Hey, real quick: If you are a Nintendo lawyer or employee, just like… don’t read this. It was a silly mistake. Ignore this blog. You can go now. Okay, everyone else…
Metroid Dread was officially released on October 8, but copies got out into the wild a few days before that. And even after such a short time, the game is now fully playable in 4K via various Nintendo Switch emulators.
Released yesterday and developed by Mercurysteam, Metroid Dread is the awaited 2D return of the Metroid series. You can read our full review here, but the short answer: It’s a solid game with some nice-looking visuals and surprisingly tricky boss fights. It is a Switch exclusive, as you might expect. But all you need is a Switch emulator and a decently powerful PC, and you can play Dread on your computer, right now. And it looks great.
Via the popular Yuzu open-source emulator, you can now play Dread with custom controls and unlimited FPS settings. Some players have reported minor issues with cutscenes and black screens, but according to the Yuzu devs, this is fixed by updating to the latest version of the free emulator.
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Another popular Switch emulator, Ryujinx, is able to run the game at similarly high framerates, but can also play it at a much higher 4K resolution. Compared to the native 720/900p resolution available on the Switch in handheld or TV mode, this is a massive increase. And, the art style and visuals really shine in 4K.
Of course, it’s possible that certain areas of the game perform worse on certain PC setups, and depending on your computer’s specs and software setup, Dread via emulation could be a total shitshow. But it seems that for most folks with moderately powerful GPUs, things are looking damn good.
If you want to play the rest of the Metroid franchise and don’t want to shell out large amounts of money on old consoles and games, your best bet is also emulation. As is often the case, Nintendo (like most game publishers) is really bad about maintaining access to their past games outside of the few big sellers. Thank God for pirates, emulators, modders, and hackers.