Metroid Dread is probably the hardest Nintendo game on the Switch and arguably the hardest the series has ever been. Reviews revealed that a lot of people are struggling to complete it, with some finding the experience totally unenjoyable. Metroid Dread definitely isn’t for everyone, but I have a feeling that it isn&rsquoღ;t just the pace and difficulty of the boss✃ fights that’s turning people off. Metroid Dread’s control scheme is one of the most overwhelming and anti-ergonomic layouts I’ve ever seen, and it doesn’t surprise me at all that people are struggling.
Dread’s boss fights are demanding and require you to learn tons of patterns and behaviors to dodge and counter a wide range of rapid attacks, all while managing a control scheme that routinely asks you to hold four or more buttons simultaneously,🎃 aim the stick, and rapidly switch inputs. No matter how much desire someone has to learn these boss fights, they simply might not be able to execute no matter how hard they try.
Samus has many tools at her disposal in Metroid Dread - more than any other Metroid game before. Major boss fights require you to combine a number of these together to either dodge attacks, damage weak points, or activate some ꩵkind of switch that makes the boss vulnerable. To defeat the most difficult bosses, you’ll need to use Flash Shift, Spider Magnet, Grapple Beam, Screw Attack, Charge Beam, Morph Ball, Power Bomb, Melee Counter and Storm Missile in quick succession and often with only a fraction of a second to react. That’s a lot of abilities to keep in your brain at one time, and unfortunately, executing these commands is absolute murder on your hands.
Take Kraid for example, the classic Metroid boss who makes his third appearance in Dread. During the second phase of the fight, you’ll need to jump up a wall of spikes to reach a magnetic strip at the top. Jumping up the spikes is easy enough, but once you get within range of the pink wall, you have to execute a pretty complicated sequence of inputs. First you hold B to jump high off the last spike, then hold L to aim, tilt the stick towards the magnetic surface, then press ZR to fire your Grapple Beam. You’re now holding three buttons and aiming the stick. Once you're attached to the wall you have to let go ZR and press R while aiming towards Kraid to fire missiles at him while also jumping and reattaching yourself to the wall to avoid attacks. All of your fingers that could possibly be pressing buttons need to be working at the same time. It’s a lot of inputs at once, and that’s not even close to the hardest fight.
The times I struggled most with the controls were when I had to charge up either the Charge Beam or Swarm Missile while also dodging attacks. During🦹 the second phase of the Raven Beak fight, the sheer number of overlapping inputs really scrambled my brain. You need to hold R and L to simultaneously charge the Swarm Missile and aim at Raven as he flies around while also pressing Y to fire missiles, but then releasing L to press ZL to slide under attacks or B to jump over gun fire while still holding R to charge and pressing Y to fire. The result is a clawed death grip on your Switch as you jam and hold four or more buttons at once while trying to remember which ones are safe to release so you can press a different button. Throw manual aiming on top and you’ve got a recipe for carpal tunnel syndrome.
I played about 20 minutes with the Joy-Con before I switched to the Pro Controller and never looked back, but even then I struggled. To say it's an uncomfortable game to play is an understatement, and I’m not surprised at all to hear people complain that it’s too hard. It’s not always about perseverance and putting the time in to learn the boss’s attack patterns. Dread asks you to execute button combos that are incredibly difficult to pull off even if you know exactly which buttons to push and when. I found myself getting flustered, and this is my favorite type of game - I can’t imagine how the more casual fans are feeling. I wish the control scheme didn’t have to be such a huge barrier for Metroid Dread, and when people say it’s too hard, I don’t necessarily think that’s just because this isn’t their type of game.