The Metroids' ability to absorb nebulous "life energy" from a target, if understood and reverse-engineered, has potential applications in terms of producing and transferring energy in ways that our society can only dream of.
the energy-producing potential was mentioned in Super Metroid as the reason Samus handed the hatchling off to the Federation.
Some of the logs in Prime 2 also suggested that the Space Pirates had figured out how this was done well enough to make them living batteries by feeding them and draining them of their energy. Not sure how canonical it is (even excluding how the pirates were portrayed in Other M, something I hope it pretty much dropped completely, the Prime games are all suppose to take place between the first two Metroid games, so the discovery of their energy potential hadn't happened yet... though maybe the Pirate's logs on their uses for metroids is what gave Samus the idea to donate the hatchling for research?) But it is a means of portraying them as something other than just potential weapons.
I'm going to make a potentially unpopular statement and say that I think the metroid "life-cycle" is dumb as hell. The larval stage is inherently scary, and adding claws and teeths just makes the a little more generic.
I recall a scan in Prime 1 detailing the Pirates' frustration in not being able to figure out what, exactly, the Metroids drain, or by what means. The subject gets puncure wounds from the mandibles, but they don't lose enough blood to die. They don't have a clue what the energy is, but the subject dies for the lack of it.
Anyway, I was going off on some tangent about how playing Return of Samus as your only Metroid game as a kid sort of made the metroids more sympathetic because of the character at the end.
I can get behind that. As villains go, Metroids are relatively "innocent"; they're natural critters just acting according to their instincts, and they weren't a threat to anyone on their uninhabited planet until the Space Pirates started exporting them all over the place. The hatchling at the end sort of proved that Metroids by themselves aren't evil because it isn't hostile to her. Watch the opening of Super Metroid; Samus is ready to blow it away at the very first second, but then it just starts fluttering around instead of attacking her, so she runs off with it.
Was Samus taking advantage of this connection at the start of Super Metroid by putting the hatchling in a jar and selling it to the lab a bit more unconscionable, then? She's abusing an innocent creature's trust! Her narration certainly paints it in a better light by saying that they were going to be studying how its energy powers worked, but glosses over that it's a helpless animal trapped in a glass tube for medical experiments.
When Ridley makes off with it in SM, the thought isn't "Oh, no, the innocent larva was kidnapped!", it's "Oh, no, the pirates have a way of making more superweapons!" ...Which is why Samus's sudden maternal instinct towards it in Other M is out of left field and seemingly out of character, because she certainly wasn't feeling protective of the thing when she gave it to the scientists... and did she give it away or sell it? Is one of those better than the other?
Anyway, I guess I'm trying to get at the point that Samus was never a purely innocent Power Ranger of justice, given what we've seen of her before she had a major point-of-view narration, and deviating from that to go to what seems to be a more simplistic characterization (Samus is nothing but heroic and good, ever, and only acted out due to her loyalty to a man who didn't deserve it, boo hoo). Let her be a little gritty, Nintendo. Bounty hunters in space is already an acceptable occupation for loner badasses, and you can have a hero who's antisocial while still doing good.
edit: And, y'know, it occurs to me that I'm putting perhaps too much thought into the motivations of a character from a game that was written without character motivations in mind. Maybe I should stop. :P
Personally, I kind of like the personality given to her in the Valiant Captain N/Metroid comics.
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+1
L Ron HowardThe duckMinnesotaRegistered Userregular
So how about that Fusion.
Awful writing. Samus complains that she doesn't like following orders, then rolls over the second the unknown AI tells her to do something. Just. No.
And now I can't read anything into what Samus says without thinking of some awful dom/sub relationship.
The AI is literally keeping her alive early on. Sa-X is actively hunting her . Adamship tries to find routes to avoid it and Samus who would die to a stray ice cube let alone a fully amped power beam would be stupid not to take that advice
King Riptor on
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The AI is literally keeping her alive early on. Sa-X is actively hunting her . Adamship tries to find routes to avoid it and Samus who would die to a stray ice cube let alone a fully amped power beam would be stupid not to take that advice
Yeah, this isn't Other M where Adam goes, "Don't use your suit upgrades." and Samus goes, "Alright, I won't, even when it means running though a lava field without the Varia Suit." (though I have my own personal explanation of that to make it somewhat less stupid) 99% of what AI Adam is telling her to do is stuff that was either something she would have probably done anyway, or would get her killed if she didn't do it.
Yeah. She doesn't like following orders, but she knows when she needs to do so for the benefit of herself and/or galactic society at large. Plus, she owed the Federation for her new ship. So she grits her teeth and gets the job done.
I think it would've been pretty dumb if she'd been all "I ain't following your rules, man, I'm exploring this infected space station my way!"
Now when her orders veered into the territory of "fucking stupid" and "actively dangerous to literally everyone", she jumped right off the rails and did what she does best: activating overpowered self-destruct mechanisms.
+3
L Ron HowardThe duckMinnesotaRegistered Userregular
I'm not saying what Adamship says doesn't make sense. It's the dialog that appears between the different pods that really make me wonder. It goes back to Other M, with her defining her relationship according to Adam.
It's just a couple of times she goes on about how she hates following orders, then says something about how Adam gives orders, or how great Adam was as a CO, or whatever. It's just really weird.
I think it was more like Adam had earned her trust/respect, despite her preference for independent work.
Another way in which Other M is kinda irreconcilable with the other games.
+2
L Ron HowardThe duckMinnesotaRegistered Userregular
Well, I started playing Fusion again. On the elevator into the first area, she says she hates taking orders. Not exact words, but she says hates.
But from the rest of the game, and Other M, she seems to take orders just fine.
I just really wish she was never part of the military. I mean, how the fuck does this work when you have people in regular powered armor, and then Samus in super ultra mega power armor that can go through lava and is from an ancient and dead civilization.
Well, I started playing Fusion again. On the elevator into the first area, she says she hates taking orders. Not exact words, but she says hates.
But from the rest of the game, and Other M, she seems to take orders just fine.
I just really wish she was never part of the military. I mean, how the fuck does this work when you have people in regular powered armor, and then Samus in super ultra mega power armor that can go through lava and is from an ancient and dead civilization.
When did she get it, anyways? I've always been unclear on that. It might have been after she left the military. Also, there's nothing to suggest it had its full monstrous power prior to Zebes. Certainly, the firepower isn't quite as imbalanced if she only has the basic armor and power beam.
On a related note... it should be remembered that the Chozo only went extinct very recently (it's plausible I suppose that there's another hidden enclave of theirs where they're still alive, but I'm fairly sure they're all dead or ascended at the time of the games). They had been recluses for centuries though, not sure how many of their settlements Samus even knew about.
Without looking at material, I want to say the rough timeline works out as:
1)Samus's parents killed by pirate raid
2)Adopted and raised by Chozo. Bio-modifications make her able to survive harsh environments, results in superhuman physical abilities.
3)Leaves Chozo to meet humans, joins military
4)Leaves military, gets power suit, strikes off solo
5)Gets revenge, becomes the worst nightmare of the pirates.
A potentially unpopular opinion: I feel like Metroid is one of few classic japanese franchises that would really benefit from being rebooted under the care of a western developer. Retro might be preferable, but whatever really. Just wipe the slate clean. Back to the basics of Samus, power suit, mysterious planet, evil aliens, hurry up and start shooting and exploring. Anything that gets in the way of the Metroid experience is just thrown in the incenerator including most if not all of Samus' dialog.
Actually, you know what would be cool? If she only had one single line of dialog in the whole game and it was something defiant like, "Stop." or "Never." Like you'd just gotten used to the idea that she would never speak in the game and then at one really impactful moment, she says one line that just says it all.
That's what my head canon Samus is like. I do like the idea of her appearing to the average galactic citizen as some sort of lonely, capricious god beyond their understanding. "The Pirates were everywhere. Whole systems burned and they force fed colony after colony to their captive beasts. If there was anything the Federation could do, they weren't doing it. We called and called out into the night, hoping for a miracle. Then she came. No reply message, no warning. She just dropped out of the sky one day and that was it. The world was over. We cried out for a savior, but what we got was Samus Aran..."
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+10
L Ron HowardThe duckMinnesotaRegistered Userregular
See, I imagined she got the power suit when she was a child and being raised by the Chozo.
I personally imagine that she was just flying along, saw a distress signal or other MacGuffin on SR388, flew down to investigate, finds out it's a Chozo ruin, powers up her suit, and then leaves with her godlike abilities.
Like, this is why I just wish we didn't have a backstory or anything. It just cannot work with her being in the military, having a suit that was integrated with her nervous system and body (prior to Fusion), and then going to SR388 and finding things to power her up.
+1
Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
A potentially unpopular opinion: I feel like Metroid is one of few classic japanese franchises that would really benefit from being rebooted under the care of a western developer. Retro might be preferable, but whatever really. Just wipe the slate clean. Back to the basics of Samus, power suit, mysterious planet, evil aliens, hurry up and start shooting and exploring. Anything that gets in the way of the Metroid experience is just thrown in the incenerator including most if not all of Samus' dialog.
Actually, you know what would be cool? If she only had one single line of dialog in the whole game and it was something defiant like, "Stop." or "Never." Like you'd just gotten used to the idea that she would never speak in the game and then at one really impactful moment, she says one line that just says it all.
That's what my head canon Samus is like. I do like the idea of her appearing to the average galactic citizen as some sort of lonely, capricious god beyond their understanding. "The Pirates were everywhere. Whole systems burned and they force fed colony after colony to their captive beasts. If there was anything the Federation could do, they weren't doing it. We called and called out into the night, hoping for a miracle. Then she came. No reply message, no warning. She just dropped out of the sky one day and that was it. The world was over. We cried out for a savior, but what we got was Samus Aran..."
I don't think any of that is an unpopular opinion at all.
Zxerol on
+3
Niceguyeddie616All you feed me is PUFFINS!I need NOURISHMENT!Registered Userregular
A potentially unpopular opinion: I feel like Metroid is one of few classic japanese franchises that would really benefit from being rebooted under the care of a western developer. Retro might be preferable, but whatever really. Just wipe the slate clean. Back to the basics of Samus, power suit, mysterious planet, evil aliens, hurry up and start shooting and exploring. Anything that gets in the way of the Metroid experience is just thrown in the incenerator including most if not all of Samus' dialog.
Actually, you know what would be cool? If she only had one single line of dialog in the whole game and it was something defiant like, "Stop." or "Never." Like you'd just gotten used to the idea that she would never speak in the game and then at one really impactful moment, she says one line that just says it all.
That's what my head canon Samus is like. I do like the idea of her appearing to the average galactic citizen as some sort of lonely, capricious god beyond their understanding. "The Pirates were everywhere. Whole systems burned and they force fed colony after colony to their captive beasts. If there was anything the Federation could do, they weren't doing it. We called and called out into the night, hoping for a miracle. Then she came. No reply message, no warning. She just dropped out of the sky one day and that was it. The world was over. We cried out for a savior, but what we got was Samus Aran..."
Oh my god, this. This times a MILLION. Though I'd prefer a Han Solo style bounty hunter, EVERYTHING in these couple paragraphs resonates with me.
After Retro came out of nowhere to make Metroid awesome and the semi-creator (seriously, he was just a character designer, not the director) made Metroid awful, I don't think anyone would object to a reboot at this point.
After Retro came out of nowhere to make Metroid awesome and the semi-creator (seriously, he was just a character designer, not the director) made Metroid awful, I don't think anyone would object to a reboot at this point.
Wikipedia lists on his wiki page "Metroid (1986) — Director, Game Designer"
After Retro came out of nowhere to make Metroid awesome and the semi-creator (seriously, he was just a character designer, not the director) made Metroid awful, I don't think anyone would object to a reboot at this point.
Wikipedia lists on his wiki page "Metroid (1986) — Director, Game Designer"
Wikipedia lists this on the Metroid (the game, not the series) page:
After Retro came out of nowhere to make Metroid awesome and the semi-creator (seriously, he was just a character designer, not the director) made Metroid awful, I don't think anyone would object to a reboot at this point.
Wikipedia lists on his wiki page "Metroid (1986) — Director, Game Designer"
But everyone knows Gunpei Yokoi was the main brains behind it, Sakamoto was a co-director, at least that's what I've always heard.
After Retro came out of nowhere to make Metroid awesome and the semi-creator (seriously, he was just a character designer, not the director) made Metroid awful, I don't think anyone would object to a reboot at this point.
Wikipedia lists on his wiki page "Metroid (1986) — Director, Game Designer"
Wikipedia lists this on the Metroid (the game, not the series) page:
After Retro came out of nowhere to make Metroid awesome and the semi-creator (seriously, he was just a character designer, not the director) made Metroid awful, I don't think anyone would object to a reboot at this point.
Wikipedia lists on his wiki page "Metroid (1986) — Director, Game Designer"
Wikipedia lists this on the Metroid (the game, not the series) page:
When did she get it, anyways? I've always been unclear on that. It might have been after she left the military.
Per the manga, she got it when the Chozo were raising and training her.
0
chiasaur11Never doubt a raccoon.Do you think it's trademarked?Registered Userregular
Captain N had a bit about Samus's past I liked.
She joined the basic Federation patrol. Despite the grunt level name, they're badasses. One in a million. But even there she stood out. Got promoted to a Hunter.
Semi-independent, so badass that only one in a million space cops can make the grade. Samus was the youngest being to make the jump.
...And then, after a few years, she decided "Fuck it. I'm freelancing."
It does a nice job of saying "It's not that the Federation sucks. Samus is just that good."
A potentially unpopular opinion: I feel like Metroid is one of few classic japanese franchises that would really benefit from being rebooted under the care of a western developer. Retro might be preferable, but whatever really. Just wipe the slate clean. Back to the basics of Samus, power suit, mysterious planet, evil aliens, hurry up and start shooting and exploring. Anything that gets in the way of the Metroid experience is just thrown in the incenerator including most if not all of Samus' dialog.
Actually, you know what would be cool? If she only had one single line of dialog in the whole game and it was something defiant like, "Stop." or "Never." Like you'd just gotten used to the idea that she would never speak in the game and then at one really impactful moment, she says one line that just says it all.
That's what my head canon Samus is like. I do like the idea of her appearing to the average galactic citizen as some sort of lonely, capricious god beyond their understanding. "The Pirates were everywhere. Whole systems burned and they force fed colony after colony to their captive beasts. If there was anything the Federation could do, they weren't doing it. We called and called out into the night, hoping for a miracle. Then she came. No reply message, no warning. She just dropped out of the sky one day and that was it. The world was over. We cried out for a savior, but what we got was Samus Aran..."
Oh my god, this. This times a MILLION. Though I'd prefer a Han Solo style bounty hunter, EVERYTHING in these couple paragraphs resonates with me.
Would one of the animals you have to save in Super Metroid become Chewbacca?
A potentially unpopular opinion: I feel like Metroid is one of few classic japanese franchises that would really benefit from being rebooted under the care of a western developer. Retro might be preferable, but whatever really. Just wipe the slate clean. Back to the basics of Samus, power suit, mysterious planet, evil aliens, hurry up and start shooting and exploring. Anything that gets in the way of the Metroid experience is just thrown in the incenerator including most if not all of Samus' dialog.
Actually, you know what would be cool? If she only had one single line of dialog in the whole game and it was something defiant like, "Stop." or "Never." Like you'd just gotten used to the idea that she would never speak in the game and then at one really impactful moment, she says one line that just says it all.
That's what my head canon Samus is like. I do like the idea of her appearing to the average galactic citizen as some sort of lonely, capricious god beyond their understanding. "The Pirates were everywhere. Whole systems burned and they force fed colony after colony to their captive beasts. If there was anything the Federation could do, they weren't doing it. We called and called out into the night, hoping for a miracle. Then she came. No reply message, no warning. She just dropped out of the sky one day and that was it. The world was over. We cried out for a savior, but what we got was Samus Aran..."
Oh my god, this. This times a MILLION. Though I'd prefer a Han Solo style bounty hunter, EVERYTHING in these couple paragraphs resonates with me.
Would one of the animals you have to save in Super Metroid become Chewbacca?
A potentially unpopular opinion: I feel like Metroid is one of few classic japanese franchises that would really benefit from being rebooted under the care of a western developer. Retro might be preferable, but whatever really. Just wipe the slate clean. Back to the basics of Samus, power suit, mysterious planet, evil aliens, hurry up and start shooting and exploring. Anything that gets in the way of the Metroid experience is just thrown in the incenerator including most if not all of Samus' dialog.
Actually, you know what would be cool? If she only had one single line of dialog in the whole game and it was something defiant like, "Stop." or "Never." Like you'd just gotten used to the idea that she would never speak in the game and then at one really impactful moment, she says one line that just says it all.
That's what my head canon Samus is like. I do like the idea of her appearing to the average galactic citizen as some sort of lonely, capricious god beyond their understanding. "The Pirates were everywhere. Whole systems burned and they force fed colony after colony to their captive beasts. If there was anything the Federation could do, they weren't doing it. We called and called out into the night, hoping for a miracle. Then she came. No reply message, no warning. She just dropped out of the sky one day and that was it. The world was over. We cried out for a savior, but what we got was Samus Aran..."
Oh my god, this. This times a MILLION. Though I'd prefer a Han Solo style bounty hunter, EVERYTHING in these couple paragraphs resonates with me.
Would one of the animals you have to save in Super Metroid become Chewbacca?
I don't think I like that particular description of Samus. The whole "we asked for a savior , but we got Samus Aran" seems to signify horrible things happening to even the people she's ostensibly saving.
I like her being a holy terror to her foes, but I also like her receiving respect from those she saves or works for. Something I liked about Echoes and Corruption was how much people respected Samus and how well she gets the job done. Just as one thing I loved about Prime 1 was just how fiercely the Pirates hate and fear her.
+1
L Ron HowardThe duckMinnesotaRegistered Userregular
I have not played the Prime games, but want to at some point. They sound awesome.
If I were to locate a copy, is there anything special I would need to do to get it to work on my WiiU? I don't have a Wii, so I don't really know what I'd be missing.
See, I imagined she got the power suit when she was a child and being raised by the Chozo.
I personally imagine that she was just flying along, saw a distress signal or other MacGuffin on SR388, flew down to investigate, finds out it's a Chozo ruin, powers up her suit, and then leaves with her godlike abilities.
Like, this is why I just wish we didn't have a backstory or anything. It just cannot work with her being in the military, having a suit that was integrated with her nervous system and body (prior to Fusion), and then going to SR388 and finding things to power her up.
I agree in a sense. I think that one of the things that makes Metroid so compelling is the mystery. It is first and formost an adventure game in my mind. The idea of that mystery being artufully extended to the protagonist is really appealing to me. Lots of things that either were always a part of the character to some degree or that were grafted on over time are just irrelevant in my reading of the character. She's a bounty hunter? How is that being defined in the games? Is Ridely the bounty she's hunting? Is it Mother Brain? Because I was under the impression that no one actually knew about Mother Brain in the first game and taking her out was just gravy as far as Samus was concerned. Was in the military? When? What does that add to her?
Even her relationship with the Chozo could stand to be a little more mysterious. Imagine something more along the line of, "Do you want to know how I got these scars?" Kind of thing. Throughout the game, different accounts of how people heard or hypothesize about how Samus aquired a Chozo designed power suit. "I heard she was raised by the Chozo to be the galaxy's greatest warrior..." "Yeah? I heard she's the reason they're not around any more. Just wiped 'em out and took the suit for herself. I bet she's no better than the Pirates." "I heard she was the Federation's ambasador to the Chozo homeworld, but she went native, fell off the grid. No one knows what happened after that." "I heard she was a Chozo experiment that got out of hand. Maybe she did wipe out the Chozo, but it was probably an accident." So, no for sure backstory. Just decide what is true. Extra fun because one of the options presented is one that closely parallels the previous games, so long time fans will probably just accept that as still being true. But we're calling it a reboot. Is it the truth? Can you ever really be sure?
I think if it were me, I'd slyly have the narritive be from the POV of an NPC or several NPCs. Probably just one to maintain the lonely atmosphere present since the first game, while still adding characterization to one really well fleshed out NPC and to Samus by sketching around her so to speak. A survivor of a colony the space pirates have destroyed maybe, someone that Samus barely even acknologes. He's only helping her because she's taking out pirates left and right. No matter what her ultimate goals are, at least he's getting some vicarous revenge. Her silence isn't a silent protagonist thing. She's just not one for idle chat.
Colonist: Ok, Samus you've got the ice beam, so you can open the door to Advanced Mechanics now. Why do you want to get back there anyway? I've heard stories about the stuff the techs kept in AM. Stuff that could blow a hole in a moon.
Samus:...
Colonist: Ok, stupid question. I'm...I'm gunna be off comms for a while. Move to a new station. One that's closer to the escape shuttles. Ok?
Samus:...
Colonist: Okie dokie, then...
Ultimately, the colonist decides that she must be a hero due to her taking a stand in some situation that implies an unspoken moral delemma. Like she can hunt down a crippled Ridley or she can save the colony's children that have been imprisoned and (for reasons that would be immediately obvious to long time Metroid fans) she opts to save the children.
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I have not played the Prime games, but want to at some point. They sound awesome.
If I were to locate a copy, is there anything special I would need to do to get it to work on my WiiU? I don't have a Wii, so I don't really know what I'd be missing.
If you can find a copy of Metroid Prime Trilogy you can just put it in and go (assuming you have the nunchuck setup ready), but the first two were originally gamecube, so the WiiU won't run them.
Playing the GameCube originals won't work on a standard Wii U; it's only backwards-compatible to Wii discs
Now, if you can track down a copy of the Prime Trilogy disc, for the Wii, that'll work. It's all 3 Prime games, and the first 2 have been refitted with Corruption's aiming system.
I have not played the Prime games, but want to at some point. They sound awesome.
If I were to locate a copy, is there anything special I would need to do to get it to work on my WiiU? I don't have a Wii, so I don't really know what I'd be missing.
Find the Metroid Prime Trilogy release for the Wii. It'll work with the Wii U.
Posts
Some of the logs in Prime 2 also suggested that the Space Pirates had figured out how this was done well enough to make them living batteries by feeding them and draining them of their energy. Not sure how canonical it is (even excluding how the pirates were portrayed in Other M, something I hope it pretty much dropped completely, the Prime games are all suppose to take place between the first two Metroid games, so the discovery of their energy potential hadn't happened yet... though maybe the Pirate's logs on their uses for metroids is what gave Samus the idea to donate the hatchling for research?) But it is a means of portraying them as something other than just potential weapons.
Even Beta Metroid was atypical.
Personally, I kind of like the personality given to her in the Valiant Captain N/Metroid comics.
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There are some very, very good things here. I want this.
They even had link cable features.
Yea, I saw this on kickstarter a while back. It looks pretty neat.
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And the fusion suit is even uglier in 3D.
Awful writing. Samus complains that she doesn't like following orders, then rolls over the second the unknown AI tells her to do something. Just. No.
And now I can't read anything into what Samus says without thinking of some awful dom/sub relationship.
Yeah, this isn't Other M where Adam goes, "Don't use your suit upgrades." and Samus goes, "Alright, I won't, even when it means running though a lava field without the Varia Suit." (though I have my own personal explanation of that to make it somewhat less stupid) 99% of what AI Adam is telling her to do is stuff that was either something she would have probably done anyway, or would get her killed if she didn't do it.
I think it would've been pretty dumb if she'd been all "I ain't following your rules, man, I'm exploring this infected space station my way!"
Now when her orders veered into the territory of "fucking stupid" and "actively dangerous to literally everyone", she jumped right off the rails and did what she does best: activating overpowered self-destruct mechanisms.
It's just a couple of times she goes on about how she hates following orders, then says something about how Adam gives orders, or how great Adam was as a CO, or whatever. It's just really weird.
I think it was more like Adam had earned her trust/respect, despite her preference for independent work.
Another way in which Other M is kinda irreconcilable with the other games.
But from the rest of the game, and Other M, she seems to take orders just fine.
I just really wish she was never part of the military. I mean, how the fuck does this work when you have people in regular powered armor, and then Samus in super ultra mega power armor that can go through lava and is from an ancient and dead civilization.
When did she get it, anyways? I've always been unclear on that. It might have been after she left the military. Also, there's nothing to suggest it had its full monstrous power prior to Zebes. Certainly, the firepower isn't quite as imbalanced if she only has the basic armor and power beam.
On a related note... it should be remembered that the Chozo only went extinct very recently (it's plausible I suppose that there's another hidden enclave of theirs where they're still alive, but I'm fairly sure they're all dead or ascended at the time of the games). They had been recluses for centuries though, not sure how many of their settlements Samus even knew about.
Without looking at material, I want to say the rough timeline works out as:
1)Samus's parents killed by pirate raid
2)Adopted and raised by Chozo. Bio-modifications make her able to survive harsh environments, results in superhuman physical abilities.
3)Leaves Chozo to meet humans, joins military
4)Leaves military, gets power suit, strikes off solo
5)Gets revenge, becomes the worst nightmare of the pirates.
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Actually, you know what would be cool? If she only had one single line of dialog in the whole game and it was something defiant like, "Stop." or "Never." Like you'd just gotten used to the idea that she would never speak in the game and then at one really impactful moment, she says one line that just says it all.
That's what my head canon Samus is like. I do like the idea of her appearing to the average galactic citizen as some sort of lonely, capricious god beyond their understanding. "The Pirates were everywhere. Whole systems burned and they force fed colony after colony to their captive beasts. If there was anything the Federation could do, they weren't doing it. We called and called out into the night, hoping for a miracle. Then she came. No reply message, no warning. She just dropped out of the sky one day and that was it. The world was over. We cried out for a savior, but what we got was Samus Aran..."
3DS Friend Code: 1461-7489-3097
I personally imagine that she was just flying along, saw a distress signal or other MacGuffin on SR388, flew down to investigate, finds out it's a Chozo ruin, powers up her suit, and then leaves with her godlike abilities.
Like, this is why I just wish we didn't have a backstory or anything. It just cannot work with her being in the military, having a suit that was integrated with her nervous system and body (prior to Fusion), and then going to SR388 and finding things to power her up.
I don't think any of that is an unpopular opinion at all.
Oh my god, this. This times a MILLION. Though I'd prefer a Han Solo style bounty hunter, EVERYTHING in these couple paragraphs resonates with me.
Wikipedia lists this on the Metroid (the game, not the series) page:
Director(s) Satoru Okada
Producer(s) Gunpei Yokoi
Artist(s) Hiroji Kiyotake
Hirofumi Matsuoka
Yoshio Sakamoto[3]
I think his page is wrong. Especially since the link cited for him being an artist goes to Nintendo material.
Sakamoto created squat aside from the way some of the game looked on the NES.
But everyone knows Gunpei Yokoi was the main brains behind it, Sakamoto was a co-director, at least that's what I've always heard.
Someone go play Metroid and get back to us. A few hours is enough, right?
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Or YouTube. (Sorry about the cheesy remix, this is the best I could find. Go to 1:45:
The Metroid page is correct, and Sakamoto was nowhere near calling the shots.
Per the manga, she got it when the Chozo were raising and training her.
She joined the basic Federation patrol. Despite the grunt level name, they're badasses. One in a million. But even there she stood out. Got promoted to a Hunter.
Semi-independent, so badass that only one in a million space cops can make the grade. Samus was the youngest being to make the jump.
...And then, after a few years, she decided "Fuck it. I'm freelancing."
It does a nice job of saying "It's not that the Federation sucks. Samus is just that good."
Why I fear the ocean.
Would one of the animals you have to save in Super Metroid become Chewbacca?
Don't think they can tear your arm off.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
I like her being a holy terror to her foes, but I also like her receiving respect from those she saves or works for. Something I liked about Echoes and Corruption was how much people respected Samus and how well she gets the job done. Just as one thing I loved about Prime 1 was just how fiercely the Pirates hate and fear her.
If I were to locate a copy, is there anything special I would need to do to get it to work on my WiiU? I don't have a Wii, so I don't really know what I'd be missing.
I agree in a sense. I think that one of the things that makes Metroid so compelling is the mystery. It is first and formost an adventure game in my mind. The idea of that mystery being artufully extended to the protagonist is really appealing to me. Lots of things that either were always a part of the character to some degree or that were grafted on over time are just irrelevant in my reading of the character. She's a bounty hunter? How is that being defined in the games? Is Ridely the bounty she's hunting? Is it Mother Brain? Because I was under the impression that no one actually knew about Mother Brain in the first game and taking her out was just gravy as far as Samus was concerned. Was in the military? When? What does that add to her?
Even her relationship with the Chozo could stand to be a little more mysterious. Imagine something more along the line of, "Do you want to know how I got these scars?" Kind of thing. Throughout the game, different accounts of how people heard or hypothesize about how Samus aquired a Chozo designed power suit. "I heard she was raised by the Chozo to be the galaxy's greatest warrior..." "Yeah? I heard she's the reason they're not around any more. Just wiped 'em out and took the suit for herself. I bet she's no better than the Pirates." "I heard she was the Federation's ambasador to the Chozo homeworld, but she went native, fell off the grid. No one knows what happened after that." "I heard she was a Chozo experiment that got out of hand. Maybe she did wipe out the Chozo, but it was probably an accident." So, no for sure backstory. Just decide what is true. Extra fun because one of the options presented is one that closely parallels the previous games, so long time fans will probably just accept that as still being true. But we're calling it a reboot. Is it the truth? Can you ever really be sure?
I think if it were me, I'd slyly have the narritive be from the POV of an NPC or several NPCs. Probably just one to maintain the lonely atmosphere present since the first game, while still adding characterization to one really well fleshed out NPC and to Samus by sketching around her so to speak. A survivor of a colony the space pirates have destroyed maybe, someone that Samus barely even acknologes. He's only helping her because she's taking out pirates left and right. No matter what her ultimate goals are, at least he's getting some vicarous revenge. Her silence isn't a silent protagonist thing. She's just not one for idle chat.
Colonist: Ok, Samus you've got the ice beam, so you can open the door to Advanced Mechanics now. Why do you want to get back there anyway? I've heard stories about the stuff the techs kept in AM. Stuff that could blow a hole in a moon.
Samus:...
Colonist: Ok, stupid question. I'm...I'm gunna be off comms for a while. Move to a new station. One that's closer to the escape shuttles. Ok?
Samus:...
Colonist: Okie dokie, then...
Ultimately, the colonist decides that she must be a hero due to her taking a stand in some situation that implies an unspoken moral delemma. Like she can hunt down a crippled Ridley or she can save the colony's children that have been imprisoned and (for reasons that would be immediately obvious to long time Metroid fans) she opts to save the children.
3DS Friend Code: 1461-7489-3097
If you can find a copy of Metroid Prime Trilogy you can just put it in and go (assuming you have the nunchuck setup ready), but the first two were originally gamecube, so the WiiU won't run them.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Now, if you can track down a copy of the Prime Trilogy disc, for the Wii, that'll work. It's all 3 Prime games, and the first 2 have been refitted with Corruption's aiming system.
Find the Metroid Prime Trilogy release for the Wii. It'll work with the Wii U.