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E3 2021: Metroid Dread set to bring old-school action to Nintendo Switch

First new 2D Metroid game in nearly 20 years has darker theme, Terminator-like robots that stalk Samus from start to finish

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After missing a year due to the pandemic, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) — one of the biggest video game conferences in the world — returned this week in the form of a series of streamed press conferences rather than the traditional sprawling event attended by tens of thousands of people in the Los Angeles Convention Center.

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It closed on Tuesday with a Nintendo livestream that showcased a range of upcoming games, from the highly anticipated sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild coming in 2022 to the unveiling of a new party game for Nintendo Switch called Mario Party Superstars, due this fall.

But one of the biggest surprises of Nintendo’s event was the announcement of Metroid Dread, the first new 2D side-scrolling game in Nintendo’s storied action series starring sci-fi bounty hunter Samus Aran in nearly 20 years.

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Whether the current generation of young Nintendo action game lovers, who have been weaned on expansive adventures like Breath of the Wild, will take to the cramped confines of a 2D world is unknown. But there’s no question that the franchise’s older fans who grew up with Samus — one of the earliest video game heroines — have been champing at the bit to get back into her armour.

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Post Arcade had a chance to sit in on a video call with Yoshio Sakamoto, the series’ long-time producer, after Nintendo’s livestream to learn a little more about what the new game has in store.

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For those unfamiliar with older 2D Metroid games, they follow a rough blueprint that sees Samus exploring a maze of rooms teeming with enemies and contextual puzzles. She gradually earns new weapons and abilities that allow her to overcome obstacles and gain access to new areas. By the end of the game she can go anywhere — typically in plenty of style as she effortlessly wall-jumps to higher ground and rolls up into a quick-moving ball while blasting baddies with her arm cannon.

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Metroid Dread looks to follow this proven formula, just with a darker theme.

Samus has arrived on planet ZDR, where she discovers not just aggressive alien life but also a group of relentless robotic enemies dubbed EMMIs that constantly stalk her. If they catch Samus they can kill her instantly unless the player performs a perfectly timed counter. She also earns brand new abilities that help her deal with these mechanical menaces, such as Phantom Cloak, which renders her invisible — clearly pretty handy for someone being hounded by Terminator-like death bots.

Speaking through a translator, Mr. Sakamoto explained that he’s been thinking about making this game for 15 years but until recently lacked a Nintendo platform with sufficient specs to handle what he wanted to do.

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Indeed, the demo does make the game appear very pretty — and I’m not just talking about Samus’ ability to turn into a transparent shimmer when hiding from her stalkers. There are also sophisticated lighting and fog effects, some lush narrative sequences that briefly pull our bounty hunter into the third dimension, and silky smooth traversal animations that seem tailor made for gaming speedrunners interested in creating cinematic clips to share with the world.

Mr. Sakamoto also noted — perhaps surprisingly — that his vision for the game, both in terms of play mechanics and overall themes, hasn’t changed much over the years. He worked closely with the game’s primary developer, Spanish studio MercurySteam (who previously remade the second game in the Metroid series, Metroid: Samus Returns, for Nintendo 3DS in 2017), to bring his original concepts to life.

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Some of his ideas are fairly simple, such as giving Samus the ability to cinematically slide under obstacles and hide behind objects to avoid detection, as well as a chance to counter certain attacks. Others are core to the game’s cat-and-mouse premise, such as Samus charging her arm cannon enough to be able to destroy a single EMMI robot — essentially a boss — creating a sense of satisfaction and progress.

Interestingly, Mr. Sakamoto explained that while this game is set after all other Metroid games and represents a closure of sorts to the current Metroid storyline, he’s still thinking about where the series can go from here.

It seems Samus’ adventures likely won’t end at the hands of the EMMIs.

Metroid Dread is set for release on Nintendo Switch later this year.

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