For me Fusion is worst in the series due to the writing, in SM Samus was more like a Space Marine in Fusion she became a dumb puppy
I like parts of Fusion's storyline but I also understand that it really breaks with what Super Metroid did, and the games that followed though I really like the Prime series.
Fusion introduced story... of some famous landmark.
This is when "small universe syndrome" started to take place with everything have to be connected with another in some way. Writers but also some fans have this idea that this makes the setting even better. We see it also in other IPs. As someone who wants to be a writer I feel very divided about it, sometimes it works but so many often the connections feel so convoluted and unnecessary or answering a mystery that does not need an answer. In a forum I mentioned that I did not like at the idea at all that the Metroids were created by the Chozo and that their creation was relatively recent. I preferred the initial idea of the creatures having been created so long ago that its origins or and the name of who created them has been long lost to time.
Forgive me if I am mistaken but I have the idea that this is also a very Japanese thing. As Sakamoto seems to be want to write such types of stories I feel that that was what made him do all these connections.
The whole story design that the main character is connected to everything is a common problem in series where basically fans take over story-telling and always return to the material that made them fans and don't bring new ideas to it. As much as I liked Dread gameplay-wise, the story went back to the same well and I expect any future Metroids to do the same, sadly
Yeah, that is also my frustration with various other IPs including Fallout, the people who work on these IPs now and the fandoms, especially the new fans, thinking that these IPs revolve around recurring staples that must re appear in every new entry as otherwise they can not use the brand name. I was happy in how Fusion brought back the Metroids and the X parasites were a cool new foe now that the pirates were gone. But after Fusion I really had no idea how the IP should continue other than with the 'evil Federation faction'. Plotwise I don't find the Dread storyline a 'logical' progression of the series as it required a retcon done in a remake of an old game, and I really think the 'evil members of the ancients' is such a tired trope that it should be avoided.
Maybe it would have been better had the series moved on other stories and settings after the end of Super Metroid, leaving the Metroids, Space Pirates, Mother Brain, Ridley, and Kraid behind so that there could have been something completely new.
I think the Chozo really only became a thing in Zero Mission and Prime 1. Before that I can't recall the species really playing much of a role other than having left ruins and artifacts behind but not playing any role for the rest. The first story connection I can recall between Samus and the Chozo was in an old Super Metroid comic that appeared in a Nintendo magazine. The Japanese actually based the appearance of the old Chozo on the one in this comic, and an alien politician that appeared in it would also appear in the Metroid Zero Mission manga. One may say continuity but it could also be suggested that the writers of the later media could not come up with their own ideas.
As for the Space Pirates, in an old Japanese "Choose your own adventure" book based on the first Metroid game the Space Pirates were actually humans.
It's too much background. Everything from the first few games painted Samus as a career bounty hunter, a professional whose only life was her job that needed no background and only desired the next mission to move onto.
Samus is like The Man With No Name. Don't flesh his history out or else you'll ruin him by "giving him a name".
Nintendo itself objected to that, apparently having the idea that Samus did mission for money make her less honorable or something. When Retro wanted to put bounty hunting assignments in Metroid Prime 3 Nintendo did not want that as they see Samus more as a noble knight figure.
