Wikitroid:Featured article queue/Month 03, 2011

In the eight months leading up to Metroid's 25th anniversary, we're featuring the eight oldest Metroid games each month from newest to oldest, culminating with the original Metroid game in August!



Metroid Prime (メトロイドプライム, Metoroido Puraimu) is the first 3D Metroid game released on November 15, 2002. It was developed by Nintendo-owned Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube. It is officially classified by Nintendo as a first-person adventure, rather than a first-person shooter, due to the large exploration component to the game. It was also the first Metroid game to be released since Super Metroid, which was released nearly eight years earlier, though this only applies to North America as in all other markets, it was released after Metroid Fusion. Metroid Prime was the first of the four part Prime storyline, which takes place between the original Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus. This is due to the fact that the titular Metroid creatures were exterminated in the latter, and Prime contains Metroids as minor creatures. The title was later bundled with the GameCube in 2004. Like the rest of the series, Metroid Prime has a science fiction setting, once again allowing the player to control the bounty hunter Samus Aran. The story follows Samus battling the Space Pirates and their biological experiments on planet Tallon IV. (continue reading)