Summary
At the moment,Metroidfans are waiting expectantly for the next entry in the series. WhileMetroid Prime 4has been largely silent after its development restarted,Metroid DreadandMetroid Prime Remasteredhave given the old franchise some quality representation on the Nintendo Switch. Combined with variousMetroidtitles becoming available through Nintendo Switch Online,Metroidis in a much better state now than it was just a few years ago.
It’s good to see it back, as the old series is one of Nintendo’s biggest first party franchises, and fans were afraid that its story had reached an untimely end. For a decade afterMetroid: Other Mreleased on the Nintendo Wii, the onlyMetroidgames released were the spin-offFederation Forceand theMetroid 2remakeMetroid: Samus Returns.MetroidPrime 4’s announcementwas huge for the community, but it wasn’t untilMetroid Dreadreleased that its narrative felt alive again. Despite the gameplay-centric nature of theMetroidseries, it does have a running continuity, and fans were very happy to seeDreadadvance it for the first time in nearly two decades.
TheMetroidseries' chronological order is as follows:
RELATED:Metroid Prime 4’s Placement on the Metroid Timeline Seems Obvious Now
Metroid’s Beginning and the Prime Era
Chronologically speaking, the beginning ofMetroid’s story was found in a prequel manga, but the starting point for the games themselves is the firstMetroidtitle.Metroid: Zero Missionoccupies the same place, and fleshed out the story of Samus Aran’s first major battle against the Space Pirates a bit more. The same can be said forMetroid 2: Return of Samusand its remakeSamus Returns, but there’s a whole other series to cover before the second game actually happens.
The entireMetroid Primeseries, fromMetroid Prime 1throughMetroid Prime Hunters,Prime 2: Echoes,Prime 3: Corruption, andMetroid Prime: Federation Force, all occupy a period betweenMetroid 1and2. Whether thePrimeseries shares the other games’ canon or not has been hotly debated over the years, with some of the recent 2D-oriented official timelines omitting it. A bigpoint inMetroidPrime’s favorwas Ridley’s appearance as the new final boss ofSamus Returns, where he sports his Omega Ridley armor fromMetroid Prime 3. Ultimately, thePrimeseries remains canon, though whenMetroid Prime 4will take place in relation to it remains to be seen.
The Rest of the 2D Metroid Games
Metroid: Samus Returnseffectively sets the stage for the rest of the series, as all of its new story elements pertain to later games. Ridley returns inSuper Metroidto steal the last living Metroid fromMetroid 2, sending Samus after the Space Pirates again. This title ends with the baby Metroid sacrificing itself to help Samus destroy Mother Brain, directly leading into the other major controversy inMetroidcanon.Metroid: Other Mis an entrysome fans refuse to acknowledge due to several writing and gameplay decisions, but it currently represents the end of the Space Pirates’ involvement inMetroidcanon, and was later referenced inMetroid Dreadthrough some unlockable art.
The final two games inMetroid’s chronology so far areMetroid FusionandMetroid Dread, which form a duology concerned with the X Parasites. Samus’ earlier extermination of the Metroid species led to their main prey, dubbed X Parasites, multiplying out of control, and an expedition to their planet leads to Samus being infected. A vaccine made from the last Metroid cures Samus, but she needs to stop an outbreak of the Parasites originating from her old Power Suit.Metroid Dreaddirectly follows up onFusion’s plotwhile also paying off the new material added toSamus Returns. Thanks toMetroid Dread’s host of developments and reveals, theMetroidtimeline currently ends in a satisfying state.
