'Metroid Dread' Is the First 2D Metroid Game in 19 Years

Nintendo's Direct presentation during E3 held some big gaming announcements for the coming year. The video game company announced a series of new titles coming to the Nintendo Switch in 2021 and shared much-awaited news on the highly anticipated Breath of the Wild 2.

In addition to all of this exciting news revealed for the second half of 2021, Nintendo also made a surprise announcement for a new Metroid game.

Gamers have long been waiting for news on the previously announced Metroid Prime 4, but instead, Nintendo revealed their plans for what they dubbed "Metroid 5" — set to release this year.

Metroid Dread is the title of the surprise announcement. But when does the newest Samus game come out?

Like most of the games Nintendo revealed during the presentation, Metroid Dread will hit Nintendo Switch consoles later this year. The expected release date for the title is October 8, and players already have the option to preorder the title.

The game was originally announced in 2005, expected for the Nintendo DS, though the project was later scrapped. The project was then revived in 2008, though again, it was dropped.

Metroid Dread is the first 2D platform game in the Metroid franchise in almost two decades, making it a highly anticipated title coming later this year. The last 2D platform in the franchise was Metroid Fusion, which was released in 2002 for the GameBoy Advance.

The events in Metroid Dread take place some time after Metroid Fusion, with Samus on planet ZDR. Samus is dispatched to the planet to locate the initial team that has disappeared and fights the X parasites (again).

This "Metroid 5" game will also feature a new enemy. The E.M.M.I. robots (Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifiers) will be Samus's main opponent to battle on the new planet. This title will reportedly "mark an end" to the arc between Samus and the Metroids that began with the first title in the franchise and has continued throughout the subsequent titles — leaving much speculation as to what new content Metroid Prime 4 will explore.

The announcement of this new title had some worried that the long-awaited Metroid 4, which was announced during Nintendo's E3 showcase in 2017, was canceled. Two years after the announcement, with no other news about the title, Nintendo revealed that it would still be some time before we saw the game hit Nintendo Switch consoles, as the company decided to scrap what they had of the project and begin again.

"Currently, we're working hard on the latest game in the Metroid Prime series, Metroid Prime 4, which we previously announced," Shinya Takahashi said during the recent presentation. "But today, we'd like to introduce another new entry in the Metroid franchise."

Shinya provided no other information on the title.

Despite the delay, though, it seems as though there are still plans to release Metroid Prime 4, though we likely won't see the title for another year at least.