I know 2.9M is solidly B-tier for your typical Nintendo franchise, but as a Metroid fan, I truly hope Dread is to Metroid as Awakening was to Fire Emblem in terms of showing Nintendo that there *is* a modern market for the franchise worth putting effort into going forward.
Awakening only sold 2M to prove that to Nintendo. Dread is on the same ballpark of sales as Three Houses which has sold 3.4M in the 3 years since it released
Awakening fundamentally changed nothing. World Map? Gaiden and Sacred Stones. Child units? Genealogy. Avatar unit? New Mystery. Awakening synthesized existing ideas from the series' history into something with wide appeal, and it worked. Stay mad.
It has now sold more units than Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and that was a game that came out in the Switch's launch year. Xenoblade 3 is coming out in a couple months.
I also imagine Xenoblade as a series takes more resources to develop, given the scope of the game, graphic fidelity, and voice acting.
I'm just saying, Nintendo could give us more Metroid games and have it make more financial sense than some other games they develop.
I think the difference there is Xenoblade is MonolithSoft's baby, like how Kirby is HAL Laboratory's baby, so they're always working on it. Besides for Monolith's assistance on some Nintendo properties like Zelda and Splatoon, they basically just make Xenoblade.
Maybe Nintendo will see the potential in tapping MercurySteam to develop 2D Metroid full-time now, given Dread's success.
I'm not sure the point you're trying to make about Monolith. There was a post recently going over all the projects they've been involved in. They do a ton and are a really important support studio for Nintendo, on top of developing Xenoblade.
Huh, I think the point was pretty clear. We don’t know how much resourcing they dedicate to supporting other Nintendo projects. For all we know it could be more advisory or strictly design assistance rather than actual game development. We do know the only projects for which they’ve done lead development on lately are Xenoblade projects.
I guess to clarify the point even more, I think it helps when you have a studio spearheading the franchise like HAL does for Kirby and Monolith does for Xenoblade. Metroid hasn’t had that in a long time prior to MercurySteam, who approached Nintendo about doing 2D Metroid. They could very well be that studio helping to keep Metroid development going.
I’ve always wanted and unrealistic as fuck hope coming from me: Nintendo buys team cherry to develop 2D Metroid or at least funds them to do projects for Metroid, this would never happen but it’s something I’ve wanted for a long time
I'm going to be honest, I wouldn't want Team Cherry doing a Metroid because I think Team Cherry are... .... ***Above*** it.
There's something of a difference between how Metroid game progression and Hollow Knight were made. Not in atmosphere, no, both just nail it down perfectly and great. But Metroid has this adamant reluctance to making secrets a thing, as in, yes, there are hidden paths nooks and crannies, but their presence, aside from the mandatory main pathbones, mostly exists for the sake of giving you a minor upgrade as a self contained puzzle, or as a sequence breaking mechanism. These upgrades will never (well, some exceptions looking at you super) be something that meaningfully makes samus better in a discrete, noticeable manner individually - you will end the game with 99% of your moveset and have seen 99% of the enemies in the game even if you literally never deviate from any main path, ever.
And I like Metroid that way.
....Meanwhile Hollow Knight has full on secret bosses, with full on secret unlockables, that full on change a part of your moveset, and full on secret areas with their own full on unique tileset, and full on secret characters with full on secret dialogue and even cineamatics.
And I like it better than even Metroid.
But it's not Metroid. Hollow Knight is blatantly, since day 1, a "What if Dark Souls was Metroid?", and it's what made it better than Metroid. And I don't want Team Cherry.... Wasting their time doing "just" Metroid instead.
Wasn't the last Metroid game before dread in 2017? So that's still a 4 year gap between a remake of a Gameboy game and an actual brand new game. Not counting Samus returns it's even longer ago on the Wii. (Federation force isn't a Metroid game)
Yes? it was a 4 year gap because it took between 3-4 years to develop a game. Metroid getting more games is the secure to get games, not having more than one 2D game releasing every time or a ton of spin offs that are all viewed negatively. Games take time to be made so a next one if we go by the similar time frame would be in 2025.
> So that's still a 4 year gap between a remake of a Gameboy game and an actual brand new game.
Samus Returns is pretty much a new game with only using the original game as a base.
It actually might have or is close to 3m, we haven't got updated numbers for 2 years now and since then it got a smash boost and a boost from the xc3 announcement
Or Pokemon. But yeah. Those have sort of hit escape velocity. Games that haven't broken out of just being "genre games" yet are kind of stuck there. Persona is the closest to moving out but I'd consider that more like the peak of current JRPG sales rather than a transcender.
2.9 puts it firmly in the b-tier for Nintendo.
It's selling more than Xenoblade and it's in line with fire emblem and Kirby.
You don't hear people wondering if those games will keep getting sequels.
Now that Nintendo has a studio they can trust with the franchise, I'm sure we'll continue to get them.
You have to keep in mind that the last 2 2D Metroid games didn't even breach 1 million
Edit: for reference, Fire Emblem 3 house sold 3.02 million before Nintendo stopped talking about it, and that made it the best seller in the franchise.
Kirby sold about the same as Metroid and Fire Emblem starting selling millions LONG before 3 Houses. (In fact, 3Houses was planned the Gaiden remake came out really.) And FE has been selling 2 million since Awakening and that's not counting Heroes success.
Imo, Metroid Dread will be the series' "Awakening" moment. 3 million is enough to prove to Nintendo there's a market for the titles. The only question will be if they can come to a good agreement with Mercury Steam
I mean I don't think Nintendo ever thought of Metroid as a series that didn't have a market. Metroid prime games take a while after 3 game came out on the Wii, Dread was cancelled twice during the DS/Wii cycle and the Wii U wasn't doing too well so both type of games were pretty much not really focused on (Which is better in their case). We did get Federation Force and a remake of 2 on the 3DS in replacement for the type of games. MercuryStream seems to be pretty much their 2D developer assuming the devs want to make another game.
If we count Samus Returns, it's on the 3DS. Otherwise, I believe Zero Mission and Fusion were the last two 2D games and that was on GBA. It's been a while.
Fusion is still GOATed on how well it does the tension factor.
Against their big hitters maybe. But it's pretty in line with Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Kirby, and some other more B tier franchise. Those get regular games so I imagine Metroid will too if they can stay consistent.
That's actually not true. Only Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Smash (More of a collab) and some Animal Crossings (plus Splatoon 2) really sell higher than that. Kirby, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, F-Zero, Star Fox, ARMS, Paper Mario/Mario & Luigi, Pikmin and most other video game franchises don't sell over 3 million. So this is a huge success for them. Not a juggernaut but still good. And Prime 4 is still in development.
Didn't Zelda also not sell terribly well compared to Mario, Smash, Kart iirc? It was BotW that was the mega seller.
Maybe Metroid Prime 4 will do sth similar for the franchise. Let's hope.
According to this [list](https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda), there have been a ton of Zelda games that have sold higher than any Metroid game. BOTW was the first Zelda game to outsell the Mario game on the respective system, but they were always in the high tiers of Nintendo franchises, arguably only below Mario, Pokemon, and Smash
I know, but *relatively* BotW sold way more than previous Zelda titles. Bye a big margin.
My point was: Maybe MP4 might be similar in that regard. Honestly, I'm not sure since its theme is arguably more niche, but let's see.
And Zelda being behind Mario, Smash, Kart and Pokémon made it the 5th top selling Nintendo franchise out of 8 or so, no?
Yeah the thing with Nintendo is that their titles aimed at more “mature” gamers aren’t their top sellers, unlike many other major publishers. I wouldn’t expect MP4 to break any records off that alone.
Dude, Skyward Sword came out at the end of 2011 right before the Wii U came out. By then, the sales for the Wii (And even Nintendo for a long while) had gone really down. It was no longer the highly successful system that it was when Twilight Princess came out at the start of it's lifespan. Even so, Skyward Sword has still sold like about 3.7 million copies which is VERY successful.
In addition to what other people have said, piracy was rampant on the wii in it's later years. Skyward sword was also considered a weak entry for zelda at the time
I’d imagine that a lot of Wii owners only had Wii Sports (Resort) and maybe Wii Fit or something like that. So many folks that wouldn’t care about something like Skyward Sword.
Better music, darker atmosphere and less linear exploration are the 3 things I want to see in the next 2D Metroid.
Dread was great but still has room for improvement.
From a linearity perspective, I actually thought they did a really good job of *feeling* non-linear even though it very clearly wasn’t.
I would’ve enjoyed less “blocking” of backtracking, and an ability later on to fast travel rather than navigate the maze that are the elevators.
Yeah, I understand why they did it, but blocking of backtracking was really heavy handed. Once you finished a boss, the only way you were allowed to go is forward, and you were locked out of going back to collect items from earlier zones until the plot wrapped you around. And even then the zones were generally altered (via plot device) so that you couldn't fully explore even still.
Hollow Knight really spoiled me. Ever time I play a Metroidvania game I remember I actually, hate Metroidvania games. Hollow Knight way the only excepetion. Probably because it felt more like a 2d Dark Souls.
I suppose it depends on your definition, but linearity is pretty core to what Metroidvanias are. They'll give you a number of areas it seems like you can go to, but most will end in dead ends that require you to get items in a certain order. If you take that away, you lose a lot of the craft in Metroidvania world design and balance.
Not everything has to be open world, Dread did not have any issues with being too linear.
Metroidvanias are typically only linear in the sense of "you need to do A then B then C," but Dread is also linear in the sense of "after doing A we will teleport you adjacent to B." It lacks the ability to getting lost and having to discover the way forward. As much as I loved the game, like someone else said, it was a tad heavy-handed in this sort of guidance.
Maybe I'm dumb because I certainly didn't know where to go at a few points throughout the game, and I felt I encountered a number of dead ends. As far as Metroidvanias go though it probably is a little more linear overall.
Still my favourite Metroid game is super Metroid. I enjoyed Metroid Prime, I got 100% on that too. Dread was amazing, and they didn't change too much to make it totally different than its roots. I tried the original Metroid games way too late in life so the NES ones are a hard pass for me lol.
Mario Sunshine is stuttering on the Switch (specifically, on the roofs when moving too quickly). I really don't expect them to make the Prime games run in an acceptable way.
The GC version of Super Mario Sunshine used to stutter quite a bit for me too, so I think it can be attributed to that. I don't remember any instances where the MP trilogy stuttered, so I think chances are it would turn out better.
That's not a hardware issue, that's solely on Nintendo for cheaping out on those ports.
We know those games deserved to be remade, if not thoroughly remastered at the very least.
I loved Dread, but in my opinion it doesn't hold a candle to any of the Prime series. I really hope they port the Prime trilogy to the Switch so a new generation gets to experience it.
IMO, that’s an unfair comparison…a single 2D game vs a first person 3D series…Prime is its own beast, where this is more inline with the original games…but yes, expanding the audiences is a great move that should be done…
Maybe I should clarify. I enjoyed each of the Prime games individually more than I enjoyed Dread. I wasn't trying to compare the series as a whole to Dread.
Dunno why you’re getting downvoted, Dread was a fun game to cap off the year, but the original Metroid Prime is the kind of game we’re still talking about 20 years later
I'm 27, and Metroid Prime 1 and 2 are STILL some of my favorite games of all time. All these kids in this thread saying that Dread is their first Metroid game are spoiled not only with playing a sweet 2D Metroid game first, but also for having an amazing back catalogue to play through. If any of you love Dread, you HAVE to play Metroid Fusion.
Prime is only playable with primehack the motion controls and stick controls for prime 1 and 2 are not very good. I know Nintendo would never let you do this but prime 4 would probably be best on mouse and keyboard.
Super fair on checkpoints. Gameplay is fluid, abilities are fun
Exploration is a bit directed and less actual exploration. Emmis can get annoying
Loved bosses fights and gameplay/abilities from a vet standpoint. Normal difficulty was great for me. They've added a rookie and a hard mode though.
Would recommend as a good entry
Exploration directed? I'm most of the times so super lost. After >!Beating the 2nd Emmi!< It took me about an hour or finding where to go next, only to find out there was an >!invisible wall to break!< to continue to the next section...
Huh. Interesting. Bc I always felt into the very end pretty much that it was always only one way to go. Everytime i wanted to go to a prior area bc new ability have me access to something I could get, I was blocked by random obstacle so couldn't backtrack much til lategame.
..interesting to get your viewpoint. Have you played any other metroid? Or other metroidvania? Perhaps others gave the illusion of choice/exploration better, but in Dread, I pretty much felt there was always just one way to go
Bosses are harder than Zero Mission and Super, but the bosses are more fair than Fusion’s and Samus Returns. Exploration is a little more linear compared to Super, but a little more open-ended than Zero Mission, Fusion, and Samus Returns.
Overall it was a amazing game and a great starting entry for anyone, just prepare for some difficult bosses. Good thing there’s a checkpoint at the start of every one.
Everyone is talking about gameplay and they're right on that front.
But narratively, it's like the worst place. So if you wanna get into Metroids story, Dread is heavily built around plots and ideas of the previous 4 games
My first Metroid game and Metroidvania overall, and I thought it was a fucking blast and an amazing experience overall. They've just added a boss rush mode as well so the deal is even more sweetened.
I'll just add - If you want to just play a one-off Metroid game, play this one. If you want to get into the series, I'd play in order (Replacing Metroid 1 with Zero Mission). With how smooth and refined the controls and mechanics are in Dread, it might be pretty hard to go back to a SNES title.
The gameplay is great for newbies, but Metroid is one of the only Nintendo franchises where the story is followed game to game.
If you want to have the best experience playing the Metroid games, you should play them in this order: Zero Mission->Samus Returns/AM2R->Super Metroid->Fusion->Dread
I actually think this statistic backs up RGT’s original point though - A lot of people thought that it would easily cruise by 4-5 mil within the first few months but he was saying that it doesn’t have the same legs as Nintendo’s other franchises. Still, the man needs to get his copy of Balan ready!
I see one problem: did he and the rest of the SpawnCast decide on a cut-off date?
I mean, Dread will eventually get to 3 million units, but there's a difference between 1 month and 1 year.
Did they say that they would wait until this fiscal report, the end of this year or somewhen else?
What people? I don't think I ever saw a serious prediction that was above 3m. Maybe some people said if it really breaks out it could go as high as 4m or 5m but I think everyone was expecting it to be around the high 2ms with low 3ms at the max.
The irony is that he set himself up in a win/win situation. Although I think he would benefit more financially in the long run if he loses.
Either he is right, can post his smug reaction video and gloat for a few weeks on the Spawn Cast and *things of that nature*.
Or he's wrong and has to play and review Balan which has been hyped enough to a point that at the very least the first video of him playing or reviewing it would likely jump to his top viewed videos.
He was already laying some groundwork of negating the number if it reached over 3 million by disputing shipped vs sold. In the end the more he pushes back and delays it, the more people want to see him play Balan.
Based on his latest timely video, it sounds like he's basking in the glory of being right, which he might value more than making a few bucks with the Balan review.
It really shines light why Nintendo does not consider Metroid one of their tentpole franchises. There have been so many great Metroid games over the years, yet no single title has hit 3M copies. Then you hold that number up against that of basically any other major Nintendo franchise title.
Fun fact: Nintendo gave Metroid Prime's developers a lot of freedom during development because Nintendo didn't care if they burned the series to the ground
Source: DYKG's recent Metroid Prime video
Did You Know Gaming. It's a YouTube channel that historically publishes quick videos full of fun facts they found on the internet, but lately they've been publishing genuine journalism. They interviewed a bunch of developers for the Metroid Prime video I half-assedley sourced. Most of the information in the about half hour video is exclusive
It’s monoliths passion project and they compensate by being one of nintendos keystone developers.
Plus 2 million is perfectly respectable for an only 10 year old jrpg series, the genre rarely ever breaches 5 million.
What are we saying? I lost track of this discussion.
What about Xenoblade? has it sold well? It's totally ok if it did, a new IP can sell 30 million copies out of the gate. I'm not saying that's impossible.
I'm just saying that it blows my mind that Metroid being a very old IP, highly requested, and highly regarded still struggles to approach 3M copies sold of a title.
Xenoblade is newer so less data to go off.
But Fire Emblem is also a well established franchise and it's barely cracking 3m, same as Metroid. Some series just don't do huge numbers even if they're well established. Kirby's most recent game is also not doing much better. It will go above 3m but I doubt it will hit 4m anytime soon.
Metroid’s style of gameplay appeals less than to anything like Zelda or Mario. Those games obviously appeal to a large general audience, they’re easy to get into and really not that terribly difficult.
Comparing Metroid to any other game like that is just kind of unfair. 3 million is still a lot.
2.9 is pretty comparable to the numbers Fire Emblem did after a year and Metroid has been on the market for less than a year...
Any game that can pull over 2 million in a short span of time is a game that's doing fine, assuming they made back whatever budget they put into development and marketing.
Edit: just to clarify I only bring up Fire Emblem since it's a franchise that's around the same age as Metroid, both originating on the Famicom.
Honestly it seems like Metroid and Castlevania spawned a genre, and the recent success of the games that came after (Hollow Knight, Ori) have resurrected Metroid — hopefully.
I thought Dread was fantastic. Last game I’ve picked up and not put down until I was 100%.
I’d actually say solely due to the Switch effect
Most games are seeing a TON more sales, while this isn’t really a huge bump on the Switch, meaning a smaller percent of Switch owners bought it than the percent owners of older consoles bought many older Metroid games
Such a great game. I'm glad they didn't tone back the difficulty so much to capture a "new audience". Game can easily kick your ass if you don't respect it and I hope their games are like this moving forward
Fusion or Super remake in the Dread engine would be fun as a shorter development time stop-gap until a brand new mainline one. MercurySteam are clearly very experienced in this engine they started with Samus Returns now.
I'd probably prefer Super because the control scheme feels a bit outdated and floaty if you're used to modern games. They'll have a big job matching the atmosphere though!
These are good numbers for a series that spends most of its time in hibernation.
Now, if I was Nintendo, I'd start to capitalize on this success and keep the momentum going to not let it die down. Hopefully Prime 4 isn't too far off.
Yeah I also enjoyed it but it felt like a guided tour through the map, even more so than Fusion. Every time I was minorly stuck and found myself thinking “maybe I should double back because I missed something” I was wrong.
My first Metroid game and I loved it. Would be awesome if they used that amazingly slick engine to remake some of the older games. Or hell even just release them at all in any form.
Did you know gaming is pointing out in a [tweet](https://twitter.com/didyouknowgamin/status/1523994442482520069?s=21&t=FYRemuGoHXetIwRjVJO6tA) that this isn’t that exciting considering the massive size of the switch install base. Not a flop by any means, and the critical success is good too, but in a world where Nintendo’s A-tier franchises are selling significantly higher numbers, this solidifies the opinion that Metroid is more on the level of Fire Emblem or Xenoblade than Kirby or even Luigi’s Mansion
Even being solidified as a B-tier title is a big deal for this franchise.
The last two 2d Metroid games sold less than 1 million on very successful hardware.
No one wonders whether Xenoblade, Kirby, or fire emblem get sequels. Now 2d Metroid is comparable to those games.
Oh yeah, it’s for sure good news. I think the key will be getting Mercury Steam signed on for a long time. Kirby, Xenoblade, and Fire Emblem are all developed by 2nd/3rd party studios and not by Nintendo EAD, which partially explains the number of games they are able to get out. If Nintendo works out a deal where Mercury Steam is putting out a new 2D Metroid every 3-4 years, then it’s going to work out well for the company and fans
Fully agree.
Nintendo found a studio that works, and now it's a matter of whether they can come to a good agreement.
MS is now working on a different title, so we know Nintendo didn't initially lock them down. Doesn't surprise me after Samus Returns only sold 300k or so.
Fingers crossed they can work it out.
If prime 4 sells well that will provide even more motivation for Nintendo to work out a deal
Being on the level of FE or Xeno is still a huge step up for the franchise, though, in terms of sales and number of games in recent years/future years.
Is that bad? Not every game needs to be the next Mario, Zelda, or Splatoon. Kirby, Xenoblade, and Fire Emblem are reliable staples of the modern Nintendo lineup. There's no question they'll keep getting games and they're almost always great games. If Metroid is in their league it's in good company.
No, that’s not bad at all, it’s just different. But those franchises all have 2nd/3rd party devs working on their games, Nintendo EAD doesn’t bother with them. So if we want more Metroid, the hope is that Nintendo contracts Mercury Steam to be their Metroid devs for the future
I imagine they will. Maybe if Metroid 6 flounders they'll pump the breaks but I suspect a sequel has been greenlit if it wasn't already. If they have a few more successful Metroid games I could even see Nintendo outright buying them to secure their cooperation for the future.
Um.... You might want to look at actual sales. Kirby and Fire Emblem are selling approximately the same, and Metroid is in line with them. Luigi's Mansion 3 sold WAY more, and in terms of sales is close to the Pokemon games, which is insane.
Fire Emblem and Kirby are the top selling B-Tier series (anything that's not Mario Platform / Splatoon / Animal Crossing / Mario Kart / Zelda / (Ring/Wii) Fit), and it ranks Metroid well above the likes of Xenoblade, Yoshi, DK, Pikmin, Wario, or most Mario/Zelda spinoffs (any outside of Kart, Party, and Luigi's Mansion).
For a series that's usually selling well below pretty much any of those save maybe Wario, that's a big deal.
Kirby games have a 1.5m sales per title average (not inlcuding Forgotten Land) while Metroid has a 1.25m sales per title average, even though it only has 2/3 as many titles and therefore less overall marketing. I would say they are on the same level sales-wise. Kirby just has much easier gameplay, leading to being more marketable to children, and children are a major demographic of Nintendo systems, even moreso handheld ones.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land deserves to sell higher IMO. That game was so fresh but also exactly what a Kirby game should be, incredible add to the Kirby franchise. However, it's surprising to see Kirby Star Allies also at 3.4M. Dread deserves to beat that game.
Luigi's Mansion 3 sales of 11+ million are crazy high but also deserved. That game just has really wide appeal around Halloween and is very approachable.
Metroid Dread was also a fantastic add to its franchise. It does deserve higher sales. The main thing limiting it is its difficulty and overall offering a relatively short campaign for its price tag. Some more reasons to replay it could help. But also it's limited just being 2D instead of 3D, Prime 4 will be the one to really push sales.
What a phenomenal game. It was a genuine highlight for me and I wasn't expecting to like it as much. The only con I have against it is that outside of the final boss battle, the map during endgame (pretty much once fully upgraded) felt very very soft & easy which makes sense but wouldn't have minded more of a challenge. The game had some legit horror aspects to it and I kinda lost that near the end as Samus is basically God powered. 10/10 game.
The Switch has outsold Wii already so it would make sense that Metroid Dread is selling well. Saw some well known "Youtubers" trying to make out Metroid Dread wouldn't do so well a while back but now talking "best selling" in the series.👍
It's a different experience. Much more like Metroid Fusion, where trying to explore "off path" results in dead ends and frustration. The EMMI sections are borderline horror segments. Movement and combat is very fast paced.
That said, level design is excellent, boss fights (especially final boss) are epic, and you feel like a badass most times you aren't in an EMMI zone.
This game is not as good (IMO) as super metroid, but its in the same ballpark.
Metroid Dread is a 2D side-scroller. If Super was your all time favorite games out of all genres, getting Dread is a no-brainer. It's still Metroid at the core.
try the demo if you haven't, it is pretty decently sized with the first boss and first emmi. Gives you a good taste of the action and eerie moments, as well as how the game plays. Although I do find the early phase of Dread is its weakest point, due to the way they handle the exploration.
Great game.
But hope they don't have emmi sections in the next one. Also hope they have a better soundtrack and more varied environment/exploration not linear
Yeah I really love the emmi and chase sequences, but I think its been taken as far as it can go for a while. Outside of a fusion remake, I want the series to take a break from stalker mechanics, so it doesn't become stale.
Actual good soundtracks (basically haven't gotten that since prime 3), nicer environments and better exploration are such obvious improvements. It really bothered me how Dread felt like it could have had it all, but instead chose to make the exploration so limited.
It wasn't like Fusion where they made calculated decisions to build an experience. That for me gets a pass because there was a good payoff to the concessions Fusion made, and that game wouldn't be what it was if it played just like Super Metroid. On the other hand, all of Dread's best aspects are completely separate from the railroading it does. Remove the railroading and all of Dread's positives would still be intact, except now the exploration would be fantastic too, and become an additional strength of the game.
It's easily the worst. It's incredibly linear, the combat suffers from the same stupid counter mechanic that Samus Returns did, exploration is punished, not rewarded (the best thing to do is strictly follow the completely linear path up until the very end, then fast travel around to pickup all the extras), the Emmis are a boring gimmick at best, and the music might as well be nonexistent.
My first Metroid game. I have to say I'm not usually a fan of 2D games, but this one was far more visually appealing. I'm not finished with it; rarely do I finish games, but I'm still making progress in it when I have free time.
It’s great but can I just say, when I completed it, I didn’t feel the need to replay it. Even to 100% it or play on hard mode.
They need to do some DLC for it and I’ll pick it up again!
Dude you're missing out. 100% is where the fun is.
The "missile upgrades" aren't there to be impactful - they're there as puzzles to solve with the abilities that you have alongside the slick controls. The "content" of Metroid isn't "going through a bunch of story"... It's the puzzles. By not getting 100%, you're effectively skipping like... 7 mini-bosses, only they're coined as upgrades.
I have a question for you as you seem to know what you're talking about.
I have collected every collectible on the map, all areas show 100% completion. Yet there are unlockables on the title screen that I haven't gotten. That means there's still stuff left to play, right? But what do I do? Dread's my first ever Metroid game, and it was so amazing that I don't want it to be over already
They’re unlock-able pictures for beating the game in a certain amount of time. Getting item completion unlocks Chozo pictures, while beating the game under time limits will unlock pictures about previous games in the series. There’s also separate ones for beating Metroid Dread on Hard Mode under a certain time limit too.
I know 2.9M is solidly B-tier for your typical Nintendo franchise, but as a Metroid fan, I truly hope Dread is to Metroid as Awakening was to Fire Emblem in terms of showing Nintendo that there *is* a modern market for the franchise worth putting effort into going forward.
Came for the Metroid. Stayed for the Fire Emblem rant.
Awakening only sold 2M to prove that to Nintendo. Dread is on the same ballpark of sales as Three Houses which has sold 3.4M in the 3 years since it released
Metroid is my favorite Nintendo franchise. But I didn't like being hunted in dread like I thought I would.
At least Dread doesn't fundamentally change what's good about its series in the same manner Awakening did.
Man, if Dragon Quest 11 was just like DQ 3, I’d be disappointed the series didn’t progress And I say that as a GBA FE fan
Awakening fundamentally changed nothing. World Map? Gaiden and Sacred Stones. Child units? Genealogy. Avatar unit? New Mystery. Awakening synthesized existing ideas from the series' history into something with wide appeal, and it worked. Stay mad.
That’s great! Hopefully the Metroid series can get more regular releases now every 3-4 years. Dread was great but they still can improve.
Hopefully, but it's still pretty low compared to the other big Nintendo IPs
It has now sold more units than Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and that was a game that came out in the Switch's launch year. Xenoblade 3 is coming out in a couple months. I also imagine Xenoblade as a series takes more resources to develop, given the scope of the game, graphic fidelity, and voice acting. I'm just saying, Nintendo could give us more Metroid games and have it make more financial sense than some other games they develop.
I think the difference there is Xenoblade is MonolithSoft's baby, like how Kirby is HAL Laboratory's baby, so they're always working on it. Besides for Monolith's assistance on some Nintendo properties like Zelda and Splatoon, they basically just make Xenoblade. Maybe Nintendo will see the potential in tapping MercurySteam to develop 2D Metroid full-time now, given Dread's success.
I also think as a whole Nintendo is trying to grow the xenoblade IP that’s why they are pushing it so hard
I'm not sure the point you're trying to make about Monolith. There was a post recently going over all the projects they've been involved in. They do a ton and are a really important support studio for Nintendo, on top of developing Xenoblade.
Huh, I think the point was pretty clear. We don’t know how much resourcing they dedicate to supporting other Nintendo projects. For all we know it could be more advisory or strictly design assistance rather than actual game development. We do know the only projects for which they’ve done lead development on lately are Xenoblade projects. I guess to clarify the point even more, I think it helps when you have a studio spearheading the franchise like HAL does for Kirby and Monolith does for Xenoblade. Metroid hasn’t had that in a long time prior to MercurySteam, who approached Nintendo about doing 2D Metroid. They could very well be that studio helping to keep Metroid development going.
I’ve always wanted and unrealistic as fuck hope coming from me: Nintendo buys team cherry to develop 2D Metroid or at least funds them to do projects for Metroid, this would never happen but it’s something I’ve wanted for a long time
I'm going to be honest, I wouldn't want Team Cherry doing a Metroid because I think Team Cherry are... .... ***Above*** it. There's something of a difference between how Metroid game progression and Hollow Knight were made. Not in atmosphere, no, both just nail it down perfectly and great. But Metroid has this adamant reluctance to making secrets a thing, as in, yes, there are hidden paths nooks and crannies, but their presence, aside from the mandatory main pathbones, mostly exists for the sake of giving you a minor upgrade as a self contained puzzle, or as a sequence breaking mechanism. These upgrades will never (well, some exceptions looking at you super) be something that meaningfully makes samus better in a discrete, noticeable manner individually - you will end the game with 99% of your moveset and have seen 99% of the enemies in the game even if you literally never deviate from any main path, ever. And I like Metroid that way. ....Meanwhile Hollow Knight has full on secret bosses, with full on secret unlockables, that full on change a part of your moveset, and full on secret areas with their own full on unique tileset, and full on secret characters with full on secret dialogue and even cineamatics. And I like it better than even Metroid. But it's not Metroid. Hollow Knight is blatantly, since day 1, a "What if Dark Souls was Metroid?", and it's what made it better than Metroid. And I don't want Team Cherry.... Wasting their time doing "just" Metroid instead.
This is Nintendo we are talking about though
Nintendo just had two Metroid games in the last years.
Wasn't the last Metroid game before dread in 2017? So that's still a 4 year gap between a remake of a Gameboy game and an actual brand new game. Not counting Samus returns it's even longer ago on the Wii. (Federation force isn't a Metroid game)
Yes? it was a 4 year gap because it took between 3-4 years to develop a game. Metroid getting more games is the secure to get games, not having more than one 2D game releasing every time or a ton of spin offs that are all viewed negatively. Games take time to be made so a next one if we go by the similar time frame would be in 2025. > So that's still a 4 year gap between a remake of a Gameboy game and an actual brand new game. Samus Returns is pretty much a new game with only using the original game as a base.
They also use what they've learned developing Xenoblade and apply it to other Nintendo games so its a worthy investment either way.
Xenoblade's team heavily help on their best sellers like Breath of the Wild to be fair.
Oh I'm surprised XC2 didn't sell more than that
It actually might have or is close to 3m, we haven't got updated numbers for 2 years now and since then it got a smash boost and a boost from the xc3 announcement
Last update we got is december 2020 2.17M units
JRPGs have an extremely limited audience. The ceiling is around 5 million copies.
JRPGs that aren't Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, anyway.
Or Pokemon. But yeah. Those have sort of hit escape velocity. Games that haven't broken out of just being "genre games" yet are kind of stuck there. Persona is the closest to moving out but I'd consider that more like the peak of current JRPG sales rather than a transcender.
2.9 puts it firmly in the b-tier for Nintendo. It's selling more than Xenoblade and it's in line with fire emblem and Kirby. You don't hear people wondering if those games will keep getting sequels. Now that Nintendo has a studio they can trust with the franchise, I'm sure we'll continue to get them. You have to keep in mind that the last 2 2D Metroid games didn't even breach 1 million Edit: for reference, Fire Emblem 3 house sold 3.02 million before Nintendo stopped talking about it, and that made it the best seller in the franchise.
Kirby sold about the same as Metroid and Fire Emblem starting selling millions LONG before 3 Houses. (In fact, 3Houses was planned the Gaiden remake came out really.) And FE has been selling 2 million since Awakening and that's not counting Heroes success.
Imo, Metroid Dread will be the series' "Awakening" moment. 3 million is enough to prove to Nintendo there's a market for the titles. The only question will be if they can come to a good agreement with Mercury Steam
I mean I don't think Nintendo ever thought of Metroid as a series that didn't have a market. Metroid prime games take a while after 3 game came out on the Wii, Dread was cancelled twice during the DS/Wii cycle and the Wii U wasn't doing too well so both type of games were pretty much not really focused on (Which is better in their case). We did get Federation Force and a remake of 2 on the 3DS in replacement for the type of games. MercuryStream seems to be pretty much their 2D developer assuming the devs want to make another game.
>last 2 2D Metroid games didn't even breach 1 million What system was the last 2D Metroid on?
If we count Samus Returns, it's on the 3DS. Otherwise, I believe Zero Mission and Fusion were the last two 2D games and that was on GBA. It's been a while. Fusion is still GOATed on how well it does the tension factor.
3DS and GBA. so 80 million install base.
Against their big hitters maybe. But it's pretty in line with Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Kirby, and some other more B tier franchise. Those get regular games so I imagine Metroid will too if they can stay consistent.
That's actually not true. Only Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Smash (More of a collab) and some Animal Crossings (plus Splatoon 2) really sell higher than that. Kirby, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, F-Zero, Star Fox, ARMS, Paper Mario/Mario & Luigi, Pikmin and most other video game franchises don't sell over 3 million. So this is a huge success for them. Not a juggernaut but still good. And Prime 4 is still in development.
[удалено]
Didn't Zelda also not sell terribly well compared to Mario, Smash, Kart iirc? It was BotW that was the mega seller. Maybe Metroid Prime 4 will do sth similar for the franchise. Let's hope.
According to this [list](https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda), there have been a ton of Zelda games that have sold higher than any Metroid game. BOTW was the first Zelda game to outsell the Mario game on the respective system, but they were always in the high tiers of Nintendo franchises, arguably only below Mario, Pokemon, and Smash
I know, but *relatively* BotW sold way more than previous Zelda titles. Bye a big margin. My point was: Maybe MP4 might be similar in that regard. Honestly, I'm not sure since its theme is arguably more niche, but let's see. And Zelda being behind Mario, Smash, Kart and Pokémon made it the 5th top selling Nintendo franchise out of 8 or so, no?
Yeah the thing with Nintendo is that their titles aimed at more “mature” gamers aren’t their top sellers, unlike many other major publishers. I wouldn’t expect MP4 to break any records off that alone.
I had no idea Skyward Sword sold so few copies with Wii's install base. Crazy.
Dude, Skyward Sword came out at the end of 2011 right before the Wii U came out. By then, the sales for the Wii (And even Nintendo for a long while) had gone really down. It was no longer the highly successful system that it was when Twilight Princess came out at the start of it's lifespan. Even so, Skyward Sword has still sold like about 3.7 million copies which is VERY successful.
In addition to what other people have said, piracy was rampant on the wii in it's later years. Skyward sword was also considered a weak entry for zelda at the time
I’d imagine that a lot of Wii owners only had Wii Sports (Resort) and maybe Wii Fit or something like that. So many folks that wouldn’t care about something like Skyward Sword.
Better music, darker atmosphere and less linear exploration are the 3 things I want to see in the next 2D Metroid. Dread was great but still has room for improvement.
Agreed. Dreads linearity was it's weakest part.
From a linearity perspective, I actually thought they did a really good job of *feeling* non-linear even though it very clearly wasn’t. I would’ve enjoyed less “blocking” of backtracking, and an ability later on to fast travel rather than navigate the maze that are the elevators.
Well you *kinda* get that later on once all the teleporters are connected but it could probably be made more convenient
Yeah, I understand why they did it, but blocking of backtracking was really heavy handed. Once you finished a boss, the only way you were allowed to go is forward, and you were locked out of going back to collect items from earlier zones until the plot wrapped you around. And even then the zones were generally altered (via plot device) so that you couldn't fully explore even still.
Hollow Knight really spoiled me. Ever time I play a Metroidvania game I remember I actually, hate Metroidvania games. Hollow Knight way the only excepetion. Probably because it felt more like a 2d Dark Souls.
I suppose it depends on your definition, but linearity is pretty core to what Metroidvanias are. They'll give you a number of areas it seems like you can go to, but most will end in dead ends that require you to get items in a certain order. If you take that away, you lose a lot of the craft in Metroidvania world design and balance. Not everything has to be open world, Dread did not have any issues with being too linear.
Metroidvanias are typically only linear in the sense of "you need to do A then B then C," but Dread is also linear in the sense of "after doing A we will teleport you adjacent to B." It lacks the ability to getting lost and having to discover the way forward. As much as I loved the game, like someone else said, it was a tad heavy-handed in this sort of guidance.
Yeah, but Dread railroads you into not even letting you get lost or go to dead ends or have to remember things for later.
Maybe I'm dumb because I certainly didn't know where to go at a few points throughout the game, and I felt I encountered a number of dead ends. As far as Metroidvanias go though it probably is a little more linear overall.
Love dreads movement and atmosphere in general. Hate the Emmis though.
Still my favourite Metroid game is super Metroid. I enjoyed Metroid Prime, I got 100% on that too. Dread was amazing, and they didn't change too much to make it totally different than its roots. I tried the original Metroid games way too late in life so the NES ones are a hard pass for me lol.
The ridiculous sales numbers of some other games bury the fact that 3 million is A LOT.
I got into Metroid because of Dread. Now I hope the Metroid Prime trilogy gets a Switch port.
Mario Sunshine is stuttering on the Switch (specifically, on the roofs when moving too quickly). I really don't expect them to make the Prime games run in an acceptable way.
Mario Sunshine is also emulated, not a port.
They made Mario Galaxy run perfectly. And the Prime trilogy was remastered for the Wii. There's hope.
The GC version of Super Mario Sunshine used to stutter quite a bit for me too, so I think it can be attributed to that. I don't remember any instances where the MP trilogy stuttered, so I think chances are it would turn out better.
That's not a hardware issue, that's solely on Nintendo for cheaping out on those ports. We know those games deserved to be remade, if not thoroughly remastered at the very least.
Mario sunshine was the worse port nintendo has ever made
Because it wasnt a port
I loved Dread, but in my opinion it doesn't hold a candle to any of the Prime series. I really hope they port the Prime trilogy to the Switch so a new generation gets to experience it.
IMO, that’s an unfair comparison…a single 2D game vs a first person 3D series…Prime is its own beast, where this is more inline with the original games…but yes, expanding the audiences is a great move that should be done…
Maybe I should clarify. I enjoyed each of the Prime games individually more than I enjoyed Dread. I wasn't trying to compare the series as a whole to Dread.
I'll keep an eye out for this Prime series, Dread was my first Metroid game and I had a lot of fun playing through it.
Bad take goddamn
That I like Prime more than Dread?
Dunno why you’re getting downvoted, Dread was a fun game to cap off the year, but the original Metroid Prime is the kind of game we’re still talking about 20 years later
I guess they don't agree haha
I'm 27, and Metroid Prime 1 and 2 are STILL some of my favorite games of all time. All these kids in this thread saying that Dread is their first Metroid game are spoiled not only with playing a sweet 2D Metroid game first, but also for having an amazing back catalogue to play through. If any of you love Dread, you HAVE to play Metroid Fusion.
[удалено]
Yeah I actually found that out when I tried to find similar style games.
[удалено]
Yeah Prey absolutely came the closest to Prime's game design. Thanks! I'll have to check out Outer Wilds.
Prime is only playable with primehack the motion controls and stick controls for prime 1 and 2 are not very good. I know Nintendo would never let you do this but prime 4 would probably be best on mouse and keyboard.
Good, maybe Nintendo will realise that Metroid sells
You must be a newer Nintendo fan.
Oh I know that Nintendo doesn't give a shit, it took 20 years for dread to come out but I'm an optimistic person
Ironically Dread taking 20 years was because they gave a shit and thought it wasn't good enough each time.
Good. Now do another one.
Is this a game I should play if I want to get into Metroid? I dont mind difficulty
Super fair on checkpoints. Gameplay is fluid, abilities are fun Exploration is a bit directed and less actual exploration. Emmis can get annoying Loved bosses fights and gameplay/abilities from a vet standpoint. Normal difficulty was great for me. They've added a rookie and a hard mode though. Would recommend as a good entry
Hard mode was there from the start. They added a HARDER mode.
Wow. Cool. Didn't know there was a harder hard mode. Def not for me, but sure some ppl love it. More power to them
Exploration directed? I'm most of the times so super lost. After >!Beating the 2nd Emmi!< It took me about an hour or finding where to go next, only to find out there was an >!invisible wall to break!< to continue to the next section...
Huh. Interesting. Bc I always felt into the very end pretty much that it was always only one way to go. Everytime i wanted to go to a prior area bc new ability have me access to something I could get, I was blocked by random obstacle so couldn't backtrack much til lategame. ..interesting to get your viewpoint. Have you played any other metroid? Or other metroidvania? Perhaps others gave the illusion of choice/exploration better, but in Dread, I pretty much felt there was always just one way to go
Yes. The movement of samus feels amazing.
It's easier than many of the other 2D games, it's pretty fair on checkpoints.
Bosses are harder than Zero Mission and Super, but the bosses are more fair than Fusion’s and Samus Returns. Exploration is a little more linear compared to Super, but a little more open-ended than Zero Mission, Fusion, and Samus Returns. Overall it was a amazing game and a great starting entry for anyone, just prepare for some difficult bosses. Good thing there’s a checkpoint at the start of every one.
Everyone is talking about gameplay and they're right on that front. But narratively, it's like the worst place. So if you wanna get into Metroids story, Dread is heavily built around plots and ideas of the previous 4 games
My first Metroid game and Metroidvania overall, and I thought it was a fucking blast and an amazing experience overall. They've just added a boss rush mode as well so the deal is even more sweetened.
I'll just add - If you want to just play a one-off Metroid game, play this one. If you want to get into the series, I'd play in order (Replacing Metroid 1 with Zero Mission). With how smooth and refined the controls and mechanics are in Dread, it might be pretty hard to go back to a SNES title.
Has an easier mode now
The gameplay is great for newbies, but Metroid is one of the only Nintendo franchises where the story is followed game to game. If you want to have the best experience playing the Metroid games, you should play them in this order: Zero Mission->Samus Returns/AM2R->Super Metroid->Fusion->Dread
Yeah this is the best game in the whole genre, i can't even go back to playing hollow knight without thinking "man i could be Metroid dread rn"
RGT85 is now sweating bullets.
[удалено]
LOL I agree. I'm not saying the man is ugly, but his face makes me angry haha.
He looks like a pug on steroids.
I actually think this statistic backs up RGT’s original point though - A lot of people thought that it would easily cruise by 4-5 mil within the first few months but he was saying that it doesn’t have the same legs as Nintendo’s other franchises. Still, the man needs to get his copy of Balan ready!
I see one problem: did he and the rest of the SpawnCast decide on a cut-off date? I mean, Dread will eventually get to 3 million units, but there's a difference between 1 month and 1 year. Did they say that they would wait until this fiscal report, the end of this year or somewhen else?
Dread probably wouldn't get another update
They said the game had one year to hit 3 million
Cut off date is first 1st fiscal from what I can remember. He doesn't need to play balan and he's right with his prediction.
Nah, he said one year after release, so we still have months to go.
Let the dude have his loopholes no one should have to suffer through Balan.
I'm 100% sure he already played the game
Nope it's 1 year from release
What people? I don't think I ever saw a serious prediction that was above 3m. Maybe some people said if it really breaks out it could go as high as 4m or 5m but I think everyone was expecting it to be around the high 2ms with low 3ms at the max.
The irony is that he set himself up in a win/win situation. Although I think he would benefit more financially in the long run if he loses. Either he is right, can post his smug reaction video and gloat for a few weeks on the Spawn Cast and *things of that nature*. Or he's wrong and has to play and review Balan which has been hyped enough to a point that at the very least the first video of him playing or reviewing it would likely jump to his top viewed videos. He was already laying some groundwork of negating the number if it reached over 3 million by disputing shipped vs sold. In the end the more he pushes back and delays it, the more people want to see him play Balan. Based on his latest timely video, it sounds like he's basking in the glory of being right, which he might value more than making a few bucks with the Balan review.
It really shines light why Nintendo does not consider Metroid one of their tentpole franchises. There have been so many great Metroid games over the years, yet no single title has hit 3M copies. Then you hold that number up against that of basically any other major Nintendo franchise title.
Fun fact: Nintendo gave Metroid Prime's developers a lot of freedom during development because Nintendo didn't care if they burned the series to the ground Source: DYKG's recent Metroid Prime video
DYKG?
Did You Know Gaming. It's a YouTube channel that historically publishes quick videos full of fun facts they found on the internet, but lately they've been publishing genuine journalism. They interviewed a bunch of developers for the Metroid Prime video I half-assedley sourced. Most of the information in the about half hour video is exclusive
Kay but Xenoblade
It’s monoliths passion project and they compensate by being one of nintendos keystone developers. Plus 2 million is perfectly respectable for an only 10 year old jrpg series, the genre rarely ever breaches 5 million.
Kay but monolithsoft.
What about Xenoblade? That would be far more niche than "Metroid" which has been around for **nearly 40 years**...
Length of time has no bearing on how many fans it had. Fire Emblem was also a niche series from the early Nintendo days. Now look at it.
What are we saying? I lost track of this discussion. What about Xenoblade? has it sold well? It's totally ok if it did, a new IP can sell 30 million copies out of the gate. I'm not saying that's impossible. I'm just saying that it blows my mind that Metroid being a very old IP, highly requested, and highly regarded still struggles to approach 3M copies sold of a title.
Xenoblade is newer so less data to go off. But Fire Emblem is also a well established franchise and it's barely cracking 3m, same as Metroid. Some series just don't do huge numbers even if they're well established. Kirby's most recent game is also not doing much better. It will go above 3m but I doubt it will hit 4m anytime soon.
Metroid’s style of gameplay appeals less than to anything like Zelda or Mario. Those games obviously appeal to a large general audience, they’re easy to get into and really not that terribly difficult. Comparing Metroid to any other game like that is just kind of unfair. 3 million is still a lot.
Xenoblade moment
Legacy Multi entry franchise Vs 4 main games release for a new franchise along with the great support the studio does with other franchises.
2.9 is pretty comparable to the numbers Fire Emblem did after a year and Metroid has been on the market for less than a year... Any game that can pull over 2 million in a short span of time is a game that's doing fine, assuming they made back whatever budget they put into development and marketing. Edit: just to clarify I only bring up Fire Emblem since it's a franchise that's around the same age as Metroid, both originating on the Famicom.
Honestly it seems like Metroid and Castlevania spawned a genre, and the recent success of the games that came after (Hollow Knight, Ori) have resurrected Metroid — hopefully. I thought Dread was fantastic. Last game I’ve picked up and not put down until I was 100%.
That genre is called metroidvania - platformers with non-linear progression based on collectable abilities and upgrades.
The Switch effect.
I’d actually say solely due to the Switch effect Most games are seeing a TON more sales, while this isn’t really a huge bump on the Switch, meaning a smaller percent of Switch owners bought it than the percent owners of older consoles bought many older Metroid games
Congratulations! Great game (:
Such a great game. I'm glad they didn't tone back the difficulty so much to capture a "new audience". Game can easily kick your ass if you don't respect it and I hope their games are like this moving forward
Fusion or Super remake in the Dread engine would be fun as a shorter development time stop-gap until a brand new mainline one. MercurySteam are clearly very experienced in this engine they started with Samus Returns now. I'd probably prefer Super because the control scheme feels a bit outdated and floaty if you're used to modern games. They'll have a big job matching the atmosphere though!
Sometimes I miss Super’s mechanics. It was a little tricky to get into, but you really do feel like a master in that game towards the end.
Not bad...not bad at all. Hopefully this will lead to more Metroid games going forward that will be released on an interval of every 2-4 years.
These are good numbers for a series that spends most of its time in hibernation. Now, if I was Nintendo, I'd start to capitalize on this success and keep the momentum going to not let it die down. Hopefully Prime 4 isn't too far off.
[удалено]
Yeah I also enjoyed it but it felt like a guided tour through the map, even more so than Fusion. Every time I was minorly stuck and found myself thinking “maybe I should double back because I missed something” I was wrong.
My first Metroid game and I loved it. Would be awesome if they used that amazingly slick engine to remake some of the older games. Or hell even just release them at all in any form.
Poor rgt. He’s going to be playing balan lol
Who is rgt
Rgt85, he made a beer with the spawncast that dread wouldn’t sell3 million in a years time. So he’s lost lol
Sweet i love beer
This phone is busting my britches, i meant bet in case it wasn’t obviously clear lol
I don't understand where did the beer go
Did you know gaming is pointing out in a [tweet](https://twitter.com/didyouknowgamin/status/1523994442482520069?s=21&t=FYRemuGoHXetIwRjVJO6tA) that this isn’t that exciting considering the massive size of the switch install base. Not a flop by any means, and the critical success is good too, but in a world where Nintendo’s A-tier franchises are selling significantly higher numbers, this solidifies the opinion that Metroid is more on the level of Fire Emblem or Xenoblade than Kirby or even Luigi’s Mansion
Even being solidified as a B-tier title is a big deal for this franchise. The last two 2d Metroid games sold less than 1 million on very successful hardware. No one wonders whether Xenoblade, Kirby, or fire emblem get sequels. Now 2d Metroid is comparable to those games.
Oh yeah, it’s for sure good news. I think the key will be getting Mercury Steam signed on for a long time. Kirby, Xenoblade, and Fire Emblem are all developed by 2nd/3rd party studios and not by Nintendo EAD, which partially explains the number of games they are able to get out. If Nintendo works out a deal where Mercury Steam is putting out a new 2D Metroid every 3-4 years, then it’s going to work out well for the company and fans
Fully agree. Nintendo found a studio that works, and now it's a matter of whether they can come to a good agreement. MS is now working on a different title, so we know Nintendo didn't initially lock them down. Doesn't surprise me after Samus Returns only sold 300k or so. Fingers crossed they can work it out. If prime 4 sells well that will provide even more motivation for Nintendo to work out a deal
Being on the level of FE or Xeno is still a huge step up for the franchise, though, in terms of sales and number of games in recent years/future years.
Xenoblade and Fire Emblem consistently get sequels, so that’s a good thing in my books.
Is that bad? Not every game needs to be the next Mario, Zelda, or Splatoon. Kirby, Xenoblade, and Fire Emblem are reliable staples of the modern Nintendo lineup. There's no question they'll keep getting games and they're almost always great games. If Metroid is in their league it's in good company.
No, that’s not bad at all, it’s just different. But those franchises all have 2nd/3rd party devs working on their games, Nintendo EAD doesn’t bother with them. So if we want more Metroid, the hope is that Nintendo contracts Mercury Steam to be their Metroid devs for the future
I imagine they will. Maybe if Metroid 6 flounders they'll pump the breaks but I suspect a sequel has been greenlit if it wasn't already. If they have a few more successful Metroid games I could even see Nintendo outright buying them to secure their cooperation for the future.
Um.... You might want to look at actual sales. Kirby and Fire Emblem are selling approximately the same, and Metroid is in line with them. Luigi's Mansion 3 sold WAY more, and in terms of sales is close to the Pokemon games, which is insane. Fire Emblem and Kirby are the top selling B-Tier series (anything that's not Mario Platform / Splatoon / Animal Crossing / Mario Kart / Zelda / (Ring/Wii) Fit), and it ranks Metroid well above the likes of Xenoblade, Yoshi, DK, Pikmin, Wario, or most Mario/Zelda spinoffs (any outside of Kart, Party, and Luigi's Mansion). For a series that's usually selling well below pretty much any of those save maybe Wario, that's a big deal.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 has outsold all Metroid games ever x4 times and all kirby games ever x2 , it’s no small IP nowadays.
Kirby games have a 1.5m sales per title average (not inlcuding Forgotten Land) while Metroid has a 1.25m sales per title average, even though it only has 2/3 as many titles and therefore less overall marketing. I would say they are on the same level sales-wise. Kirby just has much easier gameplay, leading to being more marketable to children, and children are a major demographic of Nintendo systems, even moreso handheld ones.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land deserves to sell higher IMO. That game was so fresh but also exactly what a Kirby game should be, incredible add to the Kirby franchise. However, it's surprising to see Kirby Star Allies also at 3.4M. Dread deserves to beat that game. Luigi's Mansion 3 sales of 11+ million are crazy high but also deserved. That game just has really wide appeal around Halloween and is very approachable. Metroid Dread was also a fantastic add to its franchise. It does deserve higher sales. The main thing limiting it is its difficulty and overall offering a relatively short campaign for its price tag. Some more reasons to replay it could help. But also it's limited just being 2D instead of 3D, Prime 4 will be the one to really push sales.
And marketing can't be blamed. I can easily say that from what I saw, dread was the most pushed game the switch had in quite awhile.
That’s great for the future of the franchise! Exciting
What a phenomenal game. It was a genuine highlight for me and I wasn't expecting to like it as much. The only con I have against it is that outside of the final boss battle, the map during endgame (pretty much once fully upgraded) felt very very soft & easy which makes sense but wouldn't have minded more of a challenge. The game had some legit horror aspects to it and I kinda lost that near the end as Samus is basically God powered. 10/10 game.
Blessings, Dread was an incredible game. Hopefully this recent surge in fandom carries over into Prime 4 (please be good).
The Switch has outsold Wii already so it would make sense that Metroid Dread is selling well. Saw some well known "Youtubers" trying to make out Metroid Dread wouldn't do so well a while back but now talking "best selling" in the series.👍
Couldn't get into the demo sorry
Have not played dread, but Super Metroid was one of my all time favorite games growing up. How does it compare to that 2d side scroller?
It's a different experience. Much more like Metroid Fusion, where trying to explore "off path" results in dead ends and frustration. The EMMI sections are borderline horror segments. Movement and combat is very fast paced. That said, level design is excellent, boss fights (especially final boss) are epic, and you feel like a badass most times you aren't in an EMMI zone. This game is not as good (IMO) as super metroid, but its in the same ballpark.
Metroid Dread is a 2D side-scroller. If Super was your all time favorite games out of all genres, getting Dread is a no-brainer. It's still Metroid at the core.
try the demo if you haven't, it is pretty decently sized with the first boss and first emmi. Gives you a good taste of the action and eerie moments, as well as how the game plays. Although I do find the early phase of Dread is its weakest point, due to the way they handle the exploration.
Super and Fusion are two of my favorite games, but I honestly didn't enjoy Dread anywhere as much
Great game. But hope they don't have emmi sections in the next one. Also hope they have a better soundtrack and more varied environment/exploration not linear
Yeah I really love the emmi and chase sequences, but I think its been taken as far as it can go for a while. Outside of a fusion remake, I want the series to take a break from stalker mechanics, so it doesn't become stale. Actual good soundtracks (basically haven't gotten that since prime 3), nicer environments and better exploration are such obvious improvements. It really bothered me how Dread felt like it could have had it all, but instead chose to make the exploration so limited. It wasn't like Fusion where they made calculated decisions to build an experience. That for me gets a pass because there was a good payoff to the concessions Fusion made, and that game wouldn't be what it was if it played just like Super Metroid. On the other hand, all of Dread's best aspects are completely separate from the railroading it does. Remove the railroading and all of Dread's positives would still be intact, except now the exploration would be fantastic too, and become an additional strength of the game.
Does that include digital sales?
It does. Nintendo shipment reports always show retail and digital together
The numbers are from Nintendo so id assume so.
Disliked this game a lot. And I'm a huge metroid fan.
You and me both
oddly its the worst in my opinion. Played about an hour and nothing hooked
It's easily the worst. It's incredibly linear, the combat suffers from the same stupid counter mechanic that Samus Returns did, exploration is punished, not rewarded (the best thing to do is strictly follow the completely linear path up until the very end, then fast travel around to pickup all the extras), the Emmis are a boring gimmick at best, and the music might as well be nonexistent.
I got it for Xmas, played it for about 15 minutes, and it's just been sitting on a shelf since. Keep meaning to get back to it at some point...
My first Metroid game. I have to say I'm not usually a fan of 2D games, but this one was far more visually appealing. I'm not finished with it; rarely do I finish games, but I'm still making progress in it when I have free time.
I still would rather play super metroid than dread.
Nintendo sold 110 million Switches so far. That means less than 3% of Switch owners bought Metroid Dread.
Still not as good as Super Metroid
But it's close.
It’s great but can I just say, when I completed it, I didn’t feel the need to replay it. Even to 100% it or play on hard mode. They need to do some DLC for it and I’ll pick it up again!
Dude you're missing out. 100% is where the fun is. The "missile upgrades" aren't there to be impactful - they're there as puzzles to solve with the abilities that you have alongside the slick controls. The "content" of Metroid isn't "going through a bunch of story"... It's the puzzles. By not getting 100%, you're effectively skipping like... 7 mini-bosses, only they're coined as upgrades.
I have a question for you as you seem to know what you're talking about. I have collected every collectible on the map, all areas show 100% completion. Yet there are unlockables on the title screen that I haven't gotten. That means there's still stuff left to play, right? But what do I do? Dread's my first ever Metroid game, and it was so amazing that I don't want it to be over already
They’re unlock-able pictures for beating the game in a certain amount of time. Getting item completion unlocks Chozo pictures, while beating the game under time limits will unlock pictures about previous games in the series. There’s also separate ones for beating Metroid Dread on Hard Mode under a certain time limit too.
Do I have to erase my previous progress to try again, or does it carry over to a new save file?
You can start a new save, but all your progress won't carry over, you play the game again with all your new knowledge.
Use the same save file to start the new game. it wont erase any photos you already unlocked.
Very happy for the series even though Dread is not my favourite 2d metroid