Starmen.Net

cracks knuckles

It seems I have been summoned again.

Metroid is my favorite game series of all time.

To me, Metroid is divided into three distinct tiers.

We have S tier, some of the greatest games I’ve ever played in my entire life.

A Tier, not QUITE as good but always a solid or enjoyable experience in one way or another.

B tier, good games but not great.

Given that, let me give you my patented Tier list of every Metroid game

Metroid: Good game. Obsolete by now, Zero Mission is basically better in every way, but I did enjoy it when I beat it. Probably the only metroid game I’ve only ever beaten once though. B tier

Metroid II: For a time the only Metroid 2 out there and honestly an improvement over the original Metroid. There are some true nuggets of greatness in here scattered in with the bullcrap that comes with it being such a relic but I do enjoy it when I play it. B tier

Super Metroid: One of the best games I’ve ever played in my entire life. A true masterpiece of enviromental storytelling. The atmosphere of this game is absolutely unparalleled by anything ever made since. Everything from the music to the sound design to the level and enemy designs are all perfect. ONLY thing that makes it feel archaic are the controls which still feel floaty. But WORLDS better than what came before. S tier

Metroid Prime: Another absolute masterpiece. I keep going back and forth as to if THIS is my favorite, or Super Metroid. Probably the game in the series that I can go back to over and over and over again and still enjoy. One of the most immersive games ever made. I JUST wish they hadn’t nerfed metroids like they did. And had remained more faithful to the established canon. S Tier

Metroid Fusion: Great game. ALMOST nails the atmosphere of Super and Prime, but the limitations of the sound design of the GBA really holds it back. But I do love how it continues on from Metroid 3 and remains faithful to the source material unlike the Prime series. And every encounter with SA-X is absolute gold. A Tier

Metroid Zero Mission: One of my favorite things about Metroid is that sense of progression. Starting from nothing and working up to being an unstoppable killing machine. And no other game in the series has done it as well as this. That moment where you get all your equipment back and just start mowing down enemies that you couldn’t even touch before is SO rewarding. They’re even hiding from you it’s really funny. I DO lament how easy this game is. Probably the easiest Metroid game to date. I beat the game in just over two hours and never once died. Regardless, while it doesn’t have quite the punch that other Metroid games have like Super or Prime, it is still a wonderful entry to the series. A Tier

Metroid Prime 2: One of my most controversial takes. While I enjoy this game I do NOT enjoy it nearly as much as any of the other games. That sense of progression that I mentioned just up there? Completely gone with Prime 2 and its beam ammo system. I also do not care about the story in any meaningful way. Atmosphere isn’t nearly as foreboding as it should be. Dark Aether is more annoying than intimidating. I still enjoy it when I play, but it remains the one game that does not have a remake to replace it that I struggle to get through whenever I play the series. B tier

Prime Hunters: Garbage. Absolute Garbage. The single biggest disapointment in the series. The one game I’ve played but never beaten despite numerous attempts. Nothing good about what it what so ever. F tier

Metroid Prime 3: Here we go! Back to what I enjoy about Metroid! The atmosphere is back in spades again. These action setpeices are an absolute spectacle. I love the continuity nods that it actually has this time. It ties up the whole series very nicely in a story that I actually feel invested in. Every time I play this game I enjoy it more than I think I will. Not QUITE as good as Prime or Super but still S Tier

Metroid Other M: My most controversial take… I do not hate this game. I really don’t. In fact I enjoy it more than Prime 2. I’m sorry, but it’s fun. One thing I’ve always imagined when I was playing these games are how Samus might ACTUALLY fight in real life. Like holding a monster down and pumping missiles into it’s stomach. And this game ACTUALLY gives you that. Say what you will about Team Ninja but they know how to do an action game and the dodge mechanic felt SO nice and those finishing blows were SO satisfying. I liked how they made metroids deadly again. Like they’re HARD to kill as they should be. The thing I absoutely DESPISE is how they murdered Samus’ character. They did her SO dirty. There’s a lot more I could say about how this game plays and the story it tries to tell but regardless it’s still A Tier

AM2R: This. This was the game I had been waiting for. This was the answer to Metroid 2. Not only does it remain faithful to the source material. Not only does it bridge existing cannon with Metroid Fusion, not only does it take the more frustrating aspects of Metroid 2 and make it a joy to play again. But does it in a way that feels SO polished. Like, Nintendo polished. That final fight with the Queen Metroid has to be in my top final boss moments of all time. S Tier

Samus Returns: Another solid go at Metroid 2. I do like how they saved the counter attack mechanic from Other M and made it into a much more solid feeling mechanic. I like the sequences that they added and the atmosphere feels very nice. The final sequence at the end of the game, while controversial, is not one that i hated at all. Not as good as AM2R but still good. A Tier

Metroid Dread: Samus has never felt better to control. Seriously. Not a single time did I go through the game fighting bosses and think “if only I could move better this wouldn’t be so hard”. I love the difficulty. Thank you for treating me like I’ve played a video game in my life. I didn’t like the EMMIs. I thought they were annoying not intimidating. But still I absolutely ADORED this story. It was JUST the right amount of fanservice delivered in just the right way. A Tier

S tier: Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 3, AM2R
A tier: Metroid Fusion, Metroid Zero Mission, Other M, Samus Returns, Metroid Dread
B tier: Metroid, Metroid 2, Metroid Prime 2
C Tier:
D Tier:
F Tier: Hunters

I can’t believe I forgot to put Dread on my initial tier list! Adding that now.

The GBA is a 32-bit system

Other M is a solid video game but a terrible Metroid game

My biggest beef with the canon of Prime is how badly they nerfed Metroids and ignored the already established canon of how they develop.

In OG Metroid, Metroids were a THREAT. Like, one could kill you if you weren’t careful, let alone multiple in the same room.

In 2 they revealed that the Metroids we’ve seen are not ACTUALLY the final form but actually a larval stage of the Metroid who go through several stages of metamorphosis.

In 3 they remain just as deadly. You CANNOT kill them without the ice beam and the charge beam. You need a charged Ice beam shot just to freeze them for about 2 seconds in which you need to quickly fire five missiles or else they’ll unfreeze and you have to freeze them again. You can CLEARLY see why these were such a threat to the galaxy and why the Galactic Federation ordered a complete extermination.

Then we get to prime and they’re… Frail. Prime is HUGE on lore and explaining the logic behind everything within it’s world, something that I truly love. And they fail to explain this. you can freeze them with a single ice beam shot and kill them with a single missile. OR just shoot them with five missiles, or one super missile. There are overworld enemies that are harder to kill than that. Space Pirates are harder to kill than Metroids. Let that sink in. And they also don’t…. Develop in the same way? They become Hunter Metroids and then Fission Metroids. Which MIGHT be explained by the presence of Phazon but they don’t actually say that. I would love LOVE just one scan visor entry that explains

“The Metroids of Tallon IV don’t seem to be nearly as robust as their SR388 counterparts, the environment of Talon IV does not seem to be nearly as hospitable to the development and growth of the creatures as their natural habitat of SR388. They also seem unable to undergo their natural metamorphosis outside this environment making the development of Alpha, Beta and even Omega Metroids impossible. Scientists are currently researching ways of creating a more hospitable environment for the specimens. Failing that, we may be able to ‘force’ their metamorphosis, but it is unknown what forms this may result in”

Boom. Explained. I can understand in universe why Metroids wouldn’t be as strong, but unless they explain that, it just looks like they ignored established cannon in favor of their own ideas of what Metroids aught to be.

Prime 2… I feel like they didn’t even want to make a metroid game. The presence of Space Pirates and Galactic Federation barely even factor into the story. I think I’d prefer the game if they’d left them out entirely. Samus simply tracing Phazon energy signals that had left Tallon IV for Aether.

With Prime 3 I feel they tried to bring the game back to being about the Pirates and Metroids again but actually ended up deviating FURTHER from established cannon. Like, they introduce these things called Aurora Units which are CLEARLY supposed to be a similar Super Computer to Mother Brain. In a Prime 3 trailer they show the workings of the Aurora Unit to be identical to how Mother Brain’s lair was set up.

I think it is IMPLIED that Mother Brain was a rogue aurora unit. Which would also contradict cannon. But maybe Aurora Units were reverse engineered by studying the remains of Mother Brain on Zebes?

Speaking of Zebes, that’s another thing. We already had a Space Pirate homeworld. It’s Zebes. Space Pirates are from Zebes.

I don’t mind retcons. As long as the people doing the retcons establish that they KNOW they’re doing a retcon. And not leaving it up to fans to create fan-cannons to fill the holes in the already established plot of a series.

All of this is some nerd just complaining about nerd stuff and is really not at all important. I really REALLY do enjoy Prime 1 and 3. Prime 1 still rivals the best metroid game of all time. But these tiny insignificant details do bug me a little bit.

While I kind of agree that the Metroids were nerfed in the Prime games, I didn’t think it was THAT big of a deal. The story about the Metroids was already told. Prime doesn’t focus on them in their basic forum because Prime’s main focus is on phazon. That’s also why you fight so many variants of them. Also IMO any lack of terror caused by the Metroids is made up for by the part where you have to fight them in the dark.

Should Other M be canon? Metroid fans agree in unison that the story was the worst part of that game, yet Dread includes it in the gallery. I haven’t seen any elements in Dread that reference Other M, so as it stands Nintendo still has an opportunity to retcon it. Thoughts?

The Metroids in the main series are a different kind to the Prime series Metroids. I believe just about all the Metroids seen in the Prime Trilogy hail from Tallon IV initially.

Also, my headcanon for Other M is it is a partial flashback to events that occurred before the first game that is taking place during the part of Fusion’s intro where Samus is KO’ed. It is based on the original intent of the game’s story being to be set in that time frame, and some elements of Other M’s plot don’t sit well with me unless headcanoned away.