To mark the thirty-third anniversary of the Metroid franchise, we got the team together to share how they first discovered the Metroid series. You’ll find a range of different stories of how we each encountered Samus and her adventures here! A big thanks to everyone on the team who contributed!
Darren
My introduction to Metroid was through Metroid Prime back in 2004. Originally I had no interest in the series, and it wasn’t until a friend at the time from the US said he would send his copy of the game to me in the UK, that I actually started to play it. I was hooked from the start, and went out to purchase other games in the series.
When visiting my local Gamestation shortly after completing Prime, I was asked by a member of staff if I played Super Metroid. I shamefully responded with the words “What’s Super Metroid?” to which he proceeded to LAUGH AT ME and run into the back, and came out with an unboxed copy of the game. He told me that I needed this game, and I bought it out of shame. He was absolutely correct, the game is a masterpiece! Since then I have played, completed and continued to be inspired by the incredible universe that is Metroid.
RoyboyX
I have faint memories circa 2007 of a neighbor’s Wii with the Metroid Prime 3 channel, at least I think that’s what it was, which was the first exposure I had to Metroid. But as with many other fans of the series, my first real experience with Metroid began through Super Smash Bros. In 2008 I convinced my parents to buy Brawl for me while they were in New York, and I started to play with Samus and Zero Suit Samus.
I checked out the Super Metroid Masterpiece and I remember being confused when I went into old Brinstar. This looks nothing like the stage! I thought, but I was intrigued. After getting tired of the demo’s time running out, I got enough Wii Points to buy the full version. I played it non-stop for days. I sucked and kept dying, but I loved everything about the game. When I got to Mother Brain, I had a bad runny nose, but kept playing until it was over. By then I was hooked on Metroid and went on to play the rest of the games in the series, getting Trilogy, Other M, Federation Force and Samus Returns on their release dates and playing into the wee hours of the night. I’ve been a diehard fan ever since.
KomodoZero
The actual origin of how I got into Metroid is exceptionally simple. I got Metroid Fusion for Christmas in 2002. That’s it, really. But the development afterwards is far more interesting. Fusion was so different from the likes of Pokemon, Zelda and Mario I was so accustomed to at the time. I was enthralled by the atmosphere at play, even though I was too terrified to continue past some of the SA-X sections, but I was never truly deterred from playing. Something kept me engaged, despite the fact that other scary games truly put me off them for good. I begged my parents for Prime on its European release of March 2003 and somehow got it (games usually had to have some event tied to it, such as birthdays or Christmas) and once again my younger self was too afraid to progress as it was even darker than Fusion ever was. But still I was not deterred, the world and the atmosphere was just too compelling. I did eventually see it through to the end, and linking it with Fusion led to me experiencing the original Metroid too. Many hours were lost just tinkering with passwords to see what weird combinations people had discovered. With the help of the Wii Virtual Console I was able to play Super Metroid, and from there the cards were dealt, a full house of gaming bliss.
Glaedrax
I remember that one day, twelve years ago, when my parents bought a video games news magazine and I saw this whole double page of Metroid Prime 3 advertisement. I remember seeing Rundas, Gandrayda and Ghor and thinking they looked dope! It got my attention because I had played a very little bit of the Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt demo on my Nintendo DS before, which actually was my first time playing a Metroid game and therefore Samus’s armor was already familiar to me. Later on, I got my hands on Metroid Prime 3 and I absolutely loved the Hypermode feature making you feel so powerful and unstoppable. Then I played a lot of Super Smash Bros. Brawl as Samus, and eventually returned the game much later to get Metroid Prime Trilogy. And oh boy did I ever made such a good decision in my entire life. I was absolutely stunned by the ambiance of Prime 1 and 2 (both gave me a very hard time since I was only 10 years old when I played them). I then proceeded to play every single entry of the Metroid series and… I even used to love Other M at the time. I eventually became completely obsessed with Metroid during my high school years and I was drawing Samus all the time. Now I’m 21 and it’s still the case… and I’m waiting for the fourth Metroid Prime game with impatience!
Quadraxis
My first contact with Metroid was with the original Metroid at age six, I did not think much of it at the time. I merely observed a friend of mine playing Super Metroid a few years later, still the same mentality until my brother bought Metroid Fusion. Being in my early teens by then, I finally grasped what Metroid was all about in-depth and I just kept liking it more and more the further I progressed. Metroid Prime turned me into a fan though, it was also the first game I ever bought at midnight launch expecting the same joy I got from Fusion. And I was not disappointed at all, in fact it only made me that much more of a fan.
Meta-Ridley was the pinnacle moment for me at the time that just immersed me into this universe. The unique soundtrack that followed is exactly the alien-like music I look for in general so it was a perfect match for me. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes made me one with Metroid in the end, and with Quadraxis… well that is literally true. Bring on the fourth chapter, my circuits cannot hold themselves together for much longer!
Renan
I first learned about Samus playing Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64 — but back then I had no idea about the game she was from. I probably didn’t even know she was a she. I would find out about Metroid some time later by reading Nintendo World, the Brazilian Nintendo magazine, in which Metroid: Zero Mission scored an impressive review score. Later, when the Wii was coming out and there was a lot of buzz around Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, I finally decided to give the series a shot, starting with the aforementioned Zero Mission.
I ended up trying Zero Mission, Fusion and Super Metroid, very much enjoying the experience. Wishing to find out more, I discovered the Metroid Database, which contained a wealth of resources about the Metroid series in the long-gone year of 2007. Without anything better to do with my life, I joined the website’s forums, which had been recently rebooted, and became an active member of the community, and proceeded to try out different games in the series. The Metroid community was, for a long time, my home on the Internet, and it was where I formed my online presence. I’m somewhat absent from the community these days, but it will always be special to me.
Amanda VanHiel
Like many others, my first introduction to Metroid was from Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64. My grandma had given me a Smash Bros. player’s guide, so I was able to learn where this dude in the space armor came from. That’s when I learned that Samus was a girl from a space game called Metroid. I liked space so I thought that was pretty cool. I felt most comfortable with her playstyle so she quickly became my main fighter. Getting a copy of Metroid or Super Metroid so I could play the source material didn’t even occur to me at the time — I was 13 and lived in a small town so my options were limited! I later learned more about Metroid when Super Smash Bros. Melee came out, since it exposed me to more of the series’ music and levels.
I remember there being rumors of a Metroid movie about a year or so after Melee was released and that’s when I decided two things: One, they’re going to have to cast me as Samus (I wasn’t sure how that would happen, but that’s what I wanted) and two, I should probably play an actual Metroid game, especially if I was going to be Samus. So that summer I finally played Metroid Fusion, which got me through a lot of high school drama. Since then, it’s always made me so happy to see other Metroid fans. Whether they’re cosplaying as Samus, wearing a Metroid shirt, or just talking about the series, I love that Metroid has maintained a fandom over all these years. Oh, and I’m still determined to be cast as Samus one day!
Darts
My first Metroid game was Fusion. Back then I didn’t own a GBA, so I would play games through (gasp) emulation. I was a dumb nine-year-old who barely knew anything outside of Mario and Pokémon and could only get a new game once or twice a year, so this was a way for me to try out games I wouldn’t normally play — though most didn’t hold my attention for more than a few minutes. I would boot up the game, play through the first level, and give up halfway if it didn’t fit my hyper specific tastes in video games.
Looking back, I’m surprised Metroid Fusion even managed to get me interested in the first place. It’s not exactly newcomer-friendly (the game literally starts with “Nintendo presents: Metroid 4”!) and the intro is nothing but long, slow walls of text explaining the plot, with references to previous games that I simply could not understand at the time (what on Earth is a “Metroid”??). And yet, before I knew it, I was hooked. The spooky and mysterious atmosphere, combined with the sense of growth as Samus unlocked more and more abilities convinced me to stay and explore every part of the BSL Station, and turned me into the Metroid fan I am today. This also taught me to try out new things and step out of my comfort zone, both in video games and life in general.