1. Super Metroid
2. Metroid NES
3. Metroid Prime
4. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
5. Metroid: Zero Mission
6. Metroid II: Return of Samus
7. AM2R
8. Metroid: Other M
9. Metroid: Prime 3: Corruption
10. Metroid Fusion
11. Metroid Prime Hunters
12. Metroid Prime Pinball

Never played Metroid 2: RoS (3DS) or Federation Force (3DS).

NES Metroid is my oldest favorite game. I loved not having a mini map. I loved being careful about my exploration because i'd be fucked if I fell into a pit that would take an hour to get out of.. I love that. You could honestly get screwed for exploring and exploring is the biggest draw in the game. So there was this very real sense that you could find a jackpot or get totally screwed and you don't know which, yet you have to keep going. It created a very tense, frightening, and also exhilarating adventure as you kept finding secrets and more secrets.

Super NES Metroid still today has the most well thought out intro, perfectly planned out "silent" story telling, and most complete and satisfying ending of any game I've ever played. IMO surpassing even the first Halo: Combat Evolved. Every thing about Metroid 3 was ultra. There were hidden moves when you deselected certain Beams and left others on. Crossing the Wave and Frost Beams created a special weapon. The experienced player could use a super bomb to form a cocoon to recharge in. The powers like running and football tackling through walls was so satisfying!! Especially with the flashing sound and color. The final weapon made you feel so powerful, just unleashing a Godzilla Laser. Perfection!

Metroid Prime had great exploration and retraversal. Improved sound. Hidden features that stunned you with how gorgeous they were in terms of sound, graphics, and hidden secrets. It was the third masterpiece we all deserved. I have some complaints about it however. I for one did not like the controls. While they were original and brilliant (a Nintendo Trade) they weren't as fun or natural as dual analog FPS style controls. I think this is ultimately what hurt sales. The Wii Controls are even less natural for me. I also didn't like fighting space pirates, the music would get annoying and you'd be trapped in the room until you cleared them out. You had to lock on and side-step/jump all over the room shooting. It felt awkward and not normal. Fighting everyone else in the game was amazing fun. The creatures where so varied and intricate. Last complaint off the top of my head: This game replaced the "High-Jump" Boots with the "Space-Jump" Boots which I detest. I think it speaks for itself but I never hear people complaining about it. I used to love deciding how high I would jump but choosing when to release the jump button. This stupid thing made you press jump a second time in mid-air as if that made any sense. An Air-Jump?

Metroid Prime 2 Echoes had all the same problems as Prime 1. It also turned every level into two by keeping the map and changing the color and texture. It worked really well but it also made me feel like I was doing things double. The Suit in this game is the best as someone else said. By FAR. And the echo visor was absolutely stunning to look through. The level design in the robotics levels where a Dark Techno Utopia! You could really feel like there were little mini robots creating a beautiful new world for themselves up in the clouds.

Metroid Prime 3 Corruption Sucked
Zero mission was the shit by combining Super Metroid into the Original Metroid
Fusion Sucked: Too much talking too much run and fetch. Intro feels like you are wandering through an empty house reading text for nothing.
Pinball sucked unless you like pinball than I guess its the balls
Hunters sucked
Samus Returns (GB) was pretty freaking excellent and one of only three games in the series that captures the very original concept. The introduction of the Spiderball made for a special kind of 2D level design. The game has issues with being the most inferior in the series in terms of what the hardware can produce but given those limitations it makes it feel that much more special.

I just want to say I'm forever pissed that there was no Metroid on Ultra 64. Also I vomit in my mouth everytime someone says Metroidvania. It's a Metroid styled game there's no vania, get it right. Besides it's always used incorrectly. Just because a barbie or magical bunny character lets you get upgrades and retraverse, that does not give you the right to compare it to Metroid or Castlevania!

I actually liked Other M until I got online and everyone ruined it for me. I had finished the game and thoroughly enjoyed it. Sucking up the fact that it would have been better if the entire team that made Ninja Gaiden 1 & 2 (Next Gen) and been there to make the game what it could have been. Especially Tobonobu Itagaki. Also sucking up the fact that it was on Wii, which meant limited power and funky controllers. But once I got online and read what people thought about it I realized I had fanboy lenses. The internet was right about a lot, the story was utter trash. The "privilege" or "permission" to use your own suit was the most unpowerful thing I ever felt in the series. Graphics and level design were sweet though. It was no Halo but it sure was pretty. The blend of 2D and 3D worked rather well but the targeting totally felt like a parental guidance mode. Overall Sucky.

I have no expectations for Metroid Prime 4. I'm going in expecting it to suck or get cancelled. I have no faith left in my favorite game series. The series was over once Executive Producer Gunpei Yokoi was pushed out of Nintendo and Died on the side of the highway. Honestly that's also when their Home Console brand died as he was responsible for engineering Nintendo's first home and portable consoles. I would trade Myamoto for him in a hot second. We lost the possibility of Nintendo going hardcore when we lost him, leaving us with Myamoto's family kid sister friendly version of the company. With out a man like Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo is incapable of making a good Metroid game. They have to outsource it and we have to pray the team handling it knows what made Super Metroid the best game in the series. I've only seen that come close to happening with Prime 1 and 2 and even those missed the mark. It's like expecting a good comeback game from Rare's old catalog, it can only be done by a group of super fans.

Fusion and Super are the games I played the most in the series. They should also give third person 3d another go as the template has far more potential but should do it with one of the younger directors in the company and not the old guard much like Zelda did in recent years.

This would remove bizarre decisions like using the dpad in a 3d space when simply using the nunchuck would have solved all control issues. Why the third person approach shouldn't be left behind is because it retains the 2d games style of game play.

The original Metroid was the game that made a gamer out of me. My dad's other NES games (as Super Mario Bros. and Ghosts n' Goblins) were much more straightforward in nature. Metroid offered me real exploration and that made it special to me. The first time I got my hands on it at the ripe old age of five, I couldn't put the controller down for hours and that experience served as my proper entry point into gaming.

I'd say that I really loved the Metroid franchise from the first entry through Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, especially Super Metroid and the original Metroid Prime. In addition to featuring more of what I'd always loved about the franchise, these entries also had particularly epic soundtracks and wonderful light story touches that captured my heart in a way that other entries haven't to quite the same degree. The ending of Super Metroid remains the emotional height of the franchise in my mind. Sometimes it still makes me tear up a bit. (Yeah I'm a wimp, I know.) It's been a life lesson I've learned that sometimes you really do find your best of friends in the most unexpected places. Super Metroid always reminds me of that.

Also, Samus is just awesome. Or at least she used to be. Some of the more recent entries in the franchise (and there haven't been many) either sideline her (Metroid Prime: Federation Force) or reinvent her as a character she clearly isn't supposed to be (Metroid: Other M). The Samus Aran I fell in love with was a badass bounty hunter, NOT someone who needs permission to defend herself! She should go back to being one. I hope Metroid Prime 4 rectifies this. And gives her back her classic armored suit rather than continuing on with the retarded new slendered, "feminized" version with no muscle imprints. She's supposed to be a WARRIOR!! Treat with due respect!

I also hope that Metroid Prime 4 doesn't continue the franchise pattern we've seen since the late 2000s toward playing up the action combat aspects of the franchise at the expense of the exploration elements. Metroid's elements traditionally were more balanced than they've become and I hope we can get back to exploration playing a more central role. Also, it should be a single-player game. This franchise never does well as a multiplayer affair, so I hope that Nintendo can resist imposing multiplayer on Metroid Prime 4 just because it's become part of their larger philosophy of game design anymore.

This is what I love about VGChartz. Thoughtful, coherent, and passionate thread responses. There's some great reads in here and I love how obsessed we all are with these games from the NES to the Wii. It's going to be a while before we get another dose of Samus' adventures, but it's great that we can relive her past ones. Speaking of which, Nintendo, we don't care about the timing or placement of your release calendar. If Metroid Prime Trilogy HD for Switch exists, let's get it out there. Even if Metroid Prime 4 becomes vaporware, at least you'll get the best selling Metroid title ever released out of it. There is nothing on the Switch that scratches this itch at the moment and the title would make converts out of the skeptical. August 2020 release for the collection or you've just effed up royally. Will it help if we tell you that Adam Malkovich says you can release the trilogy now?

I go into all games like this, doesn't matter what team is behind it, if you go in with no expectations other than a basis of "I hope this is good" then you'll find you get disappointed by games far less often, I just get games I hope to be good and try to avoid reviews from influencing my feelings too much on them, unless the reviews mention stuff like controls not working / being laggy or where the performance on a certain platform is so poor to impact the actual gameplay then I listen because the package is flawed from jump.

Always remember as well, it doesn't matter if there are games getting 97/98% on meta like BOTW or GTAIV, those games are great for most people... but there are people out there who absolutely hate those titles for various reasons, I just mean.... even if the game is a critical and financial success to millions of people and dollars, when you pick up the pad to play it there is always a chance it's just not going to be your cup of tea, especially happens sometimes I find if the game has been hyped to death to the point where anything other than a perfect experience would still be a let down just because the Hype Train was roaring so loud you expect the title to be the second coming of Super Mario Bros 3

No expectations = never let down!

(I do the same with people I'm going to meet lol)

Great thread. This is quite possibly my favorite franchise in all of gaming. No worse than top 3. I think my favorite would have to be Metroid Prime, but Super Metroid would be a close second.

@Ganoncrotch
The real zero suit Samus I guess.

Yea that was ahead of its time for fusion. I wish they would have done something similar with dark samus on prime 2. But you could always go toe to toe with dark samus.

Aye with SA:X it's pretty much "If I go toe to toe with her... she will eat my toes... then my whole body" the zombied eye stare in the cutscene even, I recall that giving me chills back on the GBA so like... a handheld game able to drum up that much emotion nearly 20 years ago, was awesome at the time, I don't think there was much else which achieved that, like I said I don't think it was just the visuals of it but the sound design of that game, really good clear sound mixed with echo effects on empty hallways were you could tell stuff was getting out of the way of the SA:X Just perfectly done imo.

@Ganoncrotch
Man you sure paint a picture. I think I was to young to remember fusion that well. I din't even beat it and zero mission which I remember came out together until years later. But I did have fun trying.