Nintendo celebrates Metroid's 35th anniversary with a new Dread trailer

The Metroid series is 35 years old today. That’s three-and-a-half decades of skirting the tight corridors of alien worlds and defeating the monsters and space pirates who lurk within them. With Metroid Dread coming up this year, Samus is looking as good a bounty hunter as she ever has, but Nintendo also released a new teaser. Appropriately, it reaches into a very important part of Samus’ past and another iconic element of the series: The Chozo.

Nintendo released the latest teaser trailer for Metroid Dread on the Nintendo of America Twitter on August 6, 2021. It’s not a long teaser, but it does share a lot to unpack in its brief duration. In her travels through the planet ZDR, we see Samus come across some interesting wall art depicting familiar beings. It isn’t long before we see what appear to be the Chozo in several flashback memories before Samus seemingly gains some kind of glowing red power in her off-gun hand. You can see for yourself below.

It’s pretty much a given that the tall beings with the beak faces are the Chozo and it’s both an extremely fun tease for Metroid Dread and a great nod to Metroid’s history. For those who don’t know, one of the reasons why Samus is so dang strong and capable of adapting any technology she finds from these beaky statues throughout the previous games is that she was raised and strengthened by them. They even gave Samus her trademark armor. However, throughout the Metroid series, the Chozo have largely been seen to have died off. Only the remnants of their civilization remain. Metroid Dread is set to be a very illuminating journey indeed if it intends to go into the history of the Chozo and Samus’ connection to them.

The Chozo have lingered in the backdrops of Metroid games since the beginning, and while their raising of Samus was always known, the context of their fate has almost always been a mystery.

It’s quite the anniversary gift for Metroid fans who have followed the history of the franchise. Metroid Dread is set to arrive this October, so by the looks of things, that’s when we can expect to escape from terrifying deathbots and learn more of the history of the race responsible for much of the technology we’ve seen throughout the games. Stay tuned for more reveals and updates on Metroid Dread here at Shacknews. Happy birthday, Samus.