The History of Metroid

2004 - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes arrived with uncharacteristic swiftness in November 2004, just under two years after Prime rolled up in Europe. This time, thankfully, we managed to get the game at the same time as the rest of the planet. While such punctuality is usually the sign of a rushed cash-in, Echoes was far from a quick copy of Prime, and actually managed to introduce several major new features. The story, which centred around the planet Aether and a battle between the Luminoth and the Ing (plus some space pirates, naturally), found Samus voyaging between light and dark dimensions in much the same way that Link hopped between magical planes of existence in A Link To The Past. This schism also introduced the character of Dark Samus, who was like Samus, only dark. And therefore evil. Echoes was also the first Metroid game to feature a multiplayer mode, allowing gamers to tackle each other in four-player deathmatches. This, technically, also makes it the first Metroid game where you can play as characters other than Samus.

But it's simply not Metroid without an unfathomable wait, so your generous Eurogamer made fans hang around for almost a month, pestering in EVERY BLOODY COMMENTS SECTION before Kristan finally spake forth with his verdict. The addition of multiplayer didn't exactly make him swoon - "tacked on for sake of it" he sighed from deep within his mahogany cigar-scented drawing room - but the game itself was once again greeted with rapture and fawning admiration. Yes, dear reader, he really did say it was better than Halo 2. And, deep down, you know he was right.

Such loving reviews didn't do much to prevent the game getting absolutely flattened in the 2004 Christmas rush though. Despite being hailed by critics as the best thing since sexual chocolate, Samus was left bloodied and crushed by the grinding wheels of franchise behemoths like San Andreas, Half-Life 2 and that little Master Chief game I mentioned a moment ago. Clearly, the moribund GameCube was no place for a classy lady - even if that lady was packing missiles and an ice beam.

2005 to 2007 - The DS and Wii years

A new generation of hardware was dawning, and this time Metroid wasn't missing out. Metroid Prime Pinball helped to launch the Nintendo DS Rumble Pak and, as the name cryptically suggests, retold the story of Metroid Prime through the medium of pinball. 4/10, then.

This was followed in May 2006 by Metroid Prime Hunters, demos for which had been frothing the fanbase since the release of Echoes. One of the first FPS games on the DS, Hunters pitted Samus against rival bounty hunters and also marked the first online multiplayer mode in the Metroid series, but such additions weren't enough to compensate for what many found to be rather lacklustre design compared to our high expectations for things bearing the Metroid name. It crept its way up to an 8/10 under the Eurogamer microscope, but even then the praise consisted of words like "competent" and mutterings about "flimsy" online play.

Which brings us to Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, now finally in the shops following an interminable wait - it was supposed to be a Wii launch title, after all. A wise man declared it "one of the best games I've played all year", and that man was Kristan who you'll realise - if you've been following carefully - has been prodding you lot to buy these fine, fine games for many years. Are you going to pay attention this time? Let's bloody hope so. With Nintendo's hand-waggling wonderbox, the all-new Samus finally has a hit console beneath her immaculately groomed cyberfeet rather than the rapidly sinking GameCube, so maybe she'll finally get the audience she deserves.

And what of the future? Rumours farting around the infosphere since 2005 have insisted that a new 2D Metroid for the DS, codenamed Metroid Dread, was on the way. Metroid Prime 3 cheekily stokes the fires with a computer screen mentioning that "Project Dread is nearing completion" but, sadly, such talk is naught but poppycock and bally-hoo. Nintendo announced in September that there are no new 2D Metroid games planned. Though that doesn't rule out another 3D game, does it? Hmm.