Always though Metroid was one of Nintendo's best franchises, but they've never seemed to really care about it. I was really glad that Dread was a thing and that it was actually good. I haven't yet played the Prime games myself (I hope they'll get a collection when 4 comes out) but from what I've seen I really have to play them.
About the whole chick thing. I never really cared. For the longest time I must have though she was a robot or smth. until I've seen here in Smash Brawl and just thought "oh that wasn't a robot but a woman in a suit, cool" and moved on.