Nintendo announced a brand new Metroid game will be heading exclusively to Nintendo Switch this October and the Nintendo Treehouse live team has shown us a closer look at what to expect.
The action followed Samus as she ventured through the first section of the game and the team talked us through some of the features and gameplay mechanics that are coming to the 2D platformer. Metroid Dread has been confirmed to be a sequel to Metroid Fusion and the story finally concludes the narrative between Samus and the Metroids.
About Metroid Dread
Apart from its stunning mixture of 2D platforming and 3D visuals, fans of the series are pitted against the stalking E.M.M.I robots that are hell-bent on killing Samus. These mechanical menaces have three modes: surveillance, chase, and patrol and it’s up to the player to outsmart them to progress through the game.
You’ve got an arsenal of refined moves to help escape though, with the Slide move and Spider Magnet being showcased. These also aid Samus in exploring the locations in a variety of interesting ways. It’s also now possible to run and free-aim – an improvement from Metroid Samus Returns – and Samus has a new ability called Phantom Cloak which will come in handy if you want to keep hidden from the E.M.M.I.
Thankfully, our intergalactic hero is also kitted out with the famous Arm Cannon which can be powered up to one-shot kill the E.M.M.I with the Omega Blaster upgrade so things are completely against your favour. The Treehouse team made sure to assure Metroid buffs that there is instadeath, however, the game won’t punish players too much with respawn points scattered throughout – this confirms that it isn’t going to be a rogue-like affair.
As mentioned, the story completes the arc between Samus and the Metroids and it promises to deep-dive into some lore that will appease those who have been following our protagonist from the early days. Newcomers will also find tons of info to get them up to speed, and whether you’re exploring using the trusty map, or fighting off a slew of new enemies, the action looks fantastic running on the Switch hardware.
The dynamic camera helps to keep the action flowing and it’s great to see Samus’ journey captured in different ways. We only saw a fraction of what’s the come, but each level looked gorgeous with some of the action and story playing out behind Samus as she fought her way through the landscapes.
Development history
The producer behind Metroid Dread, Yoshio Sakamoto, has also shed some light on the development history;
