The Entire World Observed on a Daily Basis: Happy 25th Anniversary Metroid!

The Metroid franchise hit its 25th anniversary earlier this month as a quarter century ago the original NES classic found its way into stores everywhere and shocked the gaming world with its loose gameplay, sinister tone, and surprise ending. And while Nintendo has done next to nothing for Metroid’s celebration as of now, its still worth noting that Samus is turning 25 this month. While she hasn’t been in the same pillar of success as Mario or Zelda, she has been involved in some of the greatest video games of all-time.

To add to that, this franchise is constantly evolving and shifting (sometimes for the better, sometimes in the wrong direction) and it only has room to grow. We can only hope and beg that Nintendo looks past the weaker sales of recent games and continues to give Samus more adventures to engage in. In the meantime however we are going to highlight the best Metroid games and in between provide some of the best music ever composed for the game—and some of the better OCRemixes. So here we go, the 7 best Metroid games of all-time, as of now.

#7: Metroid Fusion
System: Game Boy Advance
Year: 2002

This game is much more linear than the typical Samus adventure, but it still works well because of its gripping storyline, intense action, and introduction of Dark Samus. The idea of being the hunted as well as being the hunter added a sense of silent terror to the entire gaming experience. Remains one of the best GBA games ever released.

#6: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
System: Nintendo Gamecube
Year: 2004

The forgotten game in the Prime trilogy, Echoes unfortunately was in the shadows of Halo 2 and made practically no money for Nintendo. What it did provide however was fantastic gameplay with a tough challenge to boot, as well as beautiful graphics, plenty of space to roam around, and another encounter with Dark Samus. While the light/dark world thing has been done to death, it wasn’t tedious here. Too bad the multi-player wasn’t as polished….it could have been something special.

#5: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
System: Nintendo Wii
Year: 2007

Even though the game went more in the Halo direction in terms of presentation, music, and style of gameplay, Metroid Prime 3 is still quite entertaining. What separates this one from the rest are the incredible controls, which in my opinion proves that the Nintendo Wii could have been the ultimate system for first-person shooters. The motion capturing controller allows you to feel more like Samus as she blasts her way through a tense adventure full of twists, turns, and plenty of action.

#4: Metroid II: Return of Samus
System: Game Boy
Year: 1991

It is quite dated when you look at it now, but this sequel was bigger than the original in every possible way: length, amount of content, amount of abilities, and the amount of surprises. While the revelation that she is a female bad-arse hero was a crazed shock, the fact that she saved the final Metroid as opposed to killing it definitely left its mark on gamers back in the early 90s. This game tested the limits of the capacity of the original Game Boy, but the full potential of this gem can never be realized until it is remade for a more powerful system with some colors and a cleansing of the graphics. This game is Samus at her bounty hunting best, as you get to hunt down all the Metroids in an entire planet.

#3: Metroid: Zero Mission
System: Game Boy Advance
Year: 2004

This is the original Metroid on steroids. Zero Mission is happily guilty of practically taking all the good elements from the original, Metroid II, and Super Metroid and combining them into a massive adventure full of action, different ways of competing the mission, and surprises (a constant theme in the franchise). The soundtrack got an upgrade, her abilities got an upgrade, and of course the challenge got a nice upgrade as well. This is the perfect game to start with if you have not experienced a Metroid game. It is a handheld underrated classic that is not imitated enough by following Metroid titles. I think Metroid works best in 2-D. Although…..

#2: Metroid Prime
System: Nintendo Gamecube
Year: 2002

We had no hope for this game. A rookie company, 8 years between titles, and a first-person view as opposed to the 2-D we grew up with and got used to? There was no way this game was supposed to succeed. But Metroid Prime wasn’t just a game; it was a darn good game, to the point of it being a work of art. The game is still one of the most visually impressive games out there, while cranking out a killer soundtrack, and plenty of content to keep Metroid and non-Metroid fans busy for weeks. The details of this game were absolutely astounding, from the water rolling off your helmet to the small particles that float by as you enter a new world. This is one of the 25 best video games ever made, no question about it. Retro Studios proved to the gaming world that they are no niche company; they are ready to play hardball at any time. Metroid Prime played flawlessly, and to this day keeps its title as the best Gamecube game ever.

#1: Super Metroid
System: Super Ninetendo
Year: 1994

It has been over 15 years since the release of this masterpiece and I still find new quirky little details that scrimmage around the massive adventure that miraculously fit inside the SNES cartridge (and Youtube shows me some new fun things too). The sheer amount of new elements that Super Metroid introduced not only to the franchise but the entire world of gaming makes this not just a brilliant game, but an important one as well. Super Metroid was an adventure game to the grandest of scales and several different ways to complete it. And let’s not forget the graphics, the eerie flawless soundtrack, an immersive world full of small secrets accompanied by a creepy sci-fi horror atmosphere, the slick controls that gave Samus dozens of fun abilities and moves, the nail-biting challenge, and finally the pure satisfaction of the experience. Metroid Prime may squirm around the top 25 list of all-time games, but this game cannot fall anywhere below top 10. It is that good. And if you have not played this game, then your life is not complete.

Whenever you think of Samus or the Metroid name, the image in your head will almost always consist of a screenshot of this game. Whether it’s the image of fighting Ridley the first time, or the first time you enter Zebes, or the final showdown against Mother Brain, when you think Samus, you will most likely think the one, the only….Super Metroid.