Metroid: Every Main Series Game Ranked Worst To Best

Like its distant SNES cousin, The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past, Super Metroid on the Super Nintendo is in many ways the purest game in its series, perfecting the Metroid experience.

The labyrinthine puzzle-world of Zebes remains impressive to this day. Each distinct part of the map fit so seamlessly together that at times the game seems to anticipate the overarching interconnected worlds of 3D games, despite remaining firmly fixed to a 2D plane.

While the game implements areas present in the franchise's original outing, Zebes has been given more than a minor face lift. Gone are the endless identical corridors, the frustrating lack of a map, and the clunky two button system of its predecessors. Super Metroid refines the Metroid experience while never streamlining it, and remains a game that bursts with discovery around every corner.

Quite possibly the best-looking 2D game of all time, this almost 30-year-old title has barely aged a day, both in terms of its visual design and gameplay. The tight controls (with plenty of customisation options) make Samus a joy to play, and the atmosphere evoked by the game's small details (dead scientists in the corridor, an unexpected boss battle in the opening minutes of the game) gives Super Metroid a cinematic air.

It's a true testament to the strength of Super Metroid's design that it not only remains a joy to play, but is still influencing games three decades after its original release.