| Hi everyone, it's Jason. At the annual E3 gaming conference, Nintendo Co.'s showcase is always one of the most anticipated events. This year, the company released its usual slew of teasers for new games in big franchises like Zelda and Mario. But the week's true bombshell was the announcement of a new installment in a series that has lain mostly dormant since 2010.
The series is Metroid, a sci-fi franchise that has been critically acclaimed but commercially underappreciated. Now, Nintendo hopes to revitalize the franchise for new audiences with a game called Metroid Dread.
Metroid debuted on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986 and follows an armored warrior named Samus Aran who battles aliens in a fictional galaxy. There have been more than a dozen games in the series but none have ranked among Nintendo's bestsellers. Christopher Dring, head of the video game website GamesIndustry.biz, pointed out that in just three months, the pandemic-era hit Animal Crossing: New Horizons had outsold more than 30 years of the Metroid franchise. Still, Metroid has always been dear to fans, particularly in the U.S., where the series' themes of horror and loneliness appeal to many video game enthusiasts. With Metroid Dread, Nintendo will give players even more intergalactic existential angst. The new game, set to be released for the Switch in October, features menacing patrolling robots that creep around a deadly alien planet, hunting for Samus. The player must avoid these robots while exploring and collecting powers. Contact with one of them will lead to instant death. During a Zoom meeting with reporters Tuesday, series producer Yoshio Sakamoto said he hoped this new gameplay would appeal to "younger people who have not experienced the series before." He said he had been imagining Metroid Dread for more than 15 years—the game was rumored in 2005 but that version was canceled—and that technology improvements have allowed him to execute on the vision he had back then. It's been more than a decade since the last original Metroid story. In recent years Nintendo has mostly ignored the series in favor of more popular franchises. But there are plenty of reasons to think that Metroid Dead will be a breakout hit. Footage of the game shown to reporters was slick and impressive. And Nintendo's biggest advantage is that it's coming to the red-hot Switch, which has sold more than 84 million units. "This is the first time in like 25 years where a Metroid game is being released onto a platform that is fully embraced by its potential audience," wrote Chris Kohler, a developer and former gaming journalist who has written books about Nintendo. Kohler pointed out that previous Nintendo consoles, such as the Wii and Game Boy Advance, were not ideal fits for a series like Metroid due to their audiences of more casual fans. "It's not gonna do Animal Crossing numbers or anything but it could finally break out of the niche that Metroid's been stuck in for too long," he wrote. Sakamoto told reporters that there are plans for future Metroid games including the long-gestating Metroid Prime 4. If Metroid Dread sells well, this could be the beginning of a resurgence for the underappreciated series. —Jason Schreier | 
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