I'm glad we're on the subject of series rankings, but in an effort to stop this from temporarily becoming a list thread, I'll propose the following, for the new page: what is your favorite, and least favorite Metroid game, and why? Failing that, in the event that the answers all start to resemble the fairly boring "Super Metroid best, Other M worst", what Metroid game do you believe you could provide the most unique commentary on?
I'll aim to keep my answers brief, but I'd say Metroid Fusion is my favorite, for a few different reasons. First off, it was my very first Metroid game, and it made a huge impact on me, growing up. Its somewhat survival horror leaning went a long way in forming my taste in media, and it's among my most replayed games ever. I love the story, boss fights, music, and everything else about it, really. Samus Aran is my favorite character of all time, and Fusion is a substantial contributor as to why. She's a maverick, and I love the way she ultimately awakened the computerized Adam's humanity, through her own strong resolve, and desire to protect the galaxy at all costs. She was prepared to give her life to ensure the demise of the X Parasites, and that left a major impression, during a time when I was primarily playing games featuring happy platformer mascots, and the like. I could write an essay on why I love Fusion so much, but for now, I'll just leave it at that.
I think my least favorite would probably be Metroid Prime Hunters, which I only played for the first time, late last year. Some may argue that it has redemptive qualities, and that's fair (especially considering I haven't touched the multiplayer, aka the game's main draw), but speaking strictly on the single player component: wow, what a stinker. It eschews traditional Metroid design philosophy, in favor of some weird campaign filled with blando key collection, horrible, asset flipped boss fights (will it be the totem pole, or big eyeball, this time?), and really dull, repetitive arena battles against the game's titular hunters, none of which have any character, whatsoever. A Jim Bob here, a Bubba Joe there, but nothing like Corruption's Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda, which were not only actual characters, but ones meaningfully integrated within the game's main plot. Speaking of plot, that's not even touching on factors like the whole thing being a rehash of Prime 1's plot, and the levels consisting of Magmoor Caverns but not, Phendrana Drifts but not, and so on. Weavel looks cool, Spire looks like a Skylanders character. 'Nuff said.
Nice writeup. Fusion is absolutely amazing, and never gets old to replay. I love it for many of the reasons you do as well. And yeah, the singleplayer campaign is absolutely a turd. It's not just bad as a Metroid game, but as a video game in general imo. For my choices I'm gonna leave the spinoffs out of this, and keep it to the main series though.
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I've wrote about my favorite before,
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, so I'll try to talk about some other things that I haven't talked about as much. Fusion is my favorite 2D game, and I think Corruption borrows a lot from that game and applies it to a 3D space, and does so beautifully. It's more linear, segmented, and story driven. I absolutely love the isolation that the Metroid series invokes, but I also love when we get peeks into the larger Metroid universe. There is context to everything you do in Corruption. The combination of always having mission objectives, combined with Retro's immaculate world building and environmental storytelling make every moment you're playing Corruption have more meaning. It goes way beyond Prime and Echoes, "Collect these keys to open the thing to beat the big boss to save the planet." There are several ways in which Corruption tells it's story brilliantly through gameplay and navigating the environment:
-As the Space Pirates invade the GFS Olympus, Samus rolls through morphball tunnels underneath the ship as you see the mysterious new Hunters use their otherworldly abilities against them, a beautifully animated scene.
-As the self destruct timer on Norion counts down, Samus rushes over a bridge to her next objective as a soldier is startled by a flying dragon, "What the heck is that!"
-Samus enters an unassuming floating pod on Skytown, only to find a labyrinth of narrow hallways, all containing numerous holding cells with Phazon Metroids inside. She makes her way through several rooms as the Metroids are agitated within their cells. The power goes out, she hears glass break, and creepy music ensues...
-Samus sees several creatures on Bryyo encased in Ice as she pursues Rundas. She get's glimpses of him from time to time, realizing that he isn't the same...
There are many other moments like this that make the world feel alive in a way that the Metroid series has never been before. To some, the cost of crippling isolation and nonlinearity is too big a price to pay, but for me it's not a bother. There are many long stretches in the game where you are alone and isolated. And though the game may point you towards your objective, it doesn't tell you how to get here. Environmental puzzles and obstacles are back in full force. These too have more context than past games, such as navigating a large room to upgrade your ship in a multi-step puzzle involving platforming, scanning, and careful observation of your surroundings. The way forward isn't always obvious, and careful exploration is required. As much as I love classic, Metroid ass Metroid, I find myself gravitating towards the games in the series that deviate from the norm. To me, Corruption is the shining example of this.
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My least favorite is
Metroid: Zero Mission. I know this is a fan favorite, and for many it was their first Metroid experience. That is completely valid. I think it's a very "welcoming" game. But for me, that's a big part of why I don't rate it very highly. It's biggest sin to me is it significantly diminishes the alien horror vibe of the first game. There is nothing brooding, nothing unsettling, nothing bold here. The graphics are more detailed, but the color palate is too bright and vibrant. The GBA speakers do not do the music any favors, but even if they did, the remixes of the original songs all fall flat for me. The music in OG Metroid made the environments feel ALIVE, and out to get you. It was as if they weren't separate from the environments themselves. But I'm just not feeling any of that here.
Gameplay wise, obviously there are many improvements over the original. You have a map, you don't have to start with 30 health when you die, you can shoot in 8 directions, you always know exactly where to go, less graphical glitches, slowdown, etc. And of course, you get a lot of powerups from Super Metroid. But nothing here is anywhere near as good as Super Metroid. Nothing in the level or world design makes these powerups interesting to use in Zero Mission. The game is easy, so there's no drive to go explore off the beaten path to look for missile upgrades and E-tanks. I also did not dig the post Mother Brain stealth section at all. It felt like the antitheses to Metroid. People criticize Other M for making Samus feel helpless, but in the entirety of that game, she could still kick the ever living crap out of everything in her way. But in this entirely long drawn out section, you are forced to actually BE helpless. It wasn't fun in any way to me. It was a relief finally get your fully powered up suit back though and wreak havoc at the end.
This game fails as both a remake to the original Metroid by butchering it's atmosphere and watering down the essence of what it was. It also fails as a sequel to Fusion. The level design, bosses, challenge, pacing, and atmosphere all take a significant step back. By trying to combine aspects of the OG, Fusion, and Super, it ends up with an identity crisis without much uniqueness of it's own.
I don't hate the game by any means. I even like it, as it still uses the timeless formula and gameplay loop of finding abilities to access new areas to progress. That is something that will never get old. Obviously I don't love it but I am happy that others do. It has an accessibility to it that makes it easy for anyone to pick up and play. OG Metroid is an old, archaic game in many ways, and Zero Mission is a way for people to experience the original adventure without the headache and frustration. And it has a certain charm to it all it's own. And most importantly, it got a lot of people into Metroid to begin with. And that is worth praising.
. I can see a Twitter drop happening even though in one hand it would be weird as well not to put it in a direct.
This thread is here now, and it's not going anywhere. Whenever you're ready to chill with us, feel free to stop on by! 
