Metroid Prime is an action-adventure game released in 2002. It was created by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. This game is the fifth main game in the Metroid series. It was the first Metroid game to use 3D computer graphics and a view from the player's point of view. It was released in North America in November 2002 and in Japan and Europe the next year. Along with the Game Boy Advance game Metroid Fusion, Prime marked the return of the Metroid series after an eight-year break since Super Metroid (1994).

Metroid Prime takes place shortly after the events of the original Metroid. Players control the bounty hunter Samus Aran as she fights the Space Pirates and their experiments on the planet Tallon IV. The game was made by Retro Studios in Austin, Texas, and Japanese Nintendo employees, including producers Shigeru Miyamoto and Kensuke Tanabe. Miyamoto suggested the project after visiting Retro's headquarters in 2000. Because exploring the environment is more important than fighting, Nintendo called the game a "first-person adventure" instead of a "first-person shooter."

Metroid Prime sold more than 2.8 million copies worldwide. It won many Game of the Year awards and is considered by many to be one of the greatest video games, with high ratings on Metacritic.

After Metroid Prime, the series continued with Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004), Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007), and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (2025). In 2009, an improved version of Metroid Prime was released for the Wii in Japan and as part of the Metroid Prime: Trilogy collection internationally. A remastered version was released on the Nintendo Switch in 2023.

Gameplay

Metroid Prime is an action-adventure game where players control the main character, Samus Aran, from a first-person viewpoint, unlike earlier games in the Metroid series, which used a third-person perspective. During the Morph Ball mode, the game switches to a third-person view. The gameplay includes solving puzzles, jumping between platforms, and using a "lock-on" system that helps players aim at enemies while moving around them.

Samus travels through the world of Tallon IV to find twelve Chozo Artifacts, which unlock the path to a Phazon meteor impact crater. Along the way, she collects power-ups that allow her to access new areas. For example, the Varia Suit protects her armor from extreme heat, letting her enter volcanic regions. Some items are earned after defeating bosses. Players must collect items in a specific order to unlock areas or beat enemies. For instance, certain doors can only be opened with a specific Beam weapon, and new weapons are needed to defeat bosses. Exploring the game helps players find upgrades that increase Samus's maximum ammunition and health.

The heads-up display, which looks like the inside of Samus's helmet, shows a radar, map, missile ammunition, health, a danger meter for hazardous areas, and a health bar and name for bosses. Players can change the display using different visors, such as one for thermal imaging, one for x-ray vision, and one that scans for enemy weaknesses and interacts with objects like force fields and elevators. The game includes a hint system that gives players clues to help them progress. By connecting Prime with Metroid Fusion using a GameCube–Game Boy Advance link cable, players can unlock Samus's Fusion Suit and a version of the original Metroid game.

Throughout the game, players collect items that improve Samus's weapons and suit. These include the Morph Ball, which lets Samus shrink into a ball to roll through narrow spaces and drop bombs, and the Grapple Beam, which attaches to special hooks called grapple nodes to swing across gaps. Unlike earlier games, the beam weapons in Metroid Prime cannot be combined; instead, players must switch between four different beam weapons, each with unique charge abilities. Other upgrades include boots that allow Samus to jump twice and a Spider Ball upgrade that lets her climb magnetic rails.

Some items from previous Metroid games appear with different functions. Players can unlock art galleries and extra ending scenes by collecting a high percentage of items and Scan Visor logs. Prime is one of the first Metroid games to explain why Samus does not start with power-ups from earlier games. She begins with some upgrades, such as the Varia Suit, Missiles, and the Grapple Beam, but loses them during an explosion on the Space Pirate ship Orpheon. The game's creators said starting with some power-ups helps players learn how to use them before focusing on the main gameplay.

Plot

Retro Studios created a detailed story for Metroid Prime, which is different from earlier Metroid games. Short scenes appear before important battles, and a scanner in the heads-up display helps players learn about the game’s background by examining objects. The first three Metroid Prime games take place between Metroid and Metroid II, while Metroid Prime 4: Beyond happens between Metroid: Other M and Metroid Fusion.

The game takes place on the planet Tallon IV, which was once home to the Chozo race. Fifty years ago, the Chozo disappeared after a meteor hit the planet. The meteor left behind a harmful, changing substance called Phazon, which the Space Pirates named, and it also brought a creature the Chozo called "The Worm." A large energy barrier in the Artifact Temple of the Tallon Overworld area was built to trap the meteor’s power and prevent it from spreading. The Space Pirates try to disable this barrier to access Phazon. The barrier is controlled by twelve Chozo artifacts scattered across the planet.

After defeating Mother Brain and Space Pirate forces on Zebes, Samus Aran receives a distress signal from the Space Pirate ship Orpheon. The ship’s crew was killed by the Pirates’ genetically altered, experimental creatures using Phazon. At the ship’s core, Samus fights the Parasite Queen, a giant version of the small parasites on the ship. After defeating the Parasite Queen, the ship begins to explode. During her escape, Samus encounters a cybernetic version of Ridley called Meta Ridley, who also escapes. An explosion damages Samus’ suit, causing some of her abilities to fail. Samus escapes the ship and chases Ridley to the nearby planet Tallon IV.

After landing on Tallon IV, Samus explores the Tallon Overworld and finds ruins of an ancient Chozo settlement. She learns the Chozo were killed by Phazon, which came from the meteor that struck the planet long ago. After restoring her abilities in the ruins and defeating a mutated plant creature polluting the water, Samus travels to the Magmoor Caverns, a series of magma-filled tunnels used by the Space Pirates for energy. She then moves to the Phendrana Drifts, a cold, mountainous area with another Chozo ruin and a Space Pirate research lab called Glacial One, where they study Metroids. After gaining new abilities, Samus explores the wreckage of the Orpheon and enters the Phazon Mines. There, she learns about the Phazon experiment, including the creation of Metroid Prime, a creature that arrived with the meteor. Deeper in the mines, Samus fights Phazon-enhanced Space Pirates and defeats the Omega Pirate to obtain the Phazon Suit.

At some point, Samus discovers the Artifact Temple, built by the Chozo to contain Metroid Prime and stop Phazon from spreading. To reach the meteor’s impact crater, Samus must collect and unite the twelve Chozo artifacts. When she returns to the temple with the artifacts, Meta Ridley attacks her. Samus defeats Ridley and enters the crater, where she fights Metroid Prime. After defeating it, Metroid Prime absorbs Samus’ Phazon Suit and explodes. Samus escapes the collapsing crater and leaves Tallon IV in her ship.

If the player completes the game with all items collected, Metroid Prime reforms into a body resembling Samus.

Development

According to producer Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo did not create a Metroid game for the Nintendo 64 because the company "could not come up with clear ideas." Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto said he could not imagine how the Nintendo 64 controller could be used to control Samus. Nintendo asked another company to make Metroid for the Nintendo 64, but the company refused, likely because it felt it could not match the quality of Super Metroid.

Metroid Prime was made by Nintendo EAD, R&D1, and the American company Retro Studios. Retro was formed in 1998 through a partnership between Nintendo and Jeff Spangenberg, founder of Iguana Entertainment. The studio made games for the upcoming GameCube aimed at older players. After opening an office in Austin, Texas, in 1999, Retro worked on four GameCube projects. In 2000, when Miyamoto visited Retro, he suggested a new Metroid game after seeing their prototype first-person shooter engine. In 2000 and early 2001, four games Retro was working on, including an RPG called Raven Blade, were canceled, leaving Prime as the only project. During the last nine months of development, Retro’s workers put in very long hours, sometimes up to 100 hours a week, to meet Nintendo’s deadline. Senior artist James Dargie said it took almost six months to create the first level that Nintendo approved, and then less than a year to finish the rest of the game. Concept artist Android Jones, who worked on Samus’s Varia Suit and the Scan Visor, would sleep in the office and continue working when he woke up.

“We didn’t want to make just another first-person shooter,” said Retro’s team. “Making a first-person shooter would have been an easy choice, but we wanted to keep the themes and ideas from Metroid. Translating those ideas into 3D was a big challenge. For example, making the morph ball work in 3D was one of the hardest tasks.”

Nintendo created the music, Retro handled the art and engineering, and both teams worked on the game’s overall design. The Japanese team, which included Miyamoto, Kensuke Tanabe, Kenji Miki, and Sakamoto, communicated with Retro through emails, phone calls, and in-person meetings. The game was originally planned to use a third-person perspective, but Miyamoto changed this to first-person after seeing problems with third-person camera angles in Rare’s game Jet Force Gemini. Director Mark Pacini said Miyamoto believed that “shooting in third person was not very intuitive” and that exploration was easier using first-person. The team decided not to make a traditional first-person shooter but instead focused on creating a fun Metroid game that broke typical first-person shooter rules.

Senior designer Mike Wikan said the team made sure the game’s challenges were limited to boss battles, so players would feel comfortable exploring. He added that the team worked to make platform jumping easy for players and made shooting a secondary part of the game. Retro developed the storyline under Sakamoto’s guidance, ensuring it matched earlier games. The developers planned to include Kraid, a boss from Metroid and Super Metroid, but he was removed due to time limits. They also considered adding the Speed Booster from Super Metroid but decided it would not work well in the first-person perspective.

The first public look at the game was a 10-second video at Space World 2000. In November 2000, Retro confirmed its involvement with the game on its website. In February 2001, Nintendo announced the game and said it would be called Metroid Prime. The game was shown at E3 2001 in May.

Kenji Yamamoto, with help from Kouichi Kyuma, composed the music for Prime. The soundtrack includes music from earlier Metroid games to please longtime fans. The Tallon Overworld theme is based on Metroid’s Brinstar theme, the Magmoor Caverns music is a new version of Super Metroid’s Lower Norfair theme, and the fight with Meta Ridley uses a fast version of the Ridley boss music from Super Metroid. Early in development, the electronic duo Autechre was asked to make the soundtrack, but Nintendo stopped this. Tommy Tallarico Studios provided early sound effects, but Miyamoto said they were not good enough for a long presentation at Space World 2001. The game supports Dolby Pro Logic II setups and can be played with surround sound. A soundtrack album, Metroid Prime & Fusion Original Soundtracks, was released by Scitron on June 18, 2003.

Release

Metroid Prime was first released for the GameCube in North America on November 18, 2002. In 2003, the game was released in Japan on February 28 and in Europe on March 21. In 2004, Nintendo made a GameCube bundle that included Metroid Prime and a second disc with a trailer and demo for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, a timeline of Metroid games, and an art gallery.

In 2009, Metroid Prime was released again in Japan for the Wii as part of the New Play Control! series. This version included better controls using the Wii Remote’s pointing feature, bonus content, and the ability to take screenshots of gameplay. In other countries, this version was included in the Wii compilation Metroid Prime: Trilogy. The compilation became available for download from the Wii U’s Nintendo eShop in January 2015.

Metroid Prime Remastered, a high-definition remastered version for the Nintendo Switch, was released digitally on February 9, 2023. A physical copy was released on February 22 in North America and on March 3 in Europe and Japan. Retro Studios developed the remaster with help from other developers, including Iron Galaxy Studios. The remaster includes new visuals, updated control options (such as dual-stick controls), and unlockable art.

Metroid Prime Remastered received praise. Samuel Claiborn of IGN called it “a perfect example of how to both honor a well-received classic and update it to modern standards.” The version was criticized for not naming the developers of earlier Metroid Prime versions, instead crediting them as “original Nintendo GameCube and Wii version development staff.” As of March 2023, Metroid Prime Remastered had sold 1.09 million copies.

Reception

Metroid Prime was one of the most popular games for the GameCube. In November 2002, it was the second most popular game in North America, with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City selling more copies. During its first week of release, 250,000 copies were sold. By July 2006, the game had sold over 1.49 million copies in the United States alone and earned more than $50 million. It was also the eighth most popular GameCube game in Australia. In Japan, more than 78,000 copies were sold, and Nintendo added it to its Player's Choice line in the PAL region. Worldwide, the game sold 2.84 million copies and remained the best-selling Metroid game until Metroid Dread was released in 2021.

Metroid Prime received high praise from critics, with Metacritic noting "universal acclaim." Three reviewers from Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it the highest possible score of 10/10. The game won many Game of the Year awards and was praised for its detailed graphics, special effects, varied environments, moody soundtrack, and sound effects. It was also recognized for its level design, immersive atmosphere, and gameplay that focused on exploration rather than action, while staying true to the Metroid series. Some critics mentioned the control scheme was unusual, the story was not the main focus, and players had to revisit the same areas repeatedly. Game Informer said the controls felt awkward, Entertainment Weekly compared it to a "1990s arcade game" with "a weak plot," and GamePro noted that inexperienced players might find revisiting the same areas tiring. In 2004, the video game show Filter called Metroid Prime the game with the best graphics of all time.

At the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences gave Metroid Prime the award for "Console First-Person Action Game of the Year." It was also nominated for "Game of the Year," "Console Game of the Year," "Outstanding Innovation in Console Gaming," and for achievements in art direction, game design, gameplay engineering, original music, sound design, and visual engineering. It received the most nominations of any game at the event.

Metroid Prime was included in many lists of the best games. It ranked 23rd on IGN’s Top 100 list, 29th on a list created by GameFAQs users, 18th on Official Nintendo Magazine’s 2009 list of greatest Nintendo games, and 10th on Nintendo Power’s "Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever." IGN named it the best GameCube game, while GameSpy ranked it third in a similar list, behind The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Resident Evil 4. Nintendo Power also listed it as the sixth-best game of the 2000s. Wired ranked Metroid Prime 10th in its list of "The 15 Most Influential Games of the Decade," saying it helped first-person games focus more on exploration, puzzle-solving, and storytelling instead of just action. The article also noted that Metroid Prime made a major improvement for first-person games. The game became popular among players who tried to complete it as quickly as possible, leading to the creation of online communities to share these speed runs.

Legacy

After Metroid Prime came Metroid Prime 2: Echoes in 2004 for the GameCube and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in 2007 for the Wii. The first two games were later released on the Wii as part of the New Play Control! series in Japan and included in the Wii compilation Metroid Prime: Trilogy in 2009. Other games in the series include Metroid Prime Pinball (2005), a pinball game, and Metroid Prime Hunters (2006), an action game, both for the Nintendo DS. Metroid Prime: Federation Force (2016) was released for the Nintendo 3DS. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was released in 2025 for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.

Characters and stages from Metroid Prime have appeared in other Nintendo games, like Super Smash Bros. In that series, the Frigate Orpheon is a playable stage with the Parasite Queen in the background and music from Metroid Prime. The gameplay and HUD of Metroid Prime have influenced other first-person shooter games, such as Geist and Star Wars: Republic Commando.

A version of the Dolphin emulator called Primehack was created in 2019. It adds high-resolution textures, 4K support, better lighting, and keyboard and mouse controls to the game. In 2022, the project was made available on the Steam Deck through Emudeck.

A demo of a 2D fan-made game based on Metroid Prime was released in April 2021. However, Nintendo sent a cease and desist letter, forcing the development to stop by August of that year.