Topic: Metroid Dread

I was not expecting Samus Returns to get to the number 1 spot of Amazon for certain regions
It was a very nice 3DS game, but I remember it having its price drops fairly often which does not really happen with most Nintendo IPs. I myself also got it a bit later down the line for a rather low price.
I also played the Castlevania game by MercurySteam and it was pretty fun, but that game also was fairly often in the budget bin at many stores and did not have the highest reception in general.
For me it is a bit hard to imagine these games moving to the Switch and become engaging enough for the big screen to justify at full price. Right now I think of waiting it out for a bit which I also did for Samus Returns.

Metroid has been one of my all time favorite Nintendo franchises since at least Return of samus on Gameboy. I already liked Sci-fi so that helped. The original game i just couldn't get into because of the difficulty. I'd play for 10 minutes and die over and over then say to heck with this and pop in mario 3 instead. A buddy of mine told me about the Justin Bailey code so that's how i found out samus was a girl sadly. I never figured that out on my own. Did anybody really?

Then i discovered Super metroid and holy space balls i was hooked! I now own every game in the main series plus the prime games.

@link3710
Ya I know what you mean. Usually I'm the same way. But I'm really into Samus Returns.

And up til now it was lack of sleep mode for GBA games that made it hard to play them, but the whole "closing the lid turns off the screen but the game runs in the background" issue can be mitigated by using the in-game sleep function first, then closing the lid, which is preseng in both Zero Mission and Fusion.

@I-U
There's something about rolling around in a ball and dropping bombs behind you looking for secret passages that's incredibly rewarding.

So instead of axing the entire mechanic, address the root cause and just bump the speed up to be the same as when rolling normally.

I never understand the people who are influenced like this. Did they only just find out what Metroid is or something? How else would they not know about the 3DS game, despite apparently owning 3DSs?

@Dezzy I think it's more people who've had Metroid Samus Returns on their To Play list for ages, and when they realized they wanted to get Dread at launch they immediately go to catch up on the series.

Like...I'm probably going to try and finish Samus Returns now after on and off playing it since launch (it was literally in the 3DS on my nightstand when this was announced). Can't say that the announcement of Dread isn't what influenced me to give it more priority.

@Dezzy
Hard to say.

I suspect of the 75 million 3DS sold, over half of them probably aren't familiar with Metroid. Once Switch released, people quickly moved on, or they'd already lost interest in 3DS regardless. I think Samus Returns launched on the right system but the wrong time, or conversely, the right time but on the wrong system.

Still, for all the talk of desperately craving a new Metroid to play, I was shocked at how little Samus Returns sold. Heard its around 600k? Which to be fair, that's still better than all those other late 3DS releases like Persona Q, WarioWare Gold, Mario & Luigi (which actually bankrupted Alpha Dream), Luigi's Mansion, etc. So statistically Nintendo likely saw the higher interest comparatively. But it should have done far better given the constant outcry for Metroid.

Pre-orders for it on Game have gone down to £50, btw .... Dunno about other sites, since I get reward points there from buying & can use them towards purchases, so I haven't looked around

It's £43 on Base.com

What are the memorable secret passages you found in Metroid II with the Spider Ball that make you feel like Samus Returns would be missing something if it were substituted with a focus on the Space Jump? I would love for both of the 3DS Metroid games to still have updates done to them, such as patching in a faster Spider Ball speed, but that'll never happen and Metroid Dread has the Spider Magnet which would make anything but little emphasis on the Spider Ball feel redundant. I wouldn't mind the Spider Ball returning for Metroid Dread if its role is the equivalent of Super Metroid's Spring Ball. An upgrade to acquire for and to help in 100% completion, but not necessary to beat the game.

@I-U
One that comes to mind is rolling on the ceiling and finding an opening way high up that had a recharge station and then led to another tunnel. There's plenty more, but that one certainly sticks out in my mind.

Tons of tunnels and passageways that depend on rolling on the ceiling. Such as getting through the electric algae or whatever it is. But there's a narrow enough gap to roll on the ceiling over it. The game is chock full of sections that rely on Spiderball, and I love it. The magnetic rails in prime were literally the thing that made me fall in love with the series. I'm all for jumping, that's cool, but not as a replacement.

@Slowdive
Ooh, I love that glass tunnel across the Lava. It reminds me of a certain segment in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption where you were in a glass tube crossing an expanse. There wasn't lava but, it just hearkens back to that.

I wonder if the aeon ability to show more of the map and highlight hidden blocks will make a return. I hope so. Sometimes I'd get stuck and couldn't find the secret passageway, so that ability was clutch and has saved me tons of frustration.

That was a decent Nintendo Direct all around with plenty of games for just about everyone, but Metroid Dread is the game I'm the most excited about this year! I'm stoked that MercurySteam is helming the project. They did a wonderful job with Metroid: Samus Returns; I don't think I've been as glued to a Metroid entry since playing through the Prime games. I've liked or loved every game I've played in the series - yes, I even enjoyed a certain Wii title - and am certainly curious to see the direction in which Dread goes.

@Tyranexx
It’s incredibly fortunate Sakamoto finally found a talented studio that’s actually available, understands 2D Metroid and can do the series justice. We’ve been waiting how long now? In an interview he even pointed to the fact that he didn’t have a studio that was available and that he trusted could do a good enough job. Mercury Steam is a Godsend. It’s because of them 2D Metroid is back!

Nintendo needed another studio besides just Retro to handle Metroid. Now they have it. For a while, they didn’t have any studios doing Metroid. Retro was working on canceled projects and nobody was doing 2D. But that era is over now.

Not counting remakes, Fusion was the last new 2D game, 19 years ago.

@Slowdive Dang okay, that clarifies the 'not enough power' comment now that we know the DS was the target platform for both Metroid Dread prototypes.

Edit: also, just remembering that Imran tweet hat got everyone talking about Project HAMMER and Scalebound and I don't recall anyone mentioning Dread as a possibility.

@JaxonH I think it's a safe bet Scan Pulse will be back. They want Metroid to be more accessible so it can sell better to mainstream gamers, they need QoL features like that to keep casual players engaged.

@Bolt_Strike Agreed. I'm pretty sure the QoL new player features in Samus Returns are part of why Nitnendo was so impressed. I never used them personally, but they're a fantastic addition for accessibility.

@JaxonH I was really pleased with Samus Returns. It took what I thought would be a 1:1 remake of the original game and knocked it out of the park. MercurySteam really does seem to get the Metroid series. Between them and Retro moving back to the 3D helm, I'm pretty optimistic about the direction of the franchise.

I mean, the difference is that the Nintendo side of things usually means those 60 dollar games still (usually) feel like complete video games for what they are, whereas other companies will find every way they can to make you buy far more if you want an ACTUAL complete and worthwhile experience. Especially the ones that turn into grindy trash games that only end up like that because they want you to spend ideally at least as much as the base price on microtransactions.

Though as a slight counterpoint, one of the problems is that people don't appreciate replayability anymore so games are often made to be longer to a sometimes absurd degree because gamers won't get 30 hours out of a 10 hour game or whatever. I don't want to replay most games that are 20+ hours, but shorter games are great for that. Feel like not unfair old games were the only time where most gamers appreciated that, barring maybe games that actively encourage multiple playthroughs. This is my way to get back to Metroid. Best example of this is that Fusion is way easier to replay for me than Prime 1, so I've played it more despite Prime 1 being my favorite game ever (and Prime 1's not even super long).

Question for people who played Metroid before: Do I need to play Metroid 1-4 in order to enjoy or understand Dread, or can I just dive in nose first into the game?

Just a note, I do have all the consoles that have a version of a Metroid game, for Metroid (Zero Mission) and Fusion I have the Wii U, for Samus Returns and Return of Samus I have the 3DS, and for Super Metroid I have the Switch (and technically Metroid One but I heard that that game hasn't aged the best/isn't beginner friendly).

And just to make it clear, I don't WANT to pull out my Wii U or 3DS for this since I haven't used those since 2018. But I'm sorta kinda ok with the option.

Either way I'll get Dread, so yeah.