The Game Awards is recognizing the gaming industry's biggest accomplishments of 2021, including its most prestigious award: Game of the Year. Among this year's six nominees is Metroid Dread, the latest installment of the Nintendo's popular Metroid franchise, with a storied development history of its own. More than just the only Nintendo-exclusive title among the nominees, Metroid Dread deserves its place as a clear frontrunner for Game of the Year -- and possibly the greatest Nintendo game released this year.

Set after the events of 2002's Metroid Fusion, Dread follows interstellar bounty hunter Samus Aran as she explores the planet ZDR to investigate a mysterious transmission emanating from the planet. After the Galactic Federation lost several powerful robotic EMMI (Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifiers) tracking the parasitic X organism to the planet, Samus follows up to learn more. Discovering the EMMI have been compromised and the planet contains the ancient Chozo civilization where she gained her signature Power Suit, Samus must evade her enemies while exploring the planet, steadily upgrading her armor's capabilities as she battles her way to escape.

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Metroid Dread's development history is almost as engrossing as the game itself, as it was first announced nearly 20 years ago as a direct sequel to Fusion before being shelved for years. Impressed by developer MercurySteam's 2017 enhanced remake Metroid: Samus Returns, Nintendo brought on MercurySteam for the revived project. Released in time for the Metroid franchise's 35th anniversary, Dread is the first brand-new Metroid game in five years and the first original side-scrolling title since Metroid Fusion 19 years prior.

True to its title, this game absolutely brings the dread to the gameplay experience, incorporating stealth elements rather than focusing purely on simple, run-and-gun exploration. While the Metroid franchise had certainly featured sci-fi horror flourishes before, from the creepy prologue of Super Metroid to the monsters players encountered from a first-person perspective in the Metroid Prime trilogy, Metroid Dread significantly increases the tension.

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With the EMMI being far stronger than Samus, the bounty hunter is forced to rely on her Phantom Cloak ability to mask her movements while being careful not to make too much noise to give away her position. Plus, while Metroid Dread doesn't heavily retool the tried-and-true Metroid combat approach too much, it provides plenty of enemy variation and strategy to make the whole experience feel fresh.

Nintendo hasn't won Game of the Year at The Game Awards since 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Metroid Dread is the perfect game to bring Nintendo back on top of the prestigious award show. More than just a testament to how captivating and accessible the game is, a win would be an excellent way to honor Metroid Dread's lengthy, tumultuous production history and the entire Metroid franchise overall as it wraps up its 35th anniversary year. Further proof that major studios can -- and should -- develop and publish 2D side-scrollers, Metroid Dread is perhaps the Metroidvania genre in peak form as it introduces Samus to a new generation with solid results.

Developed by MercurySteam and Nintendo and published by Nintendo, Metroid Dread is available now for the Nintendo Switch. The Game Awards will be presented Dec. 9.

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