Nintendo has been keenly showing us trailers for Metroid Dread ever since they announced it earlier this year. They even went so far as to create a whole series of “Dread Reports”, providing a retrospective look at the Metroid series and how it all connects to this newest title. It sure seems like they were excited to show off Metroid Dread, despite the fact that they hardly need to try hard to sell a game starring our favourite bounty hunter. This is the first time in longer than 10 years that Samus has hit a console that wasn’t purely hand-held, so it’s certainly a special occasion. And I’m happy to say that Nintendo has done it justice.

Metroid Dread takes most of its gameplay from Metroid: Samus Returns, the 2017 remake of Metroid 2. It’s a marriage of classic and modern Metroid gameplay, meaning there’s plenty of exploration and challenging boss fights but with the benefit of 360-degree aiming and the melee counterattack. It’s made many improvements from what Samus Returns brought to the table.

Now that the melee counter has been built into the game from the start rather than being an addition to a game that didn’t originally have it, it feels a lot more natural as part of Samus’ arsenal. You can use the attack at any time, mid-dash or in the air, regardless of if an enemy is giving off that tell-tale flash of light. If you get the counter timing right, the enemy will be stunned, giving you a shot at a one-hit KO. If you don’t, well, you might still deal a bit of damage without having lost any momentum. The counter move is also incorporated into many of the game’s great boss fights and encounters with the E.M.M.I. robots, making for a very satisfying mechanic indeed.

Made for the OLED

Metroid Dread looks really nice. I mean, really nice. With the camera staying a fair distance from Samus (she usually only takes up a tiny section of the screen), the game could have easily gotten away with spending a little less time on the graphics. But I’m so glad they didn’t, because it looks stunning. Samus’ various suits all look very cool, and the attention to background detail is impressive, to say the least. Nintendo hasn’t been afraid to implement a more saturated colour palette either – some other recent Metroid games used a darker, almost grungy look in the name of realism, but I’m glad that Dread shows off the brilliant colours of Samus’ suit and accentuates the environments. I’m sure this choice was in part to complement the Nintendo Switch OLED, which launches on the same day, but it’ll look great no matter what version of the Switch you’re playing on.

As far as the main gameplay is concerned, it’s simply a really solid classic-style Metroid game. You’ll explore room by room, searching for the path forward by looking for openings and checking for destructible blocks and walls. The difficulty curve never feels too much, and the bosses are difficult yet fair. Most boss fights include mid-action cutscenes that give Samus a chance for a melee counterattack for massive damage, which adds a lot of spice to the fights. As always, too, there is a host of optional energy and missile tanks hidden around the map for you to find.

The only major change from the classic Metroid formula is the autosave function. Though that might be standard for most modern games, with Metroidvanias it’s a bit of a different story. Part of the challenge comes from surviving until you can reach a save point. But Metroid Dread autosaves fairly frequently, like when you enter or exit E.M.M.I. Zones or boss rooms. And, like in classic Metroid games, the save points in Dread don’t recover your energy or missiles – there are separate recharge stations for that. I can’t in good conscience count this as a negative, as every time I loaded in again I was thankful that I hadn’t been set back. But it does mean that the save rooms are almost completely useless – the game might as well have allowed me to save anywhere from the menu.

Metroid Dread stops just short of being a masterpiece, not because of any one flaw, but simply because it doesn’t do much to push the series forward. It’s a perfect example of the series as it currently stands, but it just feels like it had the potential for more. All of its decisions are safe and expected. Beyond one or two reveals in the story, Metroid Dread didn’t do anything I didn’t expect.