Gonna be controversial and say Metroid Prime Hunters... mainly because that's the one I've spent the most time with.
Zero Mission takes a close second, though.
this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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Super
Fusion has always been my favorite. I "want" to not like how linear it is compared to the rest of the series, but when I get started playing it again that never seems to matter to me anymore. And because of that game structure, the game is very well broken up into chunks of 20-30 minutes of gameplay at a time which makes it excellent for playing on a portable console. I played it on a borrowed GBA-SP for the first time back in the day, a few more times after that emulated, and most recently I've been playing it again on my Steam Deck within the past week, I'm like 2/3 of the way back through it again, just took down Yakuza for the Space Jump last night before bed.
Fusion is also a huge story point for the series as a whole. It introduces the X and by doing so gives context to the existence of the metroids. And seeing that referenced again later in Dread was maybe one of the coolest moments I've experienced in the Metroid series.
Speaking of Dread, that one is a very close follow up though. I was super hype for Dread when it released and it is one of few games in recent memory that completely lived up to that hype. I was a big fan.
Agree with Zero Mission. Second would be Dread and then Super. Haven't played Fusion tho, long overdue...
Dread. The movement feels incredible and I feel like its map naturally leads players to the next relevant area the best without as much backtracking and getting lost. Brilliant game.
I would agree with Dread. It is such a a nice clean game and that last boss was an actual challenge. Many games are awesome but fumble the last boss.
Before Dread, I would say the Super Metroid on SNES, that game introduced (at least me) the wall jumps and the sprint to down boost jump thing. I always tired to saved the animals when leaving the planet, but it's not like they were able to get off the planet, so I'm not sure if it really helped.
The EMI segments with unfair BS kinda take it down for me a slight notch
Absolutely Super.
Right now I'm playing through a new run of Super Metroid+A Link to the Past. The game is so perfectly made that it's just as good with a randomizer.
The super + alttp rando is so fun
I love going through most of the game and then finally realizing i don't have a shield lol
It's super cool that SMZ3 is a thing that even exists, but beyond the novelty of it I felt it was dragged down by the fact that ALttP is so much bigger than SM, to the point where it kinda drowns SM out.
Going to use this thread to recommend AM2R which is so high quality Nintendo could have made it themselves. It also has a great Prime-style OST in a 2d game which none of the other games have done
legitimately believe am2r is better than Samus Returns on 3ds
It is. There's a few neat things about the official version, but am2r is better over all.
The Super Nintendo Metroid game was/is my favorite, but I'll admit I haven't play most of the Metroid games, so I'm not a good judge.
The NES game was a ton of fun, but I felt and feel like the SNES game was just all of that and then some, if that makes sense to others.
I played one of the 3D Metroid games (the one on the Wii). It was fun, I enjoyed what I played. But it did not scratch the same itch, if that makes sense. In fact, I don't think I even played that game to completion.
If we're allowing Trilogy as one game then I'm going to step out a bit and go with AM2R. It's extremely good and not "for a fan remake", just straight up good.
If we're talking single games made/published by Nintendo I'd go with Dread for 2D. I played through that 3-4 times back to back when it came out which was a totally new behavior for me. For 3D it's Prime 1, still the best 3D example of the genre.
For me, it'd be Prime. The game just oozes atmosphere from start to finish, and has one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time. I still sometimes listen to the Phendrana Drifts tracks because they're just so damn chill.
I started with Fusion and I love it, but Super is a tiny tiny bit over it in my personal list.
My favorite Metroid is a knockoff. Environmental Station Alpha. I can't help but recommend it in any thread that's even remotely on topic. It's not "better" than the official titles but I end up replaying ESA way more. The astmosphere and music just really hit me, and the gameplay is tight with lots of secrets.
My favorite official title is Fusion though. It was so awesome being able to play that on the train to school and lunch breaks.
ESA is a great game
Super Metroid is my favorite game period, so definitely that one. Dread was really good too though, I played through that one a bunch.
Ori and the Blind Forest! The story, the gameplay, the progression, the level design. Everything just fits together perfectly and then there's the soundtrack. God, I love that game!
I think they were asking for the franchise not the Metroidvania style of game.
That said, Hollow Knight has finally gotten its hooks into me and will not let go.
Dread. I wasn't sure if it could live up to the high expectations set for it, but they hit it out of the park. Hits all the highs of Super and Zero Mission, then goes on to outdo those games in terms of combat and boss fights. Had a blast going back to speedrun it again and again.
I know a lot of people, myself included, got frustrated with the EMMI sections. Unless we all missed something about how they work, that the game could stand to explain better, you could end up walking into the room with bad RNG and the thing could be right on top of you. If you're speedrunning the game, presumably you have a trick to avoid that scenario, but it was quite common and brought down my opinion on the game, for sure.
Been a while and I don't remember the routing details at all, but I was surprised to find that they weren't much of an obstacle at all for the speedrun. They're designed to scare you on a first playthrough, but on subsequent replays you just go fast and they won't catch you.
Well, what I meant was that you could enter the door and immediately be stuck in that quick time event that you usually fail because the window is so small, and you couldn't see where the EMMI would be before you crossed the door's threshold.
If you ever get into a EMMI QTE you've done something wrong. The QTE is a glorified game over screen, the 1% chance of escaping is only there to make it scarier with false hope
But that's what I'm saying. It's so unlikely you'll make it out of it that when you walk into the room and the EMMI is already occupying the space you walked into blindly, it's a frustrating unavoidable fail state.
I could be wrong, but I think that only happens if you repeatedly enter and exit the EMMI Zone, allowing it to wander around too much. Which is something you might get scared into doing on a first playthrough!
It's really hard for me to name a single favorite Metroid; I love most of them. In terms of non-linear open exploration, Super Metroid is probably my favorite, followed by AM2R. But I also really enjoyed the boss fights in Metroid Dread; they were really challenging...for me at least.
I've seen some mentions of AM2R, which I love, but also wanna shout out the romhack Super Metroid Redesign.
Its hard for me to pick an absolute favorite, but Fusion probably gets it today from me.
Mine is probably the oddball pick with Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. I know it's hardly the first game with a light and dark world mechanic, but I really appreciated the way you traversed in and out of them, and how each world replenished the opposite ammo type. The multiplayer in that game is also underrated, but probably not as good as in the DS game.
When ya said oddball pick I was half expecting metroid prime pinball to be it haha
That was an objectively good game. Small and short, but good.
Hunters, on the other hand, not great.
Okay, but did you ever play Hunters multiplayer?
Super Metroid for 2D, Metroid Prime 1 for 3D.
Both games absolutely blasted it out of the water. Perfect masterpieces that no other game managed to live up to.
Metroid Prime Pinball is an untouchable god-tier masterpiece of a spin-off.
I think Zero Mission was a pretty good remake of NEStroid, and Samus Returns was an okay remake of Return of Samus. Prime Hunters, Prime 2, and Prime 3 were just okay, nothing bad but nothing special either. Hunters online was fun until the Action Replay users took over. IMO Fusion, Dread, and Other M were too linear. Federation Force was not great either, probably the weakest game to have Metroid in the title.
I appreciated Fusion's story, it was interesting. I also appreciate the vision of Other M, it was certainly a game that, when it worked, the gameplay was pretty fun to look at. Finisher moves and quick dodging was cool to see, even if it made the game pretty easy. The first person switching was a really cool idea that I think should have borrowed a little from Metroid Prime's Scan Visor, where the suit automatically highlights objects of importance, to lower frustration of "pixel hunts." Its certainly got very good graphics for a Wii game, even if the environments are bland. But IMO Dread had some equally bland level design, and was too linear for my liking. I also did not really like the ending that much. Dread's soundtrack is equally as forgettable as Other M's soundtrack, except there are some songs I actually remember from Other M that were unique to the game and not a remix from an older Metroid title (for example, the piano theme from Other M, great song). I completed Metroid Dread in about 9 hours the week it launched and I haven't played it since.
I wish I could love super metroid. I really do. The game holds up. The graphics are great, the sound design is bafflingly superb for a 16 bit game. Controls are tight. Map size is big but not daunting.
And then you get to the part where you fall down a pitt. And the game teaches you to wall jump.
...........everytime I play the game, thats where the game ends. It's been 30+ years, and I still can't wall jump in that game.
FWIW, that room is completely optional, only reward is a Power Bomb Tank. If you fall down there you do gotta get out, but if you can at least make your way up to the first platform you can bomb it to reveal a tunnel that lets you bail.
You want to press jump a little bit after you press the D-pad in the direction away from the wall. The time you have to do varies but you have between two and ten frames to do this. Don't try and press them at the same time or it will always fail.
Are you a visual person? This image might help. You want to press jump when Samus is in this position, almost sitting against the wall.
Here's a video of someone wall jumping with a controller overlay so you can see their inputs and compare it to what's on screen.
It might take a bit to get the timing down but once it's in your muscle memory it is very consistent. If I can do this then anyone can do this.