I think metroid just needs a bit of a bigger push from nintendo. Dread proved that there's a place for metroid nowadays with its 3+ million sales.

the Nintendo "fans" are the problem for Metroids low sales

I thought of Metroid first, but that’s probably because I am a huge fan of Metroid

I did indeed think of the midevil swordsman

Metroid was pretty much dieing before Dread saved the franchise.

I thought of Metroid because I was just watching a playthrough of Metroid Dread

When you said ” Nintendo ”, I absolutely thought of Metroid first. Since it’s my favorite gaming franchise, Samus Aran is the first character who comes to mind when I hear ”Nintendo” or just gaming in general.

At this point I could care less if the next Metroid game is Prime 4, Metroid 6 or a Remake of Super Metroid just so as long as it isn't something that disgraces the franchise like Other M and Federation Force.

Nah....Metroid, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Pikmin......the newer entries on switch are the highest selling games in their respective series. The Wii/Wii U was targeted towards are more casual audience, but the switch is fir everyone that likes. This is why we're seeing a lit of niche 1st/3rd party franchises.

I don’t think Metroid’s issue is that it’s a more adult oriented franchise. When I saw the title of the video, I thought you were going to talk about how poorly Nintendo handled the franchise for the longest time. Part of that can be blamed on the Wii U era being a huge flop in general, but after the release of Other M, Metroid took a huge backseat. Nintendo did little to get people to be excited for or care about Metroid again. Even in 2017, when Prime 4 was announced and Samus Returns came out, they still fumbled the ball because they had to eventually restart Prime 4. Only in the 2020s did Nintendo finally put in the effort to get people to care about the franchise. For most of the 2010s, this wasn’t the case.

Metroid 1 was the first game I ever bought with my own money back in the 80s. In my opinion its their best game series.

Metroid good

Metroid is the first thing I think of from nintendo and its the best thing from nintendo you can't change my mind

I think another faucet of it might just be that advertising wise Nintendo understands Japanese audiences more and thus any IPs they own that are propped up by western audiences sales wise tend to at best ether stop growing in sales eventually (Donkey Kong) or at worst have sales numbers ranging from very unstable (Metroid) to declining sales (Advanced Wars*). * Advanced Wars has some statistical noise here on account of having two games release close to what economists might call "black swan events" (9/11 during Advanced Wars 2 and the Ukrainian-Russian War/COVID delays during Reboot Camp's marketing cycle).

I disagree with you in a lot of ways. The big reason isn't brand but the fact that Nintendo has pretty much ignored Metroid for the past 20 years. Regardless how good it bad a series is when pretty much one game every ten years gets released people will forget about it.

I've always known this to be the case, paired with pretty bad advertising until Dread. Nintendo has a cutesy, whimsical, family-friendly brand, for the most part. Metroid is starkly at odds with that brand. I genuinely do believe it would sell better if it was on other consoles, but here's a hot take- I'm fully okay with Metroid being 'niche.' It only has to do well enough to guarantee more Metroid games are made, and it does. I don't want Metroid to get a "breath of the wild moment" because I feel Zelda has lost a lot of its identity as a result. Metroid should stay Metroid.

If you were around for Metroid other M back in 2010 you would know the damage that did to the series and it really left them on the drawing board for a while which left it dormant for a very long time which let be forgotten by many. I'm glad they have figured it out now though and despite the series having lower sales compared to other Nintendo big names they seem serious about making Metroid games now which is great. Same applies to a lot of Nintendo series honestly they don't know what they want to do with Star Fox or F zero so they just don't make games for them so newer Nintendo newer series like Pikmin, Animal Crossing and Splatoon took their release slots.

The "metroidvania" is an entire genre. Lots of people come to Metroid after playing other modern indie titles like Hollow Knight or Ori. I feel like you missed the elephant in the room: this game franchise helped spark a thriving genre dominated by indie games (with the recent exception of Dread). I liked what you had to say, but the video feels incomplete without addressing that aspect

The market for mature games is limited on nintendo systems even a series like resident evil didn't sell that well

I can honestly see mistaking Samus's helmet for the Halo one if you are unfamiliar with Metroid. The helmets do look similar.

Happy to hear we got another fan, welcome to the family

You know I used to be one of those people that called themselves a Nintendo fan. But only played Mario. So over the past few years I’ve been trying to get into other Nintendo franchises. And Metroid is a great franchise. It may not sell extremely well but the quality is always there. And Metroid Dread is one of my favorite games of all time. Easily top 20 for me. I also played Fusion as well and that was also really fun. And Prime is great although I haven’t beaten it yet.

I like metroid because samus is hot. Jk

I gotta say I just don't really like 2d metroid, I don't know what it is but I'm not a far of exploring in 2d platforming space. Metroid Primes I have really enjoyed.

The reason for poor sales is releasing the games on poor selling consles. Dread already sold 3 million which is actually pretty ok for a full prices classic metroid style game (which is kinda niche). Prime remastered sits at 1 mill but its a remaster of an old game, shadow dropped with nearly 0 advertising backing it up. In fairly certain people will show up to at least surpass dread when prime 4 releases. If it releases on switch at least. If they keep it to the new console with a small install base i do belive the game could flop unless it has a competitive online multiplayer component to it (which would kinda make it a must at launch)

this was funny to watch. you're definitely someone from the outside looking in.

Super metroid has always been one of the best side scrolling games of all time. Easy enough to get good at but still complex in ways.

The gap between Prime 3 and Dread was pretty disappointing.

Metroid is my absolute favorite Nintendo IP. It is so well designed and pushes the bar higher for their games. I became a Metroid fan in January 2021, 3 years ago, before the launch of Dread or even the announcement. I’ve played through almost every game in the franchise, and have enjoyed them all. Metroid isn’t as popular as other IP’s due to Nintendo not advertising it for what it is, however in recent years, Nintendo has done an excellent job pushing the series since the buildup and launch of Dread, pushing out at least some Metroid content every year, showing off the games as their next blockbuster hits like Mario and Zelda, and really selling the idea of the older titles through NSO. The franchise is growing and it’s absolutely amazing to watch for myself. Metroid Prime 4’s release will bring so much notoriety to the brand, as people consider the 3D prime games to be more authentic than the mainline staple 2D titles, and it will undoubtedly be a Goty nominee if not winner. We are in a second golden age for Metroid.

I think Metroid should compete directly with the likes of Halo and call of duty and create a massive online multiplayer community. Metroid prime 2 had a fun multiplayer mode but it was very small. I wish they would expand on that

You should try Super Metroid, the best game in the franchise in my opinion

I’m also a new Metroid fan. I bought Metroid Dread when it came out in 2021 and it was my personal game of the year that year and one of the best games I’ve ever played. I then got Metroid Prime Remastered when that came out. I didn’t like it nearly as much as Dread, but I did enjoy it quite a bit

Why does every one forget about eternal darkness. Top tier GameCube game.

you didn't even try super metroid that is also on switch via online service

I think of the big three (in my mind at least): Link, Mario, Samus. At the same time.

Tbh it's strange to say that the switch is marketed to younger fans just because many of their games are bright and cartoonish, like all of their promotional ads are of adults, and when they're not it's families

I thought of Metroid at the start of this video because it's mentioned in the title...

Bro's never played Smash Bros

Metroid feels like Sega made it

Zelda wasn't always bright and colorful. Katsuya Terada's concept art for the series in early years was gritty and realistic. Ocarina of Time's in game graphics were dark and this was reflected in the Spaceworld 2000 tech demo. Watch the Oracles of Ages and Seasons 2000s North American commercial to see how realistic Zelda was depicted at the time. Miyamoto stated that he had always envisioned a realistic Zelda in 3D. It was only after Twilight Princess that people forget Zelda was as realistic as Lord of the Rings.

5:41 you're a kid or a squid? Putz12( no signal guy)

I wouldn't say that metroid is the same level as most nintendo franchises in terms of quality, it's below them really, same with pikimi

Yeah, you kinda right.

Im a metroid fan since the super nintendo now a Metroidvania fan in general i never played any mario games but i did the older wario land games wile they is 50 mario games per console metroid always ad 2 games per console so wen a game is bad IT IS a tragedy

'Nintendo takes as much time and care to make a Metroid game as they do for Mario and Zelda' Metroid Other M: "I Challenge" EDIT: On your larger argument, I agree. They don't really lean into it being more 'adult,' though. Maybe a smidge bit more than Zelda, but it's definitely not inside their wheelhouse these days in terms of how they want to make their games, let alone be associated with them.

Don't get me wrong, I think of mario first when I hear nintendo, but the Metroid series and Fzero (please can we get a new one besides 99) we're always my go to games. I bought my switch for dread

4:11 you did... what? Wii is compatible with Game Cube games, you just nees a controller and a memory card...

My favorite Nintendo games was Metroid Zero Mission and Fusion, I am the man who think about that when you say Nintendo

Insightful video. I had a slightly similar journey in coming to Metroid. For me, though, I treated Samus even worse. I was a young teen when I was gifted Super Metroid, for the SNES. And honestly, it felt like such an oddball game, in terms of structure, that I couldn't get into it. So... I didn't really play it all and that much. I ended up selling it, alongside a small lot of other SNES titles, to fund my N64 purchase. What got me back into Metroid was, funny enough, Prime, on the GameCube. I ate that game up, and since it included the original Metroid as a bonus, I tried that one out as well. Between playing the wonderfully well-crafted Prime and the very rough OG Metroid, I felt like I had missed something with Super Metroid. I felt compelled to try it again. And then, when I did... it really clicked. Metroid became one of my favorite Nintendo franchises. But I think you're right. It's slightly harder for children to get into, especially children who grow up in the puffy cloud of Nintendo Magic. Metroid is a steep departure from that.

No star fox... :/

If there is a reason for Metroid Dread selling poorly its because they chose to recycle boss fights over 20 times instead of just adding different content or just not padding the game in the first place. I don't remember any past metroid game doing this kind of Bull Shit.

This is one of the greatest mysteries in gaming. My shaky hypothesis is that the majority of gamers don't necessarily like sci-fi games. Halo was an exception, but now it's selling like garbage as well. Titanfall failed. Returnal on PlayStation, didn't crack a million.

Gotta play Super Metroid if you haven't yet. The best interconnection of worlds of the franchise. No handholding

Mario's first game wasn't on NES

If you treat Nintendo IP as target audience & age group so it's go like this : Super Mario Bros = Kid The Legend Of Zelda = Preteen Fire Emblem/Xenoblade = Teenager Metroid = Young Adult So it's basically the motif of Nintendo IP, What people think about Nintendo they mostly think about a fantasy setting, Anime/Colorful characters and series that isn't M rated. Which Metroid isn't like most Nintendo series expect being M rated and being hard/high Sci-Fi which don't fit Nintendo images.

Price was the problem

I didnt like the turn from 2d sidescroll platform to 3d first person shooter, and I think that change also played a huge part on dividing the public

The genre was nicknamed METROIDvania for a reason, it was big back in the 2D days, but when games stared migrating to 3D, Mario and Zelda achieved success, Metroid not so much

Part of the problem with Metroid is that they don't modernize it to appeal to a greater audience. Fans hate when someone criticize their favorite game, but you can't grow your fan base/sales if you don't have a way to attract more people to the game.

Lets just admit metroid isnt the premium fps unlike their others Ips. Halo, cod, bF etc already provide the top of line fps experience. I dont think mass population buys Nintendo to play metroid. Its mario & Zelda.