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| Developer(s) | Amuza | |||
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo | |||
| Platform(s) | 
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| Genre(s) | Third-Person Adventure | |||
| Series | Metroid (series) | |||
| Predecessor | Metroid Fusion | |||
| Release Date(s) |  October 21, 2015 October 21, 2015 October 21, 2015 October 21, 2015 | |||
| Age Rating(s) |   
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| Media Included | Wii U:
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Metroid Dread (also known as Metroid 5 and Metroid V) is a game for the Wii U that released on October 21, 2015 worldwide. It is the eleventh entry in the Metroid series and set after the events of Metroid Fusion in which Samus disobeyed her orders and destroyed the X parasite and SR388. The Galactic Federation is after Samus, who has gone into hiding.
The gameplay is a fusion between the traditional 2D side-scroller games, and the newer 3D installments. The game is structured similar to one of the earlier 2D installments, but is played and controlled in a 3D world with movement of the 3D games.
Plot[]
Prologue[]
The Metroids and X Parasites have been eradicated. The galaxy is at peace.
I was first hired by the Galactic Federation to foil the plans of the Space Pirates on Planet Zebes. They had been using Metroids to attack Galactic Civilisation, under the order of Mother Brain.
After I successfully destroyed the Space Pirate colony, the Galactic Federation hired me once again to eradicate the Metroid population from their home planet, SR388. I followed their orders, but saved a newly hatched Baby Metroid.
The Baby Metroid was stolen from captivity by the Space Pirates. I immediately returned to Planet Zebes, to find the Space Pirates had rebuilt the colony. I once again destroyed their base and ruined their operations.
Due to my success, the Galactic Federation asked me to escort their team for a search of SR388. I was attacked by the X Parasite and almost died. Fortunately, the Galactic Federation saved my life by injecting Metroid DNA into me.
However, I learnt they had designed a Metroid breeding program, and were able to progress a Metroid lifespan in a couple days. I disobeyed the Galactic Federation’s orders, and destroyed the facility, ending the Metroid and X Parasites. Since then, I have been forced into hiding to avoid capture from the Galactic Federation.
-- Samus's Opening Monologue
Story[]
Metroid Dread takes place sometime shortly after Metroid Fusion. Samus is in hiding from the Galactic Federation after eradicating the X parasite, even though she was ordered by the Galactic Federation to keep it intact.
Adam Malkovich, who has remained as the Gunship's AI, has been hacking into the Galactic Federation systems to stay updated on their activity. One day Adam discovers that the Galactic Federation have begun testing on genetic engineering to improve humans after the success of fusing Metroid into Samus Aran.
Knowing the risk this plays, Samus infiltrates the Galactic Federation's base of operations in the galaxy, the Z Nebula. Samus flies her Gunship to a unmonitored lower hanger, and enters through a garbage chute that leads to the Research Centre.
Since her last mission, Samus had powered down and discarded her Power Suit for fear of it creating another SA-X. As such, she is forced to sneak her way through the nebula in her Zero Suit to learn more about the classified project. This leads her to the Experimentation Facility, where Samus finds the Galactic Federation creating an SA-X that can be controlled, known as the SA-Z, since the Federation couldn't control Samus. The plan quickly goes south as the SA-Z breaks out during operation and goes on a rampage, destroying the room and exposing Samus in hiding. After seeing Samus, the SA-Z flees deeper into the Research Centre.
Samus, having now been found by the Federation, is initially put into captivity, but is then asked to stop the SA-Z that is rampaging through the Z Nebula. The Federation give her the only suit they have available, the Fusion Suit, and Samus heads to find the SA-Z.
This leads Samus to the Kinetic Keep, where she finds rooms covered in cells that hold genetically engineered creatures. She encounters the SA-Z, who lets all the creatures out of their cells, setting the Z Nebula into immediate evacuation.
Samus leaves the Kinetic Keep and heads to the Roundtable, the central chamber of the Z Nebula that branches off into all of the other sectors. Due to the evacuation, all of the ships systems have shut down, making progress through many of the sectors nearly impossible. Samus goes to Sector One where records and systems are maintained and reboots the nebula, sending it back online.
Doing so alerts the SA-Z to Samus' position, and she has to hide from it and make her way out of Sector One or risk being eliminated by it.
Now that the systems are back online, Samus notices a large statue in the centre of the Roundtable. It is an honorarium to Samus fighting off numerous beasts as she has done for the galaxy many times.
With limited weapons, Samus decides to head through The Royal Botanical Gardens next, and encounters a genetically engineered version of Kraid. Shocked by her discovery of the revived Space Pirate commander, Samus heads through Vacationland to find the current chairman of the Galactic Federation, Chairman Anuk. She learns that he had been working with the Space Pirates to perfect the genetic engineering process, so they could create their SA-Z. In return, the Space Pirates asked that their commanders be recreated too.
Disgusted by Anuk's actions, Samus goes to defeat the other commanders that are running free on the nebula. Returning to the Roundtable, Samus sees one of the sectors of the nebula break off, followed by the roar of what Samus can only assume is one of the commanders.
Needing to return to her gunship to explore the wreckage, Samus instead decides to find Vahast who has taken over Keaton's Dump. The spectral being is soon defeated, along with the evolved Evirmyer in Starborn Labs.
Samus can return to the Research Centre to find one of the small creatures she met earlier, Uoa, has been genetically engineered into the fearsome beast and Space Pirate commander, Ubilo.
After defeating the commander, Samus uses her gunship to travel to the destroyed part of the ship. Inside, Samus finds Rovinia occupying the wreckage. After exploring the sector, she boards her gunship to defeat Rovinia.
The last area accessible to Samus is The Weekend District, the nebula's entertainment sector. Inside, Samus finds a "Explore Zebes" exhibit. She travels through the Crateria, Brinstar, and Maridia habitats finding them mostly destroyed by some creature. Within the Norfair habitat, Samus encounters and defeats Ridley, who has been recreated through genetic engineering.
With all the Space Pirate commanders defeated, Samus returns to the Roundtable and encounters the SA-Z and can defeat her with all her new technology.
After defeating the SA-Z the honorarium statue of Samus defeating enemies crumbles to pieces, revealing an opening into the Galactic Federation Armory underneath. Inside, Samus finds Chairman Anuk, along with hundreds of genetically engineered copies of his body.
Samus opens fire on Anuk and all his attacking copies, however, she is unable to cause much damage as endless copies overpower her. With Samus nearly defeated, the Metroid DNA that once saved her life has begun to slowly grow, and causes Samus to mutate. The Metroid DNA creates the Metroid Beam, which is able to drain the life power out of enemies. From here, Samus is able to defeat all the copies of Anuk.
With Anuk down to his final body, he pleads for Samus to stop. He reveals to Samus that, contrary to her beliefs, he was actually doing good for the galaxy. Anuk explains that a far-off alien ship has been slowly headed towards the galaxy. Everything the alien colony has come into contact with has been drained of life and turned into a barren wasteland. Chairman Anuk has been experimenting with genetic engineering to create weapons that could defeat the alien ship before they reach the galaxy. Knowing the dangers, The Galactic Federation and Space Pirates signed a Peace Treaty to create weapons or risk eradication. Being a close held secret known by only few, Anuk copied his body many times to ensure that even if he were to die, he would be able to remain chairman of the Galactic Federation and work towards defeating the impending threat.
Samus finds that the Metroid DNA injected into her on her previous mission has mutated her body so far that it has been subliminally altering her memories, and started to make her destroy everything in her path similar to the Metroids. Chairman Anuk performs an operation to remove the Metroid DNA from her and save her from being taken over by the Metroid.
With much of the Z Nebula destroyed, Chairman Anuk has to return to square one on his research, but forgives Samus for all of the destruction, knowing she wasn't in control.
Gameplay[]
Metroid Dread moves to an over-the-shoulder type of perspective as seen in other modern games such as the Arkham games and Horizon: Zero Dawn. The game blends many elements of the Metroid Prime games, with the traditional 2D side-scroller games. The developers intended to create a game that was close in style to the 'Metroidvania' genre, with the new perspective of more recent games.
Concept art showing the view on the TV and the GamePad
As such, Samus controls very typical of any over-the-shoulder action game. She can be moved around with the left control stick, with many of the buttons on the GamePad activating the numerous equipment she receives. The game is styled more like a traditional 'Metroidvania', in which the player can explore openly through a world and discover new equipment along the way. Each piece of equipment Samus obtains greatly changes the way she can traverse around the world. For example, red doors cannot be opened unless Samus shoots five missiles into them. So first, Samus has to explore the Z Nebula and find a Missile Tank, which will then allow her to open up red doors. Acquiring new equipment is the key to progression through the story, as Samus will often be halted by obstacles until she has the right equipment to progress. Despite this, players that have mastered Samus's movement are still able to explore the world almost freely and completely out of order of the intended story.
Throughout the game, Samus explores the numerous different sectors of the Z Nebula. Each sector has a multitude of rooms that are overrun by creatures or recreated Space Pirate commanders. To progress further through the game, Samus has to explore these rooms and defeat the commanders, or complete a task vital to the story. In each room Samus typically has one task she has to complete before being able to move on. For example, in the Research Centre, Samus has to hide behind walls in Decontamination then crawl into the vents to enter the Maintenance Access, where she has to platform above Federation members to get to the Experimentation Facility, where a cut-scene introducing the SA-Z plays out. Some of the rooms include stealth, platforming, puzzles, boss fights, and enemies.
The TV and GamePad both display different views of the world in front of Samus. The TV screen presents a crystal clear view of Samus's surroundings along with any important information, such as a radar and health bar. It functions similar to the Combat Visor from the Prime series. As such the player is encouraged to look mainly at the TV screen throughout the game. The GamePad however can be used to scan the environment for information, see heat maps of the surrounding area, scan the environment for hidden secrets, pinpoint the source of sounds and follow trails of chemicals. The GamePad screen acts very similar to all the other visors from the Prime series, and as so is very useful under special conditions, but is not reliable to look at constantly as Samus' vision in the visors is greatly reduced. The visors Samus unlocks include the Scan Visor, Thermal Visor, Echo Visor, X-Ray Visor, and Tracking Visor.
On the first play through of the game, much of the information gathered from scanning the environment is incorrect, or corrupted. This is due to the Metroid DNA mutating Samus's genetics, causing her to subliminally alter important information. All entries are updated to their correct information when playing through the game on New Game Plus.
With the new hardware of the Wii U, the SA-Z was able to be programmed in the game to appear at any time. The SA-Z is programmed to be wandering around the Z Nebula at all times, even if Samus isn't the same room or sector as it. The SA-Z will often attempt to track Samus' movements, so staying in the same place for an extended time will inevitably lead to an encounter. This means that the SA-Z can be encountered on the ship at any time, but cannot be defeated if randomly encountered.
Crafting[]
Metroid Dread introduces a crafting system for the first time in the series. Rather than dropping complete resources, enemies will now drop numerous materials once Samus defeats them. These resources range from Energy Cores, Battery Charges, and Power Powder.
Each enemy in the game has a set of resources that it may drop. There are two ways Samus can collect resources which are switchable in the pause menu. One way requires the player to be standing over the dead enemy, and press the action button (
) which will open a small menu showing what resources the enemies corpse has. From there, the player can press again to take the resources, or 
to exit the menu. The other setting that can be selected for harvesting is that the resources will be automatically added to Samus' inventory by walking over the enemy's corpse.
To craft resources, the player has to open the map menu (
) and scroll to the Crafting menu. From there, they can view how much of each material is needed to craft resources such as missiles. This can also be done faster by opening the Switch Weapon menu (
) and holding 
to craft the resource selected.
Controls[]
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A Button | Dodge | |
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B Button | Jump | |
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X Button | Action | |
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Y Button | Crouch | |
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L Button | Switch Weapon | |
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R Button | Melee Attack | |
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ZL Button | Aim | |
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ZR Button | Shoot | |
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Left/Right D-Pad | Cycle through ammo types | |
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Up D-Pad | Change Visor | |
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Left Control Stick | Move Samus | |
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Right Control Stick | Adjust Camera | |
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Plus Button | Open Pause Menu | |
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Minus Button | Open Map Menu | |
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Home Button | Open Home Menu |
Equipment[]
New Equipment[]
| Acquired in Sector One, the Flashlight casts a bright light out of Samus's left hand. The Flashlight can be charged to release a short, but brighter burst of light. This burst of light can be used to stun enemies and solve light based puzzles, including directing light into a switch, or locking an enemy behind bars created with light. Using the Flashlight without charging it will create a longer-lasting beam of light that is noticeably dimmer than when charged. This can be used to light up darkened rooms, making traversal possible in rooms where Samus cannot see anything. |
| Acquired in The Royal Botanical Gardens, the Echo Boots make all of Samus's steps echo loudly throughout each room. This is used to disorientate plant-based enemies that have no eyes, as they attack by pinpointing Samus's location through sound. Quickly running in a small circle with the Echo Boots on will create a sonar wave that attacks enemies. |
| Acquired in Vacationland, the Spin Latch enables Samus to create dents in walls by rapidly spinning into them. Samus can latch on to these dents she creates, allowing her to stand up and shoot in any direction whilst up a wall. It can function as a wall jump for players who are less experienced with the technique, as Spin Latches can be infinitely created as long as the player can jump from wall to wall. |
| Acquired in Keaton's Dump, the Vacuum Beam allows Samus to suck up small objects and enemies into her arm cannon and shoot them back at the environment. Many rooms within the game will have many environmental objects that can be sucked up to allow the Vacuum Beam to be used in many situations. Phantom enemies are invincible to all of Samus's attacks, except for the Vacuum Beam. She can suck them up and blow them into environmental hazards. |
| Acquired in Starborn Labs, this is an experimental project being tested within the labs. It is a heavy sphere that can be projected out of Samus's arm cannon. Due to its weight, having it out in play will slow Samus down, but can create a devastating attack if it hits an enemy. Placing the sphere in the correct places can help solve weight-based puzzles, such as raising and lowering platforms, or shooting Samus up high into the sky. |
| Acquired in the Galactic Federation Armory, it is only unlocked part way through the final boss, and has the ability to suck the life force out of enemies. This beam is created as a consequence of Samus's genetics being modified by the Metroid DNA. Samus has this beam from the start of New Game Plus. |
Returning Equipment[]
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All equipment returns with very little to no changes from their previous appearances. The only equipment with major changes is the Boost Ball and the Speed Booster. The Boost Ball can now travel over the surface of water, like a rock bouncing on top of water. The Speed Booster can also allow Samus to run on water. This gives Samus more opportunities for traversal through the Z Nebula.
Sectors[]
The entire game takes place on the Z Nebula, and follows Samus as she travels through the numerous different sectors of the nebula.
The nebula is designed as the Galactic Federation's main base of operations in the galaxy where they are testing genetic engineering. As such, it features many extra sectors that would not be normally featured on a Galactic Federation ship. Due to it's enormous size and many extra sectors, Z Nebula is often referred to as a town and community on its own.
 The Research Centre is the Galatic Federation's premier facility in investigating into the compounds of the universe and the behaviour of species. Numerous operations are run out of the Research Centre, but one of the primary experiments being worked on by the Galactic Federation currently is zero agency. This is due to the Federation being head-strong into making the SA-Z, a form of the SA-X that can be controlled to follow orders. Many of the research papers and experiments being conducted that can be found in the sector revolve around this project. Much of the sector is occupied by a state-of-the-art medical wing where species are tested on, and the SA-Z is operated on to create the perfect bioweapon. After the SA-Z breaks out of its restraints, it leaves its mark by destroying many of the back rooms of the sector, including putting the elevator completely out of order. The sector also has a large maintenance system that hides many secrets and connects to numerous other sectors.
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 The Kinetic Keep is completely surrounded by other sectors, but disjointed and floating freely in space. A magnetic force projected from all sides of the Keep and the surrounding sectors keeps the sector in place. It also gives the Kinetic Keep a constant spinning motion, which is designed to be used to disorientate all the creatures and criminals being contained within the sector. As such, the Kinetic Keep acts as a large prison to many of the galaxy's infamous criminals. Many of the walls are lined with these criminals, but in recent times the walls have become lined with genetically engineered creatures. The Keep has slightly changed in purpose due to the genetically engineered creatures, where they are now observed over time and being given beta testing. The Keep's constant spinning nature plays into many of the puzzles and platforming present in the sector.
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 Sector One is the central location that holds the Galactic Federation's records for the galaxy. The Z Nebula's systems are also kept and maintained within Sector One. The sector has an aura of regality to it, and is often described by those onboard the ship as the most beautiful sector, due to the strict regulations to keep the sector in the best condition. Since the breakout of the SA-Z however, much of the technology within the sector has been damaged or powered down. The SA-Z decided to initially take refuge in Sector One knowing it as the location where all the systems are maintained, and so turning them off sends the Z Nebula into a floating hunk of metal that cannot serve any of its purposes. At first, the sector's electrical generator was destroyed, and so the place is shrouded in darkness. This makes the sector full of creatures that hide in the dark, and many puzzles that are solved with light.
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 The Royal Botanical Garden's main purpose is to create oxygen that is harvested and dispersed through the rest of the Z Nebula. During the construction of the ship, the Botanical Gardens went under numerous different design changes. Originally starting as a small single chamber, the gardens ended up becoming one of the biggest sectors due to its importance in regulating oxygen and water. It was also redesigned to be used as an attraction for the onboard members. The Galactic Federation have gone into great lengths to research the genetics of the flora within the sector, and used this to genetically modify the nature. Many experiments did not go well, and subsequently created plant monsters that can devour Samus. They have garnered impeccable hearing as the nature doesn't have eyes. This means that Samus must be quiet when travelling through the gardens, or use the Echo Boots to disorientate the plants.
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 Vacationland is where all the onboard members of the Z Nebula call home. The sector is set up more like a neighbourhood as opposed to a sector, featuring many different recreational rooms. Inside Vacationland are all the apartments and units of the ship's crew. The sector has a distinct art deco design to all of its rooms. Vacationland is designed around one large, cylindrical chamber known as the Vacationland Apartments. It is the tallest room aboard the ship. All the areas of the sector stem off it, but all circle back into the apartments. The Galactic Federation designed it this way to keep the apartment complex everyone lives in as the central focus of the sector. Thus, the sector is very vertical, as opposed to the horizontal design of all the other sectors aboard the Z Nebula. Many of the walls are lined with propaganda in support of Chairman Anuk and the Space Pirates.
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 Keaton's Dump acts as the nebula's garbage containment and sewerage system. All of the trash created on the nebula ends up here, as well as all the used water. Much of the garbage is recycled, but plenty of it cannot, so it is instead disposed of in space. The Dump has been given a secret overhaul, as it now is the headquarters for the Space Pirates that have teamed up with the Galactic Federation. As such, the Dump has now become off-limits to low-ranking officials, when it used to be only used by maintenance officers. A rumour has spread across the Z Nebula that this change was because of a monster appearing in the dump, as no one knows of the Space Pirate operations. The Dump is flooded with trash water, which plays into many of the sectors platforming and puzzles.
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 Starborn Labs is a technological masterpiece aboard the Z Nebula. Inside, many scientists and engineers work in tandem to create new technology, and theorise about what else they can create in the future. Surprisingly, the Labs were disconnected from the genetic engineering project, and instead continued to work as if nothing had changed. As such, the Starborn Labs were used as a front for hiding the genetic engineering project. The Labs were continuing to be used as if nothing had changed, and so many officials and civilians were allowed to tour the Labs and see the work the Galactic Federation was supposedly working on. Following the breakout of the SA-Z, many members of the Galactic Federation took refuge in areas of the Starborn Labs as the security clearance is the strictest in the labs. The scientists had been experimenting on weight-based weaponry, and the sector's platforming and puzzles revolve around weight.
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 Rovinia Wreckage is a portion of the Z Nebula that was broken off from the main station after the Space Pirate Commander Rovinia destroyed the sector. Formerly known as the History Hall, the sector hold most of the Galactic Federation's historical artefacts and exhibits that are designed to teach onboard members about the history of the Federation and the galaxy. Quinn was a collection of AI robots that would conduct tours of the History Hall and teach those entering about the meaning of many of the artefacts on display. Even in the destroyed state, many of the Quinn robots still roam the halls on auto-pilot, spouting many facts about the history of the galaxy. Due to the destruction of the sector by Rovinia, many areas of the sector take Samus inside the halls and traversing on the outside walls of the space station. Samus however cannot go on the outside walls without the Spiderball or Gravity Suit, or she will be lost to space.
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 The Weekend District is the entertainment complex aboard the space station that the crew members flock too in their downtime. The district is clearly modelled off of large cities, with bright lights, neon signs and tall structures. The Federation created beautiful robots to frolic around the district for the people onboard to have dynamic conversations with. With the disarray on-board the Z Nebula, many of these robots have turned violent towards those that enter The Weekend District. The district is notable for its large 'Explore Zebes' park, in which a faithful creation of Planet Zebes habitats are located. Unknown to the public, the habitats were mainly created to aid in the process of genetically engineering the Space Pirate commanders.
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 The Galactic Federation Armory is a hidden sector within the Nebula that is directly underneath the Roundtable and can only be accessed from destroying the Samus statue above it. Inside the Armory, all of the Galactic Federation's weapons are stored. Chairman Anuk also stores the hundreds of copies of himself he has created within this sector.
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Characters[]
| The galaxy's greatest bounty hunter, Samus Aran is the main protagonist and playable character of the game. She has gone into hiding for disobeying orders from the Galactic Federation. However, Samus brings herself out of hiding after learning that the Galactic Federation has begun testing genetic engineering. Throughout the game, Samus is affected by the Metroid DNA injected into her during her last mission, and almost ends up dying because of it. |
| The Gunship's AI, named after Samus' former commanding officer, Adam can hack into the Galactic Federation's systems to give Samus further information on she may need. Adam records all of the data Samus acquires throughout the game from the Scan Visor and any information she learns from the journey. |
| The result of the genetic engineering project that the Galactic Federation and Space Pirates have been working on. The SA-Z is another form of the SA-X, a reproduction of Samus Aran with many of her weapons, that is a devastating superweapon that is almost indestructible. The federation where intending to create the SA-Z to fight against the oncoming alien colony, and had tried to make the weapon with zero agency so it can be completely controlled. However, attempts to do this have failed and so the SA-Z runs rampant on the ship. |
| The Chairman of the Galactic Federation, one of the highest ranking officials in the federation. Anuk works with the Space Pirates to help progress the genetic engineering project to create perfect weapons. Initially perceived by Samus to be evil, Anuk is actually working with the Space Pirates to help prevent the impending doom of the oncoming alien colony. |
Bosses[]
- Chozite: The Chozite is a genetically engineered Chozo Statue that has been modified to be taller and more violent. Samus must defeat the creature in the Kinetic Keep after the SA-Z sets it free. Despite its size and demeanour, Chozite is relatively weak and easily defeated, due to it being a failed experiment that never made it to far into development. The Chozite is rather strong but quite unintelligent, and so will only walk in straight lines towards Samus, making it easy to dodge. Attacking behind the knees will cause Chozite to fall to the ground, allowing Samus to attack its head for extra damage.
- SA-Z: The first scripted encounter with the SA-Z, once Samus reboots the nebula back online in Sector One the SA-Z will attack. Any attempt to destroy the SA-Z is futile. The only way the SA-Z can be affected is by performing Special Attacks, which will temporarily immobilize the SA-Z, giving Samus more time to run away. To complete this boss fight, Samus has to sneak out of Sector One without being caught by the SA-Z, and if she is caught she has to run away quickly.
- Kraid: In a typical playthrough, Kraid will be the first Space Pirate Commander fought. His appearance his extremely similar to the previous games. being a gargantuan being whose weak spot is his mouth. Kraid's forms of attack include shooting out rock-like projectiles, spiky thorns from his belly holes, and throwing his fingers across the room.
- Vahast: Vahast is a spectral being that manifests itself and disappears through the battle in Keaton's Dump. This creature is presumed to be of the same species as Phantoon, as it shares many similarities in appearance. Only part of Vahast can be seen as it is presumed to be an enormous creature which mostly resides in another dimension. To attack it Samus, has to suck up some of its tentacles, which will pull part of Vahast's body into this dimension which can then be attacked.
- Evirmyer: Evirmyer looks to be a genetically engineered form of Draygon, the fully developed form of the Evir creatures on SR388. Evirmyer was the first Space Pirate Commander engineered, and so the creature came out with many deformities. For example, the elasticity of skin was not perfected at this point, and so Evirmyer's skin has begun to dangle off its body. Due to this, the skin on the head of the creature has stretched, become dry, and cracked, making it more vulnerable to attacks.
- Ubilo: This creature is first encountered on the initial trek through the Research Centre in its larval stage where Samus saves the creature from near death. Unfortunately, the creature has since continued to be experimented on to transform into the Space Pirate Commander, Ubilo. Ubilo attaches itself to the floor, and quickly crawls across the room similar to the movement of a slug. The creature has extreme manoeuvrability, due to it having no bones, and so can rapidly roll across the ground, inch itself forwards, or move specific parts of its body to avoid attacks. The creature is a muted yellow in color, with many creases in its body.
- Rovinia: Presumed to be a failed attempt at creating Kraid, Rovinia occupies the Rovinia Wreckage, a sector of the nebula that broke off from one of Rovinia's rampages. The creature is one of the largest in size seen in the game, and is covered in a bony spike that emits a poisonous haze. The outer layer of this creature is mostly peeled off, with many of its bones displaying through what once was its skin. The eyes bulge out of its head and are jet black. Due to the size and poisonous haze of the creature, Samus fights Rovinia in her gunship, the only boss fight in the game to do so.
- Ridley: The head of the Space Pirate Commanders, Ridley is found in The Weekend District inside the "Explore Zebes" exhibit. Since the nebula's evacuation, it seems Ridley has broken out of its confinement and left its mark by destroying many areas of The Weekend District. This form of Ridley is more violent than many of its other iterations, seemingly haven been driven insane from being experimented on and stuck inside the Norfair habitat.
- SA-Z: The final encounter with the SA-Z takes place inside the Roundtable, the nebula's central hub. The SA-Z is a perfect form of Samus, boasting the Varia Suit and all of her original equipment. Designed to be used as a bioweapon, the SA-Z was meant to have zero agency and the ability to be controlled, but this plan didn't work. During the fight, it will mimic many of Samus' attacks. In its last moments, the SA-Z will transform into a beast in the hope to overpower Samus.
- Chairman Anuk: Chairman Anuk, the final boss of the game, is fought in the Galactic Federation Army underneath the Roundtable. Anuk is an unidentified form of alien unlike any other in the game, and so has special attacks such as the ability to morph his limbs and grow or shrink. Anuk is somewhat humanoid, but mostly just in standard size. Having genetically copied his body over hundreds of times, Samus has to defeat every copy of his body, but Anuk constantly switches his bodies out, allowing the injured ones to regain health and stamina. The fight is impossible to win until Samus unlocks the Metroid Beam part way through the fight.
Enemies[]
Amiibo[]
Amiibo can be used to open up new, smaller sectors on the Z Nebula. Each sector is inspired by the series that Amiibo comes from. There is no new equipment inside the Amiibo sectors, but there is more energy tanks and missile tanks, making the game easier for those that scan their Amiibo in.
Trivia[]
- This is chronologically the latest game in the series, taking place a short time after Metroid Fusion which previously held the title.
- The game went through many different iterations throughout development. The game was originally called Metroid Starborn, but was eventually scrapped and overhauled part way through development. Many elements of the original game remain in its final iteration, including the name of Starborn being in Starborn Labs.
- Keaton's Dump is likely a reference to Chairman Keaton, one of the Galactic Federation's former chairmen.
- Many hints to the final plot twist can be found throughout the game. The Peace Treaty signed by the Galactic Federation and Space Pirates is found within Rovinia Wreckage, and propaganda for Chairman Anuk and the Space Pirates can be seen in Vacationland.
- Similar to Super Metroid, the game can be played almost entirely out of order once the player first enters the Roundtable. The Space Pirate Commanders can be defeated in any order.
