Super Metroid is an action-adventure game developed by Nintendo R&D1 and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, released in 1994. Samus Aran returns to planet Zebes to recover the last Metroid larva — and in doing so, explores one of gaming's great invented worlds across a dark, wordless, near-perfectly designed 10-hour journey.
Super Metroid was developed by Nintendo R&D1 under director Yoshio Sakamoto and released for the Super Famicom and SNES in 1994. It is the third entry in the Metroid series and a direct sequel to Metroid II: Return of Samus. The Space Pirate Ridley steals the last surviving Metroid larva from a research station; Samus follows to Zebes, the planet she destroyed in the original game, now rebuilt and more dangerous than before.
Super Metroid is built around the gradual expansion of movement. Samus begins unable to reach most of Zebes; each power-up — the Grappling Beam, the Space Jump, the Speed Booster — opens previously inaccessible regions and rewards players who remember where a particular obstacle blocked them. The world never tells you where to go. It trusts players to observe, experiment, and discover — a design philosophy so distinctive it became the defining characteristic of an entire genre.
The game communicates almost entirely without words. Its opening sequence — a distress call, a devastated space station, a baby Metroid sacrificing itself — sets tone without cutscenes. Zebes itself is a world of ruin, isolation, and creeping dread, scored by Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano with ambient music that still defines the series' sound. The final section, in which the planet's wildlife guides Samus toward an escape route, is one of game design's most quietly moving moments.
Super Metroid is ranked #10 on Rolling Stone's 2025 list of the 50 Greatest Video Games of All Time. Half the name of the "metroidvania" genre belongs to this game. Its influence on exploration-based game design — from Hollow Knight to Ori and the Blind Forest — remains as visible today as it was in 1994.