I don’t usually make posts like this for Shinesparkers, but on the eve of Metroid Dread’s release, I felt it was important to share how significant this game’s release is for me personally.

I became a Metroid fan in 2004, which was a great time to get involved with the series due to the wealth of Metroid titles released around that time. I had the pleasure of playing so many games from the series, including Metroid Fusion. At the time, Fusion was the latest title in the Metroid story, and back then I presumed that we would receive a continuation of that story in the near future.

In February 2006, I picked up a copy of the Official Nintendo Magazine, and turned to the release schedule to see that Metroid Dread would release in the future (as a TBD note). Online, people were saying this would be a continuation of the Metroid story after Fusion, and my excitement grew. I was so eager to discover what happened next, and so I waited…

…and waited.

Unfortunately, that wait continued for many years until I had given up hope on ever seeing a new traditional-style of Metroid game again. I felt that perhaps Nintendo didn’t know what to do with the series, and thought that the Metroid Prime series was a larger focus than the original, given how popular and profitable it had become by comparison.

But in 2017, an independent games developer based in Madrid, Spain, gave me hope. MercurySteam did what I believed to be impossible, and brought the traditional “2D” Metroid games back to life with Metroid: Samus Returns. By this point, a whole thirteen years had passed since Zero Mission, the last game to approach Metroid in this style, had been released. Suddenly, the possibility of Metroid Dread was alive again.

Then in 2021, almost nineteen years after Fusion first released, Nintendo announced that Metroid Dread, confirmed to be Metroid 5, was announced. After so many years of lost hope, accepting that we may never see a continuation of the story, we learned that Dread will be the final game in this Metroid story-arc that first began over thirty-five years ago.

I wrote this news post to attempt to express just how significant this release is to a fan such as myself. There was no game I could have wanted more than Metroid Dread, there never could be. This is the dream release, and it means so much to me. So from the bottom of my heart, I really want to thank the team at MercurySteam for delivering such a historic title, and closing out a story that I have loved for half of my life.

I also want to share a message to series producer Yoshio Sakamoto. While I know he may never see this, I want to thank him for never giving up on continuing the story of Samus and the Metroids. Your work, and the work of your teams throughout the years have brought me so much joy and enthusiasm, and while I am sad that the story is coming to an end, I am intrigued and excited by the future with you at the helm.

My copy of Metroid Dread will arrive tomorrow, and I cannot believe that after all these years, I will finally be experiencing that story, that sequel to Fusion I have wanted for so long. I hope that fans of the series, and people who will play a Metroid game for the very first time, will enjoy what the game has to offer.

Darren
Creative Director of Shinesparkers