Metroid Dread is going to be the latest Metroid game to hit consoles, and it’s a Switch exclusive. For years, Nintendo attempted to make this game series something that could compete with major popular shooters like Halo. However, it was already perfect in its own right, and Nintendo fans knew that. Now, it seems like Nintendo has realised the significance of everything that makes Metroid good as well, because Metroid Dread is a 2.5D game. This could have been a 2D or 3D game with FPS mechanics, but instead, it’s just how it should be. The perfect blend of the entire series all rolled into one.
Metroid started life as a series of 2D side-scrolling titles. The story was all there among the metroidvania mechanics, all you had to do was look out for it. The environment actually did most of the storytelling, and that’s still true today when you look at games this series has inspired. That’s why Metroid Dread had to at least be a 2D title. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t pay homage to the games that game before it, the games that made it what it is, and the prowess it showed in building a story through such a restricted viewpoint.
The 2.5D elements are equally important though. The Metroid series has expanded into 3D games with Pinball and the Prime games, expanding what the franchise can do with stories. Adding in a few elements that reference these titles would have been enough, but it looks like Metroid Dread goes further. Just like the Metroid 2 Remake, it blends the world gracefully into different dimensions when it makes sense from a visual perspective. This leaves you with jaw-dropping moments that make the 2D gameplay that little bit more epic than it would have been otherwise.
That’s why it’s so important that this game is 2.5D. There’s so much that needs to be done in it that it wouldn’t have been right to leave it in one or the other. Combining the two is the best way to bring the series back after so long, and the truest way to end this current story arc for Samus.