Metroid Dread is already playable in 4k via emulators

Hey, real quick: if you’re a Nintendo lawyer or employee, just like … don’t read this. It was a stupid mistake. Ignore this blog. You can go now. Okay, everyone …

Terror Metroid was officially released on October 8, but copies were released into the wild a few days before that. And even after such a short time, the game is now fully playable in 4K through various Nintendo Switch emulators.

Released yesterday and developed by Mercurysther, Terror Metroid is the expected 2D return of Metroid series. You can read our full review here, but the short answer: It’s a solid game with beautiful visuals and surprisingly tricky boss fights. It’s a Switch exclusive, as you might expect. But all you need is a Switch emulator and a fairly powerful PC, and you can play Fear on your computer now. And it looks great.

Via the popular open source Yuzu emulator, you can now play Fear with custom controls and unlimited FPS settings. Some players have reported minor issues with cutscenes and black screens, but according to the developers at Yuzu, this is fixed by updating to the latest version of the free emulator.

Another popular Switch emulator, Ryujinx, is able to run the game at such high frame rates, but can also play it at much higher 4K resolution. Compared to the native 720 / 900p resolution available on the Switch in portable or TV mode, this is a massive increase. And, the art style and visuals really shine in 4K.

Of course, it is possible that certain areas of the game will perform less well on certain PC configurations, and depending on your PC’s specifications and software configuration, Fear via emulation could be a total crap show. But it looks like for most people with moderately powerful GPUs things look pretty darn good.

If you want to play the rest of the Metroid franchise and don’t want to shell out large sums of money on old consoles and games, your best bet is also emulation. As is often the case, Nintendo (like most game publishers) really doesn’t want to keep access to its old games outside of the few big sellers. Thank God for hackers, emulators, modders and hackers.