When Samus awakens, she has “physical amnesia” – yes, as usual, you've been stripped of most of your abilities. Samus pulls up in her spaceship and immediately gets wrecked by a Chozo, a member of an ancient, technologically advanced civilization of bird-like creatures that have left ruins across the galaxy.
Unfortunately for the universe, Metroid Dread opens with a video transmission from an unknown planet showing the globular parasite floating free. Samus eventually triumphs over this double, believing she has wiped out the X parasites in the process. In that game, a parasite known as the X steals Samus’s powers and reconstitutes itself as her soulless and deadly doppelganger. This story follows the events of Metroid Fusion. Because Metroid Prime 4 was delayed after Nintendo controversially halted a project by Bandai Namco back in 2019, Metroid Dread's release, the first new 2D Metroid in 16 years, feels like an attempt to pacify frustrated fans.
Double dragon 2 nes doppelganger fight series#
In recent years, series Ori and Hollow Knight have shown that the genre is far from an anachronism, but the 3D versions of Metroid, which take place from behind Samus's visor, have overshadowed their 2D counterparts. (Samsus's adventures usually take place on vast, abandoned planets). This, and later sequels like Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, created their own genre, known as Metroidvania, a portmanteau of Metroid and Castlevania games, which mix Mario's platforming with Zelda 's go-anywhere exploration. It all began in 2D, with Metroid, released in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The games follow Samus Aran – best identified by her iconic, bulbous orange spacesuit – the bounty hunter who rarely seems to collect her bounties. Metroid is one of the most venerable and acclaimed series on Nintendo's roster.
Metroid Dread on the Nintendo Switch doesn’t escape this trap: it's a fine and frightening game held back by its boring robot villains. And like tools, this second camp of robots – the smartphones of the robot universe – have tended to look very similar, and require some thought on the part of their designer to elevate their personalities above that of a can opener. In the first, they look like us in the second, they look like tools, their bodies moulded towards a particular function. Robot design tends to fall into one of two camps.