Nintendo isn't a "Holy Trinity", There are four main defining franchises, and they are: Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, and Pokemon.

Metroid, Kirby, Kid Icarus, Animal Crossing, are examples of Nintendo B-series titles.

Smash and Mario Kart are multi-series titles.

But what has Donkey Kong done for me lately?

Donkey Kong hasn't done nothing usefull since the Super Nintendo, and it was mad by Rare, so, no.

When people talk of core series they're more talking about reception and hype then sales, And metroid would get far more hype and better reviews and fan reception than a donkey cong would.

Are you serious?

Kids these days...

Donkey Kong Country was one of the biggest game launches in history; it is probably the third most hyped game ever released by Nintendo (first two being Ocarina of Time and Super Mario Brothers 3). In terms of reception, it was one of the most well received games in history, had everyone talking about it, and groundbreaking on the development field taking the SNES and outputting 24-bit colour graphics (as Square and other companies would prove when they too started using pre-rendered technology). In terms of sales, it alone has outsold the entire Metroid franchise in total since it was released back in 1994.

The original Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Country are both benchmark titles in the history of the videogame industry. Metroid has not come close to achieving that to date.

easy pokemong mario and zelda at least sales wise

Hype: Donkey Kong, maybe just because the series has been quiet for so long.

Reviews: Metroid, hands down.

This is from a kid who eagerly awaited the arrival of DKC back in the day and is still a big fan but critically speaking Metroid is all over the DK games.  Just taking Super Metroid and Metroid Prime you are looking at arguably the best games on their respective systems.  DK, classic and as fun as it is, just doesn't have that pedigree.

Star Fox,Zelda,Smash Bros.

That is your opinion.  I believe that Metroid has innovated more in gaming than Donkey Kong has, especially in the NES days.  You say that there have been more total sales in Donkey Kong games than Metroid games, but they have created more Donkey Kong games (made by Rare, btw), so how you do make that comparison.

Oh, I see you mentoined graphics when you were talking about "groundbreaking".  In that aspect, the Donkey Kong (SNES) games were king.

Getting sales data for games on the NES and SNES is a scetchy thing at best.  But most places will generally agree that Metroid, both as a series and each game indavidually, didn't sell as well on the NES and SNES as most of the other major core Nintendo titles (such as Mario, Zelda and yes, Kirby).  Even looking on this very site, it says Kirby's Adventure sold 1.75m units on the NES and Kirby's Super Star sold 1.44m on the SNES (along with about 3 other titles I'm not counting).  While there's no data for Metroid on the NES and Super Metroid sold 1.42m.  Then there's pretty much the absense of Metroid on the N64.

Then there's the whole problem of how Metroid sells like 90% of its games in the west.  Japan pretty much hates it.

So yes, you can say Metroid did pretty good considering.  But as for being more popular and doing better in sales, Kirby seems to do much better.  Note, what I said earlier I think is true.  I still don't think its at all a measure of Metroids 'quality' or 'third pillar' status.  Kirby just has more games and more general appeal.  Frankly saying Kirby is better because it sells better would be like saying Pokemon was better.