I'm talking about free aiming and button combos instead of weapon selection. The joy cons controls are tiny and it was really clumsy. Move your thumb even a mm then your aim is off and have EMMI fucking your face. Some reviews echo this complaint so it's not just me.

Some boss fights are good, some are bad like that electric insect. In any case, the damage they do is extreme, patterns and overall design are decisively not referencing old Metroid. There was an insane difficulty spike in the middle of the game with back to back boss fights, EMMIs, and X enemies. Then you get a uniquely OP screw attack mid-game that trivializes the rest of it and makes for whiplash and a cheap game breaking mechanic. It's all just really sloppy and incongruous IMO.

Um... it's a mainline sequel to Fusion and maybe even more so Super because it's not being relegated to the handheld console and the lower production values and design sensibilities that comes with. The point is that we waited almost 20 years for a game that feels like it's inspired by the games it inspired and sort of lost its identity. It should be inspiring a new generation of games. Super is vastly vastly superior to this game.

They just don't make soundtracks like Super's anymore. I would argue that Dreads chief innovations is the difficulty and boss design, which is why I think comparisons to Hollow knight are especially apt. But also, and maybe you didn't notice, the numerous spear wielding Chozo mini-bosses were very similar to hornet and mantis lords from hollow knight. Beak raven was unlike any 2D metroid boss I've ever fought, and a lot like some endgame bosses in hollow knight. I revisited Super yesterday and noticed the damage bosses do is a stark contrast to dread where it almost treats energy tanks like the soul containers in hollow knight; one hit will often deplete an entire tank. Hollow knight has mechanics that compliment its boss design (healing, deflection, badges) and dread just has dated QTEs. I died more than I did in hollow knight and didn't feel like I was having as much fun or control over the experience.

In super, screw attack is optional and along with space jump the last items you get in the game. It mostly facilitates backtracking, and the list of things it can't do is much shorter than in dread. You get speedboost and need to use it to get through a couple of obstacles, but there's not really any terrain designed to utilize it in a way that feels natural or powerful, and it's most compelling in that sloppy sort of energy/missle tank mini-game. You get grapple beam and use to grapple across a couple of ceilings, which is really bad honestly and sort of skippable too. It basically just becomes a door and hole opening tool.

It's just bad design honestly. Metroid is supposed to have an organic progression that is complemented by level design that conveys a story, and dread just feels like it randomizes progression in an uninspired maze of rectangular rooms. There's no rhyme or reason to anything that happens, it's just there because it was there before.

Like I said, it's a decent game but Super is a masterpiece of level design and just being good enough by other standards kind can unfortunately mean it's a piece of shit by metroid's standards. Oh and apparently Samus is a Jedi and Darth Vader is her dad. That's the cherry on top.

oops meant the list of things screw attack can't do is shorter in dread than super. it's basically OP and the level and enemy design is not an impedance to cheaping out the way it is in super. there's just no thought put into it or what it represented in super at all.

@oldenjon it'll never be a super metroid, and nothing will touch that game, which is true. and on those remarks, its super unfair to really compare any of them to such a godlike title. All in all, I had a great time 100% it on normal. The music was lackluster, the item order list was a bit strange, but overall was super fun... I look forward to running it every so often and trying out hard mode! (All games look to others for reference. Hell even metroid looked to the Alien franchise as reference. So to critique dread for referencing another metroidvania (hollow knight) without criticizing hollow knight for referencing the obvious (super metroid) is a bit looney.