Nintendo's Metroid Dread makes me feel like a kid again

Nintendo's Metroid Dread makes me feel like a kid once more — here'south why

(Image credit: Nintendo)

E3 2021 wrapped upwards earlier this week and the star of the show — for me, anyway — was the surprise proclamation of Metroid Dread. 15 years in the making, this 5th installment in the mainline Metroid series (which doesn't include the Prime trilogy) sparked a joy in me that I haven't felt in, well, a really long time.

Despite loving many games in the last decade, such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne, I've become jaded. Sure, I'k interested in something similar Elden Ring, but my general cynicism sours a lot of potential excitement about new games. In fact, I barely call up the release schedule for new games — something I used to exist extremely good at tracking. Perhaps that'due south but a sign of historic period, but I retrieve it boils down to a sense of colorlessness with the industry.

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It's been a few days since Nintendo's E3 presentation, and I'g still floored past Metroid Dread. I've been trying to buy the game'due south special edition, but it keeps selling out everywhere. That implies that I'1000 not lonely in my joy, and I retrieve the fervor I run into on social media attests to that. A lot of people are excited for this game.

Metroid Dread: What it means to me

Personally, Metroid Dread means more to me than merely getting another second Metroid. Dread was the codename all the fashion back in the early 2000s for a sequel to the grim Metroid Fusion on the Game Boy Advance. It was supposed to take the series further into sci-fi/horror territory, pitting Samus against some nameless fear, thus the name.

But Nintendo apparently canceled the project, and Metroid Dread seemingly died. In the fourth dimension since then, we got Metroid Prime number 3, Metroid: Other Thousand, and Samus Returns (a remake of Metroid II on the Game Boy). Fifty-fifty subsequently the announcement of Metroid Prime four in 2017, we were left wondering what was next for Samus following her battle with the X Parasites. That experience had inverse her, but then Nintendo left us hanging.

Metroid Dread means the return of something from my babyhood. Nosotros're always chasing nostalgia equally adults, desperate to experience some of the same things nosotros did equally kids. I call back my sense of foreboding as I played Metroid Fusion. I had nightmares about, well, the Nightmare dominate. The melting face up you see every bit you whittle downwards its health still haunts me, and few games go out with that sense of terror anymore.

Nintendo knew it would have a lot riding on Metroid Dread, and I tin't believe that zip leaked in advance. I had heard rumors of a 2d Metroid announcement, merely I honestly expected a Super Metroid remake, or something to do with Fusion or Zero Mission. I don't think anyone expected Metroid Dread to come up dorsum to life a decade-and-a-one-half later. I certainly didn't.

Metroid Dread: Leaning into nostalgia

Nintendo is similar Disney: a main of playing off our nostalgia. I got suckered into buying a 3DS for the remake of The Fable of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and I fought molar and nail to find a copy of Samus Returns. Nostalgia is partly why Nintendo still sells loads of Mario and Zelda games. Those of u.s. who grew upwards with these franchises constantly seek the same feelings we felt when we played those games as kids. Now, nosotros want to share those feelings with others (perhaps with our own children).

The power of the past is why I could barely contain my excitement when I saw a new Metroid game at E3 2021. I was so overwhelmed that I didn't know what to do. I yelled for joy, told my friends in Discord about information technology and even let that enthusiasm boil over into the Tom'southward Guide Slack aqueduct. Non even my wife could escape my ravings when she came habitation from work several hours later.

Metroid Dread'south annunciation made me realize that I missed that feeling. As a male child, I religiously watched and read anything to practise with video games. E3 was my favorite fourth dimension of twelvemonth. Information technology never occurred to me that, in adulthood, I could lose that passion. I still loved, and continue to beloved, video games. But something has been missing for years, and simply now can I put my finger on information technology.

Seeing that reveal trailer for Metroid Dread, I was all of a sudden a kid over again. Years of memories came flooding back, and something stirred in me that I haven't felt in a very long time. Possibly that'southward just what I needed. Metroid Dread ways more to me than a mere sequel to a beloved franchise — it's a chance to relive those feelings from babyhood.

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Hashemite kingdom of jordan is the Phones Editor for Tom's Guide, roofing all things phone-related. He's written almost phones for over 5 years and plans to continue for a long while to come. He loves nil more than relaxing in his home with a book, game, or his latest personal writing projection. Jordan likes finding new things to swoop into, from books and games to new mechanical keyboard switches and fun keycap sets. Hashemite kingdom of jordan tends to lurk on social media, but yous can best reach him on Twitter.