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00:00Since 1986, the Metroid series has gone from 2D to 3D to consoles and portables with plenty of
00:06Samus appearances and cameos in other games along the way. It's responsible for co-creating the
00:11Metroidvania genre, leading to games like Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest, plus dozens
00:16more. And hey, it's even dabbled in pinball and soccer. And with Metroid Prime 4 Beyond on the
00:21way, it's the perfect time to look back on this incredible game franchise. Here are the top 10
00:26Metroid games of all time.
00:37These days, one of the most basic functions expected of a Metroidvania game is a map screen
00:42that slowly reveals itself as the player explores its maze-like network of corridors and hidden
00:47rooms. But back in 1991, when Metroid 2 Return of Samus arrived on the Nintendo Game Boy, that
00:52wasn't exactly standard practice yet. That makes Metroid 2 feel a bit on the obtuse side,
00:58especially since its main focus is sending Samus to SR388 on a planet-wide quest to hunt
01:03down every last Metroid left with no real way to track their locations in-game.
01:11But players who persevered and played along with their own hand-drawn maps or one tucked
01:15inside an issue of Nintendo Power were rewarded with a pocket-sized Metroid game, complete with
01:20all of Samus's signature moves and weapons from the NES game, even if the benefits of
01:25portability also meant playing the game on a fuzzy little puke green Game Boy screen.
01:30Which I did.
01:31Still, from its big character sprites, tense chiptune music, and lonely, claustrophobic
01:36setting, there's something really special about Metroid 2, and for people wishing Metroid
01:402 had a few more modern features, 2017's excellent 3DS remake from Mercury Steam totally delivers
01:46on that front. But hey, we'll talk about that one more in just a bit, so stick around.
01:55Inspired by the 1979 sci-fi film Alien, as well as previous Nintendo hits like Super Mario
02:01Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, the original Metroid game was unlike anything at the time.
02:06Sure, there'd been tons of space shooters and platforming games released by the time Metroid
02:09came out in 1986, but none of them had ever brought so many elements of those genres together
02:14in the same place, complete with a huge map with horizontally and vertically scrolling screens.
02:19What made Metroid especially unique at the time was the way its protagonist Samus controlled
02:23and explored through unique power-ups, like the ability to turn into a ball and explore
02:28hidden tunnels, or the screw attack jump that allowed players to rapidly flip up walls and
02:32corridors, tearing through ugly space monsters along the way.
02:36It also established grotesque creature villains like Kraid, Ridley, and Mother Brain, which continued
02:41to show up in Metroid games for decades to come.
02:44And it concluded with one of the most clever NES game ending sequences ever, a frantic escape
02:49from a ticking time bomb after defeating the game's main boss.
02:52And perhaps one of the coolest surprises were its multiple endings, several of which revealed
02:57the player to be a bounty hunter named Samus Aran, who was a woman the entire time, a concept
03:02that was pretty uncommon for video games in the mid-80s.
03:08So much of what makes modern Metroid games so incredible can be traced right back to the
03:13revolutionary original NES game, and the same can be said for the entire Metroidvania genre
03:18as a whole.
03:21Metroid Samus Returns took all the promise of the original Game Boy Metroid that we just
03:32talked about, and completely rebuilt it from the ground up, and presented it in full color,
03:37glasses-free 3D, complete with totally overhauled graphics, newly remade music, and a much improved
03:43combat system that gave Samus an uppercut-style melee mechanic to knock back enemies in between
03:48bursts of arm cannon blasts, and morph ball bombs.
03:55It's still ultimately a remake of a fairly one-note Metroid game, but finally having a map, which
04:04is viewable at all times thanks to the 3DS's second screen, and snappy fluid player movement
04:09and offensive options against adversaries makes Samus Returns feel distinctly like its own
04:13thing.
04:14After Team Ninja's wobbly and unsatisfying Metroid Other M in 2010, players were justified in
04:19worrying that another outside developer handling the Metroid franchise wouldn't exactly lead
04:23to the best results, but Mercury Steam proved they have what it takes to make a very good
04:28Metroid game, and eventually go on to make a great one.
04:34While nowhere near as revolutionary as its predecessor, Metroid Prime 2 is a rock-solid sequel that
04:43introduces a really cool parallel light and dark dimension mechanic, a classic Nintendo
04:48gameplay trope established in The Legend of Zelda Link to the Past Light and Dark Worlds that
04:52allows players to explore alternate versions of the same levels to hunt for power-ups and
04:57suit upgrades that help you better survive in each world.
05:00With that concept, Prime 2 also introduced Dark Samus, a character that sounds exactly
05:04like what you'd expect, a dark evil version of Samus, which unsurprisingly turned out
05:09to be really cool.
05:10So cool in fact that Dark Samus went on to become an assist trophy and eventually a fully
05:14playable character in the Smash Bros. game series.
05:21Prime 2 also introduced a pretty bare-bones Metroid multiplayer mode that felt like a response
05:26to the success of games like Halo at the time, and while four different colored versions of
05:30Samus strafing in circles shooting at each other might not seem like the most interesting
05:34thing to do in a Metroid game, it was somehow entertaining enough to work in short bursts
05:39between trying to 100% the main campaign.
05:42I liked it.
05:52After an eight-year hiatus from Metroid games, the series skipped over the entire Nintendo
05:5664 generation after all, the year 2002 brought us two new entries in the series across the
06:01GameCube and the Game Boy Advance, the latter of which was a classic 2D side-scrolling Metroid
06:05game with gorgeous pixel art and an endlessly replayable campaign.
06:09Metroid Fusion built on all of the excellent gameplay established in the SNES classic, Super
06:14Metroid, and although it didn't quite hit the same highs, it's still a very awesome
06:17game on its own, held back only by its slightly more linear exploration and overly-talking
06:22commanding officer Adam Malkovich.
06:28Still, Metroid Fusion immediately stood on its own as a tight, briskly-paced Metroid game
06:34that instantly became a huge hit with the speedrunning community thanks largely to its multiple ending
06:38unlocks that appear depending on completion time and percentage finished.
06:42Samus came back in a big way in 2002 and reminded people that Metroid was here to stay as one of the
06:47best video game franchises ever created.
07:00By 2007, the Metroid series had gone 2D, 3D, had touch screen controls, had become a rumble
07:05pack-infused pinball game, so obviously the natural next step was a Nintendo Wii motion and
07:10pointer-controlled game, as was tradition at the time.
07:13Luckily, Metroid Prime 3 largely avoided many of the frustrations and pratfalls that
07:17several other franchise sequels stumbled on during the awkward waggle era of gaming that
07:22we've largely moved on from as a species, and while some of the motion control implementation
07:25in Prime 3 felt a little finicky at times, pointing a Wii remote at the screen to blast
07:29away at enemies was immensely satisfying.
07:31Better than that, Prime 3 also capped off the excellent Prime trilogy with a more beautiful
07:36and breathtaking world that added more verticality and cool new traversal methods along with hyper-mode,
07:41which gave Samus the option to go full-on attack frenzy at the expense of her health.
07:46Metroid Prime 3 was a fantastic send-off for the Prime franchise at the time, when none
07:50of us had any idea it wouldn't get a sequel for 18 years, unless, of course, you count
07:55the 3DS game Metroid Prime Federation Force, which we definitely won't, even if it did
07:59tease Metroid Prime 4 in its secret ending.
08:02True story.
08:03The second Metroid game on the Game Boy Advance is also a remake of the first Metroid game
08:14ever released, with a stunning new 16-bit pixel art overhaul, taking notes from Super Metroid
08:19and Metroid Fusion to improve the original NES game in just about every conceivable way.
08:27Every boss fight felt bigger and better, the improved soundtrack rocked, and hey, there's
08:32even an actual map now!
08:33And if you ever get nostalgic for the original game, it's unlockable here too.
08:37On top of that, multiple difficulty options made their way to Zero Mission, along with
08:41new cutscenes, a time attack mode, and a gallery of images that players can uncover by performing
08:45specific criteria.
08:52While the original NES game was revolutionary at the time and still has its charm today,
08:57Zero Mission is truly the best way to experience the game that started it all for the Metroid
09:02series.
09:12While their remake Samus Returns for the 3DS was Mercury Steam's first efforts at a Metroid
09:16game, Metroid Dread was a totally original adventure that added a whole new twist, creating
09:21one of the most tense and exhilarating Metroid experiences to date.
09:25Constantly being hunted by E.M.I., the fast, hulking, and intelligent killer robots ready
09:29to end Samus' mission in seconds meant that the typical explore-at-your-own-pace gameplay
09:34of the traditional Metroid mission was frequently interrupted with tense and dangerous urgency.
09:43Mercury Steam also took the melee combat and parrying system from Samus Returns and improved
09:48it, making close-quarters fights feel better than ever, which, with the snappier controls
09:53and increased player speed, allow Metroid Dread to go pound-for-pound with the best modern
09:57Metroidvanias.
09:59Dread is also the toughest game in the series since the original NES Metroid, but manages to
10:03never feel cheap or padded thanks to its brilliant map design and liberal checkpoint system.
10:08In an ideal world, Mercury Steam is giving us a new 2D Metroid every few years, while Retro
10:12continues to make 3D Prime games, giving us the best of both worlds for this legendary
10:16series forever.
10:17At least, that's what I want.
10:33On the Nintendo 64, Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, and Donkey Kong 64
10:38all proved that once 2D Nintendo franchises could successfully make the jump to 3D, but unfortunately,
10:43this era didn't involve a brand new 3D Metroid game at all, and that sucked.
10:48But in 2002, Retro Studios did the unthinkable.
10:51They successfully transformed the classic feel of Super Metroid into a stunning atmospheric
10:56and revolutionary first-person action platforming game with fantastic shooting mechanics and
11:00an incredible world to explore.
11:02From seeing small drops of condensation build around Samus' visor to the first time they
11:06stepped into the icy Fandrana drifts as the camera panned out and the piano music swelled,
11:11they knew they were experiencing something magical.
11:17Everything from morph-ball exploration to suit upgrades and an ever-evolving arsenal of
11:21weaponry and traversal tools made their way into players' hands in Metroid Prime after
11:25the franchise had been largely dormant for 8 years.
11:28Boss fights and explosive set pieces brought the series to epic new heights, setting the
11:32stage for future Metroid Prime games for years to come.
11:35At the time, standard first-person shooters were a dime a dozen, but there was really nothing
11:38like Metroid Prime.
11:40Not only that, but 20 years later, Prime still holds up well, as proven by the Nintendo Switch
11:44release of Metroid Prime Remastered.
11:56And finally, almost three decades later, and after a wide variety of experimentation across
12:00various genres, perspectives, and control methods, Super Metroid still remains the greatest
12:05Metroid game of all time.
12:08In fact, Super Metroid set the bar so high that the team behind it couldn't figure out
12:11how to top it during the entire N64 era, so the Metroid series just took that generation
12:16off, like a victory lap.
12:18Super Metroid still feels amazing and is still enjoyed by new players and hardcore speedrunning
12:22obsessives alike.
12:30But why?
12:31Well, it's perfectly paced, has some of the most rewarding exploration in the entire series,
12:35particularly crafted level design, pulse-pounding music, and some of the best-looking pixel
12:39art of all time.
12:40Like several of its most successful Super Nintendo contemporaries, it took everything that worked
12:44in the previous NES games and improved it, making it one of the greatest and most iconic
12:49side-scrolling action games ever made.
12:52Super Metroid helped define both the future of the series and the genre as a whole.
12:58It's a masterclass in game design and one that both indie and AAA game developers have
13:02been citing as an inspiration for nearly 30 years now.
13:06It's not only the best Metroid game, it's one of the best video games ever made.
13:10And there you have it, the top 10 Metroid games leading up to the launch of the highly anticipated
13:30Metroid Prime 4 Beyond.
13:32Once that game releases, it will join a lineup of 15 games with Metroid in the title, all of
13:36which I am made sure to give a nod to in this video, even if only 10 of them made the list.
13:41So what's your favorite Metroid game ever made?
13:44Which game do you wish made the list or got bumped even higher, or lower?
13:47Are you a diehard defender of Metroid Other M or Federation Force?
13:51Did you play hundreds of hours of Metroid Prime First Hunt demo when the Nintendo DS launched
13:55like I did?
13:56Morph Ball Bomb into the comments below and tell me all about it.
14:00Oh, and if you want even more Metroid love from IGN, check out our latest Metroid Prime trilogy
14:05retrospective episode of Nintendo Voice Chat, our weekly Nintendo podcast.
14:10For all things Metroid, stick to the wall, I guess, as a ball, with IGN.
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