See you next mission.” These are the words you see after completing any Metroid game. But when would that next mission be?

Almost 20 years ago, the fourth mainline Metroid game (Metroid Fusion) was released to the world. With its great success, people were excited to see what the series had in store next for the story. As the years went on people started to speculate that Metroid was no longer a series to be hopeful for.

All of that changed a few months ago when Nintendo announced that Metroid 5 (Metroid Dread) will be released for the Switch, but will it live up to all those years of waiting?

The game starts with our renowned bounty hunter, Samus Aran, getting a transmission from the Galactic Federation that the X, a dangerous parasite thought to have been wiped from existence in Metroid Fusion, lives.

The federation notifies Samus that they have sent out seven Emmis, robots designed to investigate and extract DNA from specimens, to help her out. Not long after docking on the planet’s surface, Samus is met with an extremely powerful enemy that she is not able to defeat and gets overpowered right off the bat.

The game starts off as most Metroid games have, powerless with only her basic arm cannon and a few missiles. It’s the player’s job to find all of her lost abilities, energy tanks, and extra missiles.

Graphically, this game is pure beauty. Every environment you enter is full of life and even the more “man-made” areas have so many little things going on in the background that it makes the game never feel dull.

Though some areas may feel too similar to the last, allowing for you to get lost easier, I personally think that it adds to the “lost in an unknown planet” vibe that the game goes  for which really drives home the sense of dread.

On top of the amazing atmosphere in this game, The controls and fluidity of movement feels very smooth and natural to play with. Everything from the dodging mechanic to just running and jumping, it can all be done in a string of sequences and you’ll feel all too satisfied finishing said sequences.

Controlling Samus has just never felt as great as it does in Dread, with the animations adding to the natural flow of movement, it’s satisfying just running around and blasting enemies.  The boss battles here have the most fun fights I’ve ever fought through. They all don’t feel too easy but also not too difficult (except for the final battle, that one takes a good many tries). But trust me, you get a great feeling of accomplishment that you don’t even care how many tries it took you.

The game does a great job at making you feel skilled at the end of any fight, and if you don’t feel that with the first few, trust me, you’ll feel it with later bosses.

The EMMI have been turned against you in this game and they are the single most terrifying thing you’ll encounter. Sure some creatures in the game may have scary designs but the EMMI are ruthless. There are certain zones that take up the map that the EMMI are on the hunt for samus and whenever you enter the area, The EMMI are more alert. They hunt by sound and sight, so if they hear you they’ll start searching for you but once it sees you, you better bolt your way out.

They are indestructible and no matter how late into the game you are, none of your abilities will harm it, you’re only good bet is to run and escape because if it catches you, let’s just say you’ll be met with a game over screen. This will be a screen you’ll be very familiar with when encountering an EMMI.

Metroid Dread has been a blast playing through and has been one of the best games I’ve personally played this year, if not ever. There’s been so much thought and heart poured into making this game and it really shows in every design aspect.

I’d say that the nearly 20 year wait for this game is 100 percent worth it and it’s a game everyone with a switch should own and play! Here for the next game in the series! “SEE YOU NEXT MISSION!”