Super Metroid

1:27 Super Metroid is the 1994 Super NES game that turned Metroid into the template for a whole genre: Samus Aran chases Ridley back to planet Zebes to recover the last living Metroid, and explores a huge, wordless, interconnected planet to do it. It first reached North America on Apr 18, 1994, and Nintendo's own primer for the 2D series opens its Super Metroid chapter with the game's first line, "The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace", before showing Ceres Station, Zebes and the bosses. Today it is part of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online library.

The baby Metroid of Super Metroid is where the thread of Metroid Ravenous starts: it drains a grown Samus of her energy, then gives its life to save her, and the Metroid power that has followed Samus since then is what Nintendo now calls her "newly awakened Metroid instincts" in Ravenous (the lore is on Metroid Ravenous Metroid Powers Explained).

Quick facts

Sources: AV Club, Apr 18, 2024; Nintendo; GameSpot, Sep 5, 2019; GameXplain, Sep 18, 2021.

Who made Super Metroid?

0:41 In GameXplain's retro review, Super Metroid was made by Nintendo R&D1 together with Intelligent Systems, directed by Yoshio Sakamoto, who had been a character designer on the first game, with the late Gunpei Yokoi as the team's manager and the first game's Makoto Kano as a producer. Sakamoto's name runs through the series to this day: he produced Metroid Dread, whose maker, MercurySteam, has all but confirmed that it is also behind Ravenous (see Metroid Ravenous Developer: MercurySteam).

What is Super Metroid about?

16:22 It picks up after Metroid II and Samus Returns, where Samus spared a single hatchling Metroid. As GameSpot's timeline tells it, she hands the baby to Galactic Federation scientists on Ceres Station, is called back by a distress signal, and finds Ridley stealing it away to Zebes, where the Space Pirates have rebuilt their base. Samus fights through the planet, kills Kraid and Ridley again, and is nearly drained to death by a giant Metroid that stops when it recognizes her: it is the baby, grown. In the final fight it drains Mother Brain and passes the energy to Samus, Mother Brain kills it, and Samus destroys Mother Brain and escapes as Zebes explodes.

1:35 The opening sets the tone. GameXplain points out that after a recap of the first two games, Samus walks through a silent research station full of dead scientists, finds the baby alone in a dark room, and trades blows with Ridley for a few seconds before the station's self-destruct sends her running. The story is never told in dialogue after that; where it sits among the rest is on Metroid Timeline Explained.

How Super Metroid plays

3:08 Super Metroid was the first game in the series with a map, and that is close to the only help it gives. GameXplain walks through the first minutes: the way right is blocked, the way left leads down to the Morph Ball and its bombs, and the planet is the same Zebes as the first game, with the Morph Ball in the same place and Kraid, Ridley and Mother Brain back as bosses, now far bigger than the NES could draw them.

7:12 The game teaches by placement, not text. It never says that holding a button makes Samus run. The two tricks it cannot leave to chance are shown by friendly creatures: a Dachora demonstrates the Shinespark and a family of Etecoons demonstrates the wall jump. Players can save both before Zebes blows up, and GameXplain notes that doing so is what makes a scene in Metroid Fusion make sense.

9:38 Some upgrades are optional and hidden in rooms a player may never enter, such as the X-Ray Scope, and skilled players can collect items earlier than intended with wall jumps and bomb jumps. GameXplain links that openness to sequence breaking with Nintendo's own word, before launch, that Metroid Dread would let players take some items earlier than intended.

The bosses

13:29 Samus must beat four bosses to open the way to Tourian: Kraid, Phantoon, Draygon and Ridley, all shown on a statue at the entrance. GameXplain singles out the Kraid fake-out (a small Kraid the size of the NES one comes first, then the real one breaks through the ceiling), Phantoon in the Wrecked Ship, and Draygon underwater in Maridia. Crocomire, a Norfair boss beaten with a few missiles to the mouth, is left off the statue.

16:13 Mother Brain comes back as a two-stage fight. After her brain falls, she rises with a body, and Samus is about to die when the baby Metroid arrives, drains her, and hands the power to Samus, who finishes the fight with it. It is the scene most players remember, and the one later games keep returning to.

Why Super Metroid matters

1:39 IGN's editors, discussing the year 1994, credit Super Metroid with helping to coin "Metroidvania" (the first half of the word) and with environmental storytelling that needs no tutorial: the planet seems to wake up after Samus is scanned and fights her first boss, and empty rooms fill with creatures. The genre story is on Metroidvania: How Metroid Shaped a Genre.

5:36 The music does much of that work. GameXplain names composers Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano, and points to tracks that are mostly ominous, with Brinstar and the boss themes the rare upbeat ones; the Wrecked Ship, where Phantoon watches, is its example of music making the place.

5:29 The same IGN conversation lists the games that grew from it, from Shadow Complex to Axiom Verge and Guacamelee. AV Club, marking the 30th anniversary, noted that it sold 1.42 million copies on the SNES, modest for a game with that reach; series totals are on Metroid Sales: Best-Selling Metroid Games.

We think Super Metroid is still the best place to learn what a 2D Metroid is, more than Metroid: Zero Mission, because it trusts the player completely: no waypoints, no hints beyond a map, and an ending told with a single creature. We also think it is the game Metroid Ravenous answers most directly. In 1994 a Metroid fed on Samus and then on Mother Brain to save her; in 2027 Samus is the one who feeds, by Nintendo's own words using "latent Metroid powers" to drain her prey.

Where to play Super Metroid today

Super Metroid has been in the Super NES library of Nintendo Switch Online since Sep 5, 2019, one of the 20 games the service started with, and Nintendo still lists it there as of Nov 8, 2026. It needs a Nintendo Switch Online membership. The Switch version has rewind and suspend points, which GameXplain's reviewer used to get past Draygon. GameXplain also advises the d-pad over a stick for wall jumps. The rest of the series on current hardware is on Metroid Games on Switch and Switch 2.

Frequently asked questions

When did Super Metroid come out?

Super Metroid came out in North America on Apr 18, 1994, for the Super NES.

Is Super Metroid on Nintendo Switch?

Yes. Super Metroid is in the Super NES library of Nintendo Switch Online, where it has been since Sep 5, 2019, and it can be played with a membership.

Is Super Metroid Metroid 3?

Yes. Super Metroid is the third Metroid game, after Metroid (1986) and Metroid II: Return of Samus, and it continues the story of the baby Metroid from Metroid II.

What happens to the baby Metroid in Super Metroid?

The baby Metroid, grown huge, saves Samus during the final fight by draining Mother Brain and giving the energy to Samus; Mother Brain then kills it.

Is there a Super Metroid remake?

No. As of Nov 8, 2026 Nintendo has not announced a remake of Super Metroid; the next new 2D game is Metroid Ravenous on Jan 28, 2027.

How does Super Metroid connect to Metroid Ravenous?

Super Metroid is where Samus's bond with the Metroids begins in earnest: the baby that drains her and then dies for her starts the line that leads to her Metroid DNA in Fusion and Dread and to the energy-draining powers Nintendo shows in Metroid Ravenous.

Sources

• Super Metroid Turns 30, and It's the Perfect Time for a Remaster, Marc Normandin, AV Club, Apr 18, 2024
• Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online, Nintendo, read Nov 8, 2026
• Here Are All 20 SNES Games Releasing On Switch Online Today, GameSpot, Sep 5, 2019
• The History of Metroid in 2D - Metroid Dread Primer - Nintendo Switch, Nintendo of America, Nov 4, 2021 (video)
• Does Super Metroid Still Hold Up? - RETRO REVIEW (Road to Dread), GameXplain, Sep 18, 2021 (video)
• Why Super Metroid is One of the Greatest Games Ever Made, IGN, Sep 19, 2015 (video)
• The Complete METROID Timeline Explained!, GameSpot, Oct 5, 2021 (video)