Which Metroid game introduced the Speed Booster?

Super Metroid introduced the Speed Booster. Nintendo’s 1994 Super NES adventure was the first Metroid game in which Samus could accelerate into a high-speed run, break special barriers, and prepare the technique later known as the Shinespark.

The upgrade is found on Zebes, the planet originally explored in Metroid, and it expands Super Metroid’s emphasis on exploration. Long corridors become launch paths, while Speed Booster blocks mark routes that cannot be opened through ordinary shooting or jumping. Skilled players can also store a charge and redirect it through a Shinespark.

The Speed Booster returned in several later 2D games, including Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission, which is why those titles can sometimes be mistaken for its debut. Metroid Prime does not use the same upgrade in its standard movement system; the first-person Prime games largely rely on other suit abilities and traversal mechanics.