I have to say that Metroid, Super Metroid and Metroid Prime were excellent games. Out of Prime games Corruption is perhaps my favourite mainly because of it's gameplay, also the third one paints not-so-good image of the good guys in it's internal dialogue. Although the first Prime has the best atmosphere out of the three. When Super Metroid came out, I skipped school to get to play the game, beat it in the first weekend and was disappointed by how easy the game was and not being the hard game Metroid was on NES. Luckily there was a lot to do and 100% completion wasn't easy at all.

I remember when I bought Metroid prime. I was a bit short on cash and found the game used from a game store, it was the only copy they had. I took the game and walked to the counter, there were two clerks, one male and one female, and both were staring at me like I was some sort of wonder. I was like "what?" then they explained that they had put the game less than five minutes ago on the shelf and the first guy who walked in bought it. I told them tha tI don't think it's any surprise. I don't think the clerks were really following what happened in games world; even as Gamecube did not sell well, Metroid Prime was the most hyped game we had in 2003 after Mario Kart: DD.

Interesting!

I liked the basic story beats of Corruption, but it wasn't my favorite entry in the Metroid Prime trilogy when it came to game play. The emphasis was shifted heavily to the combat side of things, which worked out pretty well all in all, but like you also said, it just couldn't quite recapture the magic of the first entry in terms of the richness of its atmosphere. It just felt to me like it became a more conventional FPS franchise as the trilogy progressed. Atmosphere -- like the immersion factor -- has really become the single most important thing to me about a game. Super Metroid and the original Metroid Prime are the best entries in this franchise for my taste for that reason, and pretty much tied really. Super Metroid's ending is the tie-breaking factor between the two for me.

The 2000s overall weren't my favorite period in gaming history really (or the best period of my life for that matter) and I wasn't paying super close attention to what games were selling the best by that point. But Metroid Prime...yes that was a requisite day one purchase for me. After waiting more than 8 years for a new console Metroid game, I'd have been satisfied with just about anything. The direction that Other M later took in 2010 seemed like the next logical step for the series in terms of initial adjustment to the leap to 3D. Instead though we got something so much more special! I remember my jaw literally dropping the first time I saw Samus's face reflected back at me. The sheer care, the attention to the finest details, that went into that game showed everywhere. I had wanted a Metroid 64, but I'm so glad we got Metroid Prime instead! My favorite game of that whole decade.