Nintendo sometimes milks a few of its massive franchises, however Metroid is usually not one in every of them. In reality, Metroid Dread is the primary all-new sport within the collection for the reason that divisive Metroid: Other M arrived in 2010. As the fifth mainline, side-scrolling sport within the collection, Dread has loads to reside as much as. And whereas it’s not a complete reinvention of the franchise, like Metroid Prime was 19 years in the past, it additionally does a fantastic job of avoiding the pitfall of feeling like a retread, a problem that sometimes plagues Nintendo’s different flagship franchises.

If you’ve performed any of the earlier side-scrolling Metroid video games, Dread will likely be acquainted. As normal, Samus Aran loses all her powers and wishes to flee an underworld maze, preventing baddies and retrieving power-ups that allow you to discover new sections (or outdated components of the map you couldn’t get by earlier than).

That’s a well-trodden path, however Nintendo flipped issues this time with the E.M.M.I. encounters, terrifying robotic enemies that stalk you thru particular components of the map. They can’t be killed till you discover their space to discover a weapon power-up that places you on equal footing. At first, I used to be anxious that these encounters can be too frequent, or too exhausting to flee, however developer MercurySteam did a wonderful job balancing out the E.M.M.I. areas. Escaping from the dreaded robots by leaving the zones they patrol isn’t too robust, and also you don’t must spend so lengthy of their areas that the entire sport devolves into stealth stress.

On the opposite hand, when you get caught by an E.M.M.I., that’s just about it. You have one probability to dam their deadly assault, and I’ve solely performed it proper as soon as. I’ve in all probability gotten caught a number of dozen instances and have by no means made it out alive. Fortunately, the sport simply resets you to the door coming into the E.M.M.I. zone when you fail, so that you gained’t lose a lot progress.

Meanwhile, I’ve had a blast exploring the dank tunnels and caverns that make up the world of Dread. As with most Nintendo video games, the ambiance and artwork fashion are top-notch, even when Dread doesn’t maintain a candle to the extra technologically superior titles on the Xbox Series X or PS5. When I play a sport that’s this well-designed and considerate about what it does with the know-how out there to it, I don’t fear about counting pixels. That mentioned, it additionally appears extraordinarily spectacular docked to my 4K TV.

Most of the gameplay hallmarks of Metroid titles are right here, together with power-ups like charged pictures, the morph ball, the missile cannon and loads of different returning favorites. But there’s sufficient new right here, just like the grapple beam and screw assault, to maintain the sport feeling recent.

Maybe for individuals who have obsessively performed the Metroid collection earlier than, Dread will really feel like extra of a retread. But whereas I’m accustomed to the core elements of those video games, the first-person Metroid Prime is the sport I do know one of the best — I by no means beat the unique sport, or the highly-regarded Super Metroid on the Super NES. If you’re like me, don’t let that cease you from attempting Metroid Dread. There’s a cause so-called Metroidvania video games are nonetheless standard. 

And when you haven’t tried one earlier than, getting the latest installment within the collection that helped outline the style is a good way to get your ft moist. Most importantly, it doesn’t really feel like MercurySteam and Nintendo simply checked the bins for this sport. Indeed, the ability that MercurySteam delivered to Samus Returns (a remake of 1991’s Metroid II: Return of Samus for the Game Boy) is on show right here; Nintendo undoubtedly picked the best developer to make the primary mainline Metroid sport since 2002. It’s an impressed addition to a collection that already has a formidable legacy. Just don’t get cocky — run like hell if an E.M.M.I. tracks you down.