Topic: Metroid Dread

Ya, Metroid is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

We're so blessed. We're getting a super dope 2D Metroid and a new Metroid Prime. The dark age of the Wii U era is over.

Prime 4 is still vaporware until I see it in person

For Metroid Fans. This is a post I copy and paste but I hope it's helpful to someone interested in more Metroid. Fans have done alot and the series has possibly more great games because of it than anything beyond Mario.

I don't agree with the general sentiment that the first two games have aged that badly. The first 2 games certainly aren't as polished as the newer ones but I think they have some charm still. However fans have certainly made them better with Metroid HD being a terrific improvement hack and Metroid 2 EJRTQ being a quality hack that adds colour. I'd suggest that anyone play them like that. I'd also recommend all to play the two terrific fan games AM2R and Metroid Planets that remake the first two. AM2R has an excellent Reddit community continuing to evolve the game. Metroid Planets has a terrific remake AND reimagining of the first game that unlike Zero Mission stays faithful to the original mechanics. It's not well known but it's astonishingly well polished.

There's also a considerable amount of awesome mods/hacks on Metroid Construction, especially for Super. Super has the terrific mod Project Base that creates a more modern experience and Fusion has the quality Sequence Breaking mod that opens the game up. Aside from that there are all new experiences. Here's the best hacks that create all new games based on my experience. There's many others worth playing as well but this is a great start.

Metroid 1:

Rouge Dawn
Incursion
Over the Moon

Super Metroid:

Hyper Metroid
Ascent
Escape 2
Vitality
Ancient Chozo (Similar to Super but different and gorgeous enough to recommend on it's own)
Nature (Vanilla, means it has little to no graphical or mechanical changes)
Recovery (Vanilla)
Hidden (Vanilla)
Retroid (Metroid 1 remake in the SM engine)
Y Faster (Speedrun)
Y Faster 2 (Speedrun)
Super Zero Mission (Hard)
Eris (Hard)
Redesign Axeil Edition (Hard)
YPX (Hard)
Cliffhanger Redux (Very Hard)

Zero Mission:

Scrolls 6 (Haven't played it, heard good things)

Also there are some real cool randomizers:

A Link to the Past and Super Metroid combo randomizer
Zelda 1 and Metroid 1 combo randomizer
Varia Randomizer for Super Metroid
Metroid 1 Randomizer
Zero Mission Randomizer
Fusion Randomizer (In Beta)

It's really quite amazing what fans have done for the series. Even the first two Prime games have randomizers. And despite what people may say even Other M is a decent game, albeit with a silly story and some clunky mechanics. Thankfully there's a mod for it too called Other M Maxximum Edition that fixes most of the common complaints.

@Sdelintwouters couldn't agree more (and yes even more than BotW 2)

I’m in the camp that Super Metroid is pretty much close to being a perfect game. Samus is a military tank with a low gravity jump on an alien world. Fusion & zero mission were great games but they both kind of lost some of that feel.

Even visually the graphics have a grimy low res “80’s sci if” quality to them that’s perfect for the game. Remaking them in polygons would lose that.

I honestly don’t think there’s anything that can realistically be done to the game that wouldn’t make it a slightly lesser game.

…

Then again they’re remaking one of the very few other “perfect” games in Advance Wars so who knows?

Samus Returns is so good. SO good!

I can't wait 4 months. I just can't. Metroid Prime was the game that got me into video games as an adult. Metroid was my favorite series before I ever played a Zelda or a Monster Hunter or a Fire Emblem or a Xenoblade.

But it's been so long I'd kinda forgotten my love for the series. I knew I loved it but I just lost that hype I used to have. But it's resurfaced with Dread. It's resurfaced hard.

Thank goodness for Samus Returns. For real. This game is going to make the wait for Dread actually be bearable. If we get the Prime Trilogy next year too? Liamson says to "be patient" and that it's coming eventually. If we end up with the entire Prime series on Switch, all 4 games, plus this new 2D Metroid? Oh my gosh. I don't think any system has ever seen more than 2 entries to date (well, I suppose the Wii did, but only one other game besides the Trilogy, Switch would have two).

With Dread being "the end of the Metroid story arc", I'm wondering just how Metroid will continue to live up to its namesake. I mean, Samus does have Metroid DNA in her, but supposedly Sakamoto confirmed that once she got her original suit back from the SA-X (I can't find the primary source on this unfortunately, it seems to have been taken down) her genetic condition was reset and she is no longer part-Metroid. So how is this Metroid without Metroids? I like the idea of Samus being the last Metroid, both for storyline purposes and for the new abilities it could open up (energy absorption and hovering abilities would be cool), but Word of God seems to imply that's not the direction they want to go.

As for the disucssion on a Super remake, I think it will happen on the Switch's successor. I do think it needs a lot less improvement than what Zero Mission and Samus Returns offered, but I wouldn't call it a "perfect game". The biggest change I would make would be to overhaul Maridia. Maridia's design is awful, if you really boil things down the only thing you do is go in the secret entrance from Lower Brinstar and follow a linear path to fight Draygon. For all of the raving about this game's exploration, Maridia really doesn't live up to that. I would say change the design and add some extra branching paths and powerups you need to obtain before you take on Draygon (Spider Ball/Spider Magnet would be a good addition to Super, and if there are some other good abilites added in Dread they could potentially throw those in too), maybe shuffle a few things around in the game to facilitate this (move Botwoon to one of those branching paths and reward you with some of the random powerups upon defeating it, maybe move Power Bombs to Maridia somewhere and move Super Missiles to where the Power Bombs were and give you something else for defeating Spore Spawn because both of those weapons feel too early, maybe even make the Plasma Beam a mandatory powerup because it's weird that you need the Ice Beam and Wave Beam for overworld stuff but not the Plasma Beam). I think we can also expect the improvements from Samus Returns and Dread to be added, such as the Melee Counter, Slide, and Aeion Abilities. Other than that, I think the rest of the game should remain largely intact, there's not nearly as much that's dated/poorly designed in Super as there was in the first two games, although I can see them making one other change that older players probably won't like and that's make the Etecoon and Dachora tutorials mandatory to point those moves out for casuals (although with Samus Returns replacing the Speed Booster with the Phase Drift, will the Speed Booster and Shine Sparking even return in this game? They might make the Dachora tutorial something different).

Speaking of Spider Magnet, with that move being similar to the Spider Ball, will the Spider Ball return alongside it in this game or does the Spider Magnet make it obsolete?

...Okay no one has brought this up, so I'm gonna ask...what happened to the Morph Ball? She can still do this, right? lol

@Joeynator3000

?

The morph ball was used in the trailer.

She isn't just sliding all the time.

Time stamp 1:28.

...I missed it, then, despite seeing the trailer multiple times. lol

People keep saying this, but I haven't seen the quote as being the end of the Metroid story arc. I've only see it as just that it's the end of a story arc, which leaves the door open for other possibilities. From the first game to now and only using the numerically named games, that could include the Metroids, but could also mean Ridley, the Federation, the Space Pirates or the Chozo as possibilities for their stories and parts in the overall saga to be done.

Here are all of the abilities shown off so far:

Inherent Abilities:
Free Aim
Power Grip
Wall Jump
Slide
Melee Counter
Dash Melee

Powerups:
Missiles
Charge Beam
Omega Beam (temporary)
Morph Ball
Spring Ball
Spazer Beam
Spider Magnet

Aeion Abilities:
Phantom Cloak

Not shown but presumably back as well due to the obstacles shown are the Morph Ball Bombs (there are some blocks in one of the Morph Ball tunnels, but I don't think they showed Samus actually using Bombs) and the Varia Suit and/or Gravity Suit, due to the lava room shown in Cataris on Treehouse (I'm a little iffy on them continuing to use the Gravity Suit to give you lava immunity because that's never really made much sense).

I think the following are also safe bets to return, but not yet confirmed (simply because they're series staples/too useful to the gameplay):

Hi-Jump Boots
Super Missiles
Ice Beam
Scan Pulse
Wave Beam
Plasma Beam
Space Jump
Phase Drift (I'd prefer the Speed Booster, but I have a feeling they want Phase Drift to prevent sequence breaking via Shinespark)
Power Bombs
Screw Attack

I'm about 50/50 on things like the Grapple Beam, Spider Ball, Lightning Armor, and Beam Burst returning, I can see them staying, but they could also decide to utilize different powerups to replace them or simply decide they're not essential. There's probably also going to be more completely new abilities than just the Phantom Cloak and Spider Magnet, so those could displace some of those older abilities and I'm not sure we're going to see every single recurring powerup ever in this game.

@Sdelintwouters Doubtful, that's a risk and could cause confusion among fans and backfire. If the new branding doesn't bring in more fans that it loses due to not knowing it's a Metroid game, then it'll sell even worse. You might be able to draw in a few Smash fans, but other than that, you'll probably do more harm than good. It's probably better to just make the gameplay more universally appealing and put more money into marketing to increase sales than change the name.

Hell, I think some of the moves they've made with this game already will probably help. Adding in more horror elements is something that could give it more universal appeal and draw in fans of franchises like say, Resident Evil or TLOU. But I think the best thing they've done for it is to not pit it against any other major titles for the holiday so it can shine on its own. If BotW2 or Mario Kart 9 or Mario Odyssey 2 or something was this year, then that might've hurt it because then so many other people would've bought those games over Dread, but with little other competition besides a low budget Pokemon remake, this game should receive a big marketing spotlight for the holiday and that could lead to more sales for Metroid.

With the deal Nintendo have done to make movies, I wonder if we'll see a Metroid/Samus live action movie? Maybe if the next few games do well, we will.

@Bolt_Strike I agree it is good to be One the big titles for the holiday season but I bet that the "low budget" Pokémon sells 4/5 times better easily anyways

@Balta666 Oh yeah, BDSP is probably a 10+ million seller easily, but Metroid could still do quite well for itself in part for having not much else besides that.

Personally, I’m not that bothered about Metroid Prime 4. The trilogy had its own little story arc and I love the trilogy being just that, a trilogy.

Turn Metroid Prime 4 into ‘Samus Aran’ and see if that rebrand could work…!

@Slowdive

I agree with you there. Heck wall jumping, the grapple beam and bomb jumping were always a major struggle in super metroid. I say keep it pixel art style but HD it up and maybe add a CD quality soundtrack like SOTN. Oh and life refills at save points are a must!

Spider Ball has to return. It’s classic. Plus it lets you climb walls and ceilings without that blue stuff, and tunnel passageways.

I think Spider Magnet will be an earlier ability, and later you’ll get the Spider Ball which lets you climb any surface (barring slippery surfaces prohibiting use). The Spider Magnet also distinguishes itself by allowing you to aim and shoot while climbing. So it could be preferable if the blue surface is present.

I love Spider Ball. It’s my favorite ability in the series (especially on magnetic rails in the Prime series)

Only thing I was hoping for in a modern 2D Metroid game, is the ability to scan things like in the Prime games. I enjoyed scanning in general, dunno if this game will have an actual first-person mode or if that was just trailer/cutscene stuff.