Changes to Dread I'd like in an NS2 update

Many games on Nintendo Switch got an update for Nintendo Switch 2. Sometimes they make changes to the game that also apply to the original console, like with Splatoon 3 and its version 10.0.0 release. This is something I’d love for Metroid Dread, which currently is still on version 2.1.0 (released on April 7, 2022). Most of these changes are small in scope and should be feasible to implement, though I did want to dream a little bit too!

The vast majority of the time I’ve played this game has been dedicated to speedrunning. While there might be some bias towards elements surrounding that play style, I did want to have some variety as well. Without further ado, here is my ‘wishlist’ for a potential patch for Dread (that isn’t 4K resolution or 120 frames per second).

Changes to ZDR

Changing a game’s map post-release is quite an unusual thing to happen, especially in exploratory platformers like Metroid, where every block and type of door can make a difference.

It is a big risk, and it’s not something I think would happen in a patch unless it was done in order to fix an issue. Yet still, there are just a few changes I would like to see.

Bomb Blocks in Ghavoran changed to be Beam Blocks.On the way to Spin Boost, Gravity Suit, and Cross Bombs, you enter a narrow tunnel that you have to use your Bombs to progress. If the Bomb Blocks were to be changed into Beam Blocks instead, you would be able to Speed Boost or Ballspark through them as well, making for a very satisfying moment:

Knowing the map layout is critical for this trick, as you have to move in a particular way in order to store a Shinespark. Such a change would therefore not impede on the original map design, yet still, it would add more options for the player to express their skill.

Thermal Pipes in later parts of the worldThis change, if anything, is mostly there for world building. It appears that ZDR depends on these pipes to keep the planet from freezing, however they are only found in the early game areas.

Not to be a plumber, but there’s one pipe placement I really want to have, which is right here in Burenia:

When you’re exploring the depths of Burenia, ADAM points out that the planet is beginning to freeze, and that Samus ‘may have noticed’ the temperature is dropping. The thing is … nothing in the game’s environment indicates that to the player, and it becomes a moment where our immersion is shattered. It’s a nitpick for sure, but I think it could strengthen Metroid Dread’s world building.

New skip in ArtariaThe first minutes of this game are quite linear, and there aren’t any intended skips for the experienced player to take. I wish to change this so that the early game is ever so slightly faster, and a million times cooler. The earliest skip I could find that wouldn’t affect the game’s progression is in the room where we see the only Wave Beam Door in Artaria.

My best guess for why it is a one-way Wave Beam Door in the first place, is that this room is explorable when ZDR has frozen over, and the developers may not have wanted the players to open the door before that point. It is the kind of door that stays open once activated, and that could be an important feature of it that lets the two rooms connect in the first place, though this is purely speculation on my end.

If possible, I would love for this door to instead be a ‘Thermal Door’, which allows the connection between the two rooms to be closed only when ZDR is frozen. How would one even access this door early? Isn’t the ledge too far up for Samus to climb? Let’s just say that we have a little friend…

Changes to the E.M.M.I.

Upon being defeated in an E.M.M.I. Zone, the E.M.M.I. Zone’s map progress is now saved. I believe this may make it easier to plan out your path forwards and past the E.M.M.I. robots, as the in-game map for Dread is essentially 1:1 with the actual game map. Additionally, the presence of Autectors should be added to the map, as those can help lure the E.M.M.I. away from you.

Another QOL update would be to remove the heads-up display when fighting the E.M.M.I.. Samus’s health and ammunition has no importance in those moments, so its removal would make it easier to see where you can go. The HUD can also block the enemy from view, which is especially likely to occur when facing E.M.M.I.-05IM in Ghavoran!

While being able to see more is a good thing, I also think we can do the inverse. After all, would it not be cool if we could see Samus’s view from the visor when charging the Omega Blaster? It would surely be more difficult to take the shot, but gosh would it be more exciting all the same! The aiming reticle would need to be changed to support this however, and my suggestion is that Samus’s Arm Cannon would shake in all directions, and that you’d need to account for this shaking. This would work the best with the left stick, though I imagine that an optional gyro aim mode would do the trick as well.

It just got a bit more tense to defeat the E.M.M.I., so what can we do to relieve the tension?

Context-based E.M.M.I. defeat animationsI think this would be a fun feature to add to the game. The E.M.M.I. are agile and flexible, being able to go through small tunnels and climbing walls and ceilings. No matter what it is doing, dealing the final blow is the only way to survive. It would be a nice bonus to see it fall from ceilings, get knocked back against a wall, or have it slide away once it loses its grip.

Essentially, to make it seem powerless and kind of silly once it is defeated, as if to let the player take a breather or laugh for a moment before moving on to the next goal. Metroid Dread as we know it is a rather serious game where danger lurks around any corner. It would do good to give the player some more relief and confidence once they have finally defeated the E.M.M.I. menace.

Rookie Mode & the E.M.M.I.As it stands, the E.M.M.I. act the same regardless of difficulty mode, save for small interactions like how E.M.M.I.-05IM will instantly defeat Samus in ‘Dread Mode’. I have seen a decent amount of players feeling frustrated by these robots, feeling like it’s too easy to get cornered by them.

The changes would not be huge in the grand scheme of things, but there are at least two that I can think of: E.M.M.I. parry forgiveness and E.M.M.I. detection range.

Currently, there is a very narrow window in which a player can successfully parry. This is appropriate given the danger the E.M.M.I. is supposed to represent, but if the player wishes to lower the game’s overall difficulty, it would be appropriate to make this timing more forgiving.

When it comes to the detection range, I feel like it’s a bit overkill for E.M.M.I.-06WB to have infinite range. Any kind of movement will trigger its Search Mode, making strategic plays less effective. I wish for this range to be consistent with all of the other E.M.M.I., while it may keep its narrow cone and Wave Beam functionality intact.

Additional modes

Having a combined 1300+ hours across multiple profiles, I can safely say that Metroid Dread is a quite replayable experience on its own, and it would be even more replayable with the aforementioned features that I have already written about. Yet still, I believe there is at least one mode that is dearly missing, one that could make Dread ‘infinitely replayable’.

Item Randomizer ModeIf there’s anything I wish was more broadly available in games, it’s randomizer modes. The concept is simple, but the effect it has on a game can be incredible.

Essentially, item pickups and abilities are shuffled around so that you acquire them in a completely different order. This makes it so that you need to rethink how to progress through the game, and you will need to explore the limits of what Samus can do with her arsenal.

It is less so a test of skill, but rather a test of knowledge, and your experience will be completely different from how the game is usually played.

Creating an Item Randomizer requires a deep knowledge of the game’s map design, so while it’s certainly a cost-effective way to make a game more replayable, it is difficult to produce such a mode if it wasn’t planned to be implemented in the first place. That being said, I will still insist upon this feature being an amazing addition to an already great game, and it definitely should be considered for the potential Metroid 6 game.

E.M.M.I. Zone Roguelite ModeThis one is really ambitious! As someone that knows Metroid Dread’s map like the back of my own hand, I miss the feeling of being scared of the E.M.M.I. robots! I think the core reason for this is that I know precisely where to go and how to safely move through all of the E.M.M.I. Zones. This fear would definitely come back to haunt me if the layout of these zones were completely random, and I think it could be an exciting mode to explore.

The objective for this mode would be to defeat the E.M.M.I. of this unexplored zone, which you would do by finding keys and abilities that eventually lead you to something similar to the Central Unit. I imagine this mode to be concentrated into a single area this time, and for “one round” to last roughly an hour or so.

Perhaps this mode is set in a Galactic Federation base where Samus was tasked to test out the capabilities of the E.M.M.I. before sending them out to Planet ZDR? I think that would be a cool way to add to the game’s story, and it would also explain why the room layouts are always different when trying out this mode. It would probably be difficult to produce this mode, as it depends on the pathfinding of the E.M.M.I., but I can’t help but imagine how much fun it would be to play this ‘E.M.M.I. roguelite’.

Miscellaneous changes

Teleportals connect globally after acquiring Power BombsDread contains 7 pairs of Teleportals, and initially they only connect to their corresponding colour and letter in Chozo. Once you’ve entered Itorash, however, you’re able to freely teleport to whichever Teleportal you want. This is a neat feature to those that wish to explore ZDR a final time in order to collect every item for a 100% completion.

My only qualm with it really is that I think it would be more fitting if this was possible once you’ve collected the Power Bombs instead. By that point, you are ready to begin your victory lap, and you would have even more routing options if you could freely teleport. This is admittedly not a massive issue, as every area in the game requires Power Bombs in some fashion regardless, so you would still need to visit each area.

Ability to mute BGM, atmospheric sounds, and noisesThis one is rather simple to explain. Sometimes I want to listen to the ambient sound around the world, but the background music might be too loud for me to hear properly. Other times I might wish to have the sound of Samus’s movement and enemies isolated. It’s probably not easy to implement post-development, as such systems need files to be organized for it beforehand, and if it isn’t, there are going to be a lot of sound files to check! I would love to have this option though.

A few new game control optionsA well requested feature for Metroid Dread is to be able to change the button inputs. This is quite a reasonable wish to have, but surprisingly… it’s actually one that I don’t fully agree with (for Dread specifically).

In this game, every button input on the controller is used. Unlike Super Metroid, where all of the button inputs are usable from the start, you unlock certain abilities later in Metroid Dread which inhabit those.

I think it was for the better that players had to get used to an ‘official’ button mapping, instead of having to reconsider their own once they’ve acquired something like the Flash Shift. I could go on about how the current button mapping has inputs strategically placed in accordance to how often they are used, but I think you get the point by now!

Even so, I think that options are usually cool to have, and there are two additional kinds of control options I’d consider, while still keeping the same inputs overall:

• Secondary Arsenal Input Toggle
• Single Input for Secondary Arsenal

All they do is change how Missiles and Grapple Beam are selected. For the ‘Secondary Arsenal Input Toggle’ option, you’d need to press R once to have missiles toggled, and after that you would only need to press Y to shoot them. To disable Missiles, you’d press R once more, or press ZR to toggle Grapple Beam instead. This mode should follow with an additional element on the HUD:

The ‘Single Input for Secondary Arsenal’ (yeah, I couldn’t find a good name for these) option has Samus fire the Missiles and Grapple Beam by pressing R and ZL respectively, with no need for the Y input.

This option could be awkward when using Storm Missiles, where Samus would need to expend a Missile before charging it, but this issue could be accounted for either by charging a beam or being in a Morph Ball state before holding R (and not to be a total nerd here but Storm Missile gates are, coincidentally, almost always near a Charge Beam door or a tunnel already).

Raven Beak equips the Ice BeamI would love to add the Ice Beam onto one of Raven Beak’s attacks, it’s something Raven Beak should have used in the first place! It would be fun to see him use it either when you’ve collected all items, or when fighting him in Dread mode. It could replace one of the AOE attacks in phases 1 & 3, to then lead to him using the ‘Ice Breaker’ technique on Samus. Unlike E.M.M.I.-05IM and the Ice Flea, being frozen by Raven Beak doesn’t hurt by itself, but the follow-up attack would hurt a lot!

Scan VisorOne of the best features of the Metroid Prime series is the Scan Visor. It is a diegetic way to reveal tidbits of lore and detail to the world around Samus, and it lets us learn more about the critters that lurk around the corners of ZDR, including what they are named.

It would be a part of Samus’s base arsenal, activated by holding the right stick in the direction of your choosing. This gives Samus a cone of vision akin to the E.M.M.I., and you may scan multiple targets at once, which could allow for some interesting strategies for a hypothetical 100% scan speedrun. Scanning doesn’t consume Aeion Energy, so combining it with Phantom Cloak is possible.

Movement wise, you should have the capability to walk around while scanning, and in this mode you have the option to jump by flicking the left stick up. This is to reduce the need of a ‘clawgrip’, as you wouldn’t need to move your thumb between the right stick and the jump button as often.

When it comes to new additions to the 2D Metroid gameplay, this is the one I want the most!

No game loading time discrepancy between digital and physical copiesAs it stands, there is a big difference in loading time between games that are stored in the system digitally, and those that are stored in the cartridge.

This difference is even more pronounced on Switch 2, where players with the physical cartridge did not get a boost in loading times. We do not know why this is the case as of now, our best guess is that the read speed of the original Nintendo Switch cartridge is a bottleneck, and that the Switch 2 cannot load the game faster because of it.

I’m not even sure if this is feasible, but it would be great if a potential Switch 2 version could remedy this in some way.

Closing thoughts

Metroid Dread is a game that is quite dear to me, and even if it wouldn’t get another update, I’d certainly still be a happy player of it. Some of these improvements and additions to the game came to be not because I was unhappy with it, but rather that I was already so compelled and enamored with it that my many adventures inspired me to think of these.

What do you think of these changes? Feel free to let us know what you think! I hope you enjoyed this feature as much as I enjoyed making it.

Written by: Irene
Header by: Irene