By Nelson Schneider - 10/16/11 at 07:34 PM CT

The ‘Metroid’ series has become one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises. This popularity seems pretty inexplicable when one considers the series’ roots. The original game, “Metroid,” appeared on the NES and, while it did take bold steps into unexplored types of gameplay, it was also one of the most inscrutable games ever made. Actually, out of the original ‘Metroid’ trilogy, only the third, “Super Metroid,” had the style, pacing, and gameplay framework to be playable and enjoyable without hours of boring trial-and-error and reams of graph paper. “Metroid II: The Return of Samus” was stuck in the middle, approaching the refined experience of “Super Metroid,” but stuck in the Hell of portable exclusivity.

How did this franchise become one of Nintendo’s ‘Big Three,’ alongside ‘Super Mario’ and ‘The Legend of Zelda,’ when it only had three games, one good game, and skipped an entire hardware generation (the N64) as a no-show? The answer lies entirely in the things the ‘Metroid’ series did that had nothing to do with gameplay.

First, ‘Metroid’ projects a much more ‘badass’ image than any of Nintendo’s other franchises, which have been described with a number of pejoratives ranging from ‘kiddy’ to ‘family friendly.’ The main character in ‘Metroid’ wears powered space armor, shoots laser beams, and blows-up planets. That’s way cooler than a plumber who gets high on ‘shrooms and has delusions of saving a princess from killer turtles, or an effeminate elf with a sword, right?! While most long-time gamers are comfortable with their nerdiness, the few who thought they weren’t complete nerds clung to ‘Metroid’s’ badassery like a life preserver. Fast-forward to today, where games must exude badassery from every pore in order to be considered ‘AAA’, and it’s obvious why the series ranks so highly among Nintendo’s franchises: It’s the only Nintendo franchise that bares even a slight resemblance to densely-populated field of sci-fi shooters.

Second, at the end of the original “Metroid,” it was revealed that the main character, Samus Aran, was actually a woman. Not only did this revelation simultaneously blow the minds of thousands of budding, young chauvinists in the ‘80s, but it turned the ‘Metroid’ series into a strawman example for everyone to point at when feminists get their panties in a wad about how there are no strong, intelligent, non-sexualized female leads in videogames. This argument is, of course, hilarious, as Samus has never been setup to be any of these things. For most of her life as the protagonist in the ‘Metroid’ series, Samus has been given absolutely zero personality development, since there were so few ‘Metroid’ games, and most of them were made before the 16-bit era showed us that stories and character development were actually possible within the framework of a videogame. Gamers could claim that Samus was strong and intelligent, not because that’s how she was portrayed, but because she was not portrayed as weak and stupid. And I say ‘could,’ because the release of the latest game in the series, “Metroid: Other M,” shattered those delusions by inscribing into the ‘Metroid’ canon that Samus is not a perfect Ice Queen, but a human being with weaknesses and emotions. And as for Samus not being sexualized: Every game in the series has featured a bonus screen with her wearing a swimsuit for the ‘best’ ending. How is that NOT sexualized?

After its beginning as a trilogy of sidescrolling action/adventure games that literally defined a gameplay archetype (“Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” and its sequels aren’t called ‘Metroidvanias’ for nothing), Nintendo handed off the rebirth of the ‘Metroid’ series on the Gamecube to Retro Studios, an American company based in Texas that did the only thing American game developers seem capable of doing: It turned ‘Metroid’ into a First-Person Shooter. This second trilogy of ‘Metroid’ games was dubbed the “Metroid Prime Trilogy,” and situated as a side-story between “Metroid” and “Metroid II.”

While fans of the series were dubious about this genre transition, their fears were unfounded, and “Metroid Prime” was received with copious praise. It was even lauded as creating an entirely-new sub-genre that fans dubbed the ‘First-Person Adventure,’ due to its focus on exploration and puzzles over reflexes and twitch shooting. Unfortunately, Retro Studios must have exhausted themselves with the first game, as the Trilogy rapidly went downhill with regard to its action/adventure aspects. By the time “Metroid Prime 3” was released for the Wii, the series had become just another shooter, even going so far as to introduce supporting characters with an uncanny resemblance to “Halo’s” Spartans and a cast of rivals for Samus who looked like rejects from “Killer Instinct.” While these games do provide some glimpses into the futuristic world Samus inhabits, they reveal nothing about the character herself. Plus, they barely feature the titular metroids at all, focusing more on a mineral called ‘phazon.’

Seemingly as a precautionary measure in the event of the first-person transition backfiring, Nintendo simultaneously worked on two traditional ‘Metroid’ titles for the Game Boy Advance: “Metroid: Zero Mission” was a remake of the original “Metroid” with expanded environments and an actual narrative, while “Metroid Fusion” was a true sequel to “Super Metroid,” continuing the series’ meager storyline. While “Zero Mission” is an amazing game that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with “Super Metroid,” “Fusion” went in a different direction, shoveling a lot of story threads into the series that had never even been touched on before. This trend continued with “Other M.”

‘Metroid’ is a series based on trilogies. The original trilogy of “Metroid/Zero Mission,” “Metroid II: The Return of Samus,” and “Super Metroid” (which desperately needed a subtitle) encapsulated a story about metroids, energy-sucking parasites that can be weaponized. The “Metroid Prime Trilogy” encapsulated a story about phazon, a corrupting mineral that can be weaponized. That leaves “Fusion” and “Other M” (discounting a few obvious spin-offs like “Metroid Prime Hunters” and “Metroid Prime Pinball”) as the first two titles in an as-of-yet-incomplete trilogy. This third trilogy seems to be focused on telling the story of Samus’ pre-bounty-hunter days, but is doing so quite poorly and in an out-of-sequence fashion. Before “Fusion” and “Other M,” nobody had even heard of Adam and the Galactic Federation. The portion of Samus’ past that had been hinted an teased at that fans of the series want to know more about is how her parents died and how she ended up living with the giant alien birds known as the Chozo.

Currently, there are no new ‘Metroid’ titles on the horizon. Perhaps the series is going to return to a much smaller number of releases. Perhaps the people working on the narrative have hit a wall. Either way, I’d like to share my thoughts on what I’d like to see Nintendo do with the next (eventual) ‘Metroid’ title (Hopefully you’re reading this, Nintendo!):

First, please stop calling the series ‘Metroid.’ All of the metroids are dead (This is not a spoiler; the game in which this happened is 20 years old!). The ‘Prime’ games are only tangentially about metroids. “Fusion” and “Other M” aren’t about metroids at all. Not only would renaming the series provide more information about the actual story content of the games, it would stop all of the morons on the Internet who think Samus’ name is actually Metrod (and that he’s a pretty cool guy).

Second, stick with the sidescrolling action/adventure gameplay. Everyone is doing FPSes. Adding another one to the pile won’t accomplish anything. Classic ‘Metroid’ style gameplay is alive and well in Indie releases like “Cave Story” and “Shadow Complex.” “Other M’s” sidescrolling gameplay was well-implemented… it was just the crappy first-person segments and the dearth of buttons on the Wiimote that made that game falter. Of course, “Fusion” DID have classic gameplay and still managed to suck, thanks to perma-locking doors that prevented backtracking (at least “Other M” opened all the doors again for the epilogue).

Third, tell us about the damned Chozo already. Nobody cares about Adam or the time Samus spent as a huffy Galactic Federation recruit. We want to know about her life on an alien world. We also want to know where the Hell all the Chozo went and why they left their gadgets scattered around different planets all over the galaxy. Show us Samus’ first encounter with Ridley. Show us Samus acquiring her power suit. There is a lot of good story material that was alluded to in the original trilogy (or, rather, the instruction manuals that came with the games), but never developed. Polish that up before adding a bunch of new stuff.

Finally, while working on this new entry in the series, take a look at what you did in the past. See that? You worked on a new game AND a remake of an old game at the same time. “Metroid II” desperately needs a 16-bit upgrade. In fact, since the series’ 25th anniversary is looming, why not bundle “Zero Mission,” a remake of “Metroid II,” and “Super Metroid” (with a proper subtitle added, thanks) together, put a Wii disc and a DS cartridge containing these games in one box, and re-release the original trilogy in style?