Look at me, I am the Metroid now
15 September 2026
completed
completed
Metroid Dread tells you, right from the title, that it gets it. We're here because we want that feeling of exploring a space station alone. We're frightened and everything has gone to shit but there's no way out but through, and through we'll go. Like Ellen Ripley, Samus is a survivor. She'll find a way. Metroid Dread masterfully dances between making you feel powerful and powerless, flipping between Alien and Aliens effortlessly. That's what makes Metroid Dread the best Metroid game.
Let's start with Alien. The EMMI zones are the pure essence of being isolated in a cramped ship with a xenomorph. They're everywhere and nowhere at once, jumping out at you from unexpected angles. You can hide only for so long before it's a full on sprint for the exit where the door slams shut with the monster right on your heels. The EMMI design itself understands what makes things creepy. They're humanoid but they don't move like humans, they're so, well, alien.
It's the most powerless Samus feels in the series, regardless of how far you've come in the game. The EMMI zones make you reconsider, "do I really want to go through here?" You feel the namesake dread whenever Samus returns to them.
Even when you're able to fight them, charged up with the Omega Cannon, it's tense. Do I stand my ground, will I be able to break through the shield? Or do I need to abort this attempt and try to find a new angle, even though that's an opportunity for it to catch me? It's the slow charging of the final weapon while the movie monster creeps forward, its victory is assured, your doom inevitable.
Then you defeat it, cathartically blowing its head off and draining the Omega Cannon's power. It's reminiscent of countless action movies when the hero collapses after a fight, tossing their weapon away, it and themselves spent. It's in these moments where Samus and the series best mirror their clearest inspiration, an exhausted Ellen Ripley taking a moment to gather herself after another close call with a xenomorph. This is Aliens territory. Yes, you've defeated this one but your awesome power still wasn't enough to end the threat.
At the same time, Samus feels the most powerful she ever has here, we're in full Aliens action movie mode. She controls like a dream, the analog aim stick here lets you pick things off with precision compared to the clunkier d-pad only games. The melee counters feel strong and impactful highlighting Samus's bravery and strength against the unknown. She moves so well, the platforming here is the best in the series, allowing you to navigate with precision. The controls work with you, like a well calibrated power loader.
The game is able to show you Samus's growth better than ever not only through the cutscenes where we can see her own awe (and a bit of fear) at her new power, but just in how everything is presented in game. The Omega Cannon feels powerful. The Super Bombs look and sound earth shattering.
I wrestled for a long time with where this one ranked for me in the grand scheme of Metroid games. It repeats some design issues I had with Samus Returns (most notably the Aeion block detector mechanic which I won't relitigate here, go read that piece for more). It's too hand holdy, blatantly cutting off routes to funnel the player in the right direction instead of letting you get lost a bit. There's one section early on where half of the map is just lost to you, you must move forward into the fire zone, no grabbing any pickups you didn't get.
For a long while, it was chiefly that (and probably a bit of a hipster streak) that made me want to keep this game out of the Canon in favor of Fusion. Fusion is the game that better respects the player learning the design tells of the world, figuring out how to navigate, which blocks are breakable and which aren't. The SA-X is the precursor of the EMMI and a better version of the horror of it. What is more terrifying than an alien version of ourselves, here to replace us?
But where the SA-X does Alien better, Dread is again both Alien and Aliens. You get the inhuman monster, you get to fear that it will find you and hate how weak you feel in front of it. And all that builds up to the joy of blowing it away. And then you get to experience it again in a new way. You gain new powers, like the ability to turn invisible, and the EMMI, like any good implacable movie monster, evolves with you, finding new ways to be scary, getting faster or freezing you.
Ultimately it's this synthesis of everything Metroid can offer that makes Dread the best. Other games do certain elements better, but nothing else does all of them this well. Where Fusion is one note, Dread alternates and it gives you highs and lows.
Dread has merged these two halves together, like Samus and Metroids and like her, it IS Metroid now.