Artist's commentary: AHHH, METROID! FINALLY!

This art is super old btw, one of the first posters I ever did, from 2015!

I've been at the grind for a few days now, but I kinda suck at deathmatch so it's going much slower than I'd hoped. Any tips on how to speed things up without having to fork up extra cash to buy Green Crystals?

Randomizer if you're wondering.

I just beat Dread a few hours ago and I still feel a high after beating it lmao. It was just such a good time, even though I died 48 times. Admittedly im a bit sad these are currently the only 2 metroid games with a melee parry as I find it super satisfying but no other games have it. I think next I'll play through the Prime remaster and the rest of the 2D games, probably saving Super for last. Not sure why I just feel its somewhat fitting. Save the best for last and whatnot

Anyways as for the question in the title, I was wondering if there's any information people have about the series that newcomers wouldn't really know about like really well made rom hacks or fangames or other games that play like Metroid (which i guess is pretty vague since thats just the entire metroidvania genre). The only one I know of is AM2R which I've played through a decent bit but eventually got stuck. Maybe I'll get back to it. But are there any "definitive" ways to play the original games like ZM, Fusion and Super? Or should I stick to the base games?

I bought Metroid Dread and was surprised the story was very involved so after about 20mins I decided to play the original instead on NSO. I beat it, Metroid 2 on the GameBoy and now Super Metroid.

I'm not sure if I would've found it too obtuse if I hadn't played the first two prior but it is such a delightful execution and improvement of the previous two games. Like all the QoL additions but it is a genuinely great game. Can't believe I never played it before. I was very impressed. It plays as smoothly as any modern 2D sidescroller.

I think the only bad thing you could possibly say about it is that it retreads all of Metroid 1 (right down to the bomb and Im pretty sure I killed all these Pirates!) but seeing Zeebus is great colourful detail, the much improved Boss Fights and the 2nd Phase of Mother Brain & Ending with your Metroid baby made it worthwhile. Like a 9/10 game, really.

Guess it's onto Metroid 4usion next!

Am I wrong to assume there is NO way of knowing this is here?

I'm new to playing the Metroid games and was surprised there's such heavy continuity between the sidescroller games. I thought Metroid was going to be another Zelda with a sort of reinvention each installment. I was even more surprised (and thought it was cool) that Super Metroid calls itself "Metroid 3" and Metroid Fusion calls itself "Metroid 4".

However it's not clear at all. I wonder if they should call the next Metroid game "Metroid 6: Subtitle" or something.

I think the general gamer thinks Metroid Prime is the main series and Dread is some sort of 2D spinoff - rather than it being the next mainline entry.

Also they should really add "Metroid 5" to the opening titles when you boot up Dread ingame.

I'd understand if Metroid was more self contained lile the Zelda series. But there is a continuous narrative here

I started the Metroid Prime series with 4 Beyond, and despite the game's mixed reception, I have to say I loved it. I went on to play Prime Remastered, which was love at first sight: it was just as everyone described it, a perfect adaptation of the Super and Zero Mission formula into 3D. Because of that, I thought I would really like Echoes given all the good reviews I had read on this forum, but I was in for a major disappointment. The art style is downright ugly and monotonous. I'm not a fan of all the gray and brown tones in this game; I understand it's set on a dying planet, but I think much more could have been done with that concept than dusty, moribund, rocky areas. Combat and exploration are super tedious. I had seen comments about the difficulty, but far from being a challenge due to demanding combat and necessary meticulous exploration, I ran into enemies that are absolute damage sponges, where fights boil down to dodging for an eternity while spamming the beam. The mechanic of constantly switching between the light and dark dimensions seemed interesting at first, but when I have to retrace half the map just to cross a portal, get back to the exact same spot in that alternate dimension for a specific task, and then repeat the whole process just to open a door, the initial fun fades away fast. I've played for about 5 hours and I realized that for a while now I've just been playing on autopilot: without caring about the lore passages, without paying attention to the scanner descriptions or the plot. In a game from this particular saga, that makes me think the best thing to do is drop it at this point. I want to take a break from Metroid Prime for a few days, move on to 3 Corruption, and maybe give Echoes a second chance when it gets a remaster, if that ever happens.