 One of the biggest reveals from Nintendo at E3 2021, Metroid Dread, immediately caught the attention of Samus Aran fans. Wildly hailed the first brand new 2D game since Metroid Fusion, not counting remakes, Metroid Dread was bound to excite fans who were still waiting patiently for Metroid Prime 4. For truly dedicated fans of the series, this game is particularly exciting, since rumours about a game entitled Metroid Dread have been swirling for well over a decade. Indeed, developer Yoshio Sakamoto has confirmed that various teams have been working on this game on and off for 15 years. Explaining the incredibly long development period, he said, Actually, the idea for Metroid Dread first came up about 15 years ago. However, we gave up on the idea at the time because we felt the technology back then just couldn't properly bring the concept to life. That said, the game has evolved significantly over the years, Sakamoto said. 15 years ago when I originally conceived of the game, the story itself wasn't clearly set. It was basically driven or kept alive by the concept. It's fairly recently finalised the detailed story, so you can imagine what I had envisioned 15 years ago is not the same as what has been achieved now. Over the course of such a long development, there have been various leaks and reports surrounding Metroid Dread. While we don't have all the details on these various versions of Metroid Dread, it is possible to put together a timeline of the game's incredibly rocky development. Initial planning for Metroid Dread started not long after the release of Metroid Zero Mission for the Game Boy Advance. The team had plenty of ideas and even felt confident showing some things off to journalists at E3 2005, such as IGN's Craig Harris. Later in the year, Harris said of the game, Metroid Dread is indeed the real deal, though Nintendo may have jumped the gun in letting people in on its development. It showed up in early E3 documents, but since it wasn't going to the show, it was quickly dismissed and forgotten at the Expo. Expect more to show up about the game next year. Indeed, while the team had plenty of ideas, actual development on Metroid Dread was put to one side. It was the early days of the Nintendo DS at the time, and Nintendo was strongly pushing the in-development Metroid Prime Hunters, which showed off the DS's 3D capabilities. It wasn't until a few years later that work began on Metroid Dread in earnest. According to Unseen64, the game was shown off internally to some Nintendo developers at a pre-E3 meeting. This version of Dread ran on the DS and used pixel sprites very similar to Metroid Fusion. In fact, one anonymous developer is quoted as saying, It literally looked like a port of fusion on DS. At around this time, Nintendo was instead gearing up for the release of Metroid Other M. When pressed in an interview with Kotaku about whether this was Metroid Dread, Yoshio Sakamoto said, The day may come when Dread hits the stores, but this one is something that's completely different. This is Other M. The DS version of Dread was ultimately shelved. Based on Sakamoto's recent comments, it seems that the developers weren't able to achieve what they wanted to with the game on the DS hardware. A couple of years later, in 2011, Sakamoto was asked about Dread again. He said, I cannot deny the existence of such a project in the past, but cannot say if it will be what I move on to next or not. I'm sorry, but we would like to keep that game a mystery. After all, there has been a lot of speculation surrounding Dread, and my hope, if at all possible, is to reset the situation at once and start from scratch. The opportunity to finally complete the game presented itself when Sakamoto and his team worked with developer Mercury Stream on the 3DS remake of Metroid 2. The studio had already proven themselves with Castlevania Lord of Shadows, and according to Sakamoto, the reason that I actually met with Mercury Stream was in the hopes that they'd be able to realise the concepts that I had for Metroid Dread. Sakamoto also said, I honestly thought we'd have no choice but to abandon the concept, but then we met Mercury Stream Entertainment, with whom we co-developed Metroid's Samus Returns for Nintendo 3DS. They are extremely talented. Technically, they're very skilled. They also have great taste, but more than anything, they have an incredible understanding of Metroid games. I was confident that teaming up with this wonderful team would finally allow us to bring Metroid Dread to life. So now, over 15 years after the initial design work was done for Metroid Dread, the developers have had the opportunity to actually create the game they had in mind all along. Here's hoping it lives up to the hype. The moral of the story is that sometimes a good idea is worth holding onto. Life can be hectic and busy, and there can be plenty of distractions from whatever you're trying to achieve. However, if you're patient, you may one day find the opportunity to fulfill your dreams. The waiting game is never fun, but when the time comes, it'll be worth it.