One of the biggest reveals from Nintendo at E3 2021, Metroid Dread immediately caught
the attention of Samus Aran fans.
Widely hailed as the first brand new 2D game since Metroid Fusion (not counting remakes),
Metroid Dread was bound to excited fans who are still waiting patiently for Metroid Prime
4.
For truly dedicated fans of the series, this game is particularly exciting, since rumours
about a game entitled Metroid Dread have been swirling for well over a decade.
Indeed, developer Yoshio Sakamoto has confirmed that various teams have been working on this
game on and off for fifteen years.
Explaining the incredibly long development period, he said:
“Actually, the idea for Metroid Dread first came up about fifteen years ago.
However, we gave up on the idea at the time because we felt the technology back then just
couldn’t properly bring the concept to life.”
That said, the game has evolved significantly over the years.
Sakamoto said: “15 years ago when I originally conceived
of the game, the story itself wasn't clearly set.
It was basically driven, or kept alive, by the concept.
It's fairly recent we finalised the detailed story, so you can imagine what I had envisioned
15 years ago is not the same as what has been achieved now.”
Over the course of such a long development, there have been various leaks and reports
surrounding Metroid Dread.
While we don’t have all the details on these various versions of Metroid Dread, it is possible
to put together a timeline of the game’s incredibly rocky development.
Initial planning for Metroid Dread started not long after the release of Metroid: Zero
Mission for the Gameboy Advance.
The team had plenty of ideas, and even felt confident showing some things off to journalists
at E3 2005, such as IGN’s Craig Harris.
Later in the year, Harris said of the game: “Metroid Dread is indeed the real deal,
though Nintendo may have jumped the gun in letting people in on its development.
It showed up in early E3 documents, but since it wasn't going to show, it was quickly dismissed
and forgotten at the Expo.
Expect more to show up about the game next year.”
Indeed, while the team had plenty of ideas, actual development on Metroid Dread was put
to one side.
It was the early days of the Nintendo DS at the time, and Nintendo was strongly pushing
the in-development Metroid Prime Hunters, which showed off the DS’s 3D capabilities.
It wasn’t until a few years later that work began on Metroid Dread in earnest.
According to Unseen64, the game was shown off internally to some Nintendo developers
at a pre-E3 meeting.
This version of Dread ran on the DS, and used pixel sprites very similar Metroid Fusion.
In fact, one anonymous developer is quoted as saying:
“It literally looked like a port of Fusion on DS.”
At around this time, Nintendo was instead gearing up for the release of Metroid: Other
M. When pressed in an interview with Kotaku about whether this was Metroid Dread, Yoshio
Sakamoto said: “The day may come when Dread hits the stores,
but this one is something that's completely different.
This is Other M.” DS version of Dread was ultimate shelved – based
on Sakamoto’s recent comments, it seems that the developers weren’t able to achieve
what they wanted to do with the game on the DS hardware.
A couple of years later, in 2011, Sakamoto was asked about Dread again.
He said: “I cannot deny the existence of such a project
in the past but cannot say if it will be what I move onto next or not.
I’m sorry but we would like to keep that game a mystery.
After all, there has been a lot of speculation surrounding Dread.
And my hope, if at all possible, is to reset the situation at once and start from scratch.”
The opportunity to finally complete the game presented itself when Sakamoto and his team
worked with developer MercurySteam on the 3DS remake of Metroid II.
The studio had already proven themselves with Castlevania: Lord of Shadows, and according
to Sakamoto: “The reason that I actually met with [MercurySteam]
was in the hopes that they'd be able to realize the concepts that I had for Metroid Dread.”
Sakamoto also said: “I honestly thought we’d have no choice
but to abandon the concept, but then we met Mercury Steam Entertainment, with whom we
co-developed Metroid: Samus Returns for Nintendo 3DS.
They’re extremely talented.
Technically, they’re very skilled.
They also have great taste.
“But more than anything, they have an incredible understanding of Metroid games.
I was confident that teaming up with this wonderful team would finally allow us to bring
Metroid Dread to life.”
So, now, over fifteen years after the initial design work was done for Metroid Dread, the
developers have had the opportunity to actually create the game they had in mind all along.
Here’s hoping it lives up to the hype!
The moral of the story is that sometimes, a good idea is worth holding on to.
Life can be hectic and busy, and there can be plenty of distractions from whatever you’re
trying to achieve.
However, if you’re patient, you may one day find the opportunity to fulfil your dreams.
The waiting game is never fun, but when the time comes, it’ll be worth it.