When Metroid Dread was announced as the last entry in the Series Producer Yoshio Sakamoto's Metroid story, that raised an eyebrow or three around here. The Metroid series is turning 35 years old this year and the storyline started in the original game and continued across Metroid II, Super Metroid, and Metroid Fusion was going to actually get a conclusion. It's been 19 years since we last left Samus Aran after the events of Fusion. Now we'll find out what happened to her next.

As we prepare for that dreadful day on October 8, we're going to play through the four numbered Metroid games to get ourselves prepared and make it a little bit of a game club discussion. We have roughly four months left and we're ironing out a schedule in which a handful of NWR staffers will play through the games and then discuss them on the NWR Connectivity podcast. We'll have a podcast deep dive featuring die-hard fans and relative newcomers as well as a smattering of other features and content. You can join us on the NWR Discord channel to discuss each game in the series and even send in some feedback and commentary of your own. It'll be a Metroid celebration...as we wait for the game in which Samus is hunted by a bunch of evil robots who can one-hit kill her.

• Metroid (NES version available on Nintendo Switch Online) and Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA game available on Wii U Virtual Console): June 16 to July 9
• Metroid II: Return of Samus (GB version available on 3DS Virtual Console) and Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS game): July 10 to August 13
• Super Metroid (SNES version available on Nintendo Switch Online): August 14 to September 10
• Metroid Fusion (GBA version available on Wii U Virtual Console): September 11 to October 7