The Metroid games are a series of video games produced by Nintendo. One of the company's most successful franchises, the series spans through several Nintendo systems, starting with Metroid (1986) on the Famicom Disk System, and various ports, sequels, and remakes on the NES, Game Boy, Super NES, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Nintendo DS and Wii.

The Metroid games chronicle the missions of bounty hunter Samus Aran in a science fiction setting which has been compared to that of the Alien movies. Central plot elements are the terrifying Metroid organisms, and the Space Pirates which try to exploit the Metroids' powers. The gameplay combines adventure based on exploration and item-gathering with platformer and shooter dynamics. The Metroid games are particularly associated with nonlinear gameplay.

As of June 2006, 10 games in the Metroid series have been released. Including 4 main games, (Metroid, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Super Metroid, and Metroid Fusion), a port and a remake of Metroid (Metroid Zero Mission), a spin-off Nintendo DS game (Metroid Prime Pinball), a first-person adventure game, with wireless and online multiplayer (Metroid Prime: Hunters), and a nearly complete trilogy (With Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 released) with the third game in the trilogy underway for the Wii.

The chronology of the Metroid fictional universe does not match the release order of the games.

According to the official timeline released by Nintendo, the games currently released are ordered as follows:

Metroid (1986)
Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Famicom Disk, Nintendo Gameboy Advance

Samus travels through the caverns of the planet Zebes to stop the Space Pirates from exploiting the Metroid species for galactic domination.

She confronts the cybernetic lifeform Mother Brain, as well as its guardians, Kraid and Ridley.


Metroid: Zero Mission (2004)
Nintendo Gameboy Advance

In the 2004 remake Metroid: Zero Mission, Samus is ambushed by Space Pirates after defeating Mother Brain and escaped from Zebes, and her ship crash-lands back on the surface.

Stripped of her Power Suit and her ship destroyed, she is forced to infiltrate the Space Pirate Mother Ship in order to find a way off the planet with only an emergency pistol for protection.


Metroid Prime (2002)
Nintendo Gamecube

Samus receives a distress signal in her new ship and she travels to Tallon IV to stop the Space Pirates from exploiting a powerful radioactive substance known as Phazon.

She discovers that the ancient people who raised her and bestowed her with the Power Suit, the Chozo, once settled on this planet, and their disappearance, as well as the emergence of Phazon, is somehow linked to a meteor that crashed into the planet's surface.


Metroid Prime: Hunters (2006)
Nintendo DS

When the Federation receives an unusual telepathic message, Samus is sent to the remote Alimbic Cluster in the Tetra Galaxy to uncover the rumored "Ultimate Power."
Six rival bounty hunters that also heard the message actively attempt to secure the power before anyone else, including Samus. A demo of the game was released with the DS.


Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004)
Nintendo Gamecube

The Space Pirates again try to make use of Phazon, this time on the planet Aether, a world split into light and dark dimensions by a meteor similar to that on Tallon IV.

Samus is pursued by a mysterious look-alike known as Dark Samus, a remnant from the first Prime game.


Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007)
Nintendo Wii

Retro has announced that this is the third and final chapter of the Metroid Prime trilogy.

Mark Pacini, the game director at Retro, states that "Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a direct sequel to Metroid Prime 2, and the goal of the game is to wrap up the storyline that involves the material Phazon."


Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991)
Nintendo Gameboy

Following the events of the previous chapters, the Galactic Federation deems the Metroid species too dangerous to exist, and, after their own failed attempts, employs Samus to travel to the Metroid homeworld, SR388, and exterminate the entire species.


Super Metroid (1994)
Super Nintendo

Samus receives a distress signal from the research lab where she took a Metroid hatchling saved at the end of the previous game.

She returns just in time to see Ridley stealing the hatchling and then follows Ridley to the rebuilt base on Zebes to stop the Space Pirates in their new plan to clone the Metroids and use them as a weapon.


Metroid Fusion (2002)
Nintendo Gameboy Advance

While acting as a bodyguard for researchers on the planet SR388, Samus is infected by a creature known as the X Parasite, the original prey of the Metroid species.
Doctors surgically remove her Power Suit and cure the X infection with a vaccine created from Metroid DNA, allowing her not only to survive the parasite but to absorb its life energy and use it as her own.

She is then sent to investigate a disturbance at the space research facility, Biologic Space Labs, where researchers attempted to contain the infected Power Suit.


Metroid Prime Pinball (2005)
Nintendo DS

This is not a separate canon game in the Metroid storyline but actually retells the story of the original Metroid Prime in pinball format.

It includes several of the same bosses and areas, such as Phendrana Drifts, Thardus, and Metroid Prime.

Despite playing as a pinball game, there are a number of powerups that can be collected in the multi-game mode, including missiles and power bombs.

The game is bundled with the Nintendo DS Rumble Pak and was the first game to employ it.