Metroid Prime is an action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. Metroid Prime is the fifth main Metroid game and the first to use 3D computer graphics and a first-person perspective. It was released in North America in November 2002, and in Japan and Europe the following year. Along with the Game Boy Advance game Metroid Fusion, Prime marked the return of the Metroid series after an eight-year hiatus following Super Metroid (1994). Metroid Prime takes place between the original Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus. Players control the bounty hunter Samus Aran as she battles the Space Pirates and their biological experiments on the planet Tallon IV. Metroid Prime was a collaboration between Retro in Austin, Texas, and Japanese Nintendo employees, including producers Shigeru Miyamoto and Kensuke Tanabe. Miyamoto suggested the project after visiting Retro's headquarters in 2000. Since exploration takes precedence over combat, Nintendo described the game as a "first-person adventure" rather than a first-person shooter. Metroid Prime received acclaim and sold more than 2.8 million copies worldwide. It won a number of Game of the Year awards, and is widely regarded by many critics to be one of the greatest video games of all time, remaining one of the highest-rated games on Metacritic. Metroid Prime was followed by Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004) and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007); Metroid Prime 4 was announced in 2017. In 2009, an enhanced version of Metroid Prime was released for the Wii in Japan, and as part of the Metroid Prime: Trilogy compilation internationally. A high-definition remastered version was released on the Nintendo Switch in 2023.