Hermosa experiencia, como fan de hueso colorado de esta saga me parece la entrega definitiva hasta el momento de la cazadora espacial Samus, el gameplay es el mas fluido de la saga, no hay fan servicie y el que hay se siente necesario para la narrativa, se siente como una carta de amor a la saga y el inicio de un capitulo nuevo para la misma, el único detalle a mi parecer de esta entrega son los jefes (exceptuando el ultimo) los cuales si bien tenían sus momentos, su relevancia a la trama se siente mas como que a fuerzas tenia que tener obstáculos e incluso la repetición incesante de algunos jefes los volvía mas una molestia que un reto, ya fuera de estos inconvenientes es el metroid mas disfrutable de todos los 2D

Metroid Dread is a evolution of its genre and its series as Metroid Dread is a great place to be introduced to the Metroid Series. Metroid Dread provides a sense of fear but also discovery when exploring the map that is provided to the player. There is always something that is hidden as this game rewards you for finding all its hidden secrets as Metroid Dread may be a difficult game and may make you feel dread but Metroid Dread has a satisfactory feeling when beating a boss battle along with its fluid controls providing tight platforming and traversal making this one of the bet 2D Metroidvania's to exist.

(played in Ryujinx)

I love metroid and I love metroidvanias. The feeling of knowing that when you unlock a new power or ability, a new chunk of the map is going to be revealed to you is a powerful one.

Sadly, this game twist that in a bad way.
The game map is divided by zones, and every zone is accessible via teleporters. The thing is that the teleporters are color coded, not universal. That makes the "fast travel" aspect of the teleporters almost non-existent.
Also, when you acquire a new power, the game usually guides you to a new teleporter, locks you in the zone that you go via the teleporter until you use the new acquired power to reveal a new path, usually to a new teleporter.
And until you have all your powers, all the zones are almost locked via the teleporter system, meaning that the backtracking that usually all metroidvanias have to acquire upgrades to your powers and stuff are locked until the endgame when in some other metroidvanias you can explore a lot of one zone and not being locked and forced to explore forward
It's a really weird development decision that I really didn't like

The story is really great, moves the metroid plot forward and also reveals new stuff about Samus past.
The gameplay is really fun and polished, that's to be expected from a metroid game.

Samus is a badass

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.

Metroid Dread is a great installment in the series. Let no one tell you otherwise. However, it can get incredibly frustrating at times. The emmis are the worst part of the game, and I didn't find any of their stealth sections fun. The bosses also desperately need checkpoints. The game makes you do a lot of things over again in general. The game is very fun despite this and is well worth playing, that Metroid gameplay loop is possibly better executed here than in any other game in the series. Fusion is still better though.