Good gracious! It took 15 years to make this game

Okay, making a game takes time. But 15 years to make a game is a long time. But we know why.

Yoshio Sakamoto had an idea for the next Metroid game about 15 years ago. The game would be called Dread, and would feature ancient protagonist Samus Aran who is constantly being chased by some sort of almighty force. The idea was to instill fear in players, with an enemy they couldn’t defeat. This was at the time when the Nintendo DS was becoming a hit, but Sakamoto soon realized that the handheld wasn’t powerful enough for his ideas.

Metroid Dread

According to the developer, ‘it was difficult to realize that concept with that hardware’. It was a bit of a muddle at the time. The project has been stopped and restarted several times due to all kinds of problems and technical limitations. When these problems piled up, the project was shelved for a while. “We had put it on hold,” explains Sakamoto. That’s what made this year’s announcement at E3 such a surprise: Not only is Metroid Dread real, it’s coming to Switch on October 8.

Dread is then the fifth main entry in the franchise – it was initially called Metroid 5 during the E3 reveal and the first since Metroid Fusion in 2002. Like its predecessors, it is a 2D side-scroller that combines action and exploration. The main twist is new robots called EMMI, predatory creatures that Samus is not strong enough to fight, forcing her to hide. They add an almost horror-like element to the game. cool!

Time is right after 15 years for this game

The time was right to really finish and launch the game. This is for a few reasons. One of these was more powerful hardware in the form of the Switch. The other is a partner. In 2017, Nintendo launched Metroid: Samus Returns on the 3DS, a remake of the Game Boy title Metroid II. The development was mainly provided by the Spanish studio Mercury Steam and with them the collaboration has also been entered into for this game.

The game will be introduced for the Switch in October.