# 5 Years Later, Metroid Dread’s Perfect Ending Is Still One of Nintendo’s Best

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/5-years-later-metroid-dreads-perfect-ending-is-still-one-of-nintendos-best/
- Published: 2026-10-24T12:00:19+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-24T12:11:29+00:00
- Original publisher: Polygon
- Original article: https://www.polygon.com/metroid-dread-5-year-retrospective/
- Topics: Entertainment, Gaming

## Key points

- Metroid Dread’s ending makes Samus’s transformation its central horror.
- The Metroid DNA that saved her life also puts her in danger.
- The finale turns her power into a source of fear.

## Summary

Five years after its 2021 release, Metroid Dread remains memorable for its tense design and, especially, its ending. The article argues that the finale matters because it turns Samus Aran’s struggle with Metroid DNA into a frightening personal crisis: she becomes the species she once helped drive to extinction.

Sent to Planet ZDR to recover missing EMMI robots, Samus is attacked by Chozo warrior Raven Beak and left without her power-ups. The robots pursue her because they are trying to extract the Metroid DNA in her blood, which was implanted to save her life in Metroid Fusion. In the final battle, that DNA takes control and transforms her into a monstrous Metroid-like form; the article reads the change as a curse and a culmination of the game’s themes of bodily autonomy and fear of becoming what one opposes.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.