Feature: Metroid The Story So Far

With the release of Metroid Dread on the horizon, our Community Manager Glaedrax has written a feature detailing the story of Metroid so far. In this feature, Glaedrax recaps the traditional series that will lead to the events of Dread. We hope that this will serve as a good introduction to people who may be experiencing Metroid for the first time with Dread as their entry point, so they can learn about the thirty-five-year story that came before it.

Click here to read the feature

Metroid tops Wii U eShop best sellers

Despite the Wii U being a commercial failure for Nintendo, it is still the most accessible way of playing certain titles for some fans.

Upon inspection of the Best Selling titles on the Wii U eShop, we are able to confirm that Metroid Zero Mission and Metroid Fusion have taken the 1st and 2nd spots respectively. In addition to this, the Metroid Prime Trilogy is currently at a respectable 5th.

It comes after confirmation from Gamestop that Metroid Dread was their most pre-ordered title post-E3, and that Metroid Dread had been selling very well on Amazon in multiple regions.

While there is no indication on the number of sales made, it is the best indicator so far that Dread has created plenty of hype for people to go back and experience earlier entries to the series. Earlier this week we asked Shinesparkers readers if they were playing Metroid as a result of the Metroid Dread announcement, and the response was overwhelming!

UPDATE: We can also confirm that Metroid: Samus Returns is currently 2nd on the Nintendo 3DS eShop in the United Kingdom! (Special thanks to Leon at Shinesparkers for the pictures!)

Source: Nintendo eShop

Metroid Dread is Gamestop’s most pre-ordered title post-E3

It has been just over a week since Nintendo revealed Metroid Dread during their E3 2021 Direct, and Gamestop have revealed that the highly anticipated title has placed first in their top-selling pre-orders following E3.

The top ten was dominated by Nintendo, but Metroid Dread even beat Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda to take the top spot. Could this be an early indication of some notable success for the title before it launches? Will Dread be able to maintain this momentum in the following weeks before launch? We certainly hope so!

Below is a full list of the top-10 games:

  1. Metroid Dread
  2. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD
  3. Mario Golf Switch
  4. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl
  5. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
  6. Mario Party Superstars
  7. Far Cry 6
  8. Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance
  9. Madden NFL ’22
  10. Pokémon Legends: Arceus

 

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Metroid Dread enters Amazon’s Best Sellers lists

The announcement of Metroid Dread seems to have gone down well, with preorders of the game selling highly in multiple regions on the popular online store Amazon.

Amazon’s Best Sellers list is updated hourly, and as of 11am BST on the 18th June 2021, Metroid Dread places in these positions on Amazon:

Germany: 7th (Standard edition), 8th (Special edition)
France: 20th (Standard edition), 16th (Special edition)
Japan: 40th (Standard edition)
North America: 4th (Standard edition)
United Kingdom: 12th (Standard edition)

The amiibo double pack appears to be highly received too, with Amazon France listing it as their 4th best selling videogame product, and Amazon Germany listing it in 3rd.

While this doesn’t reflect total preorder sales across each region, or confirm the number of copies actually preordered, it does give an early indication that the title has been received well by Amazon customers. Big thanks to Nintendo Life for bringing this to our attention!

Source: Amazon

Metroid Dread almost got made in 2008

Yoshio Sakamoto has been making the rounds in the gaming news, giving additional information about Metroid Dread following its announcement two days ago. In a Zoom call attended by reporters from Polygon, Eurogamer, The Verge, IGN and other outlets, Sakamoto-san clarified that Dread will not be the final 2D Metroid game and revealed the inspiration for the E.M.M.I., Dread’s major antagonists.

In his Development History video, Sakamoto said that Metroid Dread was in development and cancelled twice due to hardware limitations. According to Eurogamer, the second time was in 2008, where a playable prototype was created and shown to Nintendo executives in secret. It never went any further.

This seemingly confirms the claims made in 2015 to game researcher Liam Robertson by an anonymous source from Nintendo of America (video here). This person said that Dread was prototyped on Nintendo DS in 2008 and secretly shown before E3 2009 to Nintendo personnel. The source also said that it had a map screen on the bottom and gameplay on top, and looked very similar to Metroid Fusion. It would seem that the game was initially sprite-based like the classic Metroid games, before being realized as a 3D game on Nintendo Switch. The concept of a Metroid game with gameplay on the top screen and a map on the bottom screen was eventually realized in Metroid: Samus Returns.

Source: Eurogamer/Liam Robertson

Sakamoto reveals he first conceived the E.M.M.I. fifteen years ago

In our last post, we shared a snippet from Yoshio Sakamoto’s new interview with Polygon, in which he clarified that the Metroid series would not conclude with Metroid Dread. He has shared additional information in this interview, which we’ll cover in this post.

The other notable tidbit is that Sakamoto-san conceived the E.M.M.I. when he was first developing Dread fifteen years ago for the Nintendo DS. The system’s technology was too limited for him to realize his vision for the game at the time. When Sakamoto-san met with MercurySteam to discuss making Metroid: Samus Returns, he did so with the hope that they could help him bring Dread to life, and they exceeded his expectations.

The E.M.M.I. were directly inspired by the SA-X, the memorable antagonist of Metroid Fusion who stalked Samus throughout the game, and could not be killed until the very end. Unlike the SA-X however, which is infamous for its poor artificial intelligence coding, the E.M.M.I. will relentlessly pursue Samus and be harder to avoid. This “fear-based gameplay” in his words is what most excites Sakamoto-san about Metroid Dread, although it is not meant to be a horror game. Dread’s story will have importance, but it will not be intrusive, making use of occasional cutscenes in a similar way to Samus Returns.

Metroid Dread is currently 112 days away from release. We can’t wait to finally experience the next chapter of the Metroid franchise!

Source: Polygon

Sakamoto confirms series will continue beyond Metroid Dread

Series Producer Yoshio Sakamoto has confirmed that the Metroid series will continue after the release of Metroid Dread, and that there are already plans for future stories! During Nintendo’s E3 Direct, Mr. Sakamoto confirmed in a Development History video that Metroid Dread would ‘mark an end to the story arc’. This implied that the story of Samus and the Metroids would be coming to an end, a story thirty-five years in the making. But fans may have been concerned that this was suggesting that the traditional series was ending. Thankfully, Mr. Sakamoto has reassured that this is not the case.

As part of the promotion for Metroid Dread, Sakamoto spoke with Polygon confirming that no one wants the series to end, and there is no desire from development to see that happen either.

Nobody wants the Metroid series to end, and we know that. We ourselves don’t want that either, he continued. But we just want people to know that there is some kind of new episode that is waiting in the works, and we want you to look forward with what we do with that next — but there are no specifics now.

Metroid Dread will launch worldwide on October 8th 2021 for Nintendo Switch

Source: Polygon

Metroid Dread: what we know so far

Tuesday was quite the event for us Metroid fans, wasn’t it? The long-awaited Metroid Dread is finally coming to Nintendo Switch systems on October 8, 2021. Now that the dust has settled, we wanted to compile all of the information we know so far about the story and gameplay for you, based on the footage and information shared by Nintendo during their E3 2021 Direct, Treehouse Live, and through our own investigations.

The game picks up after the events of Metroid Fusion. A prologue summarizing the events of that game serves as a refresher for veteran Metroid players, or an introduction for new ones. The Galactic Federation has received a video transmission from an unknown sender, claiming that the X Parasites have survived. The message is traced to the remote planet of ZDR, to which the Federation sends a team of seven E.M.M.I., deadly robots that were built for DNA extraction purposes, to investigate. They vanish soon after landing however. Samus, having discovered the message herself, travels to ZDR to identify the source of the transmission and to learn if the X truly are alive. Due to her Metroid DNA, she is the only being in the universe with immunity to the X.

As she explores ZDR, a desolate place teeming with ruthless creatures and mechanoids, Samus is confronted by the E.M.M.I., who seek to hunt her down. Much like the Space Pirates in Metroid: Zero Mission and the SA-X in Metroid Fusion, Samus has little choice but to run and hide from these robotic beasts when they corner her. If they catch her, she will almost certainly be killed. Only the Omega Cannon, a temporary enhancement Samus can get, can destroy E.M.M.I.

Three of the E.M.M.I. have been seen so far. The first is slender, dark grey and slow due to damage it has suffered. The second is bulkier, white and more agile. It is seen stabbing Samus and hitting its head once. The third is light green and walks on all four limbs. It can fit through tight spaces and stabs Samus in the chest. They inhabit damaged and desolate areas that are separated by portal doors.

It’s not just the E.M.M.I. that Samus must contend with. Known enemies thus far include a Mother Brain-like Central Unit, a massive tailed creature called Corpious that uses the Phantom Cloak, and… the first living Chozo to be witnessed in a Metroid game, as seen in the reveal trailer! It resembles the military commander within Chozo Memories from Metroid: Samus Returns, and a wall mural seen in the trailer depicts what occurred during these Memories. All this suggests that ZDR was once a Chozo colony. Perhaps it still is? Similar to Metroid: Zero Mission, there are Chozo Statues which are able to refill energy and Missiles.

Yoshio Sakamoto has said that Metroid Dread will conclude the story arc of the Metroid series that first began with the original Metroid in 1986. Will it truly be the last Metroid game? If so, it looks as though it will be an incredible ending.

Thus far we know the names of the first two areas, Artaria and Cataris. Artaria is a cave-like environment with water puzzles, and one of the deepest on ZDR. Cartaris is a thermo energy power plant and droid manufacturing facility. Some areas are superheated and others are blocked off by magma flow, which can be redirected by Samus. Artaria is where Samus starts the game, and she has to climb back up to the surface of ZDR, where her gunship (the same one from Fusion) is. Like Samus Returns, there are background animals in Artaria that will scurry off when Samus approaches, adding a real depth to the world. One enemy resembles a smaller version of the Diggernaut.

Adam returns as Samus’s occasional guide in this game, and if you listen to the Treehouse event closely, you can hear him speaking! Unlike in Fusion, he will not provide objectives or guide Samus, but is there to provide story and lore for the player.

Metroid Dread takes what Metroid: Samus Returns did and builds on it. Aeion Abilities, Free Aim and the Melee Counter return from that game, and the latter has been drastically improved. In addition to the regular counter, Samus can now perform a Dash Melee, where she parries an incoming attack while dashing forwards or backwards, and dealing damage and/or killing the enemy. She can now slide through thin gaps, allowing her to get past tunnels even before she re-acquires the Morph Ball. Samus’s first Aeion Ability is called Phantom Cloak, which allows her to turn invisible in place. It is especially useful for hiding from E.M.M.I. if they are about to corner her.

Samus’s new suit design has an in-game reason, which has not been explained yet. Something happened to it in between Fusion and Dread. Her Power Suit, Morph Ball, Power Beam, Charge Beam, Power Grip and Missiles are confirmed to be returning. Missile Tanks increase her reserves by 2 units. There is one new item confirmed, the Spider Magnet. This allows Samus to grab onto blue-colored wall and ceiling surfaces and climb along them, similar to the Spider Ball or ladders in Metroid Fusion.

The new Samus amiibo will grant an extra Energy Tank when tapped, increasing Samus’s energy by 100 units, and the E.M.M.I. amiibo grants a Missile Tank that increases her reserves by 10 Missiles. They can both be tapped again once per day to replenish Samus’s energy and Missiles.

A special edition version of Metroid Dread will be available, containing a copy of the game, a SteelBook case, a 190-page 2D Metroid franchise artbook and five cards that feature box art from all the games in the five-part saga.

All that’s just from the first showing! If you think we have missed anything, be sure to let us know on our social media channels!