The Metroid Gallery
Forty years of one silhouette: the suit on the box, from a grey NES carton to a red E.M.M.I. sky.
The Metroid covers below are the North American boxes, shown in release order. They are also a design history: watch the Varia Suit settle into its final shape on the Game Boy box, go sculptural in the Prime years, and come back rebuilt for Dread. Covers the archive has not yet verified are listed as text, never guessed.
THE 2D LINE
1986 to 2021
Metroid · NES · 1987
The grey Adventure Series box in its later sprite-art printing (the copy shown is marked REV-A). Japan had the game a year earlier, as a Disk Card.
Metroid II · Game Boy · 1991
The Varia Suit arrives at its final silhouette: the great round shoulders debut here, on the smallest screen Nintendo had.
Super Metroid · SNES · 1994
Samus against Ridley under a red sky. The North American art sells a boss fight; the game inside sells a planet.
Metroid Fusion · GBA · 2002
The suit, rebuilt by surgery and Metroid DNA: blue, organic, wrong on purpose. The X parasites crowd the frame.
Zero Mission · GBA · 2004
The first mission redrawn: Samus mid-leap over the ruins of Zebes, beam trailing green.
Samus Returns · 3DS · 2017
MercurySteam’s remake of Metroid II: the classic Varia pose, re-lit for 3D hardware.
Metroid Dread · Switch · 2021
Key art, not a box scan: the white-and-blue suit under a red sky full of E.M.M.I. The best-selling Metroid ever made.
THE PRIME LINE
2002 to 2025
Metroid Prime · GameCube · 2002
Full-length and frontal: Retro’s sculptural Varia, green cannon down. The series steps into 3D standing still.
Prime 2: Echoes · GameCube · 2004
The cannon aimed at the player, Dark Samus ghosted behind: light world, dark world, one cover.
Prime Hunters · DS · 2006
Samus close up, six rival hunters behind her: the multiplayer game announces itself.
Other M · Wii · 2010
The helmet fills the box and the people stand behind it: the most story-forward cover in the series, for the most argued-about game.
Prime 4: Beyond · Switch 2 · 2025
Key art: a red-accented suit and a fistful of psychic violet. Eighteen years after Corruption, the Prime line stands back up.
Prime 3: Corruption · Wii · 2007
The trilogy’s close, and the Phazon suit with it. Cover image not yet verified for the archive, so it is documented here in text rather than shown from a guess.
THE EDITIONS
Boxes with a second lifeMetroid Prime: Trilogy · Wii · 2009
All three Retro games in one steelbook collector’s case. Nintendo stopped shipping it in January 2010, months after launch, and publicly pointed buyers to second-hand copies: a short, strange print window that defines the edition.
Metroid Prime Pinball · DS · 2005
Fuse Games turned Tallon IV into a pinball table, with Samus as the ball. The series’ oddest box, and a real one.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force · 3DS · 2016
The co-op spin-off announced to a petition asking for its cancellation. The box is the artifact of the series’ hardest year.
Metroid Prime Remastered · Switch · 2023
Shadow-dropped the night it was announced, February 2023: the 2002 game rebuilt in high definition by Retro with Iron Galaxy assisting.