Metroid Dread is real, and it’s coming to the Switch

At its E3 2021 Nintendo Direct presentation, Nintendo revealed a new entry in the Metroid series: Metroid Dread. It’s set to release on October 8th of this year for $59.99.

In a short but action-packed trailer, protagonist Samus Aran faced off against a giant and terrifying white robot that chased her throughout the level. The game looked to play similarly to the 3DS game Metroid: Samus Returns — but it’s actually a direct sequel to the Game Boy Advance title Metroid Fusion from 2002, where Samus similarly had to avoid the terrifying SA-X.

Here, Samus will have some intriguing abilities to help her get around. Right from the get-go, she’ll be able to slide through small passages. She can turn on a cloaking device named the Phantom Cloak to help her evade detection, and there’s a new tool called a Spider Magnet that allows her to climb up certain walls and ceilings. Producer Sakamoto Yoshio shows off some of the new features in the video below.

While it’s a 2D platformer game, it appears to have a lot of 3D sequences as well — you can watch Nintendo’s Treehouse team play through a portion of the game at the end of the company’s Nintendo Direct video, the company is offering more details in “Dread Reports,” the first of which you can read here.

Nintendo also shared that the company is still at work on Metroid Prime 4, which was first revealed for Nintendo Switch in a brief video in June 2017 — yes, four years ago. That game is likely still a ways out from release, as it was rebooted in January 2019. As part of that announcement, Nintendo said that it had put Retro Studios, the developers of the original Metroid Prime trilogy, back at the helm.

Update, 1:11PM ET: Added more details from Nintendo.