The announcement of Metroid Dread sent Metroid fans the world over into a frenzy. This is the first new 2D Metroid title in a very long time, as well as a new chronological entry in a story that hasn't progressed since 2002's Metroid Fusion. That the announcement came as a complete surprise was equally shocking -- fans were so busy clamoring for Metroid Prime 4 that they failed to consider the possibility of a new 2D title hitting the market.
While there are certainly jokes to be made about Prime 4 taking so long that Nintendo went ahead and made an entirely new game within its development cycle, the more pressing matter at hand is to unpack all of the new information revealed in the gameplay trailers and official announcements for Metroid Dread.
What Hurt That E.M.M.I.?
One of the E.M.M.I. shown in the gameplay footage appears to be heavily damaged, and therefore unable to pursue Samus with the same speed as its allies. Despite its worn-down state all weapons appear to be ineffective, with Samus only able to destroy it after temporarily upgrading her power beam.
This begs the question, if Samus' weapons were so ineffective, what could have possibly done such major damage to the E.M.M.I. before she encountered it? If missiles and power beam blasts aren't enough, then what else is lurking below the surface of planet ZDR that's packing more firepower than the protagonist?
Biomechanical Brains
In the gameplay demonstration for Metroid Dread, the first E.M.M.I. that Samus encounters is heavily damaged, allowing her to escape by climbing to a height that it can't reach with its broken limbs. There, she interacts with some sort of biomechanical entity, which resembles some sort of large brain.
The Metroid franchise is no stranger to that sort of technology (it appears in the Aurora Units of the Prime trilogy, and the iconic Mother Brain of the earlier games, to name a few), but if these objects are indeed similar technologically speaking, then what are they doing lying around in the caverns of planet ZDR?
The Origin Of The E.M.M.I.
The most frequent enemies that Samus faces on her various adventures are local wildlife, Metroids, and the Space Pirates and their allies. Murderous robots are relatively new for her, but they become even more sinister once their origin is revealed.
a more agreeable faction than the Space Pirates. If Federation equipment is coming after Samus, then it might mean their relationship has become a rocky one. That would make sense, because she did blow up their research station at the end of Metroid Fusion.
The Brutal E.M.M.I. Death Animations
The E.M.M.I. are merciless robotic hunters, and these enemies are likely to form the lynchpin of the game's titular Dread, so it's only appropriate that they're pretty scary opponents. Although they might not look terribly intimidating from the outside, the mechanical agility with which they pursue Samus and their uncanny chirping is certain to raise hairs.
However, by far the worst thing about them is the implied brutality with which they dispatch Samus should they get their claws on her. The camera cuts to black before these animations reach their gruesome conclusions, but there's enough there to give the audience a pretty good idea of what's about to happen. One of them even shows an E.M.M.I.'s needle-like appendage protruding into Samus' helmet.
A Living Chozo?
In Metroid's lore, the Chozo are the bird-like aliens that raised Samus to adulthood after the colony she lived in during childhood was wiped out by a Space Pirate attack. It's their likeness that shows up on the iconic statues from which Samus gains her power-ups, and it was they who designed the power suit that she wears into battle.
The only thing is, there aren't that many Chozo left in the galaxy. In fact, a living individual has never actually been shown in any Metroid title prior to this one. The (apparently) living Chozo in the trailer, as well as some pretty obvious Chozo iconography scattered throughout the environment, indicates that they may have a more active role to play in this new title.
The Significance Of Samus' Slide
Samus has a slide now! That has obvious implications for the game's combat, because if the player can slide underneath or past enemies, then it will give the developers more options to speed up combat encounters to make them more intense. But the real question mark raised by the slide maneuver is how it will impact map design.
In some of the gameplay shown, the audience could catch a glimpse of Samus sliding under obstacles in the map, spaces that would normally be reserved for a player with access to the morph ball. This clear encroachment on the morph ball's territory is interesting, because it may signal a break from typical Metroid power-up progression.
Different E.M.M.I. Functionality
The trailer for Metroid Dread showed fans that E.M.M.I.s come in several colors, but the differences aren't simply cosmetic. The final seconds of the reveal trailer shows a yellow model engaging some kind of speed boost to chase down Samus, which raises questions as to how many other types of E.M.M.I. there are going to be, and what their abilities are.
Whatever the answer, it's clear that the developers are not going to let the player relax if they're caught in the same room as one of these things. As if the standard white E.M.M.I. wasn't bad enough, it looks like they're going to keep getting stronger as the game goes on.
The Unusual Progression
Longtime Metroid fans may have spotted something unusual about the layout of the game's map during Nintendo's gameplay demonstration. Most Metroid titles see Samus being dropped on the surface of the planet she'll be exploring and then delving deeper underground as the game progresses.
Oddly enough, the first area in Dread, called Ataria, seems to be rather deep underground already (according to a map screen shown in the demo). That raises some interesting questions about how Samus got down there, and what she's searching for.
The Remains Of The Fusion Suit
The events of Metroid Fusion saw Samus inadvertently fusing with the deadly X parasite. Federation scientists were able to remove the parasite from Samus' suit, but not before it had permanently fused with the outer layer, forming the distinctive Fusion Suit that Samus wears throughout the game.
The unique organic components of the Fusion Suit haven't gone away, either. The cyan membranes that spiderwebbed across the original fusion suit appear to still be there on the Dread suit, albeit in a reduced capacity. Perhaps Samus repaired her armor in between games?
The E.M.M.I.'s Objective
E.M.M.I. is an acronym that stands for "Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifiers", and according to Nintendo, these machines are designed for research purposes. Their function is to deploy to the surface of a planet and extract DNA samples from desired subjects for scientific purposes.
That makes a certain degree of sense, but then the big question raised is: why are these things after Samus? If they're programmed to extract DNA from their targets, then what is it in Samus' genetic code that they're after? It's possible that it has something to do with the vaccine she received at the beginning of Metroid Fusion, but nothing is certain yet.