battles Raven Beak and is nearly killed, but the Metroid abilities within her grant her incredible power. Samus attacks Raven Beak, draining energy from Itorash and causing it to crash into ZDR. Raven Beak is infected by an X, and Samus uses her newfound powers to destroy him. Samus retreats to her ship as ZDR begins to self-destruct, but is unable to use it due to her energy-draining Metroid powers. The X possessing Quiet Robe appears and allows itself to be absorbed into Samus to neutralize her Metroid abilities, allowing her to escape the planet before it explodes. Development Early efforts The Metroid producer Yoshio Sakamoto conceived Metroid Dread as a Nintendo DS sequel to Metroid Fusion (2002). It came from the concept of having Samus followed by "dread" on an unfamiliar planet. Sakamoto wanted to expand on the stealth sequences in Fusion and combine them with traditional Metroid gameplay. Though he did not want Dread to be a horror game, he aimed to explore "fear-based gameplay". Sakamoto attempted to have Dread developed for the DS. A first attempt was made around 2005, and another around 2008. A playable prototype was shown to Nintendo Software Technology and Nintendo of America staff at E3 2009. The project was reportedly not titled Metroid Dread at that point and had an art style similar to Metroid Fusion. The prototype did not meet Sakamoto's expectations, so development was halted. A major reason for this was that Sakamoto's desire for an intimidating, unsettling antagonist was difficult to achieve with the DS hardware. The title Metroid Dread first appeared on a 2005 internal Nintendo software list of "key DS games set to be announced in the future", triggering expectation that it would appear at the E3 convention in 2005 or 2006. By late 2005, rumors spread that Metroid Dread had been canceled or was in development hell. A release date of November 2006 was listed in the February issue of Official Nintendo Magazine. The March issue listed a release date for 2006, with a suggestion to look to E3 2006 for further details, but the game did not appear. A message reading "Experiment status report update: Metroid project 'Dread' is nearing the final stages of completion" appears in the 2007 game Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Corruption director Mark Pacini denied any connection and said that it was coincidental. The Wired writer Chris Kohler expressed skepticism over