Oooooooooooooooh boy. There it is. THE most hype game of the year.

The previous game in this series is Metroid Fusion, in 2002. Prime is a separate series, both in gameplay and story, while Other M is a spin-off (despite being a direct sequel to Super Metroid and it has references to things that happen in Fusion and contradicts… stuff from Prime… it’s for sure non-canon despite what Sakamoto says). But even counting Prime and Other M, the Metroid series has been rather dormant for a good long while. The only other Metroid games since Fusion were Zero Mission, a remake of the first Metroid on NES, and Samus Returns, a remake of Metroid 2 from the Game Boy. THAT one is important, because it is made by MercurySteam, the developers that would go on to make Metroid Dread, and adds some plot context that the original version of it didn’t have. It feels like a “if this game is good you can make the next one” kinda thing.

I’m a big fan of the Metroid series, and it’s great to finally get closure to the main storyline of the original series, after 19 years without a new mainline Metroid. My favorite of the series is Super Metroid (and probably still is), but the desire for more normal, non-3D Metroid (alongside more 3D Metroid, of course, Prime 4 getting its development reset was unfortunate) is always there. Metroid is a series that should be bigger than it is, and maybe Dread will be the breakout hit.

Nintendo seems to have gone all-out as far as spoiling this game before release, but thankfully for me all I had seen before release is the E3 announcement trailer… and one very spoilery screenshot. It’s nice that they were advertising it a lot, but they could’ve done so without… showing what seems like everything.

So yeah, this just came out, I finished it, and it’s time to review the game of the year (probably), let’s fucking go.