Metroid Dread trailer reveals some powerful returning abilities

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It's equal parts exploration and horror

The latest Metroid Dread trailer is a full game overview, honing in on the side-scrolling adventures two main pillars of exploration and dread.

The narrated trailer walks through many of the new abilities and power-ups Samus will be able to use as she traverses Planet ZDR: while we've seen abilities like the mini-teleporting Phase Shift and swarming Storm Missiles before, the trailer also quietly shows off abilities that look very much like Samus' familiar Space Jump and Screw Attack. The former lets her spin through the air perpetually and the latter turns her spin jump into a damaging attack.

The combination of the two is a powerful tool, and one we typically don't see in Metroid games until closer to the end - so it's interesting Nintendo is choosing to show them off in a pre-release trailer. Just in case you're feeling too empowered, the back half of the trailer brings the dread with a look at many of the unearthly entities who are out for Samus' human (and a little bit Metroid and Chozo) blood.

Speaking of the Chozo, we get another good look at the bird-like aliens who are also on ZDR for unknown reasons. Despite being part of the culture that took in an orphaned Samus, raised her up, and kitted her out, none of these Chozo seem very happy to see her. Maybe they disagree with her career choices and the whole "exterminating the entire Metroid species" thing? The Chozo also created the Metroids, and your parents are bound to have some choice words for you if you render your siblings functionally extinct.

Nintendo says Metroid Dread will offer "similar flexibility" for exploration as Super Metroid, right down to potential sequence breaks.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.