Metroid Dread was released to celebrate 35 years of Metroid.
Nintendo published Metroid Dread for Nintendo Switch on October 8, 2021, exactly 35 years after the original Metroid debuted in Japan in 1986. The game continues the story of bounty hunter Samus Aran and serves as the conclusion to the five-game 2D Metroid storyline.
Its development involved Nintendo and MercurySteam, the studio behind Metroid: Samus Returns. The game introduced the dangerous E.M.M.I. robots, which pursue Samus through restricted areas and add stealth-focused tension to the traditional exploration formula.
Metroid Dread is sometimes confused with Metroid Prime Remastered, which arrived in 2023 and revisits a first-person adventure originally released for GameCube. Both are Switch games, but only Dread marked the franchise’s 35th anniversary year.