This review contains spoilers
Metroid is probably my favorite Nintendo serie, and Super Metroid is one of my favorite game of all time, if someone asked me my top 3 games ever, it would be part of this top. I’ve started playing the serie when I was in highschool, so about 8 years ago, and I immediately fell in love with it, even tho I never played the 3D games except the first Prime. When Metroid Dread was announced, I was really excited to see how it would turn out, but also a bit worried it wouldn’t meet my expectations. Spoiler alert: it did meet them, and even surpassed them in some ways.
Before the game release, I did replay through Super Metroid, Metroid Zero Mission, and Metroid Fusion (in that order), I didn’t really try to speedrun them but I did use a few speedrunning tricks in both Super and Zero Mission, and for every game I tried to go pretty fast. Super Metroid is gonna be my main point of comparison for this game because imo it’s the best game of the serie, at least prior to Dread.
First, I’m gonna start with what I didn’t like about the game, but none of these issues are major, far from it.
I think that while the sound design is still very good, the music of the game is not as good as it could be. Super Metroid had a lot of really awesome atmospheric tracks, and while ZM/Fusion are less good in that regard, they still got some pretty good songs. In Dread, the music is kinda just there, never bad, but also except for a few cutscenes, never really good either.
The lack of interconnectivity between the areas is also something I’m not a big fan of. You do get some hidden elevators to go to new parts of previous areas, but you never end up opening a door to get through a new area, it’s always using an elevator. The areas themselves are… A mixed bag. The backgrounds in this game are really good, you can see a lot of care put into them, but every E.M.M.I area looks similar, and I think the lack of really good music makes the areas more forgettable than in Super, which is a shame because I really like how they look.
My biggest grip with the game however is about the lack of sequence breaking. I know that most of the sequence break in Super Metroid is done using glitches so shouldn’t be used as a point of reference, however Zero Mission had a couple of really cool ones you could do if you were skilled enough. (early super missile, early varia suit, beating Ridley before Kraid, etc…) Obviously, I haven’t experienced the game enough (I didn’t do a 100% run) and speedrunning strats are always found after a lot of playing, however, i did manage to snag an early power bomb to find out…. I was unable to use it until i got the actual power bomb upgrade. I totally understand that from a dev standpoint, having items too early can totally break the experience you want players to have, but at the same time, I feel like part of the appeal of the serie is to try and find out way to get around that, so seeing that really feels weird to me. Also slightly related, I’m not a big fan of the wall jump being scripted like in Fusion, which prevents you from doing single walled wall jump, but the game was also designed with that in mind, so it’s not that big of a deal. The shinespark also feels like it’s not that useful because you have to manually run and your base speed is high enough that i never really felt like using it.
EDIT: after playing a bit more of the game i learned that there is still some sequence breaks, like getting the grapple beam and bomb before kraid which lets you one shot his second phase, you can also get the gravity suit early etc... I'm keeping that part of the review up for archiving's sake but you can actually consider it to not be accurate anymore.
Except for those issues, the game is simply phenomenal. I won’t even mention the story because spoilers, but it’s there, and it’s honestly pretty good.
First of all, the movement is absolutely amazing. Samus never controlled that smoothly before, and having a full controller for the first time in the serie history really feels right: no more awkwardly pressing select to use the missiles, the 360° aiming feels awesome, having a button to quickly morph just feels natural, even using the grapple beam isn’t a pain in this game. As in every other Metroid games, you start with almost no abilities and slowly rebuild your full power, with some new abilities added and those new abilities feel very clever, I really enjoyed them, even if some of them end up being replaced by way more powerful abilities from previous games (like you get a double jump, but later on you also get the space jump, which is kind of a shame because the double jump really feels out of place because of it)
Samus being the best she’s ever controlled is for the best, because this games features something none of the other games of the serie really got: really awesome bosses. Most of the bosses in Metroid are not that fun to fight, they’re pretty quick to kill or require some really simple strategy. In Metroid Dread however, the bosses are nothing to joke about. For example, Kraid is back, but while he’s a big pushover in Super/Zero Mission, in Dread he killed me more than once, but it never felt like it was bullshit. The bosses in this game are like Dark Souls bosses: they’re challenging, but their patterns are easy to figure out if you pay attention, and 99% of the time when you take damage or die, it feels like it’s your fault, and emerging victorious never felt so good in a Metroid game. There’s a couple boss i didn’t particularly like, but the rest of them is extremely good, by far the best the serie has to offer and even the video game medium in general imo, the final boss in particular was some of the best final bosses i’ve beaten in a video game.
Speaking of bosses, Metroid Dread features not one, not two, but three kinds of recurring minibosses: the E.M.M.I, and two kinds of Chozo warrior. The first kind of chozo warrior is alright, the first battle against one of them is awesome but i feel like having it being a recurring miniboss wasn’t necessary, and even lessens the impact of the first fight. The E.M.M.I are very good: every area of the game has an E.M.M.I zone, where you’ll have to proceed with caution, because if you don’t, the E.M.M.I is gonna chase you, and if it catches you, you have a tiny window of opportunity to parry but missing it means game over. Your goal is to manage to find a way to reactivate your Omega buster, and once you do, blast the E.M.M.I’s head off, which is also very dreadful, because you can’t move while charging your shot, so if you miss, the E.M.M.I will get you. Every E.M.M.I has different properties, and I really loved them, they’re really good at pressuring you. The final type of recurring boss is the “corrupted chozo warrior”, and it’s by far my favorite. When I first beat one, i was excited beyond belief at how cool the boss battle was, and then after playing more I met another one and realizing that i’d fight them again made me scream of joy, this boss is one of the most fun boss to fight and you do it multiple times!
And finally, a Metroid game wouldn’t be a Metroid game without exploration. (just pretend Metroid 2 doesn’t exist) And in this game, I sometimes felt lost, and that was purely amazing. At some point, I found a new upgrade, and spent almost half an hour trying to find where to go: once I did, the path to take felt almost wrong, and multiple times during it i was wondering if I was even going the right way, or if i would just end up finding a dead end with a few powerup. The Metroid Dread world is really well crafted, I haven’t explored all of it yet but I can’t wait to do so on my next run, trying to 100% the game feels like a huge but rewarding challenge.
If I had to rate this game, I’d probably give it a 9.5/10. I have some very minor issues with it, but some of them may go away with time, and the sheer quality and quantity of good stuff far surpasses those issues, I feel like I haven’t even mentioned everything I loved about the game, and the best part is, I don’t even know everything about it yet. This game was first rumored in 2006, and honestly, I’m glad it got cancelled and delayed to today, because I don’t think it would have been able to achieve a tenth of what it was trying to do on a DS. Every Metroid fan should buy this game because if you liked a Metroid game, you’re guaranteed to love this one. And if you haven’t played a Metroid game yet, I’m not sure if this one is the best one to start with because it’s pretty challenging, but I’d heavily recommend trying out Metroid Zero Mission first, and play through the rest of the serie before coming to Dread
Before the game release, I did replay through Super Metroid, Metroid Zero Mission, and Metroid Fusion (in that order), I didn’t really try to speedrun them but I did use a few speedrunning tricks in both Super and Zero Mission, and for every game I tried to go pretty fast. Super Metroid is gonna be my main point of comparison for this game because imo it’s the best game of the serie, at least prior to Dread.
First, I’m gonna start with what I didn’t like about the game, but none of these issues are major, far from it.
I think that while the sound design is still very good, the music of the game is not as good as it could be. Super Metroid had a lot of really awesome atmospheric tracks, and while ZM/Fusion are less good in that regard, they still got some pretty good songs. In Dread, the music is kinda just there, never bad, but also except for a few cutscenes, never really good either.
The lack of interconnectivity between the areas is also something I’m not a big fan of. You do get some hidden elevators to go to new parts of previous areas, but you never end up opening a door to get through a new area, it’s always using an elevator. The areas themselves are… A mixed bag. The backgrounds in this game are really good, you can see a lot of care put into them, but every E.M.M.I area looks similar, and I think the lack of really good music makes the areas more forgettable than in Super, which is a shame because I really like how they look.
My biggest grip with the game however is about the lack of sequence breaking. I know that most of the sequence break in Super Metroid is done using glitches so shouldn’t be used as a point of reference, however Zero Mission had a couple of really cool ones you could do if you were skilled enough. (early super missile, early varia suit, beating Ridley before Kraid, etc…) Obviously, I haven’t experienced the game enough (I didn’t do a 100% run) and speedrunning strats are always found after a lot of playing, however, i did manage to snag an early power bomb to find out…. I was unable to use it until i got the actual power bomb upgrade. I totally understand that from a dev standpoint, having items too early can totally break the experience you want players to have, but at the same time, I feel like part of the appeal of the serie is to try and find out way to get around that, so seeing that really feels weird to me. Also slightly related, I’m not a big fan of the wall jump being scripted like in Fusion, which prevents you from doing single walled wall jump, but the game was also designed with that in mind, so it’s not that big of a deal. The shinespark also feels like it’s not that useful because you have to manually run and your base speed is high enough that i never really felt like using it.
EDIT: after playing a bit more of the game i learned that there is still some sequence breaks, like getting the grapple beam and bomb before kraid which lets you one shot his second phase, you can also get the gravity suit early etc... I'm keeping that part of the review up for archiving's sake but you can actually consider it to not be accurate anymore.
Except for those issues, the game is simply phenomenal. I won’t even mention the story because spoilers, but it’s there, and it’s honestly pretty good.
First of all, the movement is absolutely amazing. Samus never controlled that smoothly before, and having a full controller for the first time in the serie history really feels right: no more awkwardly pressing select to use the missiles, the 360° aiming feels awesome, having a button to quickly morph just feels natural, even using the grapple beam isn’t a pain in this game. As in every other Metroid games, you start with almost no abilities and slowly rebuild your full power, with some new abilities added and those new abilities feel very clever, I really enjoyed them, even if some of them end up being replaced by way more powerful abilities from previous games (like you get a double jump, but later on you also get the space jump, which is kind of a shame because the double jump really feels out of place because of it)
Samus being the best she’s ever controlled is for the best, because this games features something none of the other games of the serie really got: really awesome bosses. Most of the bosses in Metroid are not that fun to fight, they’re pretty quick to kill or require some really simple strategy. In Metroid Dread however, the bosses are nothing to joke about. For example, Kraid is back, but while he’s a big pushover in Super/Zero Mission, in Dread he killed me more than once, but it never felt like it was bullshit. The bosses in this game are like Dark Souls bosses: they’re challenging, but their patterns are easy to figure out if you pay attention, and 99% of the time when you take damage or die, it feels like it’s your fault, and emerging victorious never felt so good in a Metroid game. There’s a couple boss i didn’t particularly like, but the rest of them is extremely good, by far the best the serie has to offer and even the video game medium in general imo, the final boss in particular was some of the best final bosses i’ve beaten in a video game.
Speaking of bosses, Metroid Dread features not one, not two, but three kinds of recurring minibosses: the E.M.M.I, and two kinds of Chozo warrior. The first kind of chozo warrior is alright, the first battle against one of them is awesome but i feel like having it being a recurring miniboss wasn’t necessary, and even lessens the impact of the first fight. The E.M.M.I are very good: every area of the game has an E.M.M.I zone, where you’ll have to proceed with caution, because if you don’t, the E.M.M.I is gonna chase you, and if it catches you, you have a tiny window of opportunity to parry but missing it means game over. Your goal is to manage to find a way to reactivate your Omega buster, and once you do, blast the E.M.M.I’s head off, which is also very dreadful, because you can’t move while charging your shot, so if you miss, the E.M.M.I will get you. Every E.M.M.I has different properties, and I really loved them, they’re really good at pressuring you. The final type of recurring boss is the “corrupted chozo warrior”, and it’s by far my favorite. When I first beat one, i was excited beyond belief at how cool the boss battle was, and then after playing more I met another one and realizing that i’d fight them again made me scream of joy, this boss is one of the most fun boss to fight and you do it multiple times!
And finally, a Metroid game wouldn’t be a Metroid game without exploration. (just pretend Metroid 2 doesn’t exist) And in this game, I sometimes felt lost, and that was purely amazing. At some point, I found a new upgrade, and spent almost half an hour trying to find where to go: once I did, the path to take felt almost wrong, and multiple times during it i was wondering if I was even going the right way, or if i would just end up finding a dead end with a few powerup. The Metroid Dread world is really well crafted, I haven’t explored all of it yet but I can’t wait to do so on my next run, trying to 100% the game feels like a huge but rewarding challenge.
If I had to rate this game, I’d probably give it a 9.5/10. I have some very minor issues with it, but some of them may go away with time, and the sheer quality and quantity of good stuff far surpasses those issues, I feel like I haven’t even mentioned everything I loved about the game, and the best part is, I don’t even know everything about it yet. This game was first rumored in 2006, and honestly, I’m glad it got cancelled and delayed to today, because I don’t think it would have been able to achieve a tenth of what it was trying to do on a DS. Every Metroid fan should buy this game because if you liked a Metroid game, you’re guaranteed to love this one. And if you haven’t played a Metroid game yet, I’m not sure if this one is the best one to start with because it’s pretty challenging, but I’d heavily recommend trying out Metroid Zero Mission first, and play through the rest of the serie before coming to Dread