NintendObs Thinks: How Metroid Dread became Game of the Year nominee at The Game Awards.
Realistic graphics and countless cinematics from Nintendo provide easy-on-the-eye and ready-made video footage.
Since the headline can appear a little concerning, allow me to start by reiterating how much of a fun experience I’ve had playing Metroid Dread. The game to me was tough, engaging, challenging, and a breath of fresh air in a videogame world where the difficulty of yesteryear is a mostly fleeting memory disregarded to reach an accrescent amount of players. Metroid Dread’s biggest drawback is its length — having completed it 100% in default difficulty in a little more than 16 hours — probably making this end of the 2D Metroid saga the shortest $59.99 experience Nintendo has ever published on Nintendo Switch and even previous consoles in decades, but somehow to this day that didn’t bother me, I am still content with my purchase. I do believe graphics and cinematics have had a lot to do with this perception, because where the title lacked in duration, it compensated with a meticulous presentation the likes of which Nintendo is not exactly known for just yet.
My argument here is that this presentation, more than Metroid Dread’s gameplay, is the reason why the game so easily secured a predictable spot as nominee for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2021. Actually, I would go even further and suggest the expectation of this nomination was part of Metroid Dread’s planning, since its selection and its potential for victory irremediably contribute to a rise and potential explosion in sales, something previous Game of the Year contestants and winners can easily attest. What I’m saying is Nintendo was confident the nomination would happen, did everything for it to happen from Metroid Dread’s design to its marketing including its timing, which is precisely what I’ll explore today.
This is not to insinuate they somehow nudged the selection process to ensure Metroid Dread would be nominated. Nope, no need. It is just that ever since the launch of Nintendo Switch, as manifest in the critical acclaim of The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, Nintendo is now perfectly aware of what it takes to capture the praise and the influence of the gaming media the same way other giants in the videogame industry have been privy to long before them. They can now safely predict within appreciable range the critics’ responses to their titles, and even organize their operations around said positive reviews in ways that go far beyond the mere accolades trailers. Here is how.