yeah its a really hard series overall. Even on easy difficulties. However i never played the first one but 2 was really really hard and 3 was really challanging though i didnt finish it.

Great, keep your impressions coming. I can say that I have beaten yet another boss on Elysia during my first try, and I don't think that I have ever beaten a boss during my first try in prime 1 or 2. Anyway, I don't think that 3 is too easy or anything. I like the game a lot.

I've only played the first one, but I don't remember it being all that difficult. I think the last boss took me a few tries, but not too many. A lot of the secrets were extremely well-hidden, though.

After playing 1 and 2, 3 was a breeze with the new controls... I remember one of the regular bosses late in the game being tough, but I managed to beat the final boss on my first encounter... took me God knows how many tries before I was finally able to take down Metroid Prime in the first game.... damn multi-stage boss fights!

I agree with you that there were tough spots on all the games where you might be low on health but keep pressing on, and you enter a room or part of a level and next thing you know you have an impromptu battle with Space Pirates or some sort of mini-boss on your hands and you get your ass handed to you... this happened to me in the first game where you had to fight off those damn Chozo Spirits!

There's some spots like that in 3 if i remember correctly, but nothing too bad as long as you have a decent amount of health left and your not on death's doorstep.

The only bosses I found hard were Meta Ridley in 1 and Dark Samus in 2. Not too hard in normal mode.

I've only played 1 and 3. 1 was pretty hard for me, since it was my first Metroid it was impossible at first. But for me, 3 was way easier. I still need to play 2....

I'm through to the final bit on Hypermode now... the whole Phaaze stage..... I have only done it once so far but I didn't even get through the Dark Samus battle, which was pretty simple on veteran.
(On veteran I died three times against AU313 due to taking too long on Dark Samus, so I didn't have enough life left)

I haven't tried again yet, but I can tell it is going to take a bit of practice to get through the double-boss.

I remember dieing quite a few times with the final boss on Hypermode. That, the Morgera (?), and Ice guy battles were the only difficult parts of the game, even on Hypermode.

Ice guy?

Rundas was easy.

prime 2 was hard just exploring for those dark world keys, prime one is easy for me now ive play it like 3 times, was very hard the first time through, prime 3 was easy cause I had a guide :)