Image: Nintendo Life
In case you didn’t know, tomorrow (Monday, August 15) marks the 35th anniversary of the release of Metroid on the NES in North America. That’s crazy, right? 35 years! Do you still feel old?
In the years and decades since its debut in 1987 (’86 in Japan), the Metroid franchise has become one of Nintendo’s tentpole franchises, with games releasing on nearly every console except the N64 and Wii U (Virtual Console doesn’t. never mind!) Despite achieving somewhat tepid commercial success compared to Super Mario and Animal Crossing, Metroid has earned its place in gamers’ hearts of Nintendo around the world—hell, you only have to look at some of the reactions to Nintendo’s announcement of Metroid Prime 4 to appreciate the impact the franchise has had.
So with that in mind, we thought we’d share our introductions to the franchise, and we want to hear your stories too! What game did you start with? What drew you to it? Did a friend or family member introduce you?
If you haven’t played the franchise yet, that’s okay! Some of us also have huge gaps in our Metroid history, and you’ll notice that only one of us (me!) has played the Metroid Prime trilogy, so you’ll be in good company here.
Enjoy and be sure to share your stories in the comments below!
Ollie Reynolds, writer
I guess I got into the Metroid franchise pretty late, all things considered. My first entry was Metroid Prime for the GameCube when it was released in 2002. I remember reading about it in issues of NGC magazine and being totally blown away by how awesome it looked. Thinking back, I’m not sure I realized at the time that the franchise started out as some kind of 2D adventure series; It wasn’t until I saw Metroid Fusion for the GBA and subsequently did some research that I realized that Metroid Prime’s first-person view was actually a completely new take on the franchise.
Needless to say, I fell hard for Metroid Prime; locations like Phendrana Drifts and Phazon Mines were among the most beautiful environments I had ever seen, and the balance between exploration and combat was simply perfect. So, naturally, I dove into the franchise and played the original Metroid, Metroid II, and Super Metroid, before picking up Metroid Fusion at a later date. Despite the obvious limitations of the debut title on the NES, I could see how the game had influenced the franchise going forward.
It’s probably safe to say that Metroid is my favorite Nintendo franchise to this day and I owe it all to Metroid Prime. When nothing else held my attention, Prime was the game I would come back to, every time. You can imagine my delight when Nintendo announced that a fourth entry was coming to the Switch… Speaking of which, any updates Nintendo?
Metroid Prime (2002) — Image: Nintendo
Alana Hagues, Staff Writer
Admittedly, it took me a long time to fall in love with Metroid the way I am now. This probably wasn’t helped by the fact that my first Metroid game was the GBA Classic NES series release of the original Metroid. I bounced off it, hard. But I really wanted to know what this awesome orange-clad bounty hunter I’d seen in the original Super Smash Bros. looked like.
So I did some research online and Metroid Fusion immediately jumped out at me. I managed to get a copy of it, played it, even got scared to death a few times, and loved it. Fusion’s stalker-like enemy SA-X had me crawling under the sheets, even as a teenager. But even then, it still took me a while to say I loved Metroid. I tried to play the original a few more times through those Animal Crossing NES you could get once, but it was the SNES Classic that finally pushed me to try the venerable Super Metroid in 2018. Now is a video game with a terrifying reputation. But it turns out there’s a reason for that: it’s phenomenal. This atmosphere, map and sense of progression is still unmatched, even today.
The rest is history. Super Metroid had me going back and replaying Fusion, picking up Zero Mission, and even trying the original Metroid and Metroid II again. Admittedly, I still miss a lot of gaps (Prime, Samus Returns), but Dread has solidified this series as one of my favorites. I’m glad I kept trying.
Kate Gray, writer
I’ve actually never played a Metroid. Maybe I’d really like it, I don’t know! But I still have a Metroid story, sort of. When I was applying for the position of staff writer at Official Nintendo Magazine, a position for which I would end up being chosen from among 650 applicants (spoilers, but it’s important context!), there was plenty of evidence and stages of interviews I had. to pass, once they had read my application.
The first was a phone chat. easy peasy I talk all the time. The second was an interview with the editor of ONM and the editor-in-chief of a bunch of magazines, which was a little daunting, but I think I did well. The third was a test article – I had to write about 300 words of news in an hour, and Twitch Plays Pokemon was in its early days then, so I just wrote about that. But the final test was one he was sure he had failed.
It was a Nintendo quiz, you see. I was 22 at the time, fresh out of college, and while I’d played tons of games from the N64 to the GameCube, Wii, DS, and 3DS, not many of those games were the of the questionnaire. I answered the questions about Professor Layton, Ace Attorney, and Mario (it would have been a shame not to get the Mario ones right), but when it came to questions about F-Zero and Metroid, I just… had no idea . And people get really weird when they find out a Nintendo writer hasn’t played a Metroid, which always bugs me; I mean, no one is surprised if you haven’t played Ace Attorney, even though it’s a seminal work of anything…this-genre-is. It’s always shooters that people care about. Sigh.
Therefore, I was convinced that it would blow up. Completely messed up, thanks to my full knowledge of Nintendo blockbusters. At that point, I thought, “I might as well have fun” and did a bunch of doodles. I drew Blathers in the margins of the quiz; I wrote “Falcon Punch???” as an answer to an F-Zero question, and I drew a little Samus next to a Metroid question I didn’t answer. Apparently… that’s what got me the job (alongside my writing, obviously). The publisher didn’t care that I hadn’t played all the games. You can teach someone how to play. You can’t teach them to write that easily.
I haven’t played a Metroid yet, but this quiz taught me that the games I have or haven’t played don’t define me or diminish my worth. It’s a good lesson to learn.
Metroid (1986) — Image: Nintendo
Jim Norman, writer
Metroid is always a franchise that fascinates me. Not because I’m a big fan of games, but because despite my unabashed love of platformers, I’ve never really taken to one of them.
The first Metroid game I played was Metroid Fusion on the GBA. It was at a time when I would buy every game I could get my hands on, regardless of what anyone said about them. However, I was drawn to this title in particular because of my love for Super Smash Bros. Melee, which I played almost constantly on my friend’s GameCube. I always wondered who the bad guy was with the gun, and that led me to Fusion.
I can’t say that this first experience really hooked me (wow, what a way to kick off the site’s new feature), but I remember not being completely blown away. What has followed in my gaming life has been an inconsistent relationship with the series: a bit of Metroid Prime Hunters here, a bit of Samus Returns there.
Maybe contributing to this throwback feature will bring me back to the series when I read others’ undying love for the franchise. Somehow, I doubt it.
Gavin Lane, editor
My Metroid history started, oddly enough, on DS. I had been hoping to get a “Phat” but the slimmed down Lite and one particular game tempted me enough to open my wallet and grab a very shiny black console and Metroid Prime Hunters.
Going back, it’s all pretty complicated, but at the time it felt amazing to have such a complex game on such a small system. It’s not a classic, but its bounty hunter-based combat (not to mention the sublime Metroid Prime Pinball) got my foot in the door for the series and led to further investigation.
I ended up finding a loose Zero Mission cart (I wanted something I could play on my Lite, plus it was a remake of the first game so it made perfect sense), and I was hooked. I soon caught up with Super Metroid, then Fusion (as part of the 3DS Ambassador program) and back to Return of Samus on GB and the 3DS remake, and finally Dread last year. They are all good games, although my heart belongs to Zero Mission, which surely ranks as the best remake ever made.
The Prime series is still a personal blind spot, or not having read all of the above! – and I hope the rumors of a Prime 1 Switch remaster are true to give me an idea of Prime 4 when it releases sometime in Q4 2027.
Metroid: Zero Mission (2004) — Image: Nintendo
Goncalo Lopes, reviewer
Like most Nintendo IPs, Metroid entered my life by accident. Back when I had my brick Game Boy, it was common practice to trade cartridges with my high school friends so I could play as many different titles as possible. One of those friends got caught up in something called Metroid II: Return of Samus. The name was only known from local TV advertising for the NES version. I borrowed it and was surprised to find a Turrican style pocket exploration game with a lot of hidden depth, that is once you get the Spider Ball upgrade. When the staff credits rolled, I knew I had just played a Game Boy masterpiece for the ages. It took me many more years after the fact…