On This Day 40 Years Ago, Nintendo Changed Adventure Games Forever

Nintendo has so many different franchises that have changed the course of history that it would be forgiven if some of them got forgotten. Metroid is not one of the series that should go under your radar.

Samus's 2D adventures through derelict spaces and alien planets started on this day in 1986, and the franchise has undergone several transformations in those decades since. It has remained an incredible contrast to some of the other happy-go-lucky series in Nintendo's canon while maintaining the refinement and ingenuity that has defined the company ever since it started.

The NES Metroid is looking a little archaic at this point. The graphics are barebones and the gameplay doesn't control like it has ever since Super Metroid . Still, the game has to be recognized for the revolutionary path it put every ensuining adventure game on for generations to come. Metroid even coined an entire genre's terminology (Metroidvania), and the category is immitated and emulated by indie developers and bigger studios every year.

One could argue that last year's most anticipated game, Hollow Knight: Silksong , is the brilliant evolutionary child of Metroid . Sticking your protagonist in a lonley world with only a limited set of abilities is so simple, yet incredibly difficult to master. The addicting nature of 2026's most encapsulating games was invented in Metroid .

Unfortunately, the series' most recent entry was a little controversial. Metroid Prime 4 was not the long awaited sequel people were hoping for. After almost 20 years of a break from the first-person subseries, the fourth game in it was less successful than Nintendo had hoped, especially in sales.

The other side of the coin is that we can probably expect the Metroid series to stick to its roots for now on. 2D adventures are what the series perfected, and they'll continue to do that for the next 40 years.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Aug 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.