What We Said About Metroid: Samus Returns on 3DS
The EMMI pursuing you transform entire regions of the map into one-hit-kill zones (you do have a small window of escape, but it’s vanishingly small) – which makes another new-to-Metroid feature of Dread, auto saving, which triggers just outside the EMMI zones, extremely welcome. These are less what you’d think of as boss fights and more akin to stealth missions (and sometimes a manic race to the finish line if you are spotted). One repeated encounter you’ll have is with the creepy, crawling EMMI bots which you might have seen a lot of in previews of Metroid Dread. I don’t want to give anything away, but these are some of the best boss fights I’ve ever played in an action platformer: Without exception,they seemed impossible at first, but post-victory, I felt like they’d made me a better player. The variation is welcome, especially in contrast to the way Samus Returns pitted you against the same boss bugs many times over. Those boss fights range from the traditional big, drooling monsters with patterns and weak points to learn, to almost Smash Bros.-esque encounters with enemies that mimic your move set.