment Metroid gives you in a new and more expanded fun way.

The EMMI encounters were also very exhilarating, naturally I died a lot of times to them, but it was really rewarding learning their patterns and figuring out how to best evade them. I even got pretty decent at countering them when they pinned Samus down, and I felt they were a lot more of an active threat and scary to face compared to the stealth/jump scare segments in Fusion which were scripted and only happened like 2-3 times the entire game.

The one criticism I have of the game itself is that I found the soundtrack fairly lacking, especially compared to previous games. Even Samus Returns had a good amount of more interesting atmosphere tracks and really great boss themes to complements its battles compared to Dread. But that's the only real complaint I have with the gameplay and presentation, otherwise it's immaculate and I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Now it's time for me to talk about my thoughts on the story, this is your LAST chance to stop reading and avoid being spoiled on the game's narrative, so turn back now if you wish.

This game is a fantastic followup to Fusion's story and expands upon the lore of Metroid in a lot of great ways, while making things feel fresh and not like a typical Metroid retread this time. For once, Ridley doesn't get ressurrected for the millionth time, and the Metroids aren't the primary threat. Instead the Chozo take the forefront of the plot for the first time which I really liked, and the main threats are its warrior tribe leader and the X-Parasites from Fusion. Not only that, Samus has to make her way up the planet to get back to her ship rather than making her way into the depths and returning this time. Having Adam as her guide once again was nice, as he's no longer bound by the whims of the Federation and instead just wants to help Samus because he cares about her.

This game threw a good amount of twists at me that I wasn't expecting, but also made me glad I'd read the Metroid manga beforehand again. We finally found out more about the ever mysterious Chozo and their history with how the peaceful Troha tribe created the Metroids, lived to regret it, and were eliminated before they could undo their mistake, yet Samus was raised by them and lived to carry out what they could not.

The twist with Raven Beak being the other Chozo to integrate his DNA into Samus was really genius (and also a cool Darth Vader-esque moment), it explains why Samus is so incredibly combat capable despite the Troha tribe not being warriors. Samus's Metroid DNA turning her into a human Metroid also made so much sense in retrospect, and that her Chozo Troha genes only delayed the inevitable. This also ties into the genius ending twist with the X-Parasite that took over Quiet Robe's body, and why that X-Parasite being absorbed by Samus turned her back to normal. It reinforced the Troha genes in her and set back the Metroid progression in her body, though the fact that Samus is now going to be hunted down for her Metroid power and the fact she's a threat to the galaxy is something that I think could be followed up and played with very interestingly in future games.

The entire climactic fight with Raven Beak going blow for blow with Samus, and culminating in her awakening to her new Metroid suit and obliterating him with a Hyper Beam that's essentially the Zero Laser she has in Smash Brothers was anime as heck and I loved it. The epic high stakes escape from the planet afterward was also awesome, using the hyper beam to blow up new exits for her to escape through.

My one complaint with the story is that I wish Samus got to talk more. She got a lot of dialogue in Fusion and Other M, and I was hoping to see more into her headspace in this game, but I'm guessing Other M's bad reception is what caused the higher ups at Nintendo to make Sakamoto not write any real dialogue for her outside of 2 lines when she talked to Quiet Robe.

That said, I do like what bits of characterization we got from her facial expressions and actions alone in this game, it reminded me a lot of the "Show Don't Tell" nature of Super's story and I respect that artistic choice. It also makes sense given Samus's arc of accepting her mistakes and working to atone for them ended with Other M and Fusion, so here in Dread she's moved past her reservations and is strong in her convictions to the protect the galaxy to the bitter end now, which makes sense and is probably part of why Sakamoto was okay with having her take less of a speaking role this time around. Though even despite all that, I do hope later games aren't afraid to make more of an effort to show Samus's character more overtly though.

Overall, Dread is an incredible climax to an already fantastic series and I have no real major issues with it. Easily my favorite Metroid game and one I'll remember fondly for years to come, and likely replay a lot. I'm excited to tackle the boss rush mode later today too! Big props to Mercury Steam for including that, their incredible boss design lends itself very well to a mode like that, and I love Boss Rush modes in games like this, so that's just the cherry on top of this masterful sundae for me. Hard Mode will also be a fun challenge in the future. (Last thing, but another small thing I love is that they added a Total Play Time counter to account for game overs, since the Switch's playtime counter kinda sucks.)

EDIT: Beat Boss Rush mode about 3-4 hours after writing this review, I refused to finish it in full until I got through every boss without dying and I managed to in 19 minutes and 58 seconds! Was incredibly fun and I'll likely replay this a lot going forward.

Also, big props to Mercury Steam for making probably one of the best boss rush modes in any game I've played. It's very fair as you will heal from most boss fights if you play them correctly so you don't have to go for completely damageless runs, though obviously perfecting fights help. It's also very forgiving in that you can continue the run even if you die, you don't have to do it all with no deaths, I just did that myself personally to challenge myself.

Not only that, but for any boss you beat (and even bosses you die to) in boss rush mode, you're able to "practice" the boss again by itself via the menu, which is a fantastic two-fold Quality of Life options I've never seen another boss rush mode do and wish more would. If you die to a late game boss and want to practice it to get better at that one boss specifically, you can do so immediately and not have to go through the entire gauntlet again just to get to that one boss and likely die again before you learn it.

But if you also just want to replay some specific fun boss fights without needing to replay the entire gauntlet, you can do so with the practice mode just fine! That's incredibly refreshing and thoughtful of the developers to do, so kudos to Mercury Steam for thinking ahead and making in my opinion one of the best boss rush modes I've ever seen in a video game.

Total Game Overs: 111 deaths.

Total playtime (including game overs): 20 hours, 53 minutes and 6 seconds.

Total playtime from in-game file counter: 14 hours, 23 minutes and 23 seconds.

Item Collection Rate: 100%.

See you next mission!

Mercury Stem Magnum Opus brings back the Metroid franchise for an incredible successor to Samus Returns.

I personally think this is the best Metroid ever made. It takes everything Fusion did years ago and expands upon it creating a title worthy to be called a sequel in every possible way.

Samus feels amazing to control in any instance of the game, and every powerup and discovery makes you feel like an unstoppable machine.... untile the EMMI shows up, and that's wehre the horror aspect of the title resurfaces. Some of the most tense pursuits in the series, able to be compared to the best horror games.

I love the story presented, able to tie to FUsion and evolving the story of the Metroid universe with an incredible set of events and plot twists. Even past fan favorites are able to return in an amazing redesign.

I personally prefer the more grim atmosphere of fusion's ambience, but I can't deny how good Dread is. An absolute masterpiece.

I very rarely give out perfect scores, because the reality is perfect games are rare, I'm able to see the flaws even in my favorite games of all time, because I'm nit-picky and because I love them so I want to see them be even better, but this is not a regular game.

MercurySteam had already impressed me massively with their Samus Returns remake, which was originally the first Metroid game I ever played and beat, recently though, I went through and played every 2D Metroid in order of release, and what I realized is, that Samus Returns was still my favorite, their take on Samus as a character and the gameplay mechanics and design of the series is the best so far period, because they're not afraid to take some notes from other contemporaries this series inspired in the first place, while still staying true to what makes Metroid, Metroid, and that's in full display here.

Gameplay is at its best in the series, the new slide move is incredibly smooth and fun to use, and there's a bunch of new abilities to the series that I think were much needed and I really enjoyed them. The parry is back from Samus Returns and it feels even better to use, there’s also a new double jump and a dash, these all play a big role in the boss encounters. Bosses are also at their best, MercurySteam had already showed a lot of promise with the bosses in Samus Returns but they turn that shit up all the way here, with a lot of encounters that really remind me of Hollow Knight bosses, which is a huge compliment if you've played that game.

The Story is also the most compelling so far, with many moments that genuinely sent shivers down my spine, I was glued to the screen from the moment the game started to the very end and the many revelations unveiled throughout were incredibly exciting, and the ending really leaves you hungry for more, I can’t wait to see what Samus’ next adventure is like.

Visually, I mean just look at it, do I even need to explain myself? This is easily one of if not the best-looking Switch games I’ve ever played, the environments are so vivid and alive with a bunch of shit going on in the background that I just kept stopping to look at it all, which was already hard to do because it’s so fun to move around in this game. Enemy designs look amazing too, even the smallest critters have detail to them and it really makes each section super memorable.

The music I think doesn’t get enough credit, it probably will with time, but I found it to be not just great but used extremely well, it reminds me a lot of Metroid 2, it’s mostly ambience but it portrays the vibe of each area perfectly. The different E.M.M.I. themes and the way they change depending on if they hear you or they see you are absolutely incredible and a definite highlight of the series for me, the moment I walked through those pixelated doors and heard that sound I knew I had to hurry the fuck up.

Metroid Dread is everything Fusion should've been, there's multiple similarities that can be drawn but everything is done so much better here. Navigation rooms are back, or at least a new version of them, and Adam is just as talkative as before but instead of constantly telling you where to go he works more as a lore guide than anything else. There's a similar vibe to the E.M.M.I.'s here to SA-X from Fusion but here they play a crucial role in the gameplay whereas in fusion SA-X was more so just relegated to scripted events/chases. There's a heavier focus on story like in fusion but the game has the quality dialogue, cutscenes and narrative to back it up, I genuinely got chills at some specific scenes in this game and I was honestly glued to the screen from start to finish.

Metroid Dread is everything Metroid should be, because it allows you to explore a foreign, fucked up planet, without the frustrations that would normally come with exploring a foreign, fucked up planet. This game employs multiple techniques to guide you through it’s map that I can only describe as genius, instead of taking the Fusion route and just telling you where to go or taking the Super route and not telling you shit, Metroid Dread guides you tacitly, with it’s item placement and level design, you’ll often find yourself going in the right way, rarely getting lost, to some this might actually be a negative and I respect that perspective, but to me this is incredible, because I still get the feeling I’m exploring this place on my own, without having to deal with possibly hours and hours of walking around not knowing where to go, if you get an ability, chances are the next step for progression is right around the corner and uses that exact ability, or there’s a teleported close by instead that just sends you where you’d need to use it, they’ll sometimes tease you with pickups you can’t quite get to so you’ll naturally go in their direction which will end up leading you to where you need to go, it's incredibly clever.

Metroid Dread is everything a videogame should be, fun, exciting, engaging, from start to finish, there’s no low points here, no moments where you start to tune out because of how lost you are, no frustrating boss fights, no awkward controls, it is genuinely, and I do not say this lightly, flawless. I couldn’t have asked for more and I cannot wait to see what MercurySteam does next.

Samus se manie à la perfection, le framerate est impec et le jeu est tellement beau, mention spéciale à la carte très bien détaillée et clean

Mais il y a un seul truc qui m'empêche de lui donner 5 étoiles : les E.M.M.I

Ces saloperies qui te foutent le stress et qui te one shot si tu loupes le contre (le laps de temps pour appuyer sur le bouton, faut avoir des réflexes de ninja xD), encore heureux qu'on recommence à l'entrée de la salle et pas au dernier point de sauvegarde

Ceci étant dit, c'est un sacré jeu à faire et à refaire