Metroid fans are about to conclude the storey arc set out in the original 1986 title after more than three decades. Metroid Dread will be released on the Nintendo Switch on October 8 (the same day as the Nintendo Switch OLED model), completing the original arc and allowing the storey to take a completely different path moving forward.
Even though this is the first 2D Metroid game in 19 years, Nintendo has already thrown players off by introducing new and exciting changes to our protagonist.
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The trailer shows what appears to be a new suit for Samus, though no explanation for the new hardware is given. So why does Samus appear to be a different person in this new game? It’s a crucial piece of the franchise’s continuity.
In ‘Metroid Dread,’ why does Samus have a different appearance?
The Metroid Dread trailer begins with our protagonist in an orange suit flying to Planet ZDR, the setting of our new game, but by the end, she’s on the ground in a slick new blue suit that players haven’t seen before.
For those who don’t recall, Metroid Dread is the fifth and final game in the current arc that longtime Metroid fans have been trying to finish, but the events of this game are directly preceding Metroid Fusion, which was released in 2002.
Samus receives the organic Fusion Suit at the start of Metroid Fusion, but an attack from the X parasites nearly kills her. The organic Fusion Suit has returned to its original form, resulting in this new coloured suit.
“Samus’ suit appears to have changed quite a bit from her previous missions in Metroid Dread. “This is the result of the organic suit from Metroid Fusion gradually returning to its original, mechanical Power Suit form after being greatly transformed following the attack by the X parasitic lifeform and the injection of the Metroid vaccine”, Nintendo wrote in “Metroid Dread Report Vol. 3.”
The Power Suit has three distinct colours to indicate the different upgrades in previous games; in Metroid Fusion, the suit starts blue rather than yellow, before being upgraded to orange, and then a yellow and mauve design.
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All previous Metroid games start with Samus losing her suit upgrades, forcing the player to work hard to reclaim them as the storey progresses. Unfortunately, we may be only seeing the first colour of her new suit in this trailer.
On October 8, Metroid Dread will be released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
Source: nintendo.co.uk