is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic Metroid creatures. Metroid combines the platforming of Super Mario Bros. and the exploration of The Legend of Zelda with a science fiction setting and an emphasis on nonlinear gameplay. Most Metroid games are side-scrolling, while the 3D games use a first-person perspective. Players battle hostile alien enemies and obtain power-ups as they progress through the game world, with few non-player characters.
The first Metroid was developed by Nintendo R&D1 and released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. Metroid II: Return of Samus was released for the handheld Game Boy in 1991. Super Metroid (1994), released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, drastically expanded the Metroid formula, with numerous new power-ups and a richer story. After a hiatus, the first 3D Metroid game, Metroid Prime, developed by Retro Studios, was released for the GameCube in 2002 alongside the Game Boy Advance game Metroid Fusion. They were followed by Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004) and the Wii game Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007).
Metroid: Other M (2010), developed by Team Ninja for the Wii, received weaker reviews. After another hiatus, MercurySteam developed a remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus, Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) for the handheld Nintendo 3DS, followed by Metroid Dread (2021) for the Nintendo Switch. Following a protracted development, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was released for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025.
As of 2012, the Metroid series had sold more than over 17.44 million copies. It has been named among the best game franchises by several publications, and several Metroid games are named among the greatest games. The series has been represented in other Nintendo media, including the Super Smash Bros. series. Additional media includes soundtracks, comic books, and manga. Along with the 1997 Konami game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the early Metroid games defined the Metroidvania subgenre, inspiring other games with continuous explorable side-scrolling levels. Samus was one of the first prominent female video game characters.
Gameplay
The Metroid series contains elements from shooter, platformer, adventure, survival and first-person games.
The classic series consists of 2D side-scrollers, while the Metroid Prime series uses a first-person perspective, and first-person shooter mechanics. The 2010 game Other M uses the third-person shooter format.
The original Metroid was influenced by two other major Nintendo franchises: Mario, from which it borrowed extensive areas of platform jumping, and The Legend of Zelda, from which it borrowed non-linear exploration. According to Edge, Metroid is "the thinking man's shooter", in which weapons are "more a means of progression than weapon", with the environments posing larger obstacles than enemies.
Audio
The Metroid series has been noted and praised for its unique style of video game music.
In the original Metroid and its remake Zero Mission, Samus travels to the planet Zebes to stop the Space Pirates from using the Metroids to create biological weapons. Samus is dispatched to aid against a Space Pirate raid on a Galactic Federation facility on Tanamaar which has recently unearthed an artifact, the raid is led by rival bounty hunter Sylux who uses metroids capable of possessing hosts to control the pirates. A scuffle between Samus and Sylux activates the artifact which teleports them and several Federation soldiers to the distant planet Viewors. The Lamorn, Viewors' extinct inhabitants have prophesized a saviour tasked to plant a seed known as Memory Fruit on another planet to preserve their legacy. After rejoining the Federation soldiers and finding a way home, Samus encounters Sylux who proves too powerful and stubborn to go down, forcing her comardes to sacrifice themselves so she can leave the planet and fulfill Lamorn's final wish.
Development and history
1986: Origins
thumb|left|In [[Metroid (video game)|Metroid (the first game in the series), released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the player controls Samus Aran who fights alien monsters on the fictional planet Zebes.|alt=A video game screenshot. A person in a powered exoskeleton travels through a cave, while winged monsters hang from the ceiling.]]
The central figures in the production and development of the Metroid series are Satoru Okada, who directed Metroid and created the series; Yoshio Sakamoto, who was a character designer for the first game and has directed or supervised most of the sequels; Gunpei Yokoi, who headed the R&D1 division and produced the first two games; Makoto Kano, who wrote the scenario for Metroid, co-designed the second game, and produced the third; and Hiroji Kiyotake, who designed characters for the original. It was directed by Satoru Okada. Halfway through development of the original Metroid, one of the staff said to his fellow developers "Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?", and the idea was accepted. Ridley Scott's 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien was described by Sakamoto as a "huge influence" after the world of the first Metroid had been created. In recognition of this, an antagonist was given the name Ridley, after the director. The development staff were also influenced by the work of the film's creature designer H. R. Giger, finding his style to be fitting for the Metroid universe.
1991–2002: Sequels and first hiatus
Metroid II: Return of Samus was released for the Game Boy in 1991 in North America and in 1992 in Japan and Europe. It further established Samus Arans' visual design, with the bulky Varia Suit upgrade and different arm cannons. Released in 1994, Super Metroid drastically expanded the Metroid formula, with numerous new power-ups and a richer story. It received acclaim and is considered one of the best SNES games. Sakamoto said he could not imagine how the Nintendo 64 controller could be used to move Samus. and Samus was a playable character in the Nintendo 64 fighting game Super Smash Bros. (1999).
Metroid Prime, the first 3D Metroid game, released in 2002, moved the nonlinear structure of Super Metroid to a first-person perspective. It sold 2.84 million copies worldwide and was the best-selling Metroid game until Metroid Dread (2021).
In the same year, Nintendo released Metroid Fusion, a 2D game for the Game Boy Advance (GBA). The team's next GBA project was Zero Mission (2004), a remake of the original Metroid. A Nintendo restructure merged R&D1 with R&D2 in 2003, shortly ahead of the release of Zero Mission.
In 2004, Nintendo also released Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, which has Samus switching between parallel light and dark worlds and introduced greater difficulty.
The Prime games were rereleased for the Wii in the compilation Metroid Prime: Trilogy. Trilogy was only available in limited quantities as Nintendo ceased production of the discs in January 2010- only months after launch, and instead suggested users seek out second-hand copies. In the late 2000s, Next Level Games built a Metroid prototype for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS handheld as a pitch to Nintendo in the late 2000s, but it was not picked up. Instead, Next Level developed Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.
2010–2016: Other M and second hiatus
With Nintendo focusing on a more casual audience during the Wii's lifespan, the next Metroid moved away from the more complex gameplay of the Prime series. It was released for Wii in 2010. Polygon described Other M as "such a massive misfire and a flop with fans that it practically killed the series". In 2016, Nintendo released Metroid Prime: Federation Force, developed by Next Level. It received criticism for its multiplayer focus, soccer minigame and frivolous tone. After it was unveiled at E3 2015, an online fan petition to have it cancelled drew thousands of signatures. Federation Force was absent from Nintendo's presence at E3 2016 months before launch. It debuted at 15th place on the 3DS sales chart and was considered a commercial failure.
2017–present: Samus Returns, Dread and Prime 4: Beyond
right|thumb|upright=1|[[Metroid: Samus Returns, released in 2017 for the Nintendo 3DS]]
In the mid-2010s, the Spanish studio MercurySteam proposed remaking Fusion. Sakamoto was impressed by their work on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate (2013) and instead asked them to remake Metroid II. Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) retains the sidescrolling gameplay of the original and adds 3D graphics and a melee counterattack, suggested by MercurySteam after their use of a similar mechanic in Castlevania.
MercurySteam's next project was Metroid Dread for the Nintendo Switch (2021), a realization of a cancelled Nintendo DS project. It had sold more than 2.9 million copies worldwide by May 2022, making it the best-selling Metroid game. It was developed by Retro Studios with assistance from developers including Iron Galaxy Studios.
At E3 2017, Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4 for the Switch. It was initially developed by Bandai Namco Studios. Unsatisfied with the progress, Nintendo announced in January 2019 that it had restarted the development under Retro. In June 2024, Nintendo revealed a trailer and the title Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. It was released on 4 December 2025 and received positive reviews.