My local Walmart has had a few copies of Metroid Prime Trilogy that I have been eying ever since hearing that it is no longer shipping. My hope was that they would eventually stick them in the $20 bargain bin, as this Walmart seems to do with discontinued items (or whenever they need the shelf space I assume). Well, after seeing the $70 price tag that its going for on amazon now, I had to make an emergency trip to Walmart, because Walmart's website listed it as unavailable at my location. 

Luckily there were still 2 copies there! I picked it up for the regular $50. I played Super Metroid for about 30 minutes when I was around 10 years old I think but I never owned the game. I have yet to play a Nintendo first party title that I have not enjoyed (except maybe Wii Play). As such, I have high hopes for this franchise!

My question for you: Do you suggest picking up Metroid and Super Metroid before or after playing the Prime series?

[Unrelated question: I was thinking about picking up a wireless sensor bar. Do you recommend the Nyko or the Official wide-range one?]

It doesn't really matter if you play 2D Metroid or 3D Metroid first since they're so vastly different... Go with your gut.

There's no real important connection between the Prime and Regular Metroid games. There wont be any easter eggs you don't understand. And, I don't know about the sensor bar. I never buy 3rd party hardware.

Alrighty. I think I'm feeling the 2D ones first...even though I'm pretty excited since I just purchased the Trilogy. 

The order of the 2D games doesn't matter, but I would recommend Zero Mission off of half.com or eBay rather than the original from the Virtual Console. but that is me: I may not be a good pick for this sort of thing.

Your sensor bar shouldn't matter too much.

I hope you have fun with these games!

Lucky you.

Your talking about the GBA game then? and the stories in Metroid, Super Metroid, and Zero Mission are unrelated?

Edit: I see Zero Mission is a retelling of Metroid.

The GBA game, yes. Super Metroid and Metroid are tangentially related but it's not necessary to play them in any specific order.

Zero Mission is a remake of the original.

What the other guys said... just go play the Trilogy now that you've got it, the games are absolutely marvelous. The 2D games are practically standalone games, they are pefectly playably and make 100% sense if you haven't played any other Metroids before, so you don't need to play any of 'em for chronology purposes or anything.

Even the Primes can be played very well as standalone games, as the story isn't that relevant to them, in the sense that it's not like you wouldn't understand what's going on if you didn't play one. Just play and have fun!

*Edit: as for the sensor bar I'd go for the official one. Usually better quality and saves you batteries. Plus the wire is very thin, really, so what discomfort could it realistically cause? Unless you have some huge big-ass setup and need to have your sensor bar away from your TV...

Crap. After looking at Wikipedia there are more Metroid Games out there than I expected. I think I'm getting in over my head!