A game with the same title was originally planned to release on the Nintendo DS. "Metroid Dread" first appeared in the June 2005 issue of the magazine Game Informer in a list of Nintendo games slated to be released in 2006. IGN similarly obtained an official internal Nintendo software list that revealed a number of key DS games set to be announced in the future. However, the title quickly disappeared from Nintendo's title plan lists and in magazine articles before that year's E3. All of the games on the list IGN obtained were eventually announced and released except for Metroid Dread.

If you can sequence break by acquiring the Grapple Beam and Bombs early, a quicker way to defeat Kraid can be performed during the second phase of his fight. Spoiler:By bombing the bottom left corner of the area once the second phase starts, a Morph Ball Launcher can be accessed which will shoot Samus into Kraid's stomach, where you can continually bomb him to death so long as Samus has enough health, which will gradually be drained the longer she is in Kraid's stomach.

Additionally, acquiring the Flash Shift through sequence breaking gives Samus an additional way of attacking Kraid. Spoiler:When the Spider Magnet platform raises back up to Kraid's face, Samus can Flash Shift into Kraid's mouth and hold onto it for a short period of time to get some shots in.

It's possible to use the Shinespark to deal devastating amounts of damage (often being enough to kill a boss in one hit) to several bosses in the game, with known bosses it can be performed on including Spoiler:the Central Units, the Chozo Robots in Ferenia and Ghavoran, Escue, Golzuna, Experiment No. Z-57, and the Red Chozo Soldier in Artaria.

At the end of the game, it's revealed that the primary antagonist Raven Beak Spoiler:was impersonating Adam Malkovich, Samus' late commanding officer and the AI of her Gunship, just after her first encounter with him on ZDR. However, those familiar with the character in past entries in the Metroid series could catch onto this earlier in the game, as normally the real Adam often refers to Samus as "Lady". The opening cutscene just before the two arrive on ZDR features the only two times Adam refers to her as Lady throughout the entire game, as all other encounters with "Adam" on ZDR's Network Stations feature him referring to her by name, foreshadowing Raven Beak's manipulation.