Top 10 Remake Games in the Metroid Series (Including Both Official and Fanmade Ones)
A game that improved upon its original NES predecessor so much that it LITERALLY blew said game clean out of the galaxy in which it took place, enough said (also, those post-apocalypse remakes of Brinstar and Norfair are just plain brilliant)
Frigate Orpheon = Ceres Station
Tallon Overworld = Crateria with a far-more-than-slight added touch of Green Brinstar
Chozo Ruins = Red Brinstar (or pre-Super Maridia, assuming that said area was Chozodia)
Magmoor Caverns = Norfair (complete with Lower Norfair's original music)
Phendrana Drifts = Frozen Maridia
Crashed Frigate = Wrecked Ship
Phazon Mines and Impact Crater = Tourian
An example that Samus Returns definitely should have followed;
look forward to the also-ironically-titled First Super Metroid Remake in the hopefully near future
(however, I must say that finding all of the items was definitely WAY too easy in this game, and that combat also got WAY too hard at certain points in the game, and that the instantly health/ammo recharging save stations are MOST definitely more than a little ridiculous)
Only adds Metroid Prime 3's pointer controls for aiming (which basically only serves to make an already-far-too-easy pair of games even easier for the most part), but said pointer controls are still an extremely nice addition nevertheless (mostly just for Prime 2, where combat prowess actually IS somewhat required in order to be able to make it through the game)
I could go on for literal HOURS about how much better of a game this is when compared to its original NES counterpart (being ludicrously short/easy even by Metroid standards aside); believe me, the breathtakingly gorgeous 32-bit graphics are just the icing on the cake here
Goes a bit too far when it comes to increasing the original game's sequence-breakability, isn't actually that much of a graphical update outside of Brinstar, still has the original game's obnoxious item-collecting fanfare (in its latest update, anyway), and has some absolutely ridiculous difficulty spikes (mostly during the boss battles, the Zebes escape sequence and Samus' first visit to Brinstar), in addition to being just a BIT too easy to find all of the secrets in, but it's still a remarkable aesthetic/mobility (not to mention balance) improvement over the original SM nevertheless (well, for the most part, anyway)
While it doesn't even NEARLY live up to how great of a game (or ESPECIALLY how great of a remake) AM2R is, it is still a definite must-buy for Metroid fans (Scan Pulse, ugly polygon graphics, extremely excessive focus on combat, blatantly forced appearance of Ridley as the final boss, and remarkably distinct lack of a built-in AM2R port aside)
While the "main quest" portion of this game admittedly makes that of the original Zero Mission seem rather lacking by comparison to say the LEAST, the reason why it wasn't able to score higher is mainly due to all of its (thankfully optional) nigh-impossible ShineSpark puzzles and its rather distinct lack of improvement to enemy AI (also, its extremely Disappointing Last Level)
Basically the original Ancient Chozo, serving as an extremely valuable tool for later and far more original/interesting SM hacks such as Super Metroid Eris and Hyper Metroid due to its improved physics, faster-paced combat, recolored areas, improved graphical/sound effects, better links between rooms/areas, removal of the item fanfare, and...well, that's pretty much it for the most part, but it's still well worth playing for what it is
Unfortunately, this one is an extremely desperate shoe-in due to X-Fusion and FSMR not being out yet; it's basically what Nintendo made absolutely sure NOT to make with Zero Mission (an exact carbon copy of the original Metroid, but with better graphics, controls and boss AI, as well as a map system; unfortunately, however, since Lower Norfair and Lower Brinstar are the only musically notable tracks that appear in the main game, its soundtrack is also significantly worse overall than vanilla Metroid's, and most ESPECIALLY Zero Mission's. On a somewhat related side note, Mother Brain is also FAR too easy now, whereas Zero Mission actually made her remarkably tougher than she was in vanilla Metroid)