The long wait for a side-scrolling Metroid game is over with Metroid Dread for the Nintendo Switch. There’s a lot of power-ups and abilities from previous games, as well as new ones like sliding and Flash Shift. You won’t want to miss this if you like Castlevania/Metroid side-scrollers.
Metroid Dread has everything you’ll love. The game starts you depowered – as usual – but as you explore, you get your first power up, and it just snowballs from there. In no time at all, you’ll be morphing into a tiny ball, running super fast, shooting multiple missiles, and more. Fans of Metroid will recognize these powers. There’s new stuff like Flash Shift, which lets you blink right or left consecutively. It doesn’t stop all damage, but it gets you out of trouble faster. You can also counter attack enemies to one-shot them, like in Samus Returns.
As with all Metroidvania games, you’ll have to do a lot of exploring and backtracking. There are tons of different room types, environments, puzzles, and stealth elements. Using your invisible ability, you dodge a giant killer EMMI robot. It’s tense in these areas, because you don’t want to get caught. Getting spotted means you can either run away or get caught and try to escape. It’s hard to get the escape timing right when you have to successfully press the counter button. When you die, you’ll have to restart the area.
Once you figure out the patterns, all the bosses are beatable. It’s also easy to retry, since the game puts you right back near the boss, and sometimes, you just have to skip a cutscene. I think the bosses are the best part of the game, because you’ll have a blast figuring them out. The only thing I don’t like about the game is how long it takes to load between areas. It’s because of the Switch’s hardware. It’s a good time to grab a drink, rest your fingers, and get back to work.
