Nintendo Metroid Dread - A Game 15 Years in the Making [10/08/21], update: Patch Ver. 1.0.1 released

[Ghost_MH]

8 hours ago, gamer.tv said:

This makes me want to play (and actually finish) Fusion. Possibly even bite the bullet and buy the Prime Trilogy as I held off in case there was a Switch announcement.

 

There still could be a release of the Prime Trilogy on Switch, but there's no way Nintendo shoots themselves in the foot by announcing that game before Dread and and hurting sales there.

 

You should totally play Fusion, though. It's a phenomenal game. It's wild to think that the last not-prequel Metroid game was released on the GBA. Five games over 35 years to tell the story of Samus and the metroids. I do hope Nintendo doesn't take another 35 years to tell the next Samus story.

[crispy4000]

 

Metroid co-creator on why Metroid Dread is all about scary robots

WWW.POLYGON.COM

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‘It’s really about Samus encountering fear, but she actually stands against that fear and fights it and beats it’

 

[Bloodporne]

I really love Metroid and this'll probably end up being cool gameplay-wise but I really do not like anything about this visually. It looks completely devoid of any atmosphere I'd recognize as Metroid, it's extremely sterile somehow, really bright, and the backgrounds are aggressively boring. It looks like Shadow Complex and Strider. 

 

Nintendo should've bought AM2R and re-released it officially or something instead of these terrible looking 2.D Mercury Steam games. Last page nailed it, looks like Boston Dynamics: The Game but cute. 

[Brian]

 

[crispy4000]

4 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

I really love Metroid and this'll probably end up being cool gameplay-wise but I really do not like anything about this visually. It looks completely devoid of any atmosphere I'd recognize as Metroid, it's extremely sterile somehow, really bright, and the backgrounds are aggressively boring. It looks like Shadow Complex and Strider. 

 

Nintendo should've bought AM2R and re-released it officially or something instead of these terrible looking 2.D Mercury Steam games. Last page nailed it, looks like Boston Dynamics: The Game but cute. 

I’d chalk some of that up to the robotic theme.  Organic environments always look the most interesting in 2D Metroid, and that’s no exception here.

 

The character lighting is the ‘cheapest’ looking part to me.  Maybe all the rim lighting is there to improve readability.  Who knows.  Close up, its ugly.

[Bloodporne]

13 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

I’d chalk some of that up to the robotic theme.  Organic environments always look the most interesting in 2D Metroid, and that’s no exception here.

 

The character lighting is the ‘cheapest’ looking part to me.  Maybe all the rim lighting is there to improve readability.  Who knows.  Close up, its ugly.

Whatever the reason, I just know I saw it, recoiled and the more I watched the uglier and cheaper I thought it looked. I didn't even notice this but even the HUD looks terribly cheap somehow, kudos Mercury Steam.

[Bloodporne]

49 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

There still could be a release of the Prime Trilogy on Switch, but there's no way Nintendo shoots themselves in the foot by announcing that game before Dread and and hurting sales there.

 

You should totally play Fusion, though. It's a phenomenal game. It's wild to think that the last not-prequel Metroid game was released on the GBA. Five games over 35 years to tell the story of Samus and the metroids. I do hope Nintendo doesn't take another 35 years to tell the next Samus story.

Seconded. Fusion is great. Speaking of GBA, Zero Mission is probably one of my favorite Metroid games, it's so good.

[Brick]

23 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

Seconded. Fusion is great. Speaking of GBA, Zero Mission is probably one of my favorite Metroid games, it's so good.

 

Thirded. Fusion was my first Metroid. I knew of Samus from Smash Bros., and loved using her as my main, so when it finally came time to play a Metroid game I was pretty excited. I loved it. A year later I got a Gamecube with Metroid Prime, and it's become my favourite gaming series since. 

 

I feel old as fuck now realizing Fusion came out 19 years ago. 

[Nokt]

55 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

I really love Metroid and this'll probably end up being cool gameplay-wise but I really do not like anything about this visually. It looks completely devoid of any atmosphere I'd recognize as Metroid, it's extremely sterile somehow, really bright, and the backgrounds are aggressively boring. It looks like Shadow Complex and Strider. 

 

Nintendo should've bought AM2R and re-released it officially or something instead of these terrible looking 2.D Mercury Steam games. Last page nailed it, looks like Boston Dynamics: The Game but cute. 

While I share the sentiment that the environments don't look great, I don't think they are horrible. Looking back at Metroid Fusion there is a lot of environments that are just plain and boring. It has a little more charm due to its pixelation, but a lot of it is held together by the tension the SA-X brings, music, and just general tone of the game.

 

The first 30 seconds of this gameplay they almost get caught by the robot a lot, its tense. The music has that same ominous tone. If they can keep the tension high and get some more varied environments it'll alright.

 

[Bloodporne]

6 minutes ago, Nokt said:

While I share the sentiment that the environments don't look great, I don't think they are horrible. Looking back at Metroid Fusion there is a lot of environments that are just plain and boring. It has a little more charm due to its pixelation, but a lot of it is held together by the tension the SA-X brings, music, and just general tone of the game.

 

The first 30 seconds of this gameplay they almost get caught by the robot a lot, its tense. The music has that same ominous tone. If they can keep the tension high and get some more varied environments it'll alright.

 

The music is actually the only thing I like!

[crispy4000]

I’m of the opposite opinion of Fusion.  Bosses?  Great.  Controls?  Great.  SA-X?  Great.  Everything in it that makes it a Metroid game?  Disappointing.  In some ways it feels like more of an offshoot than Other M.  It’s certainly gated more, and less creative about how it hides its upgrades.  Prime 1 was the worthy follow up to Super, ironically.

 

Play Fusion if you want a good action platformer with some secondary exploration elements.

 

Sakamoto better not put numbered elevators in Dread.

[Ghost_MH]

24 minutes ago, Brick said:

Thirded. Fusion was my first Metroid. I knew of Samus from Smash Bros., and loved using her as my main, so when it finally came time to play a Metroid game I was pretty excited. I loved it. A year later I got a Gamecube with Metroid Prime, and it's become my favourite gaming series since. 

 

I feel old as fuck now realizing Fusion came out 19 years ago. 

 

Now I feel old. I remember this ad getting me to beg my parents to buy the first game for me.

 

 

It was sold out, so my mother got me Rad Racer because it was 3D...

 

That's why my first time playing Metroid was a rental...from a local barbershop that inexplicably also rented games. The 80s were weird.

[ort]

1 hour ago, Bloodporne said:

I really love Metroid and this'll probably end up being cool gameplay-wise but I really do not like anything about this visually. It looks completely devoid of any atmosphere I'd recognize as Metroid, it's extremely sterile somehow, really bright, and the backgrounds are aggressively boring. It looks like Shadow Complex and Strider. 

 

Nintendo should've bought AM2R and re-released it officially or something instead of these terrible looking 2.D Mercury Steam games. Last page nailed it, looks like Boston Dynamics: The Game but cute. 

 

I'm also not a big fan of the look. It also reminds me a lot of Shadow Complex... which is what, a 10 year old $20 download only game? I actually think Shadow Complex looks better than this.

[Keyser_Soze]

9 minutes ago, ort said:

 

I'm also not a big fan of the look. It also reminds me a lot of Shadow Complex... which is what, a 10 year old $20 download only game? I actually think Shadow Complex looks better than this.

 

Well Shadow Complex did get remastered 🤔

[dualhunter]

1 hour ago, crispy4000 said:

I’m of the opposite opinion of Fusion.  Bosses?  Great.  Controls?  Great.  SA-X?  Great.  Everything in it that makes it a Metroid game?  Disappointing.  In some ways it feels like more of an offshoot than Other M.  It’s certainly gated more, and less creative about how it hides its upgrades.  Prime 1 was the worthy follow up to Super, ironically.

 

Play Fusion if you want a good action platformer with some secondary exploration elements.

 

Sakamoto better not put numbered elevators in Dread.

 

I wasn't a big fan of it either. I hated that some upgrades could be missed, it's like it's a non-Metroidvania Metroid game. Zero Mission is great, I wasn't a huge fan of the original Metroid but Zero Mission put it on the same level as Super Metroid.

[GameDadGrant]

Basically me.

 

 

[Bacon]

if time stamp doesn't work go to 5:21

100% agree

[Nokt]

50 minutes ago, Bacon said:

if time stamp doesn't work go to 5:21

100%

“We have an abundance of Metroidvanias out there. We have Ori, we have Hollow Knight”

 

Yeah majority of metroidvanias out there are mediocre at best and trash at worst. There are very few that actually stand out and he named 2 of the 3-4 that I would say actually made an impression on the genre.

[Keyser_Soze]

1 hour ago, Nokt said:

“We have an abundance of Metroidvanias out there. We have Ori, we have Hollow Knight”

 

Yeah majority of metroidvanias out there are mediocre at best and trash at worst. There are very few that actually stand out and he named 2 of the 3-4 that I would say actually made an impression on the genre.

 

I think he brings up a lot of valid of concerns, even some that have been mentioned in this thread.

 

There have been a lot of Metroidvanias over the years, what can an actual Metroid do that those others couldn't besides be Metroid by name? It's been 15 years and a lot of Nintendo games like to stay archaic by design.

 

He's right about the robot design. If you're aping RE Nemesis, make the robot look like an iconic thing. Heck lady Dimitrescu, performed a similar role and was beloved by many. This robot looks like one of the co-op robots from Portal 2.

 

I get that people excited big names from older franchises but at the end of the day if they don't deliver it's just a name.

[crispy4000]

I disagree with him about the design.  It’s not the most frightening looking thing, certainly the face could be cooler.  But the way it’s joints double back when it crawls around is nifty.  I can’t remember a game doing that, at least not recently.

 

It’s just no SA-X.

[GameDadGrant]

23 hours ago, Bloodporne said:

It looks like Shadow Complex and Strider.  

 

Yeah, and those games suck, right?!? 

[Bloodporne]

1 minute ago, GameDadGrant said:

 

Yeah, and those games suck, right?!? 

My point was the visuals in those games are way outdated and aesthetically don't fit a Metroid title at all in my opinion. They're great games. 

[GameDadGrant]

4 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

My point was the visuals in those games are way outdated and aesthetically don't fit a Metroid title at all in my opinion. They're great games. 

 

I feel a lot of people in this forum are way too concerned about graphics. 

 

But maybe that's my fault. I'm still playing Game Boy and Neo Geo Pocket games like they are new.  

 

Curious though...what visuals/art style would you consider to be fitting for a Metroid title?

[crispy4000]

2 minutes ago, GameDadGrant said:

Curious though...what visuals/art style would you consider to be fitting for a Metroid title?

 

Personally, I really liked Other M’s aesthetic for a modern Sakamoto Metroid.  It looks better than this in some ways.  Not the character faces though.

[Bloodporne]

2 minutes ago, GameDadGrant said:

 

I feel a lot of people in this forum are way too concerned about graphics. 

 

But maybe that's my fault. I'm still playing Game Boy and Neo Geo Pocket games like they are new.  

 

Curious though...what visuals/art style would you consider to be fitting for a Metroid title?

I'm not worried about graphics per say. I think the unofficial AM2R from recent years looks great. I think Zero Mission looks great. I love Super Metroid. Those are moody to me. I just think Dread looks extremely sterile and has this weird, cheap 2.5D sheen like Bloodstained to it, another game I thought was absolutely hideous. Again, it's just my weird preference but I feel like this game looks completely bereft of any atmosphere and looks like cheap children's toys, not sure how else to describe it. 

 

The music is great so that's a big plus, that's for sure. 

[best3444]

I don't know. The more I watch gameplay the more excited I am for this. I NEVER play 2-D side scrollers but this will be awesome. I'm looking forward to it now. 

[Kal-El814]

1 hour ago, crispy4000 said:

Personally, I really liked Other M’s aesthetic for a modern Sakamoto Metroid.  It looks better than this in some ways.

 

[Brick]

In terms of looks, nothing beats the Prime games for me. Not only did the graphics look good on a technical level at the time, but the art design was fantastic and help the games age a bit better. If any of Nintendo's big franchises benefit from a more "realistic" art style, it was definitely Metroid; updating classic designs to a more realistic design just fit the darker, spookier, somewhat horror elements of what Metroid is; Metroid is inspired by the Alien movie franchise after all. It's part of why Other M never grabbed me visually as it felt like a regression. Taking the look of the enemies from the 16-bit era games, and basically just making them into 3D models might work well enough for a more lighthearted, and cartoon-like game such as Mario, or Zelda (although even Zelda remixes its looks with its constantly changing art styles, which I appreciate), it just didn't work the same for Metroid. Primes were more detailed, authentic looking, and atmospheric because of it. The only design that didn't really carry over were the pirates in the first game although there is some art in the game manual that suggests that originally they were going to go with the classic Zebesian look, but also updated with them wearing gear, and blasters mounted on their claws. It was a really cool concept that unfortunately got cut, but with the way the games ended up with each game having different pirate designs, it suggests that the pirates aren't just the Zebesian types we have seen in the past games, but a whole bunch of different races working together; like the Pirate Homeworld in Corruption isn't THE homeworld of all pirates, just that race of pirates from that game, just like Zebes would be the homeworld of the Zebesian pirates from Metroid 1 and Super. 

 

Also as I mentioned with the art design, the world looked fantastic, and really enhanced the atmosphere. Some of the designs were so other worldly. The Impact Crater of Prime, the Torvus Bog and Sanctuary Fortress of Echoes, Bryyo and Phaaze of Corruption. Gorgeous. If we had that kind of art in a 2D/2.5D game it would be wonderful. MercurySteam just doesn't have the same level of artistry. Not saying they look bad, but we've been spoiled by the Prime games. Really makes me excited for what Prime 4 will look like. 

[Keyser_Soze]

42 minutes ago, best3444 said:

I don't know. The more I watch gameplay the more excited I am for this. I NEVER play 2-D side scrollers but this will be awesome. I'm looking forward to it now. 

 

You should play Carrion on game pass to warm yourself up.

[Bacon]

Despite dread never really having concept art, the reveal reminded me of this 

 

[best3444]

1 minute ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

You should play Carrion on game pass to warm yourself up.

 

I'll have to look that up. Never even heard of it. But again, I never pay close attention to this genre. I should finish Ori and the will of the wisps. That was one of the few that was really cool but I got distracted by something else I think. 

[Keyser_Soze]

20 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

I'll have to look that up. Never even heard of it. But again, I never pay close attention to this genre. I should finish Ori and the will of the wisps. That was one of the few that was really cool but I got distracted by something else I think. 

 

Correction. You already looked it up and then quickly dismissed it.

[best3444]

10 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Correction. You already looked it up and then quickly dismissed it.

 

Haha. Wow. My memory is trash these days. Let me look it up now. I think I recall what you're talking about.

[best3444]

@Keyser_Soze na, I wouldn't like playing as a monster tentacle thing. Now I remember why I dismissed it.

[Keyser_Soze]

20 minutes ago, best3444 said:

@Keyser_Soze na, I wouldn't like playing as a monster tentacle thing.

 

Why wouldn't you like that?