I've played most of the metroid games, and i know theres a ton of nostalgia for super metroid, but to this day nothing has matched the feeling of exploration and awe from Metroid Prime. Every place in the game was so radically different, and the ability to scan and learn about the environment was so unique, and exactly what i didn't know i needed. Learning the lore and finding out what happened to the planet only by analyzing everything made the world feel like it had died, and it's death was a tragedy. All the enemies you encounter are just local animals that don't know better, or had been corrupted by pollution. That is, until about halfway through the game when you meet actually hostile, malicious intelligence, and the combat steps up exponentially.

It's fantastic. I still remember being amazed at the fogging and raindrops showing up on the visor the first time you step off your ship on Talon IV. I had never seen graphocs so good, and such attention to detail, and the game was already 4 years old.

The only game i've ever played that felt similar was subnautica, and while it had the wonder, it lacked the melancholy and insane combat.

Prime is the best in the series, hands down.

Here's something totally bizarre that you might it might not care about.

The other day I brought up Metroid on the Nintendo Switch NES app (the one that lets you play some NES games with an online subscription.) After playing for a bit, I wanted to show him the Justin Bailey code. But I couldn't remember it exactly at first. So I tried it in various cases, and when I enter the code with all lowercase letters, it crashed the game.

No idea if it'll do that for everyone, or if it did that on the actual NES, but I tried it a few times and it crashed everything.

For reference, I entered in the code like this:

justin bailey
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But the actual code is:

JUSTIN BAILEY
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Out of the 2D metroids, I think Super Metroid still takes the cake. Dread and 2r are still pretty good but there is a reason why super metroid game design gets taught in college game design courses. One of the best games of all time probably, still trades blows even with good modern metroidvanias. I played it for the first on in the Wii back when I was in high school so this isn't even nostalgia talking, I even played it after the Prime games.

For the 3d ones, both Prime and Prime 2 are classics imo. Just the sheer immersion is something you don't find too often in video games. Prime 2 gets a lot of flak for the ammo system and dark world constant damage, but I think those were useful improvements to balance the game since Prime 1 is quite an easy game. They do add a decent amount of friction to traversing the world and makes the dark world feel actually dangerous to be in. Prime 3 was a bit more forgettable but still not a bad game.

The original Metroid on NES was so freaking good back in the day. I'm in my late 40s at this point and I still hear songs or themes that make me go "that reminds me of Metroid". The music was iconic.

And it's gotta be said, the original reveal that the hero of the game was a (gasp) girl! I am sure it had an effect on my young impressionable mind. And the good kind of effect, the kind that makes you realize girls can be bad ass too. So awesome!

There are few games that define a genre, transforming them into games for history books, and that’s Super Metroid. It refined the exploration-by-abilities genre we know now as “Metroidvania”, much like Dead Souls defined the “Souls” genre, and so forth.

On the other hand, it also had it lows. Like that entry you don’t talk about that we hope someday is declared non-canon and all copies destroyed by spontaneous combustion.

Super Metroid and the growing list of rom hacks are an endless source of entertainment. I've been watching speed runners for years. Currently watching randos.

I got into metroid in 2014 or 2015 during the 3DS era. Someone mentioned that Super Metroid was their favourite game growing up, so I decided to give it a shot. I had only played the NDS metroid games before, so I didn't really know what to expect.

I ended up being completely blown away, and I think I replayed the game within a year, which is incredibly rare for me - one of the only other games I can think of doing this for was the first Ori game (I have a thing for tight platformers, what can I say).

I'd say super metroid is one of my all time favourite games now, probably number 2 on the SNES to Link to the Past. In terms of influence, I'd put it up there with dark souls.

Last year I also played Prime for the first time when the remaster came out, and loved that too. Really hoping they release 2 and 3!

The longest I stuck with the franchise was through Metroid Prime Hunters for the DS, and it wasn't the graphics or the game itself that captivated me (although both are awesome, ngl) but the online capabilities and gameplay, I have not even finished the game, only played several minutes of the campaign (which maybe I am not missing out of much here, as I have read it is one of the weakest), and yet I have had more than 500 hrs of playtime thanks to the multiplayer, which I still used even after the closure of the servers thanks to Wiimmfi.

For me the gameplay with the stylus as the main aim control is the best the DS can offer to have a proper and fast paced aim, if you could search for some of the crazy stuff that the pro players managed with this game on YT and how hardcore it can get for this hardware in those days, you'd be surprised, here is a video that comes at the top of my mind, and it is a recent one too, also the sniper battles (imperialist) were pretty awesome.

With that said, I know the franchise and what it means for everyone, I appreciate it that much that I refuse to even play more metroidvanias without finishing Super Metroid (and Castlevania Symphony of The Night while we are at it).

Can we take a moment to appreciate how Metroid II really did the groundwork for what Super Metroid perfected? I don't think SM would have flown to the heights it has had Metroid II not taken the risks it did.

Edit: this wasn't intended as a reply to a comment and should have been it's own comment!

JUSTIN BAILEY
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Original NES Metroid was the second game I ever beat, after Super Mario Bros. 3.

Metroid II : Samus Returns. It gave me literal nightmares as a child. I swear it had jump scares in it.

Replayed the Prime series a bunch, most recently the switch remake of Prime.

Great series, I didn't like some of the dialog/cinematics of the third one but the gameplay was great.

Dread was really good, exceeded expectations. Final boss was hard I'm not sure I ever beat it.

Super Metroid was great but I'm not sure whether I ever beat Ridley.

I think I completed the remake though. Really hoping to see Prime 4 at some point, maybe on a new console.

I remember throwing my controller as a kid whenever one of those bubbles attached to Samus.

Great game.