UNRELEASED GAME - CANCELLED
This game was cancelled in development.
Metroid Dread is an action-adventure game developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch on October 8, 2021. It was originally in development for the Nintendo DS in the late 2000s, planned as the sequel to the 2002 Game Boy Advance game Metroid Fusion. Metroid series producer Yoshio Sakamoto conceived Metroid Dread as a Nintendo DS sequel to Metroid Fusion. It came from the concept of having Samus followed by "dread" on an unfamiliar planet. Sakamoto's inspiration for this direction was "the tension surrounding the SA-X from Metroid Fusion and how we wanted to take that style of gameplay and put it into what is considered to be the normal Metroid gameplay". Sakamoto did not want Dread to be a horror game, but did want to explore "fear-based gameplay".
Sakamoto attempted to have Dread developed for the DS at least twice, but the technology was too limited to create the game he envisioned. The first attempt was made around 2005, while a second attempt was made around 2008. A playable prototype was shown to Nintendo Software Technology and Nintendo of America staff at E3 2009. The project was reportedly not titled Metroid Dread at that point and had an art style similar to Metroid Fusion. However, the prototype did not meet Sakamoto's expectations, so development was halted. A major reason for this was that Sakamoto's desire for an intimidating, unsettling antagonist was difficult to achieve with the DS's limited hardware.
The title Metroid Dread first appeared on a 2005 internal Nintendo software list of "key DS games set to be announced in the future". This led to the expectation that it would appear at the E3 convention in 2005 or 2006. By late 2005, rumors spread that Metroid Dread was canceled or in development hell. The game was listed in the February 2006 issue of Official Nintendo Magazine, with a release date of November 2006. In 2010, Sakamoto confirmed that Dread had existed, but said that Nintendo would "start from scratch" if they returned to it.