Another Metroid 2(021) Rewind: Mission Statement

After almost two decades in limbo, a game called Metroid Dread will be coming to the Nintendo Switch in early October. In the meantime, join me for a deep dive into why that matters — not just for longtime fans of a seminal series, but for anyone interested in the way video games developed as an art form and storytelling medium.

I’ve long-adored Metroid from the outside in — and by that, I’ve played the first half-hour of almost every Metroid game, sometimes multiple times, before either losing access to them or having life intervene with some unforeseen challenge. Despite that, I love these games: the design philosophy, the atmosphere, the feeling of isolation, the strangeness and sometimes grotesqueness of their worlds, and the entire of genre of masterpieces they’ve inspired. Moreover, those half hours gave me more to think about than 90% of the full games I’ve played (to the point where it became a pretty core component of my academic work on games), and I’ve spent years wanting to play them all.

So, over the next three months, I will be playing through the entirety of the Metroid and Metroid Prime series (as well as one fan remake): every game, in the following order:

Part One: The Birth of Metroidvania

1. Metroid
2. Metroid II: Return of Samus
3. Super Metroid

Part Two: Primed and Ready

4. Metroid Prime
5. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
6. Metroid Prime Pinball
7. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Part Three: Remakes, Revisions, and Returns

8. Metroid: Zero Mission
9. AM2R: Return of Samus
10. Metroid: Other M
11. Metroid: Samus Returns
12. Metroid Fusion
13. Metroid Dread

There are two spin-offs missing from this list; I’m excepting Prime Hunters and Federation Force from this quest, the latter due to the difficulty of finding a co-op partner, and the former mainly for time and money’s sake. Though, if I end up with more of either of those than expected, they may find their way here as well.

And that’s that! Expect an essay on the first Metroid very soon, and for subsequent ones to follow at a steady pace. Welcome to my 2021 Metroid Rewind.