Best Metroid Games Of All Time, Ranked

gamespot.com:

The Metroid series is one of the oldest in modern gaming, having originated in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Despite its age, though, it's arguably never been more relevant to games than it is today. Even if you don't consider the recently released Metroid Dread, the series helped define the «metroidvania» genre and influenced countless modern games. It's also perhaps one of Nintendo's least iterated series, having received fewer games than others like Mario or The Legend of Zelda. That cautious approach has led to each entry bringing something unique to the series. We've put together a list of the best Metroid games--not including spin-offs like Metroid Prime Pinball and Hunters--ranked from worst to best.

The Metroid series is incredibly small--just five main side-scrolling games and three first-person Metroid Prime games, along with a handful of remakes--and many of them are strong showcases of Nintendo's first-party prowess. That all-killer, no-filler approach means a game that is merely pretty good, like Metroid: Other M, bottoms out the list. The project was spearheaded by Team Ninja, best known at the time for the Ninja Gaiden series, and as a result Other M was a very different kind of Metroid game. It was the first to feature melee combat, and the perspective was a mix of traditional 2D and Prime-like 3D.

It was a daring mix of ideas, and not all of them worked. While Other M was still a decent game, scoring a 79 review average on GameSpot sister site Metacritic, it received criticism for its uneven difficulty, and especially for its groan-worthy story and voice acting. Perhaps worst of all, it took one of gaming's most iconic heroines and made her doting and immature, and removed her agency