• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • Elvis: Austin Butler

      REVIEW: ELVIS beautifully mythologizes the King of Rock and Roll

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 25, 2022
    • The Black Phone: Ethan Hawke as The Grabber

      REVIEW: THE BLACK PHONE is a flat, dull, rushed non-horror movie

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 25, 2022
    • Jurassic World Dominion Logo

      REVIEW: Jurassic World Dominion – Here we go again…again

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 12, 2022
    • Three Men and a Baby: Tom Selleck and Ted Danson

      Three Men and a Baby is still awesome thirty five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 31, 2022
    • The Bob's Burgers Movie Poster

      REVIEW: Bob’s Burgers The Movie is Bob’s Burgers The Show, which means it’s great

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 28, 2022
    • Top Gun Maverick: Tom Cruise

      REVIEW: Top Gun Maverick is a sequel that soars!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 27, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Sam Phillips Sun Records

      On Sam and Sun and the nativity scene of rock and roll

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 18, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Nancy Drew S03e01: Kennedy McMann as Nancy

      Nancy Drew S03E01 Review: The Warning of the Frozen Heart - Uh-oh!

      By Salome G
      | October 10, 2021
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Riverdale S06e18: Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge

      Riverdale S06E18 Review: Biblical – Spooky chaos!

      By Salome G
      | June 29, 2022
    • Roswell, New Mexico S04e04: Heather Hemmens and Sherri Saum as Maria and Mimi DeLuca

      Roswell, New Mexico S04E04 Review: Dear Mama – Emotional?

      By Salome G
      | June 29, 2022
    • Evil S03e03: Katja Herbers and Aasif Mandvi as Kristen Bouchard and Ben Shakir

      Evil S03E03 Review: The Demon of Sex – Contrived?

      By Salome G
      | June 29, 2022
    • Dark Winds S01e03: kinaaldá Ceremony

      Dark Winds S01E03 Review: K’e – Swoon!

      By Salome G
      | June 29, 2022
    • Roswell, New Mexico S04e03: Sibongile Mlambo, Lily Cowles and Michael Trevino as Anatsa, Isobel and Kyle

      Roswell, New Mexico S04E03 Review: Subterranean Homesick Alien – Treading water?

      By Salome G
      | June 23, 2022
    • Obi-Wan Kenobi Series: Ewan McGregor and Vivien Lyra Blair as Obi-Wan and Leia

      REVIEW: Obi-Wan Kenobi had a good season and little else

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 22, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
    • Mario Headphones

      The SNES Turns 30: A look at some of the system’s best soundtracks

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 22, 2021
    • Metroid Dread Poster

      REVIEW: Metroid Dread reawakens the old gamer in me

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 11, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • Wwe Payback 2017 Poster 2

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE Payback 2017

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 30, 2017
      WWE Blogs
    Recent
    • AEW Double or Nothing 2022: CM Punk vs Adam Page

      REVIEW: AEW Double or Nothing 2022 delivered an up-and-down show

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • MJF on AEW Dynamite 17th November 2021

      Getting AEW to the next level…

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 29, 2022
    • Raw 210501: Triple H and Stephanie McMahon

      May 21, 2001 – A (forgotten) date that will live in WWE infamy

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 39 Logo

      Your WAY TOO EARLY predictions for WWE WrestleMania 39!

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 38 Poster

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE WRESTLEMANIA 38!

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 30, 2022
    • Wrestlemania 31 Paige Aj Lee 2

      BOOK REVIEW: The Women of WrestleMania is a balanced take on an under-valued slice of history

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 16, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Riverdale S06E18 Review: Biblical - Spooky chaos!
    • Roswell, New Mexico S04E04 Review: Dear Mama - Emotional?
    • Evil S03E03 Review: The Demon of Sex - Contrived?
    • Dark Winds S01E03 Review: K'e - Swoon!
    • REVIEW: ELVIS beautifully mythologizes the King of Rock and Roll
    • REVIEW: THE BLACK PHONE is a flat, dull, rushed non-horror movie
    • Latest Comments

    REVIEW: Metroid Dread reawakens the old gamer in me

    By Matthew Martin
    | October 11, 2021
    Video Game Reviews
    This page contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Learn more

    I wonder what it must be like to be a gamer playing Metroid Dread as their first “Metroid” experience?

    I owned Metroid for the NES and wore the cartridge out. Like many my age who had the game, I had a huge map of Zebes drawn with colored pencils, as large as four notebook pages taped together. I consulted it so often I ended up just thumbtacking it to the wall above my TV. Even then I knew the value of being able to consult a map while playing the game. The first Metroid was a chore to get through, and when I say I wore the cartridge out I don’t just mean running through frustratingly similar-looking hallways, I mean trying every possible password combination I could think of to try and unlock some new powerup. Trying to play the game from start to finish was brutal, not just because the difficulty was “Nintendo hard,” but because every hit from an enemy knocked off a stupid amount of health, and deaths meant having to grind through enemies to get back to full strength. There were a lot of brilliant ideas in that first game, but the total package was raw and unpolished. It felt like a game held back by the limitations of the system and in need of a little more testing and refining.

    When the sequel was released for the Gameboy, I had it and it basically never left the console. I grew up on a farm out in the middle of nowhere, so going anywhere—even to get groceries with my mom as a child—was at least a fifteen-minute drive, plus another fifteen to get back, plus a good hour wandering around the local Piggly Wiggly. I didn’t mind because while my mother was choosing between jars of pickles I was deep in the caverns of SR388. No matter how many times I beat the game, I kept going back to it, determined to beat it faster and faster than before.

    Super Metroid is the perfect game. Modern players will criticize the sometimes random solutions to puzzles (“just bomb that corner over there that looks like nothing out of the ordinary….then just walk through that wall that isn’t actually a wall but looks just like every other wall. Obviously.”), the floaty jumping, and the dedicated run button, but we players who grew up with it can’t help but see it with rose-colored glasses. The mood, the music, the environments, the enemies, the pacing, the insane sequence breaking, the memorable ending; it all adds up to an experience unlike any other. My “best games ever” list shuffles around a lot, but the top-top entries have never changed: Mario 3, Chrono Trigger, and Super Metroid. To me, when I think of Metroid this is the game that comes to mind. It took everything that was attempted in the original, plus all the new mechanics and concepts of the Gameboy entry, and brought it all together with a stunning 16-bit coat of paint. For my money, it’s never been bested as a 2D adventure experience.

    Metroid Fusion was never going to be able to supplant Super Metroid. It had too many things working against it, particularly the limitations of a handheld (with two fewer buttons than on the SNES) and the reputation already solidified around the SNES release. That said, Metroid 4 did manage to add something new to the franchise, and that was the occasional feeling of abject horror. The controls were refined a bit and the progression through the game was a little more hand-holding than in the past, but in the end, it was the same Metroid experience, albeit just different enough to be a new entry in the series. As with the others, I played it, I liked it, I was happy to have it, and when I was done, I was eager for the next one.

    In the meantime, the Metroid Prime games managed to translate the series to 3D better than any 2D-to-3D conversion since The Legend of Zelda. I own all three titles and played them exhaustively, but despite how much I love Prime 1, appreciate Prime 2, and can enjoy a lot of Prime 3, none of them brought out the same feelings as the 2D entries. By the time I played Prime 3, I was already a dad with a newborn. I was an adult who still played video games, though not as fanatically, and I tended to revert to the titles I grew up with whenever I had time to play anything. I was more likely to play Bump-n-Jump for the NES than I was Halo or Call of Duty. Whenever I would get the itch to play Metroid, it was usually Super Metroid that I fired up. My hopes for a DS 2D Metroid game never materialized, and by the time the official remake of Metroid 2 came out for the 3DS, I had a trio of kids all hogging the system.

    I was just beginning to think I was never going to get a proper console Metroid game again, at least not a 2D experience, so you can imagine my shock and euphoria when Nintendo announced Metroid 5 was finally coming and that it was the long-rumored title code-named “Dread.” The day I downloaded the game for my Switch was the first day I’ve sat down to play the thing in months (in the meantime, I’ve been dying a bunch in Sekiro on the Xbox Series S).

    My kids were even a little surprised when I told them they were all forbidden from playing the system for the next week or so. Just between you and me, I was hoping they would get bad grades in school or get into a fight or something; anything so I could ground them and take the Switch without having to listen to their pity parties.

    You can’t win them all.

    Metroid Dread Cover

    So how is Metroid Dread? Does it live up to the decade-long hype? Does it earn its place as a numbered title in the mainline 2D Metroid series? Does it unseat Super Metroid as the best game in the franchise? First, it is excellent. Second, it does live up to the hype. Third, it absolutely earns its place as “number 5.” Finally…no, it’s no Super Metroid.

    But that could just be me being a grumpy old man.

    The problem with Metroid Dread is a “me” problem, not a “game” problem. The problem is I have almost thirty years of muscle memory playing Super Metroid in me that can’t just be switched off overnight. Playing a 2D game with a control stick, free aiming with the L-button, switching to missiles with the R-button, parrying with X, sliding! Sliding! I’ve been at it for hours and I still haven’t gotten the morph ball, but I can run, aim-and-shoot, leap and parry, land and slide like a shortstop…and sometimes do it all while looking halfway adequate. Sometimes I hit the buttons at the right moments and what appears on the screen looks as fluid and smooth as peak Bruce Lee. Most of the time, though, I look like Michael Scott trying to do parkour. I run, then stop and aim, then run and jump and mistime the parry, then run into a wall, and clumsily initiate the slide animation.

    Metroid Dread is designed in such a way that, if you get the hang of the controls, the animation will make you look like a world-class gamer, charging through a game as though you’ve played and beaten it a thousand times. It brings a level of speed and style that the series has never had before. Super Metroid was slow. Newer fans might call it plodding, but to me, the game was never meant to be hurried through (despite how fun it is to watch speedrunners do just that). Super Metroid was meant to be explored, to be poked at to see what it was hiding. Those times when a boss or mini-boss fight happened were sudden bursts of adrenaline amidst an overall “deliberately paced” experience. Metroid Dread on the other hand is played on the run, at a near-constant breakneck speed, and those times when a boss fight happens are when the game actually slows down, cramps your environment, and makes you think about strategy. It’s an inverse to what the franchise has been known for, but it doesn’t not work, either. It’s just not what I’m used to. As I said, the problem is with “me” not with “Metroid,” and as soon as I get the hang of it…watch out.

    Metroid Dread Screenshot

    Metroid Dread Screenshot

    The game’s biggest new feature is basically an expansion on the horror sequences that made Metroid Fusion so memorable. Here, instead of being hunted by an evil doppelganger, Samus is hunted by robots that can one-hit-kill you. The E.M.M.I. robots are confined to certain segments of the map within each area, and there’s a powerup found in each area that will allow you to take the robot on and defeat it, opening the area’s map without constantly being on the run, but in the meantime, you’re going to feel your heart race as you move through the “EMMI Zones.” And because there is no dedicated run button, when you press forward on the stick, you’re not creeping forward quietly, you’re charging straight ahead and loudly.

    It’s in these “horror moments” where the game lives up to its subtitle, and it’s here where all of Dread’s additions and changes to Samus’ agility and speed become critical. They’re so effective, in fact, they make every change to the way the main character controls completely justified, and as much as I struggle with remembering which button is slide and which is free-aim, I know that when I do get the hang of it all, I will probably look like a world-class gamer as I flee for my life. That point may not come until my fiftieth playthrough, but that’s okay; this is Metroid…

    I’ve been playing these games since I was a child, and I’ll be playing these games till I’m dead.

    10/10 – Metroid Dread manages to feel like a fitting continuation to a series that began in a much different era of gaming, as well as a remarkably polished modern game with all the stylings and trappings that current-gen gamers crave.

    Highly recommended.

    Buy it:

    UK: Check prices here

    USA: Check prices here

    Canada: Check prices here

    Metroid Dread Screenshot

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    Nintendo Switch

    You might also like

    • My life as a Nintendo fan.

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 11, 2020
    • In which I tell Nintendo fans to calm down(!)

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 27, 2018
    • How to update Mario for a “3D Collection”

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2020

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    Video Game Topics

    Recommended for you

    • Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Five live play TTRPG podcasts you must listen to

      By Ethan J
      | March 30, 2022
    • Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
    • The SNES Turns 30: A look at some of the system’s best games

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 31, 2021
    • What we want from an AEW video game

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 31, 2021
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter