Ranking Metroid/Appreciation Thread

[sonic2041]

My ranking, for the ones that I've completed would be:

Super Metroid
Zero Mission
Fusion
Metroid


I've played quite a bit of Prime but never finished it, and started Prime 2. I liked Prime but it's not fresh enough in my memory to rank it. Maybe I should go back and actually play the whole game.

To me Super Metroid can't be beat. I remember the first time I finished it, I was probably 10 or 11 at the time. I felt like I actually accomplished something.

I recently beat the original Metroid for the first time, and agree that it hasn't aged well. There are some areas of the came that experience major slow down and can make things frustrating. The game also makes you feel incredibly lost. Mother Brain was a lot harder than I expected.

[MrPopo]

Mother Brain's difficulty is also "cheap" difficulty. It all comes down to whether or not you are able to control which way you get hit by the rinkas when killing her. If you get knocked forward you're pretty much screwed, as you have a tiny area to jump on to get back up.

[samsonlonghair]

I'd like to take this opportunity to voice my appreciation for Zero Mission.

Zero Mission is Metroid refined to its utmost. Granted, it's not as innovative as the original Metroid, Super Metroid, or Metroid Prime. Zero Mission isn't about originality at all; rather, Zero Mission takes the best aspects of all previous 2D metroid games and refines every aspect. Yoshio Sakamoto has lovingly polished and shined every pixel in Zero Mission.

I can say one thing for certain: If you only play one Metroid game your whole life, play Zero Mission.

[BurningDoom]

1. Super Metroid
2. Metroid: Zero Mission
3. Metroid: Fusion
4. Metroid: Prime
5. Metroid: Prime 3: Corruption
6. Metroid: Other M
7. Metroid: Prime 2: Echoes
8. Metroid
9. Metroid II: The Return of Samus
10. Metroid: Prime: Pinball
11. Metroid: Prime: Hunters

[casterofdreams]

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime
Metroid: Fusion
Metroid: Zero Mission
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Super Metroid
Metroid Prime: Hunters
Metroid II: Return of Samus
Metroid

Those are the games I've played. Now as to why the ranking is what it is:

Prime 2 is what I'd like to call a "perfect sequel" to the #2 spot. I loved the Light/Dark mechanics, the fantastic level design and it felt alien and tense within the dark half of the world. I think the ammo system added balance and added to the tense atmosphere. The bosses were harder and overall the game was more difficult then its predecessor.

Prime was just a great achievement overall. Going from 2D to 3D is no small feat. Level design and monster design was great and the fact that all Prime games ran at 60FPS was very cool at the time.

Fusion is unique and that is why it is higher relative to the 2D games. The art design, atmosphere and the tense feeling that something that is like you but more powerful than you wanted you dead. The "cat and mouse" segments call to mind.

Zero Mission was a great remake that came with the original after the main game was done with. The pacing was great and I loved the 2D art and style

Prime 3 was a great game and looked great too. I'll just point a negative here. It was too linear. And before I sound like I'm contradicting myself because this was placed lower than Fusion, Prime 3 got rid of a few things I didn't like: the different beams, the more varied environments, and the solitude. The linearity of the game didn't get saved by anything else.

Super Metroid was and still is a great game in its own right. I was subjected to playing this game later than the consensus so playing it feels archaic compared to other 2D offerings.

Hunters was stupid. That is all.

Return wasn't enjoyable because of the constriction of the hardware it was on.

Metroid was way too archaic for me. I finished it but I will never play it again.

[WallCrusher]

Metroid Prime
Super Metroid
Zero Mission
Fusion
Metroid Prime 2
Metroid Prime 3
Metroid II
Metroid
Other M

Never played Hunters or Pinball.

I consider Metroid Prime to be one of my most favorite games. Every now and then I get an urge to just start it up and immerse myself in the world of Talon IV. The Trilogy simply made it even better by adding widescreen support and Prime 3's excellent control scheme.

Honestly, if I felt like cheating I would just list the Trilogy as my favorite Metroid game.

Then we come down to the 2D games, and Super of course tops them all, but I do love me some Zero Mission and Fusion. They are like the best of both worlds.

[BurningDoom]

For all the perv Metroid fans:

[k.vlaros]

That I've played a fair bit of:

Prime 1 (Wii version)
Zero Mission
Super Metroid
Metroid NES
Hunters DS

[MyNameIsVince]

I never got the original Metroid as a kid, and I had heard of Metroid II when it was available, but I never got a Metroid game until Super Metroid came out for the SNES in 1994 and it changed my life. I got hooked onto it. I would play it for hours at a time. Hell my cousin would call me to ask for tips on the game because he had it as well. I loved it.

I've played other Metroid games since then, but none of them, and I mean none, can surpass the greatness that is Super Metroid, so it's no surprise that it's not only my favorite Metroid game, but also my favorite SNES game, and one of my favorite video games of all time.

But what about the other Metroid games? Well....oddly enough the first Metroid game I got after Super was....Prime. Now....at the time, I had a Gamecube, and I thought, great.....let's see what it's like. Let's just say it didn't hold my interest, mainly because of one thing I was never able to get over back then, that it was in first person view. Yes. I hated Prime because of THAT. I ended up playing it for about half an hour, gave up, and years later, ended up giving it to my brother Phil. My save file on Metroid Prime was last accessed sometime in August of 2003. No joke. I haven't touched it since then. However I may go back to it one day because I'd like to think I'm more forgiving of the camera, especially since how well received the game is. So I can't give Prime a current ranking at the moment.

The Game Boy Advance ones are the only other Metroid games I played enough to beat, and to me are the ones closest to capturing that 2D experience Super Metroid gave me. Fusion is pretty good because of the story line, and the added tension with the SA-X was pretty cool. The graphics are nice and it controls well. However I wasn't a fan of the fact that it was way more linear than Super. So although I do like Fusion, the replay value isn't quite there like Super. Zero Mission is one hell of a game. Not AS good as Super Metroid, but it's my 2nd favorite Metroid without question. Also, since I never played the original Metroid, it was a brand new experience for me anyway. Well....when I got the chance to play it. See, I bought it used at Gamestop years ago for 10 bucks, I brought it home and my brother Phil says, "can I borrow it?"....Sure. Half an hour later he says "I want the game". Uh ok....and he's like "I'll give you the money to let me have it". So somehow my brother tricked me into selling the game to him right after I bought it. Oddly enough I have NOT gotten the game since, but I have borrowed it enough to beat it. I will get a copy for myself one day.

Played the original Metroid via the Zero Mission as a unlockable, and on emulator. I don't enjoy it like the other Metroid games. Felt stiff on the controls and the graphics aren't as nice. I probably would appreciate the game more if I got it first, but I didn't so.....uh not up to par like the others. That's not to say it totally sucks.....I mean it's still decent, but....there are better ones.

So to sum it up:

1) Super Metroid
2) Metroid Zero Mission
3) Metroid Fusion

Unranked - Metroid, Metroid Prime (spent enough time playing them to gather first impressions, but not enough to give a thorough ranking).

All the other Metroid games I haven't played.

Here's another oddity. Phil has Prime, Zero Mission, Fusion, and Other M. He has beaten the 1st 3 and was continuing on Other M. Despite that, he hasn't even touched Super Metroid (he and his brother Trevor have it via the Virtual Console on their Wii), and Trevor has played it and beaten it like 3-5 times already.

[Xeogred]

My favorite series next to Zelda. I still think to this day it really stands out as an oddball series somehow born from Nintendo of all companies, just weird to remember they created it.

- Super Metroid, tied with Link to the Past for being my all time favorite game. Period. The atmosphere, the music, the dreary loneliness, the art design... timeless.
- Metroid Prime, I had such a wonderful and nostalgic filled experience with this one when it came out. I was very much against the idea of the series being in the first person perspective at the time but gave it a shot, and it ended up being one of the greatest games ever. Any attempt at bringing Castlevania to 3D absolutely fails in comparison. Retro did everything so right it's crazy.
- Metroid / Zero Mission, I'll just say these are tied for me. They're different enough and different experiences. Zero Mission is by far one of the best examples of a remake I've ever played, although I admittedly skip all the post Tourain stuff whenever I replay it now, really didn't care for that additional stuff. Though I loved how Crateria was added in the mix along with other stuff throughout the main portion of the game. The original is still one of the weirdest games out there to me, it's just so dark and creepy for an NES game and I think it's aged fine, I still replay it off and on throughout the years with no problems. I always got stuck in Norfair when I was a kid though, the music haunts me to this day.

On a side note there however, I won't hesitate to say that I think Blaster Master totally beats out the original Metroid. A similar formula and familiar experience with underground organic/sci-fi art design, but Blaster Master is just so much more refined and even more varied with the tank, overhead levels, bosses, better music, etc. It's too bad Sunsoft were never too big and the sequels weren't as magical (the PSX game was pretty cool though). Took me awhile to come to peace with this thought, but yes I think Blaster Master is definitely superior to Metroid.

After that it's probably just Prime 2 and Prime 3, in that order. Prime 2 I always compare to Majora's Mask. P2 / MM are very similar to their predecessors, but take the difficulty up ten notches and that's one thing I really liked about Prime 2. Some insanely weird complex level design and puzzles. Prime 3 was a damn cake walk in comparison to the first two and threw 90% of the energy tanks at your face, along with being a chunk shorter, but it's still an excellent game and I'd say overall it's by far one of the strongest most consistent trilogies out there.

Fusion isn't bad, but was also just way too insanely easy and short for me. But oh well, still awesome. Just doesn't compare to Zero Mission for me.

I can never really get into Metroid 2. I've never beaten it and am not sure if I ever will. Never beat Hunters either, definitely didn't care for it.

I refuse to waste my time with Other M or even acknowledge it.