Metroid Dread returns series to its 2D sci-fi horror roots

Metroid Dread

One of the biggest surprise announcements during this morning’s E3 Nintendo Direct was Metroid Dread. It’s a brand new, 2D Metroid game starring series heroine Samus Aran that leans into the series’ original horror roots.

Dread by name and dread by nature, the game sees Samus working her way through a facility patrolled by hunter-killer robots. She’ll need to avoid them at first, but suit upgrades will allow her to hide in plain sight. Hallways twist and turn through science facilities and underground caverns as Samus slowly works her way to the centre of the mystery at hand. It recalls the creeping, oppressive horror of Super Metroid and we’re honestly here for it.

When introducing the clip, Nintendo general manager Shinya Takahashi apologised for not having any news on Metroid Prime 4. With an announcement like this, we’re sure most fans will be happy to forgive him. Development on Metroid Prime 4 continues at Retro Studios after a from-scratch internal reboot.

Dread producer Yoshio Sakamoto appeared on Nintendo Treehouse Live following the show to talk through the design of the new game. What he has to talk about will be music to the ears of Metroid fans everywhere. The project has been in development at Nintendo for many, many years. Rumours of existence have cropped up again and again but, until today, no announcement was ever made. We’re thrilled for it to finally see the light of day.

Metroid Dread will launch October 8, 2021 exclusively for Nintendo Switch.

You can check out our review of the last game in the series, Metroid: Samus Returns, right here.

David Smith

David Smith is the former games and technology editor at The AU Review. He has previously written for PC World Australia. You can find him on Twitter at @RhunWords.