Has any Nintendo {hardware} accomplished extra for Metroid than the Nintendo Change? Positive, the SNES is residence to the perfect Metroid sport of all time and the GameCube ushered in a revolutionary perspective change. However now, with Metroid Prime 4: Past coming to the Nintendo Change in 2025, and practically each different nice Metroid sport accessible to play on the hand held, it’s time to ask the query: Did the Nintendo Change save Metroid?
It’s not past the realm of chance that Metroid was, at one level, very a lot prone to being shelved. Metroid has by no means moved severe numbers and in accordance with all accessible knowledge, the full gross sales for each Metroid sport mixed is someplace round 22 million items. To place that into perspective, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild alone has offered 32 million copies.
However what Metroid and Samus lacked in gross sales success, it greater than made up for it in model recognition. Nintendo followers who don’t like Metroid video games at the very least know of it, and Tremendous Smash Bros. stored Samus in entrance of avid gamers for years, even when there weren’t new Metroid video games to play. Now, on the Nintendo Change, Samus is ever-present, even when that wasn’t all the time the case.
Of Nintendo’s many beloved characters, maybe no one is as fascinating because the enigmatic bounty hunter, Samus Aran. When Metroid was launched in 1986, the sci-fi, Alien-inspired search-action sport was launched and would go on to spawn a style unto itself.
For older Nintendo avid gamers in search of one thing new, Metroid was a revelation. The place Zelda and Mario put gamers in vast, open worlds of vibrant hues, Metroid was darkish and cramped. Its creature designs have been downright terrifying and the central Metroid plotline was a direct reference to one in all cinema’s scariest, face-hugging aliens.
Metroid crammed a extra mature area of interest inside the Nintendo secure, however because of this by no means discovered the identical monetary success because the extra all-ages video games.
In 2010 Nintendo launched Metroid: Different M to tepid gross sales and maybe worse crucial reception. Industrial catastrophe and the shortcoming to recapture the magic of Metroid Prime may have spelled the top of Samus. It didn’t, however it did take six years earlier than the following Metroid sport was launched, the very-much forgotten Metroid Prime: Federation Power (coincidentally a minor character from that 3DS sport is outwardly a foremost villain in Metroid Prime 4). Aside from a well-received 3DS remake of Metroid 2 a 12 months later, Samus was all however lacking from the Wii U and early Change years.
It appears distant now however this was the period Metroid followers started to noticeably fret over the way forward for the collection. Aside from varied re-releases of older Metroid video games, the one actual venture seemingly in growth was Metroid Dread, a sport that was first referenced throughout the Nintendo DS period and entered twenty years of growth hell.
Nevertheless, Metroid Dread did finally discover its approach to the Nintendo Change, virtually 20 years after it started growth. Much more stunning, Dread – a throwback to the previous 2D model of Metroid video games – is the best-selling sport within the collection at over 3 million items offered. Not Zelda numbers, positive, however the numbers have been on target.
Combining the old-school 2D model of Metroid with a Resident Evil 2-like persistent enemy that takes the sport to borderline horror territory, Metroid Dread was a shot of adrenaline for the collection and shortly grew to become among the finest video games to play on the Nintendo Change. Nevertheless it’s not simply because Nintendo launched among the finest Metroid video games of all time on the Change that I consider the hand held console saved Metroid – it’s as a result of Nintendo launched all of the perfect Metroid video games on the system.
Take into account the Metroid library at present accessible on Change. There’s the aforementioned Dread, a very outstanding remake of Metroid Prime, Metroid Fusion, Tremendous Metroid, the unique Metroid, and now Metroid: Zero Mission all accessible to play on the Change as long as you will have both a digital copy of the sport or a subscription to the Nintendo Change On-line library.
Nearly in a single day the Nintendo Change grew to become the final word entryway for previous — however extra importantly new — followers to find Metroid. Within the digital age, previous video games particularly are extremely exhausting to return by and whereas Nintendo won’t have followers amongst some sectors of the digital preservation neighborhood, the Metroid collection at the very least is flourishing on the Change.
A few of these video games, just like the Recreation Boy Advance titles Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid Fusion, are nonetheless comparatively expensive on the secondhand market, whereas others like the total Metroid Prime Trilogy nonetheless stay trapped on out of date consoles just like the Wii. However for curious followers seeking to get into the total Metroid providing, they will’t do higher than choose up a Nintendo Change.
Nintendo has hardly showered anybody console with extra Metroid than the Nintendo Change. And given the Change’s humongous set up base, making Metroid straightforward to entry will hopefully solely proceed to develop that fanbase for the long run.
Now, with Metroid Prime 4: Past on the horizon, and nonetheless confirmed for the Nintendo Change fairly than the Change Successor, the Metroid parade on Nintendo’s hybrid system continues. And whereas particular person consoles just like the SNES, GameCube, and GameBoy Advance can boast about having launched the perfect Metroid video games of their technology, just one system — the Nintendo Change — has all of them, able to play at a second’s discover.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Options Editor. You’ll be able to attain him @lawoftd.