Since Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is coming out soon, I thought I’d do a short retrospective blog about all the Metroid games and my experiences with them. Let’s rock!

Metroid
The very first one on the NES. I never owned it, but my friend and I rented it quite a few times when we were kids. This was back when renting games was very cheap. The hard thing about the first Metroid game was that there were no maps, and the areas did kind of look the same so navigation was hard. My friend and I made our own maps, though. Keep in mind this was back before strategy guides and the Internet.

The one thing I thought was lame about the first Metroid game was the bosses. Kraid looked like a stubby little missile-shooting fire hydrant, and Ridley looked like a dopey purple dinosaur (maybe he’s really Barney). But even back then, Ridley was my favorite bad guy because his picture in the instruction booklet looked cool.

The big surprise in the first Metroid game was that if you beat it quickly enough, you would discover that Samus was a woman. Sure it’s common knowledge now, but back then it wasn’t. I actually didn’t think Samus was a guy, I thought Samus was a robot. Like Mega Man’s cousin or something. Samus had an arm cannon like Mega Man, and Samus exploded like Mega Man.

The first Metroid game wasn’t my favorite, but like almost all Metroid games, I liked it because it was basically a Zelda game except you shot at stuff instead of using a sword. I imagine people would disagree with me saying it’s like Zelda, but both games do have the same kind of puzzle solving and exploration gameplay.

Metroid II: Return of Samus
I never really was impressed with most of the black and white Game Boy games. The only one that really impressed me was much later on, with The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (my favorite Zelda game to this day). But I did try a little snippet of Metroid 2 before then and it didn’t seem too bad. I hear it’s the least favorite of the series. I’d like to try and track down a copy of it someday and play it through–if I had enough time to do so, that is!

Super Metroid
This is definitely my favorite Metroid game. It’s one of the best games on the Super Nintendo, too. They took everything fun about the first NES game and improved on it tenfold. The only thing keeping me from downloading it on the Wii Virtual Console (aside from lack of time to play it), is that I already own the cartridge and I’ve already played it to death anyway. And the bosses in this one were great. Kraid was as big as three TV screens! And Ridley was back! Woohoo!

Of course, the most memorable thing about Super Metroid was the final boss battle. I should put a spoiler warning but I think everyone knows this by now. Mother Brain has Samus on the ropes, but the baby Metroid she rescued at the end of Metroid 2 comes back to save her in the nick of time. The baby Metroid, all big now, drains Mother Brain’s energy and gives it all to Samus, only to be killed by a fatal blow from Mother Brain. Probably one of the most memorable moments in video games.

I’ve probably told this story before, but I think it’s worth telling again. Back then when I beat the game, my little brother Jeff was very, very young and loved to watch me play it. When he saw that scene, he kept asking me, “The baby Metroid is going to be OK, isn’t it? Isn’t it? Right, Cary? Right??” I think he was on the verge of tears. But keep in mind that he was very little, and probably too young to be watching that game anyway (hey, big brothers aren’t always perfect).

Back then, Jeff also loved to play with his action figures, and it was fun to watch his little imagination work. His favorite one was a Mega Man action figure based on the cartoon that I got him. When Batman and the Power Rangers couldn’t stop the big roaring plush dinosaur, Mega Man could. But after the baby Metroid incident, Jeff had a new hero. He had a Ty Beanie Baby that was a jellyfish (yeah they made Beanie Babies out of everything), and for a long while after, when Mega Man couldn’t defeat the big plush dinosaur, the jellyfish, er, Baby Metroid could.

Metroid Fusion
Samus’ first GBA outing couldn’t live up to the greatness that was Super Metroid unfortunately. Fusion was just too linear, and Metroid games are not supposed to be linear. But even so, Fusion is still a darn fine GBA action game, and I thought it had some pretty good ideas. Samus’ new Fusion suit let her have the power of Metroids, and she could aborb energy and skills from defeated enemies and bosses. But if you didn’t catch the floating viruses in time, they could be caught by another enemy to make them more powerful. I liked all the ending pictures you could get in the GBA Metroid games.

Metroid: Zero Mission
Luckily, Samus’ next GBA adventure was much better. It was a retelling of her very first NES adventure, and I’d much rather play it on the GBA than the original NES game. And the Zero Suit section added on at the end was neat, too. And I don’t like stealth section in games but I didn’t mind this part. I’d like to replay this game again someday–if I had the time!

Metroid Prime
I was really skeptical of Samus’ first GameCube outing, as was everyone else I’m sure. Screenshots made it look like they ditched the 2-D exploration and puzzle solving in favor of 3-D first person shooting. But boy was I wrong, and me and everyone else ate crow as Metroid Prime was basically a 3-D Super Metroid with all the exploration and puzzle solving intact. If you haven’t played it yet, make sure to do so before you get Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii. It’s probably my second favorite Metroid game.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
The GameCube sequel was more of the same, but I didn’t like it as much. The light and dark world stuff was neat, but the energy draining dark world was annoying and I felt like I spent more time waiting under street lamps recharging my energy than actually, you know, playing the game. And while the super challenging bosses were cool, there were so many of them that it kind of wore on me. I don’t think I ever actually beat this game.

Metroid Prime Pinball
People may scoff at this DS pinball game, but I think it was great. The reason why it worked was that they made it a pinball game first and a Metroid game second. It had themes from the first Prime game, but they didn’t give it a dumb story like “Samus goes to the pinball planet to defeat the flipper Metroids” or something. This was made by the same people who made my favorite video pinball games on the PC. I’m talking about the Pro Pinball series like TimeShock, Big Race USA, etc. They also made Mario Pinball Land, but that one sucked. They definitely made up for it with the Metroid pinball game.

Metroid Prime Hunters
The other DS Metroid game I have NO interest in. Mainly because this time, they did make it a first person shooter. Maybe one of you Hunters fans can convince me to play it. I hope Nintendo makes a 2-D DS Metroid game someday.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
If I don’t get to review this one for GamerDad, I’ll probably buy it later. I hope it’s like the other Prime games and focuses just as much on puzzle solving as shooting stuff. The video previews you can download on the Wii (which are of poor quality, by the way), look rather first person shooter-ish, so I’m a little worried. But it’ll be fun to see how you control it with the Wii remote.

Favorite Metroid Cameos
Of course, Samus and the Metroids have been in other games and stuff, too. Here are my favorite cameos:

She’s a fun character to play as in the Super Smash Bros. games, and her stages are neat, too. It’ll be neat to see how she plays in Brawl in her Zero Suit. In Nintendo Power a long time ago, they had a Mario manga comic where Princess Peach wanted a Samus doll for her birthday, and Mario & Wario fought over who would buy it for her (turns out Luigi got it before they could). There’s also a Japanese manga with a chibi Samus that’s kind of like a strategy guide of the first game (my friend, the uber Metroid nut, has it). Anyone remember the Captain N cartoon? I’m sure the version of Mother Brain in that one would make any Metroid fan cringe. I liked how she talked like Aunt Jemima. “Doctah Wily, git ova’heyah!” But my favorite is when you have to make Samus happy at the end of a level in Kirby’s Dream Land 3, by defeating all the Metroids in that level. You defeat them how you think you would: with Kirby’s ice ability!

And that’s all I know about Metroid games. The cool thing about Samus as a video game character is that she’s a tough female character who isn’t underdressed. You don’t see that too much in video games anymore! What are YOUR favorite Metroid games? Mine are Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, and Metroid Zero Mission. –Cary

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