Metroid is becoming a big part of the Nintendo Switch. Metroid Prime Remastered just came out after Metroid Dread came out in 2021. Metroid Dread not only brought back the main Metroid series as the long-lost fifth game, but it also became one of the best-received games in the series.
In the six years since the Switch came out, the first three main Metroid games have been added to the Nintendo Switch Online retro game libraries. Metroid Fusion will be added on March 9.
Metroid 1 through 5 being on the same console is something to be happy about. Since there haven’t been any new numbered games and the Prime subseries is more popular, it’s easy to forget that Metroid Fusion’s radical plot points have been left hanging for almost 20 years.
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Even though MercurySteam changed some details when they remade Metroid 2 for the 3DS, the whole Metroid series can be played on the Switch. Fusion adds a lot more than you might think to help bridge the gap between the legendary Super Metroid and Metroid Dread. This should make many new fans eager to see the missing link between the two games.
Metroid Dread Similarities Metroid Fusion
Metroid Dread’s creators took so many ideas from Metroid Fusion that it’s hard to understand why the two games don’t have 4 and 5 in their official names.
When you look back at the Metroid games so far, each one’s story flows right into the next. It’s easy to imagine that Samus went from one adventure to the next.
In Metroid Fusion, Samus Aran goes back to planet SR-388, where she killed all of the Metroids in Metroid 2: Return of Samus. Here, a new threat called the X-Parasite infects her, but the DNA from Super Metroid’s baby Metroid saves her.
Samus’s original suit is still infected, so the parasite that can change its shape made the dangerous SA-X. This infected Chozo power armor villain reminds me of the E.M.M.I. and Raven Beak from Metroid Dread, right down to the parts where Samus gains power from SA-X or Raven Beak to beat a new final boss.
Samus’s new purple ship and her AI friend Adam are both carried over from Fusion. Dread also has key plot points that involve the destruction of either the cloned Metroids on the Federation space station or the quarantined X-Parasites on the Chozo ship.
What Fusion Started Metroid Dread Spelled the End
The idea of “dread,” from which Metroid 5 gets its name, makes the similarities even stronger. Metroid Fusion added a lot of scary parts to a game that was mostly not scary. Even though SA-X encounters were short and planned, they gave the feeling of running away from a powerful monster, which is what you might expect from a survival horror game.
Metroid Dread doubled down on this with E.M.M.I. areas, which are places where Samus is always being chased by enemies that can’t be defeated until gates are passed. Dread basically took an idea that Fusion couldn’t fully implement on the Game Boy Advance and fleshed it out using modern hardware.
Metroid Dread is more action-oriented than Fusion, and it has nonlinear elements that Fusion was once criticized for not having. But when you go from Fusion to Dread, the tone and almost every part of the story stay the same or get better.
From the fact that Adam isn’t someone you can trust to the fact that the baby Metroid and X-Parasites are important, it’s clear that Metroid Dread was based on Metroid Fusion. Fusion helped Dread become popular, and thanks to Nintendo Switch Online, fans will soon be able to play both games on the same console.