Metroid is a series made by Nintendo known for its influential formula and long hiatuses. You explore a world finding “keys” to open doors, and these keys help find secrets. When you get the morph ball for example, not only can you progress, you can also go back to a previous area and find a health upgrade. Metroid Fusion was released in 2002, nearly 19 years ago. So when E3 2021 came, the entire Metroid fandom exploded unlike ever before. Metroid Dread was finally here and the Nintendo Switch was the perfect place for it to be.

The story of Dread starts with Samus, the best bounty hunter in the galaxy, getting word of a video of an X parasite still alive. The video was later traced to planet ZDR, and so the Galactic Federation sends research robots named the E.M.M.I. to investigate. After losing contact with the robots, Samus assumes the worst, the X must still be out there and she’s the only one who can stop them. The rest of the story goes into spoiler territory, so I’ll leave it out, but every twist and turn in the game had me blown away every single time. It’s safe to say that the story of Dread is the strongest in the series by far.

Metroid has always been about exploring an alien world and finding your own path forward. Unlike Fusion, Dread goes back to what made the series so great in the first place. As of now, discoveries are being made left and right that allow you to get items long before what was intended and skip major parts of the game. Seeing a community break a game open like this is something only really possible with Metroid. Being a part of the community makes every discovery feel earth-shattering. Now is the best time to be a Metroid fan.

When the game was first revealed, I was skeptical about the E.M.M.I. designs. Initially, I thought they looked too colorful and silly to be scary, but I couldn’t have been further off. When you enter an E.M.M.I. zone, the thick atmosphere and absence of life immediately instills a feeling that can only be described as pure dread. This feeling is only amplified every time Adam tells you that you are fully incapable of defeating one even at full power. Eventually, you’re going to mess up and one will find you. The music and blaring alarms combine to make an extremely intense chase sequence where it feels like one wrong step means instant death. All of this makes for one of the best chase sequences I’ve ever seen in a game.

Metroid Dread has been in development for 16 years, and after playing the game, I can officially say it was worth the wait. The only problems I have with the game are either nitpicks or things it already did well enough but could’ve done better. Sure it only took me 15 hours to get everything, but the replayability will probably extend that time tenfold. Metroid Dread is a fantastic sendoff to a story 35 years in the making and I’m very excited to see where my favorite galactic bounty hunter will go next. 

FINAL GRADE: A+, a must play for anyone with a Switch