As of September 2012, the Metroid series had sold over 17.44 million copies.[2] It has been represented in other Nintendo media, including the Super Smash Bros. series. Additional media includes soundtracks, comic books, and manga. Along with the 1997 Konami game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the early Metroid games defined the Metroidvania subgenre, inspiring other games with continuous, explorable side-scrolling levels. Samus was one of the first prominent female video game characters.
Gameplay
The Metroid series contains gameplay elements from shooter, platformer, adventure, survival and sometimes first person games.[3] The series is notable for its non-linear progression and solitary exploration format where the player only controls Samus Aran, with few or no other characters to interact with. The player gains items and power-ups for Samus's cybernetic suit primarily through exploration, and occasionally by defeating alien creatures through real-time combat with the suit's arm cannon. Many such upgrades enable further avenues of exploration.[3][4] A recurring upgrade is the Morph Ball, which allows Samus to curl into a ball, roll into tight places and plant bombs.[3]
The original Metroid was influenced by two other major Nintendo franchises: Mario, from which it borrowed extensive areas of platform jumping, and The Legend of Zelda, from which it borrowed non-linear exploration.[3]Metroid differed in its atmosphere of solitude and foreboding.[3]Metroid was also one of the first video games to feature an exploration to the left as well as the right, and backtracking to already explored areas to search for secret items and paths.[5] Since the late 1990s, the term "Metroidvania" has been applied to this format.
Audio
The Metroid series has been noted and praised for its unique style of video game music.[3][6][7]Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka, composer of the original Metroid, has said he wanted to make a score that made players feel like they were encountering a "living creature" and had no distinction between music and sound effects.[6][8] The only time the main Metroid theme was heard was after Mother Brain is defeated; this is intended to give the player a catharsis. At all other times, no melodies are present in the game.[8] The composer of Super Metroid, Kenji Yamamoto, came up with some themes by humming to himself while riding his motorcycle to work. He was asked to compose the music for Metroid Prime to reinforce the series continuity.[9]Metroid Prime's Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound was mixed by a member of Dolby.[10]
Developers from Retro Studios noted how the 6 MB memory budget for all sound effects of a level in Metroid Prime was crucial in producing a quality soundtrack, as each sound had to be of high quality to be included.[9] Yamamoto used heavy drums, piano, voiced chants, clangs of pipes, and electric guitar.[10]Metroid Prime 3: Corruption took advantage of the increased RAM in the Wii, allowing for higher-quality audio samples.[9] Kenji Yamamoto, who composed the music for Super Metroid and the Prime trilogy, copied the musical design of the original Metroid in Metroid Prime 3, by keeping the music and themes dark and scary until the very end, when uplifting music is played during the credits.[9]
Plot
Setting
The Metroid franchise takes place in a science fiction setting where humanity is shown to be a part of a spacefaring sovereignty known as the Galactic Federation. Other races are both a part of the Federation as well as close allies, the most prolific being the Chozo, an avian species possessing advanced technology and skills in bioengineering. The mutual nemesis of the Federation and the Chozo are the Space Pirates, a villainous interstellar cabal comprising multiple alien races of disreputable nature that all refuse to abide to the Galactic Federation's rule. They are led by the dragon-like warlord Ridley, and plot to develop weapons of mass destruction from hazardous life forms and materials to destroy the Federation and secure galactic dominance.
The eponymous Metroids are a species of predatory, jellyfish-like organisms that feed on an undetectable life energy found in all living creatures. Biological weapons, the Metroids were engineered by the Chozo to eradicate a parasitic, shapeshifting virus known as the "X" that threatened their civilization. While the Metroids succeeded in stopping the X, they became a danger to the Chozo themselves when they developed the ability to evolve into different and far deadlier forms. Most of the games center around the efforts of various organizations, including the Space Pirates, the Galactic Federation, and rogue members of the Chozo race, to weaponize the Metroids and the subsequent conflicts they cause.
Metroid follows the adventures of the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who battles the Space Pirates and the Metroids.[13] Samus was raised by the Chozo after her parents were killed by a Space Pirate raid led by Ridley. She serves in the military of the Galactic Federation before departing and beginning work as a bounty hunter,[14] while facing the forces of Ridley and Mother Brain.[15][16]
In the original Metroid, Samus travels to the planet Zebes to stop the Space Pirates from using the Metroids to create biological weapons.[17] She defeats the cybernetic lifeform Mother Brain, as well as Ridley and his fellow Space Pirate leader, Kraid.[13]
The Metroid Prime series is set between Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus, and chronicles Samus' conflicts with a malignant, radioactive substance named Phazon.[14] In Metroid Prime, Samus travels to Tallon IV to stop the Space Pirates from exploiting a Phazon-infused meteor that has poisoned the local ecosystem.[13] After battling a cybernetically enhanced Ridley and clearing out the Space Pirate presence on the planet, Samus purges the Phazon from Tallon IV by defeating the titular enemy, a Phazon-infected Metroid. Metroid Prime: Hunters, which is unconnected to the Phazon storyline, sees Samus respond to a distress call to the Alimbic Cluster. Other bounty hunters respond to the call, and after conflicting amongst themselves, they all ultimately band together to fight against a creature named Gorea.[14] In Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Samus explores the planet Aether, which is suffering from a Phazon outbreak. The Phazon has split the world into "light" and "dark" dimensions, leading to the rise of the evil Ing race. While liberating Aether from the Ing, Samus encounters Dark Samus, a revitalized Metroid Prime that has partially copied her physical appearance. In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Samus and three other bounty hunters are recruited by the Federation to stop Dark Samus from infecting the galaxy with Phazon. While fighting to avoid being slowly corrupted by Phazon herself, Samus eradicates Phazon and her double.[13]Metroid Prime: Federation Force, the only game in which players do not control Samus, sees Samus mind-controlled by Space Pirates; the Federation Force, an elite squadron of marines equipped with powerful exosuits, battles to rescue her and destroy the Space Pirates.[14]
In Metroid II, the Galactic Federation calls for the extermination of the Metroid species and contracts Samus to travel to the species' homeworld, SR388, to carry out their extinction. She succeeds in wiping out the planet's Metroid population, but saves a single hatchling Metroid that bonds to her and delivers it to the Ceres research station for study.[13] In Super Metroid, Ridley steals the hatchling and takes it to Zebes, where the Space Pirates are attempting to clone the Metroids. After killing Ridley, Samus herself is nearly killed by the revived Mother Brain, but is rescued by the now grown Metroid which sacrifices itself. Samus destroys Mother Brain in retaliation and escapes as Zebes explodes, exterminating her old enemies for good.[14]
In Metroid: Other M, set after Super Metroid, Samus investigates the Bottle Ship, a derelict scientific research station, with a Galactic Federation platoon led by her former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich.[13] They team up against many bioweapons created by a Federation science group, including clones of creatures Samus faced on Zebes like Ridley and the Metroids. A revived Mother Brain, now occupying a humanoid body supplied to her by the Federation, takes control of the Metroids and attempts to unleash them upon the Federation, but is stopped by Samus at the cost of Adam's life. Afterward, Samus encounters and kills the ethereal entity Phantoon and sets the Bottle Ship to self-destruct.[14] In Metroid Fusion, Samus accompanies a team of scientists to SR388, where she has her first encounter with the X parasites when the species reappears in the absence of the Metroids. The X overruns a scientific research station in the planet's orbit, assimilating and imitating many creatures being studied on board.[13] Samus is infected by one but is saved using a vaccine made from the baby Metroid's cells. She discovers that the Federation has been cloning Metroids in secret, and sets the space station on a collision with SR388 to destroy the X parasites.[14]Metroid Dread continues where Fusion left off, with the Federation dispatching a squadron of advanced automatons known as E.M.M.I. to investigate the planet ZDR, where X parasites have been sighted. Samus is sent to the planet herself after contact is lost, coming into conflict with the X and a Chozo war criminal named Raven Beak, stopping both from invading the rest of the galaxy.
In Metroid (the first game in the series), released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the player controls Samus Aran who fights alien monsters on the fictional planet Zebes.
The central figures in the production and development of the Metroid series are Satoru Okada, who directed Metroid and created the series; Yoshio Sakamoto, who was a character designer for the first game and has directed or supervised most of the sequels; Gunpei Yokoi, who headed the R&D1 division and produced the first two games; Makoto Kano, who wrote the scenario for Metroid, co-designed the second game, and produced the third; and Hiroji Kiyotake, who designed characters for the original.[3]
Metroid was designed to be a shooting game that combined the platform jumping of Super Mario Bros. with the non-linear exploration of The Legend of Zelda and a darker aesthetic. The name of the game is a portmanteau of the words "metro" (as in rapid transit) and android, and was meant to allude to the mainly underground setting of the first game as well as its robot-like protagonist.[20] Halfway through development of the original Metroid, one of the staff said to his fellow developers "Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?", and the idea was accepted.[3][21]Ridley Scott's 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien was described by Sakamoto as a "huge influence" after the world of the first Metroid had been created. In recognition of this, an antagonist was given the name Ridley, after director Ridley Scott. The development staff were also influenced by the work of the film's creature designer H. R. Giger, finding his style to be fitting for the Metroid universe.[22]
1991–2002: Sequels and first hiatus
Metroid II: Return of Samus was released for the Game Boy in 1991 in North America and in 1992 in Japan and Europe. Metroid II also further established Samus' visual design, with the bulky Varia Suit upgrade and different arm cannons.[5]
As R&D1 were committed to making another game, Nintendo brought in Intelligent Systems to develop Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).[23] Development began in late 1991.[24][25] Released in 1994, Super Metroid drastically expanded the Metroid formula, with numerous new power-ups[26] and a richer story.[27] It received acclaim and is considered one of the best SNES games.[3] It was directed by Yoshio Sakamoto, character designer for the first Metroid; Sakamoto has directed or produced most of the 2D Metroid games since.[3]
After Super Metroid, Nintendo released no new Metroid games for eight years. They considered developing a Metroid game for its next console, the Nintendo 64, but could not generate firm ideas.[28] Sakamoto said he could not imagine how the Nintendo 64 controller could be used to move Samus.[29] An unidentified company declined an offer from Nintendo to develop a Metroid game for the Nintendo 64, as they were not confident they could create a worthwhile successor to Super Metroid.[29] Samus appeared in the Nintendo 64 fighting game Super Smash Bros. (1999).[30]
2002–2009: Metroid Prime and Game Boy Advance games
In 2000, the Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto visited the new Nintendo subsidiary Retro Studios in Austin, Texas. He did not like any of the projects they had in development, but spent time playing Action Adventure, a third-person science-fiction action game with a female protagonist. Miyamoto tasked Retro with developing a Metroid game for the new Nintendo console, the GameCube. The team terminated Action Adventure and moved to Metroid.[31][32]
Metroid Prime, the first 3D Metroid game, released in 2002, moved the nonlinear structure of Super Metroid to a first-person perspective.[33] Nintendo stressed that it was not a first-person shooter but a "first-person adventure".[3]Metroid Prime received acclaim.[34] It sold 2.84 million copies worldwide[35] and was the best-selling Metroid game until Metroid Dread (2021).[36]
In 2002, Nintendo released Metroid Fusion, a 2D game for the Game Boy Advance (GBA).[3] It was developed by R&D1 and written and directed by Sakamoto.[37] Its gameplay is similar to Super Metroid,[38] but with a more mission-based structure that gives more guidance to the player.[39] The team's next GBA project was Zero Mission (2004), a remake of the original Metroid.[3] Both GBA games received acclaim.[40][41] A Nintendo restructure merged R&D1 with R&D2 in 2003, shortly ahead of the release of Zero Mission.[42] A 2D Metroid game for the Nintendo DS, Metroid Dread, was in development around 2006, but the hardware was not suitable for the project. Dread was ultimately revived in 2021 for the Nintendo Switch.[43]
A new 3D Metroid game, Metroid: Other M, developed with the Japanese studio Team Ninja and directed by Sakamoto, was released for Wii in 2010.[46] It featured a third-person perspective and placed a greater focus on story and action. Other M received weaker reviews, with criticism for its characterization of Samus as timid and emotional and its reduced emphasis on exploration.[47]Polygon described Other M as "such a massive misfire and a flop with fans that it practically killed the series", with the series going on another hiatus for six years.[33]
A Metroidminigame, "Metroid Blast", appeared in the Wii U game Nintendo Land (2012), which had a mixed reception.[48] Using the Wii U GamePad, the player controls Samus's gunship, while up to four players with Wii Remotes and Nunchuks control Mii characters on foot, wearing Varia Suits. Miyamoto said this reflected his ideas for future Metroid games.[49]
In 2014, a former artist from Next Level Games said that Next Level had built a Metroid prototype for the Nintendo 3DS handheld before Nintendo asked them to develop Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon instead.[50] In 2016, Nintendo released Metroid Prime: Federation Force, a multiplayer game for the 3DS developed by Next Level. It received criticism for its multiplayer focus and frivolous tone.[51]
2017–present: Samus Returns, Dread and Prime 4: Beyond
A remake of Metroid II, Metroid: Samus Returns, was developed by MercurySteam and released for the 3DS in September 2017. It retained the gameplay of the original and added 3D graphics and gameplay features such as melee combat.[52][53][54] MercurySteam's next project was Metroid Dread for the Nintendo Switch, a realization of the cancelled Nintendo DS project from the late 2000s.[43][55] Released in October 2021, it had sold more than 2.9 million copies worldwide by May 2022, making it the best-selling Metroid game.[56]
In February 2023, Nintendo released Metroid Prime Remastered, a high-definitionremaster of Metroid Prime for the Switch.[57] It was developed by Retro Studios with assistance from developers including Iron Galaxy Studios.[58]
In June 2017, at E3, Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4 for the Switch.[59] While not confirmed by Nintendo, Eurogamer reported that Prime 4 was being developed by Bandai Namco Studios.[60] Unsatisfied with the progress, Nintendo announced in January 2019 that it had restarted the development under Retro Studios, the developer of the previous Metroid Prime games.[61] In June 2024, Nintendo revealed a trailer and the title Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, with a release year of 2025.[62]
Samus Aran was recognized by Guinness World Records as "enduringly popular"[2] and as the "first playable human female character in a mainstream video game", although Toby Masuyo ("Kissy") from Namco's Alien Sector predates her by one year.[104][105] Ridley was the second-most requested Nintendo character by IGN and number one by the fans to be added as a playable character to the Super Smash Bros. series[106] and Mother Brain is often named among the best video game bosses.[107]
The original Metroid has been described as boosted by its "eerie" music, adding a "sense of mystery and exploration" to the game by making the game "moody and atmospheric".[3][6]IGN praised the well-timed music that helped add suspense.[7]GameSpot described Super Metroid as better than the original "in literally every conceivable way",[108]Metroid Fusion was noted for its "understated score" which fit the mood of the adventure and its excellent stereo sound effects, making it an uncommonly good Game Boy Advance sound experience.[109]Metroid Prime was considered one of the best games ever made upon its release, winning Game of the Year from various publications and websites.[110][111][112]IGN called the aural experience with Metroid Prime 2: Echoes "mesmerizing".[113] Music from Metroid has been frequently re-released as part of "best of" video game music releases.[114][115][116]Metroid Prime's soundtrack was called the best sound design on the GameCube. The sound effects were also noted for a high degree of accuracy and blending with the soundtrack.[10] On the popular video game music site OverClocked ReMix, Super Metroid is the tenth-most remixed video game, while the first Metroid video game was twenty-fifth.[117]
Sales
Each Metroid game, excluding spin-offs and remakes, has sold more than one million copies.[23][118][119] By September 2012, the series had sold over 17.44 million copies worldwide.[2]
In 2016, AM2R, a fan-made remake of Metroid II was released. Nintendo issued takedown notices to halt its distribution, citing the potential damage to its intellectual property.[126]AM2R was nominated for the Game Awards 2016, but was removed as it had not been cleared by Nintendo for inclusion.[127]
Samus is a playable character in all five Super Smash Bros. games.[128][129] Games from Super Smash Bros. Brawl onward also feature Zero Suit Samus, a version of the heroine using the blue form-fitting suit seen in Zero Mission and the Prime series.[130][131] Ridley makes cameos in Super Smash Bros., where he can be seen flying through the level Zebes, and in Super Smash Bros. Melee both as an unlockable trophy and in the game's opening, where he is fighting Samus at Ceres Space Station.[132] In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Ridley appears as a boss character in both normal and Meta Ridley forms.[106] Ridley's clone from Metroid: Other M appears as a boss on the Pyroshpere stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, where he will join a fighter's side if they manage to knock him out.[133][134] Due to demand from fans, Ridley was made a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Kraid also appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a stage hazard in Brinstar Depths and unlockable trophy. Various other characters such as Metroids, Mother Brain and Dark Samus appear as either trophies or stickers in the Super Smash Bros. series as well. Dark Samus would later debut as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, sharing a moveset similar to Samus. A number of locations from the Metroid franchise have appeared in Super Smash Bros. games as battle stages.[135]
A Metroid-lookalike enemy, called the Komayto, appears in Kid Icarus for the NES; the characters allude to the similarities between the two in Kid Icarus: Uprising.[5][138] In Dead or Alive: Dimensions, a fighting game developed by Team Ninja for the 3DS, one stage is a replica of the arena in which Samus fights Ridley in Metroid: Other M and features both as non-playable characters.[139] When asked why Samus is not playable in Dimensions,[140] Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi said in an interview that "it would be better to let her focus on her job rather than kicking everyone's butt in [Dead or Alive: Dimensions]".[141] The Wii U launch game Nintendo Land has a minigame based on the series called "Metroid Blast".[48]
In 2020, Nintendo and Epic Games began negotiations to include Samus in Fortnite as a skin. The plans for this first came to light publicly when internal Epic documents were released as part of the Epic Games v. Apple case in 2021. Other characters from the batch in the document such as Kratos and Master Chief were added to the game in late 2020, but Samus was not.[143] In 2024, former Epic creative director Donald Mustard revealed that Nintendo had requested Nintendo Switch exclusivity for the Samus skin, which was against Epic's policy of maintaining feature parity for Fortnite across all platforms, and so the character was never included.[144]
A Metroid animated series was considered for the Super Mario Bros. Power Hour, a cancelled animation block that would have aired in the 1980s. Concept art was produced for the series, which notably featured a male incarnation of Samus. Power Hour never moved forward in the intended format, instead being replaced by The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! which aired in 1989.[145] Mother Brain was the primary villain in the Captain N: The Game Master TV show.[146]
Manga
Various magazines have published comics and manga based on Metroid,[147]Super Metroid,[148]Metroid Prime,[149]Metroid Prime 2: Echoes,[150] and Metroid: Zero Mission[151] in both the United States and Japan. Samus Aran and other Metroid characters also featured in the Captain N: The Game Master comic books by Valiant Comics.[152] In Japan, a Metroid manga series was published in Kodansha's Monthly Magazine Z beginning in November 2003, and ran for 16 chapters which were later collected into two Tankōbon volumes. The series chronicled Samus' life up through the events of the original game, and went on to influence the plots of subsequent games in the franchise.[5][153] Also in Japan, Comic Bom Bom published a three-volume manga starring Samus, Metroid: Samus and Joey.[lower-alpha 2][154]
Proposed film
In 2003, two producers optioned the rights to create a live-action film based on Metroid, but the rights expired.[5] The director John Woo acquired the rights a few years later,[155] and his studio Lion Rock Productions was to produce and release the film before 2006.[156] The writers included David Greenwalt, who had worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Grimm.[156] According to the producer Brad Froxhoven, the film would have explored Samus' origin story; she would be "an exceptionally talented, but also flawed character who was looking for redemption ... We wanted to see her struggle, to be humbled, and to be forced to rise up against crazy odds. And of course we wanted to see the cool weapons in all of their glory".[157]
According to Foxhoven, Nintendo was protective due to the failure of the 1993 Super Mario Bros. film.[157] Nintendo had no answers to the team's questions about Samus' personal life, relationships, and other personal characteristics, and was uncomfortable with the film team "being the ones to propose those answers".[157] Foxhoven said Nintendo left the discussions appreciating that they needed to develop the franchise further if it were to become a Hollywood film.[157] In 2013, Sakamoto said he could support a film directed by Ryuji Kitaura, the director of the CG scenes in Other M, if the concept and methodologies were good enough.[158]
Metroid Prime is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. Metroid Prime is the fifth main Metroid game and the first to use 3D computer graphics and a first-person perspective. It was released in North America in November 2002, and in Japan and Europe the following year. Along with the Game Boy Advance game Metroid Fusion, Prime marked the return of the Metroid series after an eight-year hiatus following Super Metroid (1994).
Metroid II: Return of Samus is a 1991 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. The first Metroid game for a handheld game console, it was released in North America in November 1991 and in Japan and Europe in 1992. The game follows bounty hunter Samus Aran on her mission to eradicate the Metroids from their home planet, SR388, before the Space Pirates can obtain them. Players must find and exterminate the Metroids to progress.
Super Metroid is a 1994 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third installment in the Metroid series, following the events of the Game Boy game Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991). Players control bounty hunter Samus Aran, who travels to planet Zebes to retrieve an infant Metroid creature stolen by the Space Pirate leader Ridley.
Metroid Fusion is a 2002 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It was developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, which had developed the previous Metroid game, Super Metroid (1994). Fusion is part of the Metroid series, and takes place between the events of Metroid: Other M and Metroid Dread. Players control the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who investigates a space station infected with shapeshifting parasites known as X.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is a 2004 adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The sequel to Metroid Prime (2002) and the first Metroid game with a multiplayer feature, Echoes was released in North America, Europe and Australia in 2004 and in Japan under the name Metroid Prime 2: Dark Echoes in May 2005.
Metroid: Zero Mission is a 2004 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is a remake of the original Metroid (1986), and retells the story with updated visuals and gameplay.
Ridley, also known by his aliases Geoform 187 and the Cunning God of Death, is a fictional supervillain and the main antagonist of the Metroid series. An evil and aggressive draconic extraterrestrial, he became Samus Aran's archnemesis after murdering the latter's parents as he led a Space Pirate raid on her homeworld. Though having been destroyed numerous times by Samus, he is always resurrected, due in equal part to Space Pirate engineering and his natural regenerative ability, which allows him to swiftly recover from what would otherwise be fatal wounds as long as he is able to consume enough biomatter from his fallen adversaries.
Metroid Prime Hunters is a 2006 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo Software Technology and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. It was released in North America in March 2006, with other territories later. The story takes place in between the events of Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Players assume the role of series protagonist Samus Aran, who investigates a mysterious message that originated from the Alimbic Cluster and comes into contact with a legion of bounty hunters.
Super Smash Bros. is a crossover platform fighting game series published by Nintendo. The series was created by Masahiro Sakurai, who has directed every game in the series. The series is known for its unique gameplay objective which differs from that of traditional fighters, in that the aim is to increase damage counters and knock opponents off the stage instead of depleting life bars.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a 2007 action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The seventh main game in the Metroid series, it was released in North America and Europe in 2007 and in Japan in 2008.
Metroid Dread is a 2021 action-adventure game developed by MercurySteam and Nintendo EPD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was released on October 8, 2021. Set after Metroid Fusion (2002), players control the bounty hunter Samus Aran as she investigates the source of a mysterious transmission on the planet ZDR. It retains the side-scrolling gameplay of previous 2D Metroid games and incorporates stealth elements.
Mother Brain is a fictional character created by Nintendo for the Metroid series. She is one of the most prominent antagonists within the series, serving as the main antagonist of Metroid and Super Metroid.
Samus Aran is the protagonist of the video game series Metroid by Nintendo. She was created by the Japanese video game designer Makoto Kano and was introduced as the player character in the original 1986 game Metroid.
Metroid is an action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo. The first installment in the Metroid series, it was originally released in Japan for the Family Computer Disk System in August 1986. North America received a release in August 1987 on the Nintendo Entertainment System in the Game Pak ROM cartridge format, with the European release following in January 1988. Set on the planet Zebes, the story follows Samus Aran as she attempts to retrieve the parasitic Metroid organisms that were stolen by Space Pirates, who plan to replicate the Metroids by exposing them to beta rays and then use them as biological weapons to destroy Samus and all who oppose them.
Metroid: Other M is an action-adventure game developed by Team Ninja and Nintendo SPD and published by Nintendo for the Wii on August 31, 2010. It is part of the Metroid series, and takes place between the events of Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. The player controls intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran, who investigates a derelict space station with a Galactic Federation platoon, including her former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich.
Metroid is a series of nonlinear science fiction action games published by Nintendo, featuring side-scrolling, metroidvania, and first-person shooter elements. The player character and protagonist of the series is Samus Aran, a space-faring bounty hunter who battles Space Pirates and a species called the Metroid.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force is a 2016 cooperative first-person shooter video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. Taking place after the events of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007), players assume the role of Galactic Federation Marines attempting to thwart the continuing advances of the Space Pirates after Samus Aran eradicated the deadly Phazon mutagen. The gameplay places a greater emphasis on the shooting mechanics and multiplayer, similar to its handheld predecessor Metroid Prime Hunters, albeit with cooperation instead of competition. It also includes a competitive soccer-based game mode known as Metroid Prime: Blast Ball.
↑ Parish, Jeremy (2015-08-05). "Page 2 | "I was quite surprised by the backlash": Kensuke Tanabe on Metroid Prime Federation Force". VG247. Retrieved 2023-02-15. First off, [Yoshio] Sakamoto is behind the main series, taking care of all of that, the timeline. I'm in charge of the Prime series. I had the conversation with him to decide where exactly would be a good spot for me to stick the Prime universe into that whole timeline and the best place would be between Metroid II and Super Metroid. As you know, there are multiple titles in the Metroid Prime series, but everything takes place in that very specific point. Metroid Series go down the line, but with the Prime Universe, we have to stretch sideways to expand it as much as we can in that specific spot.
↑ Caragonne, George; Brock, James; Layton, Bob; Jade; Bolinger, Kathryn (1987-01-01). "Metroid". Nintendo Power. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
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