Terror of the metroids is near, so close, and Nintendo is presumably nearing the end of its “Report” series on the game. Fortunately, this week’s entry is pretty much spoiler-free as it focuses on controls, map, and features designed to help players enjoy the game.
First of all, if you haven’t played all of the main games in the series – especially Metroid Fusion on Game Boy Advance, which precedes Dread – then it is guaranteed that there will be an in-game story recap to keep you up to speed.
Metroid Dread is almost here! Since the release of the previous game in this saga 19 years ago, 2002 Metroid Fusion for the Game Boy Advance ™ system, we understand that Metroid Dread could be the first 2D Metroid game for many of you. Whether you’re new to the series or just want to brush up on your bounty hunting skills, here are some helpful tips to keep in mind during your first explorations.
STORY – The Galactic Federation, a joint congress created by many different planets in the galaxy, has sent a special research unit to the planet ZDR. The unit’s goal was to investigate the possible presence of the deadly parasite X, a life form capable of fully mimicking organic creatures. However, the unit has shut down. Now it’s up to Samus Aran, the most powerful bounty hunter in the galaxy, to travel to this unexplored planet and find out what happened. But what she finds there is desperate terror …
~ TRANSMISSION OF THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM ~
The story is introduced at the start of the game, so you don’t have to worry about catching up before you start, even if you’ve never touched a single game in this series. Animated illustrations of key moments are used to help keep you up to date. Players of previous games may also enjoy seeing those moments come to life in this new way. If you’d like to learn more about the history of the series, please check out the flight. 4 of the Metroid Dread report.
The report then goes through the various controls and moves available to Samus, many of which will be familiar to players from Metroid: Samus Returns. As you’ve no doubt seen in many trailers, this one features a Dash Melee with a rather sleek slide.
An interesting segment concerns the map and the navigation aids, as well as the confirmation towards the end that the AI updates “Adam” will have a similar mechanic to that of Fusion; in this case, you will need to visit a “network station”.
The genre of the Metroid series is “action exploration”. As the name suggests, you explore a huge world and can get stronger as you go. You can see the areas you’ve explored on a map, so map reading skills are extremely useful. Here you can open the full map by pressing the + button.
Select an icon on the map to see the name of the point of interest.
Image: Nintendo
Select an icon and press the Y button to activate icon highlighting, which will highlight similar POIs on the map.
Image: Nintendo
Areas that still contain hidden items will glow on the map.
Image: Nintendo
You can download map data for your current location to the Map Station. Once you have downloaded the data, you can use Map Stations to save your progress.
Image: Nintendo
~ DEVELOPMENT TEAM TRANSMISSION ~ On ZDR, there are parts of the terrain that Samus can destroy with beam and missile attacks. Crossing them to open up new avenues is a fundamental part of exploring the Metroid series. Some of these breakable blocks integrate well with their surroundings. If you get stuck, be on the lookout for suspicious spots and detonate them with your beam, missile, or bomb that you’ll get later in the game.
The rest of the report is full of familiar details, but it’s definitely worth checking out if you can’t have enough Dread in your life right now.
