I took a flier on Prime 1 back when it released (having never played any previous Metroid games). All I can say is it ended up being my favorite game of all time and I seriously can't see any game being better in my eyes. Prime 2 and 3 are also excellent games. Hunters is a complete abomination. Zero Mission and Super are also great, so I love both 2D and 3D metroid.
Who cares what genre Prime is classified as. It has adventure elements, it has puzzle elements, and it has shooter elements, so it's kind of a hybrid of all of these. The emphasis is definitely not on shooting though, that's why it has a lock-on targeting system.








