Videogame Review: Metroid Dread
Metroid Dread is a perfect example of what I call the, “Nintendo Tax.”
The Nintendo Tax is simply the fact that Nintendo IPs enjoy the privilege of charging triple-A prices for short, simple, technically unimpressive games so long as they are at least fun.
Nintendo Switch has numerous games like this, especially when we include remakes. Games like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening are perfect examples. These are $60 games with graphics and gameplay that look decades old. Are they fun as hell? Absolutely. But no indie developer would have a chance of charging those kinds of prices for comparable graphical quality and content. Just look at the recently released Deathloop, a title with innovative gameplay, Hollywood production value, fantastic art design and music, yet going for $40 on PC and PS5.
How does Nintendo get away with it? As I said — their games are fun. What’s more they appeal to our sense of nostalgia. Metroid Dread is no exception. It is a very satisfying serving of 2D action platforming. In classic Metroid style the basic game flow involves finding powerups that grant new abilities to open new pathways while battling all kinds of weird aliens with Samus’ trusty arsenal of missiles, bombs, and plasma cannons.
The story doesn’t merit much examination. It is the same basic setup of Samus investigating a mysterious planet involving our old friends the Chozo, Metroids, and X parasites. There are barely any cutscenes and minimal voice acting. Some folks may like this but again it speaks to the cheapness of the overall production. Compared to the far more atmospheric Metroid Prime games, Dread is clearly a throwback to the SNES Super Metroid era. It emulates the 90’s 2D era style quite well with its excellent maps, puzzles, and fun boss fights. Unfortunately, there’s just not much there. You’ll probably be done in about 8 hours and all that remains is either trying to go for 100% of items (yaaay, more missiles…) or attempting an uninspired hard mode that just scales up enemy damage.
How much value do you expect to get out of $60? Maybe that isn’t a lot of money to you. If it isn’t, then I definitely recommend Dread. The variety of maps is pretty good and the movement is very satisfying. In particular I love the speed booster and flash shift upgrades. You can get really creative traversing the environments. What’s more the newly added “E.M.M.I” sections add some delightfully tense platforming as you are hunted by an invincible killbot through certain portions of the map. Honestly I wish we had gotten more of those bits. At its best moments, Metroid Dread is a real blast.
The fact remains though that you can see everything Dread has to offer over a weekend. Will you have fun? Yes. I’m glad to see Samus back in action. Much as I would love a proper triple A return in a new Prime style game, I’ll take a solid retro installment. Pay the Nintendo tax and you will have your fun. Or pay $20 and get Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. For a third of the price on your choice of 7 different platforms you get 10x the content in a Metroidvania-style game with deep character customization, RPG mechanics, a rich story, solid voice acting, tons of gear, magic, weapons, and accessories, a campaign that’s at least 3x as long as Dread’s, DLC, excellent music, and much greater variety in its three different difficulty levels plus randomizer, speedrun, 8bit adventure, and boss rush modes. As a fan of these sorts of big map 2D action games for my money Bloodstained is just better than Dread in every way. For gamers on a budget, it’s also just way better ROI.
Still Dread is a decent installment in a long-neglected franchise. Here’s hoping for a real show-stopper in Metroid Prime 4.
Grade: B-
