Metroid (NES, 1987)

Metroid is possibly the most successful Nintendo series behind Super Mario Brothers and Zelda with its first installment being released in 1987 in North America. It was originally released in Japan for the Family Computer Disk System in 1986 and featured the ability to save your game. For Europe and North America the game was converted to cartridge format and a password system was used to save games.

While the series has been popular, several years have often gone by between releases. The sequel, Return of Seamus was released on the Game Boy in 1991 after five years. Super Metroid came out a few years later for the Super Nintendo and then there was an eight year gap before the next installments came out on Game Boy Advance and the Gamecube. From then there were a flurry of releases and then another big gap between 2010 and 2016. This sort of thing isn’t unusual for Nintendo’s big first party titles though and probably just serves to build anticipation and huge sales when they do come out.

The title screen from the original Metroid on the Nintendo Entertainment System is shown above and for me this one will always be the best. Metroid should have stayed in the 2D realm.