The long-awaited Metroid Dread is releasing on the Nintendo Switch this week, just in time for the Halloween season. While its more popular sibling franchises are no stranger to disturbing and terrifying moments, Metroid places sci-fi horror and isolation on the forefront, marking its status as a more hardcore series while greatly influencing an entire genre with its fast-paced gameplay in exploration and action.
Metroid Dread is obviously looking to continue the trend of scaring the player through atmosphere and tension alone. But the EMMI isn't the only scary thing that Samus has faced in her long and adventurous career as the galaxy's greatest bounty hunter. Metroid has remained an influential game thanks to not just its exploration and gameplay, but the sense of horror it brings to the table, with memorable, terrifying moments in each entry.
First Encounter With the Metroids
While there are a variety of strong enemies that can back Samus into an unwanted corner, none are more dangerous than the titular creatures our heroine was sent to destroy: the Metroids. Requiring the Ice Beam and five missiles to destroy even one Metroid, the only way to break free from a Metroid's mandibles is with the Morph Ball Bombs. But the original game, with its limited controls and tight spaces, made escaping a Metroid extremely difficult, making the prospect of facing multiple Metroids at once all the more terrifying.
Crocomire's Horrifying Death
Crocomire is extremely unorthodox, even for a miniboss. For starters, he has no typical boss theme intro to ready the player for action, so his appearance can be a major jumpscare as the door locks behind Samus. The player will learn that no weapons can hurt Crocomire directly, but a few missiles/charged shots to the mouth will push the beast back into a pit of lava, making the fight a tense tug-of-war. Crocomire falls into the lava pit, meeting a horrible fate for a Super Nintendo game as his flesh melts right off...but he's not dead until he gets one last scare in, with his skeletal husk lunging at Samus.
Exploring the Wrecked Ship
While Metroid is known for its sci-fi influences from Ridley Scott's Alien, the series is far from shy from dabbling into the blatantly supernatural. Samus herself is no stranger to fighting off ghosts either, as the Wrecked Ship can attest to. The player tries to uncover the secrets of the wrecked space vessel, apparently Chozo in origin. There is a ship-wide blackout, not only letting in malevolent spirits to terrorize Samus but also preventing Save Stations from working, adding to the desire to get the hell out of there. The boss of the Wrecked Ship, Phantoon, is also disturbing in its sheer lack of context and explanation for its abilities.
The SA-X is in Pursuit
Having lost her original Power Suit, Samus is frequently stalked by the entity known as the SA-X, an X-parasite that has taken on the form of her old armor. It's now absolutely invincible and can destroy Samus within seconds, so she'll spend much of Fusion avoiding the SA-X at all costs by finding secret hiding spots in walls and corners. The player will soon learn that there is more than one SA-X running around the colony, increasing the SA-X's threat level exponentially. The SA-X's chase sequences are so memorable that aspects of them are clearly implemented in EMMI encounters of Metroid Dread.
Samus Faces a Literal Nightmare
Nightmare is often noted by fans as the single most frightening boss in the entirety of Metroid's history, contested only by the SA-X. But what the Nightmare lacks in constant presence, it makes up for in sheer suspense and gut-wrenching monster design. First alluded to as a shadow zooming across the screen during exploration, the Nightmare boss fight reveals a terrifying form that looks like something out of a Tim Burton film. Nightmare lives up to its name, wielding gravity-based attacks and taking up a huge chunk of the screen to restrict the player's movement. Even worse, Samus' missile blasts cause alien blood to seep out of its frowning mask, which eventually the mask breaks to reveal a multi-eyed, slimy abomination within as it screams in agony.