In case you didn’t know, tomorrow (Monday, August 15th) marks the 35th anniversary of the launch of the Metroid NES in North America.that is insaneright? 35 years! do you still feel old?
Years and decades after its debut in 1987 (86 in Japan), the Metroid franchise has become one of Nintendo’s Big Bang franchises. t count!). Despite having somewhat lukewarm commercial success compared to the likes of Super mario When animal crossing, Metroid has earned its place in the hearts of Nintendo gamers around the world.Heck, you just need to see some Reactions to Nintendo’s announcement of Metroid Prime 4 To understand how influential the franchise is.
With that in mind, I wanted to share my introduction to the franchise. I would love to hear from you too! Which game did you start with? what attracted you? Referred by a friend or family member?
It doesn’t matter if you’ve never played the franchise at all. Some of us will also notice a huge gap in Metroid’s history, only one of us (myself!) has played the Metroid Prime Trilogy, so you can make friends here.
Have fun and share your story in the comments below!
Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer
All things considered, I’d say it’s a fairly late entry into the Metroid franchise. My first entry was Metroid Prime for the GameCube, released in 2002. I remember reading about it in each issue of NGC Magazine and being completely blown away by how good it looked. Looking back, I’m not even sure I was aware that the franchise actually started out as a sort of 2D adventure series. It wasn’t until I saw the GBA’s Metroid Fusion and then did a little research that I actually got a first-person view of Metroid Prime. completely A new take on the franchise.
Needless to say, I fell in love with Metroid Prime difficultplaces like Phendrana Drifts and Phazon Mines are some of the most beautiful environments I’ve ever seen, and the balance between exploration and combat was simple. PerfectSo, naturally, I jumped into the franchise first, playing the original Metroid, Metroid II, and Super Metroid before picking up Metroid Fusion at a later date. Despite the obvious limitations of the debut title on the NES, we got to see how this game impacted the franchise going forward.
Metroid is still my favorite Nintendo franchise, and it’s safe to say it’s all because of Metroid Prime. Prime was my go-to game when nothing else caught my eye- every day timeYou can imagine my utter delight when Nintendo announced that a fourth entry was in the works for Switch… Speaking of which, Nintendo, any updates on that?
Alana Hagues, Staff Writer
Sure it took me For real It’s been a long time since I fell in love with a Metroid like I do now. That probably wasn’t helped by the fact that my first Metroid game was his GBA Classic NES series release of the original Metroid. difficultBut I wanted to know what this cool orange-clad bounty hunter we saw in the original Smash Bros. was like.
So I did some research online and Metroid Fusion immediately popped up. I managed to get my hands on a copy, played it – scared myself to death a few times – and loved it, Fusion’s stalker-like enemy, his SA-X, is what I think his Even when I was a teenager, I used to encourage myself to crawl under my sheets.But still, it yet It took me a while to say I love Metroid. I tried to play the original a few more times on the Animal Crossing NES once I got it, but it was the SNES classic that finally got me to try the revered Super Metroid in 2018. Terrible reputation. But it turns out there’s a reason for that. phenomenalIts atmosphere, map and sense of progression are unmatched even today.
The rest is history. Super Metroid allowed me to redo fusion, get Zero his mission, and even try the original Metroid and Metroid II all over again. Prime, Samus, He Returns, etc. I admit I still miss a lot of gaps, but Dredd has firmly established this series as one of my favorite him. I’m glad I kept trying.
Kate Gray, staff writer
I’ve never actually played Metroid. Maybe I’ll really enjoy them, I don’t know! But I still have the Metroid story. When he applied for the Open Staff Writer position for the official Nintendo magazine — a position that he was eventually selected from among 650 applicants (spoilers, but important context!) — he went through a lot of testing and interviewing. There were stages. Once they read my application, I will go through.
The first was a phone chat. it’s simple. I always chat The second was interviews with ONM editors and editors-in-chief of a number of magazines. This was a little tough, but I think it was fine. The third was a test article, where I had to write about 300 words of news an hour, and Twitch Plays Pokémon was still in its first few days at the time, so I wrote about it. But the last test was the one I was sure had failed.
It was a Nintendo quiz. He was 22 years old at the time, fresh out of college, and had played before. tons There were various games from N64 to GameCube, Wii, DS and 3DS, but not many games appeared in the quiz.I passed the above question Professor Layton, Gyakuten Saibanand Mario (it would have been embarrassing not to get Mario’s stuff right), but F-Zero and the Metroid question, I just… had no idea.and people get For real It always bugs me when I find out that a Nintendo writer hasn’t played Metroid — I mean, even if you’ve never played Gyakuten Saiban, it’s an original piece regardless of the genre. Nonetheless, no one finds it strange. Shooter games are always what people care about. Ha.
So I was pretty sure I blew it. Completely ruined thanks to my hole-in-the-wall knowledge of Nintendo blockbusters. At that time, I thought it would be fun, so I did a lot of graffiti. I drew Brothers in the margin of the quiz. I wrote “Falcon Punch???” I drew a little Samus next to a Metroid question I didn’t answer in response to an F-Zero question. alongside writing). The editor didn’t care that I didn’t play all the games. You can teach someone to play the game. Writing cannot be taught easily.
I haven’t played Metroid yet, but that quiz taught me that the games I’ve played and haven’t played don’t define me or make me less worthy. It’s a good lesson to learn.
Jim Norman, staff writer
Metroid is a franchise that has always fascinated me. Not because I’m a big fan of games, but despite my overt love for platformers, I’ve never really warmed to any of them.
The first Metroid game I played was the GBA’s Metroid Fusion. No matter what anyone said, it was an era where you could buy any game you could get your hands on. However, I was drawn to this particular title because I loved Super Smash Bros. Melee, which I played almost consistently on my friend’s GameCube. I always wondered who the badass with the gun was, and that led me to Fusion.
I can’t say that this first experience really stuck with me (wow, what a great way to kick off a new feature on the site), but I do remember that I wasn’t completely overwhelmed. What has lasted my gaming life is an inconsistent relationship with the series. a bit A little Metroid Prime Hunter here, a little Samus Returns there.
Maybe contributing to this resurrected feature will allow us to rush back to the series when we read about others’ undying love for the franchise.
Gavin Lane, Editor
My Metroid story happened to start with the DS. I was hesitant to get my hands on a “Phat,” but the slimmed-down Lite and one particular game tempted me to crack my wallet. very Glossy black console and Metroid Prime Hunter.
Looking back on it now, it’s all confusing, but at the time, it was incredible to have such a complex game on such a complex system. It’s not a classic, but bounty hunter-based battles (not to mention the sublime Metroid Prime Pinball) have stepped into the series’ doors and led to further investigation.
I eventually found a loose Zero Mission kart (I wanted something that could be played in Lite, plus it was a remake of the first game, so it made a lot of sense) and I was hooked. I quickly caught up with Super Metroid, Fusion (as part of the 3DS Ambassador Program), returned to GB’s Return of Samus and 3DS Remake, and last year’s Dread. All great games, but my heart belongs to Zero Mission.
The prime series is still a personal blind spot — or No I read all of the above! — and we’re hoping the rumors of a Prime 1 Switch remaster are true to give us a clue about Prime 4’s release in Q4 2027.
Gonzalo Lopez, reviewer
Like most Nintendo IPs, Metroid came into my life by accident. When I had a brick Game Boy, it was standard practice to swap cartridges with my high school buddies so that I could play the widest variety of titles possible. one was stuck with something called Metroid II: Return of Samus. The name was known only from local TV advertisements for the Famicom version.I borrowed it and was pretty surprised to find it in my pocket TarricanGetting Spider Ball Upgrades is a style exploration game with a lot of hidden depth. By the time the staff credits rolled, I knew I had just played a Game Boy classic.It’s been years since the facts came out Tarrican The first person to seek inspiration from Samus’ Galactic Adventures.
Fast forward a few years and I want to buy a Super Game Boy. But next to it was a similarly sized (huge!) Super Nintendo game box: Super Metroid! Despite the player’s guide being in German only, I decided to spend my birthday earnings on it. And today, while looking at the same giant box on the shelf, I’m sharing this story with amazing people.together F-Zero When star fox, Metroid is part of my Nintendo “Triforce” of science fiction escapism.The impact the series had on my life remains pretty obvious.
So you have it! I hope you enjoyed this little peek into how each of us was introduced to the Metroid franchise.
Anyway, now we want to know how you Was introduced. Let us know which game you played first by voting in the poll below. Then tell us a little bit about your situation in the comments!
