Metroid Dread (2021)

First Metroid game I've fully completed, I've played some of the others but only a bit. This game is great, but can defiantly feel the age on it when compared to newer more modern Metroidvanias. The game is still great, music is awesome and the back tracking wasn't bad, felt like they handled that part really well. I like the feeling of progression and only really got lost twice when i couldn't find what wall to blow up.

I live the bosses in this game, glad they recently implemented a boss rush. The speed booster puzzles were fun but there are some that I couldn't figure out because the rules of the speed booster weren't fully explained, but that's more of a nitpick.

Great game and my biggest complaint would be that they need better button mapping there's so many things Samus can do and get that could just be dumbed down to a simple button press or just self activate when you aim. It is fun how many upgrades you get but it can get anoying when your trying to do a simple action that your rarely use (like the grapple hook) and I need to press multiple buttons ( I played on the joycons so that made it worse since there small controllers).

I recommend Dread it's an awesome game and I hope the next Metroid catches up with the rest of the metroidvania games.

Metroid Dread has all my favorite aspects of the series: A large, varied world of puzzles and platforming, bosses that are satisfying to defeat, awesome upgrades (Samus has never looked cooler) and just the right amount of lore... building up to my favorite narrative conclusion to a Metroid chapter since Super Metroid.

Like Metroid Fusion, Metroid Dread distinguishes itself from its predecessors through subtle shifts in pacing and tone. But unlike Fusion, Dread's choices don't come at the expense of past elements: If you've enjoyed a 2-D Metroid game to this point, chances are you'll find elements of it here. That's a tough balance to strike, but Mercury Steam did so beautifully.

All that said, some aspects of the game keep it from dethroning my all-time faves in the series:

• EMMI encounters start as fun subversions of series expectations, but quickly become a chore. I eventually just started looking up videos of these beforehand, not because I couldn't figure them out but because I just wanted them over with.
• Something about the gating in this world feels oddly paced to me: I didn't feel a sense that the world was open to aimless exploration until quite late in my playthrough.
• While the shinespark puzzles are satisfying to pull off, I feel they make up too large a percentage of in-game secrets. I know people out there love these things, but I find it difficult to accept its anachronistic and poorly-explained controls.

Minor complaints aside, I think this is a worthy and wonderful conclusion to the original series arc! Metroid Prime 4 has a tough act to follow.

There's not much to say about this. It was definitely a Metroid game and it's was the classic formula. I think I actually cared a bit more about the plot in this one than in any previous game, but overall, if you like Metroid games, you'll like this one.

I can't speak on if it will convert non-fans, but I enjoyed my time playing through this.

There is a slight difficulty spike on the final boss, but all things are able to be overcome. If you find yourself getting frustrated, I'd suggest looking up a move guide and/or reaching out to someone to get help. The game is overall good and the difficult bosses shouldn't get you down.

~David.

The things that were bothering me about this game still bother me after another long sitting today, however I will say that at some times it really just nails the satisfying parts of the Metroid formula. There are a couple of sequences I played today, involving two iconic power-ups of past games, that introduced those powers and then looped back to previous areas in such a smooth way that you can't help but be impressed. And a couple areas I reached like one where the power is out finally delivered some compelling atmosphere, and felt both exciting and dangerous to roam around in without employing any kind of one-hit KO bland robot guys. While I have complained about the aiming in this game, I think movement in general feels great, especially after getting the morph ball which interacts well with sliding and climbing.

I only have a few very small new complaints. Some of these power-ups like the diffusion beam, invisibility thing, and wide beam are just... kinda boring. Sure, they bring a way to unlock a new kind of shortcut or door, but there's no excitement or fun to be had with them, so they almost might as well just be a keycard or something. I think they also tease some of the powerups a bit too much for my liking, like waaaay too many cases where I enter a room that's too hot before being able to actually navigate it. And the other thing is that I kinda feel like the bosses are balanced weirdly. One that I fought today was hitting me like a truck, in one case killing me from almost a full energy container in one casual hit. And to beat him I had to unload what felt like 50+ missiles (didn't count, just a guess). It's not "too hard" by any means, but something just felt off about that to me.

3rd playthrough is down. I was 8 minutes too late to get all of the pictures, but there's always next time. I have never wanted to keep replaying a game to learn routes and skips this much since DOOM Eternal, one of the contenders for my literal favorite video game ever. I cannot get my hands off this game for hours at the middle of the night.

Beat the game with 100% items, it's super good!

But now I'm really excited to plan out a faster any% route for my second playthrough. The map being so much more detailed makes charting a perfect line feel achievable without having the entire game memorized backwards and forwards, and even on my first run through I found 4 or 5 intentional sequence breaks, so I'm sure there's a ton of time I can shave off my initial 12 hour run.

Was banging my head against a puzzle and finally realized it was teaching me a rad new movement trick for Samus, and now the way I think about every room in the game has changed! Echoes of learning to walljump for the first time in Super and being totally awestruck.

In general this game is really good at suggesting the possibilities inherent in Samus's moveset and nudging you towards figuring out the execution yourself, it's impressive.