Metroid Dread is a 2021 action-adventure game developed by MercurySteam and Nintendo EPD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch on October 8, 2021. Dread is the ninth main Metroid game, the first since Metroid: Other M (2010), and the first original side-scrolling Metroid game since Metroid Fusion (2002). It retains the side-scrolling gameplay of previous games and incorporates stealth elements. Players control the bounty hunter Samus Aran as she investigates the source of a mysterious transmission on the planet ZDR.