Metroid is a series of games known for having players explore through cramped yet open ended environments, the precursor to the Metroidvania genre. They star the armored Bounty Hunter Samus Aran, who is out to exterminate energy leeches called Metroids and annihilate the Space Pirates that plague the galaxy and killed her families.The Metroid franchise is somewhat unusual among Platformers, especially Nintendo ones, for its substantial continuity. The first (NES) game, released in 1986, deals with Samus's assault on the Space Pirate base on Zebes, where she first encountered the Metroids. After defeating the Space Pirates' leader, Mother Brain, Samus is dispatched in the (Game Boy) sequel, Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991), to hunt down the Metroids on their home world. The end of this game segues directly into (Super Nintendo) Super Metroid (1994), where the final larval Metroid is stolen by Space Pirates who take it to a rebuilt base on Zebes.The series lay dormant for years, skipping the Nintendo 64 entirely (Samus only appeared on the console in Super Smash Bros.). The "latest" title in the continuity, Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance) was released in 2002, wherein the Metroid home world has been overrun by shape-shifting parasites the Metroids had kept in check. The series took a turn towards Survival Horror with this game. A sequel, tentatively titled Dread, has been stuck in Development Hell for the past ten years, and is intended to follow on from the end of Fusion.At the same time, Nintendo had made the controversial decision to move the series into 3D on the GameCube, with American Retro Studios at the helm. The gamble paid off, and Metroid Prime emerged as an unusual FPS-adventure, set between the first and second games, and got much critical acclaim. In addition, Retro ended up being purchased by Nintendo, making it their second American first-party developer after Nintendo Software Technology Corporation.The first game was remade for the Game Boy Advance a year later as Zero Mission. The 3D installments have become a franchise in their own right, with Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GameCube), and Metroid Prime Hunters (Nintendo DS) continuing the in-between storyline, which was finally finished in 2007 with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii). Tropes belonging exclusively to this sub-series belong here.The latest game, Other M (Wii), was released at the end of August 2010, and combines elements from both series. It was worked on by the unusual combination of the in-house team responsible for the Metroid series and none other than TeamNinja. Trailer can be seen here. It takes place betweenSuper Metroid and Metroid Fusion, making it the only game since Fusion to take place after Super.Across the entire franchise, a number of characteristic elements have persisted, such as the continuous string of upgrades which Samus acquires over the course of the game, most notably the "Morph Ball" (or "Maru Mari," one of several translation oddities), which allows Samus to roll into the shape of a small ball, for better maneuverability in areas where this shape is more convenient.Being the codifier, this is one of the two best known series of the Metroidvania genre—action adventure games with an emphasis on exploring a continuous non-linear world and finding powerups to advance. Technologically, the original Metroid is noteworthy as one of the first multi-way scrolling platformers. Its North American release was also the first game to use a password system to save progress. The Japanese release of Metroid for Nintendo's disc-based system allowed the players to save their progress on the disc, the cartridge-based US system lacked this ability, so presented a 24-character password which encoded the state of the game, allowing the player to resume his or her progress later.The ending of the original Metroid is a Tomato Surprise: if the player did sufficiently well, they are then treated to a (then) stunning revelation: Samus Aran's armor is removed, revealing the bounty hunter as a shapely (by 8-bit standards) woman. This reveal is also in most of the other games, although no longer a surprise. Those who Read the Freaking Manual would see that Samus is openly referred to as a female by Metroid II.Though Samus herself has never appeared on television (except in commercials), Mother Brain was featured as the Big Bad of the Nintendo-themed animated series Captain N: The Game Master. (Reportedly, the production staff actually didn't know about Samus); the comic book adaptation introduced her as the Sixth Ranger/The Lancer. A live-action feature film based on the franchise was optioned after Metroid Prime was successful, but appears to have lapsed.Spinoffs include:
Samus herself has fired plasma, super-cooled plasma, ice, lava grenades, electromagnetic blasts, standard electrical blasts, concentrated light energy, concentrated dark energy, matter/antimatter, sonic booms, miniature black holes, and various other things out of her own beam cannon. And that doesn't account for projectile weapons - missiles, super missiles, ice missiles...
Action Girl: One of the earliest video game examples, and easily one of the most well-known.
Aerith and Bob: Several enemies have weird names like "Desgeega" or "Holtz", or portmanteau names like "Crocomire" and "Sidehopper". A seahorse-like enemy in Norfair that spits fire at you? "Dragon".
Speaking of dragons, one must not forget Ridley, the giant Space Dragon/Pirate Commander, who's an example of this trope as he has the completely normal human name of Ridley despite being a Dragon Space Pirate Alien. What are the other alien's names? Kraid, Phantoon...
After Boss Recovery: Many bosses and mini bosses drop tons of health and ammo refills when you beat them.
Justified in Fusion as all the bosses and enemies are made of X parasites that Samus absorbs to recover health, so it makes sense that the bigger bosses have more potent X for her to eat.
Air Vent Passageway: Applies to all kinds of ducts/tunnels, with the Morph Ball. Subverted in Zero Mission, when after losing her armor, Samus must crawl through said tunnels, and she's far from the only creature who can use them.
All There in the Manual: The games are easy to understand plotwise on their own, but there's quite a bit of canonical backstory for both Zero Mission and Fusion, as well as the entire franchise on the whole, to be found in the manuals and the two-volumemanga.
Ambidextrous Sprite: Averted in all 2-D games after the first; Samus has different sprites for all directions. In fact, this may only be played straight by the NES version; in commercials for the Famicom game, she has unique sprites for facing left and right. Interestingly, some differentiated left/right sprites are in the ROM of the original game, but are unused.
Amazonian Beauty: Over six feet tall, clad head to toe in armour, and the biggest bad ass in Nintendo's arsenal. Why don't we see more like her?
Anachronic Order: The chronology is officially Metroid/Zero Mission, the Prime series, Metroid II, Super Metroid, Other M, and Fusion.
Apocalyptic Log: The romhack Super Metroid Eris but there are plenty enough in the series proper.
Artificial Brilliance: In Fusion the cold X will initially chase after you because the Metroid vaccine made you vulnerable to cold and you lose a huge chunk of health from absorbing them. Immediately after getting the Varia Suit they'll still chase after you, but at that point you can absorb them for health. After absorbing a few they'll start to run away from you because chasing you would just help you.
Asteroid Thicket: Used in Super and Fusion, where something crashes into an asteroid in each. The asteroids look like they're only a few hundred feet across, and tightly packed.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Kraid in Super Metroid and Zero Mission, Metroid Prime, the Adult Sheegoth, Flaaghra, Thardus, Chykka, Quadraxis, Mogenar...
Backtracking: Obtain previously inaccessible power-ups, curb-stomp previously lethal opponents with your new upgrades, and discover brand new shortcuts and secrets — all by the magic of backtracking through every area of the game at least twice. It is so integral to this series that fans will frequently complain if the developers remove the ability to backtrack, such as in Metroid: Fusion and Metroid: Other M. Even those at least give full access to the game world once Samus is fully upgraded.
Bag of Spilling: Samus never manages to keep her fully powered-up suit between games, though more recent entries at least let her hang onto the Varia upgrade. Usually.
The Long Beam has only been an actual powerup in the original game and its remake; every other game gives Samus its effects even if she visibly loses all her other powerups. Metroid II also starts her off with about 30 missiles, since they're needed to even damage the Metroids she's hunting.
Played with in Metroid Fusion. Samus kept all of the weapon upgrades to her power armor. Unfortunately, her power armor was infected with a parasite which is now using all of those weapon upgrades to try to kill her.
And in Prime. While trying to escape the ship at the beginning of the game before self destruction, the ship violently rocks to the side, and a small explosion hits her from behind, causing her to slam against the wall, which causes malfunctions with most of her equipment.
Prime 3 has Samus simply start off without any of her items from the previous adventure, but she does retain a few of her power ups such as the Space Jump Boots, Morph Ball with its bombs, and her Charge Beam. Word Of God states that they scrapped the idea of Samus having her powers in the start and then losing them right after since it was getting too predictable and boring.
And again in Other M. Samus has her full arsenal, but is working with the military in this one and needs authorization to use parts of it.
In Fusion, Samus has to have her suit surgically removed, and there is absolutely no scarring. There also appears to be no visible changes caused by the infusion of Metroid DNA (or Chozo DNA, for that matter).
The Chozo and/or Metroid DNA could have bestowed Samus with a degree of healing factor. Most of the surgery seems to have revolved around removing parts of the suit rather than mending the body as well.
Averted in Corruption. Samus's phazon corruption causes visible breakdowns on her face, and she vomits a couple times.
Bee People: The Space Pirates in the manga comics will follow anyone with enough strength or charisma. In a bit of a subversion, their species can't produce "queens", so they look to other species to lead them. On their own, they're Too Dumb to Live.
Almost literal with Kihunters, one race of Space Pirates that originate from a different galaxy. They're physically bee-like in addition to living in hives and having a "king" that commands the rest.
Berserk Button: If Samus is pointing her arm cannon at you and you just happen to be a member of a race of intergalactic bloodthirsty aliens, don't beg for mercy.
What's that? You just killed someone Samus cares for? We'll miss you. She won't.
Big Bad: Mother Brain in Metroid and Super Metroid.
Big Boo's Haunt: The Chozo Ruins (Prime) and the Wrecked Ship (Super).
Big Damn Heroes: The baby Metroid in Super just before the Big Bad lands the killing blow on Samus.
Bittersweet Ending: Almost every game since Super has one. The exceptions are Zero Mission and Hunters.
Body Horror: The X Parasites in the main series; Phazon in Prime. Metroids themselves might count, given their habit of turning their victims into desiccated gray husks that turn to powder when touched. In Prime as well, a vague reference to Space Pirate attempts to replicate the Morph Ball that went horribly, horribly wrong.
Special mention goes to Prime 3, where you can actually see the effects of Phazon corruption on Samus. Those eyes could curdle milk.
Don't forget Prime 2 which featured the Ing, a transdimensional species of dark-matter aliens that can possess and mutate other beings.
Book Ends: Super Metroid opens and closes with escapes from structures that are about to blow up.
Metroid and Super Metroid both take place on Planet Zebes. Samus ventures into the planet, defeats Ridley, Kraid, and Mother Brain, and escapes before the planet blows up. In Super Metroid, the end to the original trilogy, Samus ventures into the planet again, kills Ridley, Kraid, Phantoon (not), Draygon, and Mother Brain, and escapes before the planet (the escape shaft from the original game is part of the route) blows up. Fusion provides two. The end to the original trilogy had the super metroid heals and gives you a weapon to defeat the final boss, saving your life. In Fusion, the Metroid's DNA cures Samus of the X-Parasite infection (saving her life), and makes her able to absorb the X to heal her and replenish her supplies (giving her the weapon to eradicate the X). Also the ending, in which the SA-X, saves your life, heals you, and gives you the weapon to eradicate the Omega Metroid.
Also in Fusion, both the very first boss (Arachnus) and very last boss (Omega Metroid) are from Metroid 2.
Breath Weapon: Ridley, as he's a Space Dragon. Also Kraid and One-Winged Angel-Mother Brain in Super Metroid. In the Prime series, Sheegoths, the Parasite Queen, and the titular Metroid Prime.
The Cavalry: Two times, one in Super Metroid and another in Fusion. In Super, Samus was losing in a Curb-Stomp Battle with a One-Winged Angel Mother Brain, after taking a blow from her ultimate attack. Before the job can be finished, the huge Baby Metroid zooms in, drains her energy, and then gives it to Samus, restoring her to full health and granting her the Hyper Beam. Then, it dies while shielding Samus from Mother Brain's attacks. Cue Samus curbstomping Mother Brain.
And then in Fusion, Samus had beaten SA-X, plotted the B.S.L. Station on a collision course with SR-388, and was on her way to her ship to escape. But when she gets to the docking bays, the place is a mess, her ship is missing, and there is a huge shedded skin on the floor. Suddenly, an Omega Metroid comes in and screeches at Samus. With one claw swipe, Samus is knocked down to one HP and immobilized. Before the Metroid could kill her, the SA-X appears and blasts its chest with the Ice Beam, but it is defeated by it. However, Samus absorbs its Core-X, which restored her Ice Beam ability, and proceeded to blast the Metroid to dust.
Super Metroid plays it straight, twice. When Ridley escapes the space colony in the beginning, an announcement claims that the colony's self-destruct has been activated, urging immediate evacuation. Naturally, the whole place starts shaking, steaming, blowing up, and even rocking back and forth quite impressively. Later at the end of the game, the entire planet starts exploding and flooding with acid, because a "Time Bomb has been activated".
Other M. An AI voice announces over an intercom that a self-destruct sequence will detonate in about five or so minutes. For some reason, your escape becomes riddled with burning debris and wreckage.
The first game is a bit of an interesting case. While the NES original averts it entirely ("TIME BOMB SET GET OUT FAST!", plus a countdown, that's it), Zero Mission retcons in a straight example (the "time bomb" causes explosions and flames well before going off) and an aversion (the Pirate Mothership).
Chekhov's Skill: Every power-up becomes useful to go to unreachable areas/items.
Chest Monster: Torizo in Super Metroid mimics a Chozo Statue early on, and reappears late in the game. One of the X-Cores in Metroid Fusion also impersonates a Chozo Statue (most likely a Torizo, considering hosts need to be organic), and another Core X impersonates one named Nettori while giving it power over vegetation and the Plasma Beam.
Classic Cheat Code By Accident: The famous JUSTIN BAILEY code is just a side-effect of the password calculation system and is but one of many codes that bestow Samus with a leotard. The far less famous NARPAS SWORD (NotAReal or North American Release Password) actually is a special, unique password, however.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Doors are colored depending on what weapon the player needs to shoot them with to open. Return of Samus and Fusion are the exceptions.
In Fusion the doors are color-coded, but by security-clearance. Samus needs to find the override controls for each security level to unlock them. This becomes a plot point, as unlocking the controls also allows the X-parasites to spread further through the station.
Comic Book Adaptation: There are tons of them. Two of which are tongue-in-cheek semi-guide books, one is a Nintendo Power comic, one is loosely based upon the first Metroid Prime, a prequel manga and a manga based on pre-MP2. Let's not even get started with Samus and Joey series...
Completion Meter: More recent games have a percent counter that rises as you collect items.
Continuing Is Painful: In Metroid (NES), every time you get killed or use a password to continue where you left off, you spawn with only 30 Energy.
A patch for the ROM not only adds the saving system, but also saves your health (no grinding to regain your health after loading!) and offers a (although minimalist) map screen!
Continuity Nod: The remixed music in the latest installments, plus pieces of the original Brinstar and Tourian in Super Metroid. Possibly also parts of Kraid and Ridley's lairs, although Kraid's "Lair" (especially the piece in question) is very far from where it ought to be.
Something of a Call Forward: The temple that you must sneak through at the end of Metroid Zero Mission? It's part of Maridia from Super Metroid, before presumably sinking into the lake. The Pirate Mothership, however, while in the same spot as Super Metroid's Wrecked Ship, is a completely different craft.
Convection Schmonvection: Averted, in a rare video game example. Without her Varia Suit, Samus can't even get near lava without being burned, and walking into superheated rooms will cause her to take continuous, non-trivial damage. Most Metroid games make the lava dangerous to touch even when the Varia Suit provides resistance to convection; only more powerful armors like the Gravity Suit allow her to walk in lava without getting hurt. In Fusion, she gains a vulnerability to extreme cold as well, as a side-effect of the Metroids DNA she was injected with.
And in Other M, her commander sends Samus into a lava area without letting her use the Varia upgrade. Fans did not take that well.
It should be noted that the only two games to play Convection Schmonvection straight are the original Metroid (hey, it was 1986...) and Metroid II: Return of Samus, in which most players couldn't even tell it *was* lava until they explored a section of Metroid Fusion built to simulate the game... ...or saw a picture in Metroid II's manual.
Cool Starship: Samus' gunship, natch. The loaner ship she gets from the Federation after totaling her own in Fusion's opening may count as well.
Crosshair Aware: Space Pirates have an annoying tendency to twitch themselves just out of your firing path during the Unexpected Gameplay Change stealth sequence in Zero Mission.
Cute Bruiser: Samus' pet, Pyonchi, is a rabbit-squirrel from her home planet, who has been known to beat the crap out of schoolyard bullies, complete with a sign saying "Play nice."
Ghor is a special case. Though he's only 6% organic, he's a very nice guy. When he interfaces with computers or his battle armor, though, he becomes aggressive and bloodthirsty.
Damn You, Muscle Memory: Most gamers familiar with platformers go from left to right out of habit, but the original Metroid forces you to go left in the first area to get the Morph Ball and continue... which is Fridge Brilliance, as Metroid was one of the first games featuring a sprawling open ended world. Making players go left was a way to make players realize that this wasn't just some sort of sci-fi Mario/Pitfall/Whatever game.
Perhaps in homage to this, the path to the right is blocked off entirely at the start of Super Metroid (until you get the speed booster and/or power bombs) and for the entirety of Fusion, as the only path out of the docking bay is to the left.
Darker and Edgier: While Metroid itself is already kind of the Darker and Edgier alternative to Nintendo's other franchises, the earliest version of Metroid Fusion (then just called "Metroid IV") was... very unusual. It sported a "bladed" logo, a number that looked like it was torn from a claw, a darker color scheme, and a new suit that made Samus look hyper-muscled.
Death Is Cheap: Ridley has died six times in the course of nine games (not counting remakes), and twice more outside of canon. And yet, he keeps coming back EVERY. FREAKING. TIME.
In Other M, she almost lampshades this when she's extremely distressed that no matter how many times she puts him down, he just keeps coming back. Considering he killed her parents and the last time she saw him was after literally ripping him to pieces as leaving his remains on an exploding planet, she is entitled to be a little upset.
Ridley was destroyed in the first Metroid, then rebuilt as Meta-Ridley to be blasted in Metroid Prime, then rebuilt again in Corruption, then corrupted by Phazon, and finally destroyed for good in Super Metroid. Then a clone of his appeared to torment Samus in Other M, and said clone was frozen, then copied by X-Parasites to finally appear in Fusion. Ridley very well may be gone for good, but he's the most recurring boss in the entire series, the most recurring character outside of Samus herself, and the most emotionally jarring. He even appears as a boss in Super Smash Bros.FOUR TIMES. As Ridley, as Meta-Ridley, and then again for each form in the Great Maze.
Defeat Equals Explosion: Most bosses in the series will explode. This is somewhat problematic for recurring bosses such as Ridley, who has managed to come back from complete annihilation several times throughout the series.
Depth Perplexion: Justified. Samus can shoot through walls, but only if she has the Wave Beam, which explicitly has the ability to penetrate solid matter.
And nothing will stop Ridley from trying to take her down. Not even his own "deaths." Well, except for his remains being on an exploding planet. Even when he's cloned, he gets to go after Samus twice before the clone dies.
Same with Crocomire, who comes after Samus even after ALL HIS SKIN HAS BURNED OFF. That's right. He tries to attack you as a SKELETON. And fails miserably.
Chronologically, Phantoon goes after Samus two games in a row.
The Space Pirates, although they get their space-faring asses handed to them all too often, never give up their goal of galactic domination. Their penchant for finding Phlebotinum and Sealed Evil in a Can lying around might support this.
Destructive Savior: It seems Samus cannot escape the cold hand of destruction, whether it be a large base or the entire planet. So far, her "kill count" includes Dark Aether, Phaaze, Zebes, and SR388, the third of which wasn't even her fault. Granted, the others were of her own doing, Phaaze because it kept popping out Phazon Leviathans to infect other planets, Dark Aether because it was just evil, and SR388 so she could wipe out the X Parasites, but still. Not even space stations are safe, since the Biologic Space Labs orbital station dies with SR388. And Samus' first order of business on Tallon IV? Blow up the Space Frigate.
Heartwarmingly averted with Tallon IV and Aether. You can scan the planets via satellite in Prime 3, and learn that both are recovering from the events of the first two games. The Luminoth are rebuilding their civilization and Tallon IV's native life is thriving again.
Guess what happens to the Bottle Ship at the end of the Playable Epilogue of Metroid: Other M? The music is even the same as during the escape sequence in Super Metroid.
Also, Ceres Space Colony. It wasn't her fault, but it still did collide with an asteroid and blow up right when she left it. And then there's Samus' own ship in the Fusion prologue, but again, not her fault. She lost consciousness and the ship also collided with an asteroid.
Diabolus ex Machina: The extended story of Zero Mission is kicked off by Samus being shot down by Space Pirates while leaving the planet, destroying her ship and suit.
Ridley goes through many, with some people unaware that Super Metroid is his canonical final death, with the Ridley in the later two games being a clone. Also, there is a Disney Death that was set up (though probably unintentionaly) in Super Metroid that took hold in Other M: Phantoon.
Down the Drain: Maridia, the crashed frigate, Torvus, Sector 4 - AQA.
The Dragon: Ridley is a high-ranking member of the Space Pirates under Mother Brain, and is typically the second-to-last boss fought in every game. He also takes the trope to its literal extreme.
Dumb Muscle: The original Japanese strategy guide was also a manga; Samus was depicted as a trigger-happy ditz with far more strength than smarts.
Dummied Out: Two very interesting things were removed at some point from Zero Mission. One was the ability to turn suit upgrades on and off from the pause menu, as in Super Metroid; fans are still wondering why this much-missed feature was taken out. (Cheat codes can turn it back on.) The second was... Crocomire! This Super Metroid boss was found in the ROM, with a full set of sprites and some movement code, but nothing else. It's possible to hack him into various rooms.
In turn, Super Metroid's ROM includes some interesting objects that were never used, most notably a "reflector" which would bounce any beam or missile off at a 90-degree angle. A form of this was used by two pirates in Ridley's Lair who act as a miniboss.
The first Metroid game on the NES had unique sprites for Samus that would have avoided the Ambidextrous Sprite trope, but those got replaced with the current sprite the game uses currently.
Early Installment Weirdness: By the truckload. The 1986 design for Samus Aran gave "his" suit a large red barrel chest, tubes under both arms, a more "ray gun" barrel on the cannon, a red glove, and red boots. In addition, the artwork for enemies in the NES version of the game differed considerably from the Famicom version. In both, Kraid was a stout, yellow lizard with long green hair. Ridley, however, resembled a cute baby dragon in the Famicom art, and a bizarre horse-mouthed creature with five eyes (three down the forehead) in the NES art.)
And that's just for artwork. The gameplay lacks many of the refinements found in the latter ones (maps, shooting kneeled/diagonally), and put it straight into Nintendo Hard territory.
As for Samus' trademark Varia Suit upgrade, in the original Metroid it's simply a color swap of her original suit. The Varia Suit didn't gain its trademark shoulder pads until Metroid II, where the change in costume had to be conveyed with a proper sprite change because of the Game Boy's graphical limitations.
Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Lots. See also: Zebes at the end of Super Metroid, Dark Aether at the end of Echoes, Phaaze at the end of Corruption, and SR388 at the end of Metroid Fusion.
Elaborate Underground Base: Arguably, every game features at least one (or ARE one), though Tourian (both versions) is probably the most classic example.
Eldritch Abomination: Phaaze is a living, sentinet planet intent on infecting as much of the galaxy as possible with Phazon, Gorea is a starborn monster capable of assimilating anything and everything thrown at it, and Phantoon is a bizarre alien parasite ghost that can fuck with local space-time and looks a fair bit like something out of the Lovecraft playbook.
Emergent Gameplay: The open-ended nature of the games, especially the earlier ones, lent themselves very effectively to Sequence Breaking, Speed Running, low percent completions, and more.
End Game Ranking Screen: The series grades those who complete the game by their times and how many power-ups they have collected. Zero Mission has a special note by having different pieces of artwork shown for completing the game with less than 15% of the power-ups collected.
Evil Is Visceral: Mother Brain and the Aurora Units are big brains in jars that do not look very pretty. The latter aren't evil on their own though. Starting from the first game, the Metroids themselves have visible blood vessels of some sort. In the second game, they were given an insectoid life cycle. In the third game, one of them grows really big, letting you see even more organic bits inside of the body.
Same goes for Dark Samus in the Prime series: the more beat-up she gets, the more glowy Phazon innards start showing. And then the same thing starts happening to Samus herself in Corruption. The leviathan insides are visceral too.
Evil Twin: SA-X. Dark Samus in Prime 2 and Prime 3.
There's actually more. "Choujin" is "bird people," which is roughly what the Chozo are. However, "choujin" for "bird people" is phonetically the same as "choujin" for "superhuman."
The Metroids as well. "Metroid" is revealed to be Chozodian for "ultimate warrior". In the early games, Metroids were near-invincible, and by far the most dangerous non-boss enemies around.
Samus' powers aren't safe from this either. The Speed Booster boosts your speed. The Missile Launcher launches Missiles. The Scan Visor scans things, the Thermal Visor sees heat, the X-Ray Visor sees X-Rays. The Command Visor sends commands.
Excessive Steam Syndrome: In the intro level, Samus needs to escape a space station, while avoiding gushes of steam coming out from practically everywhere. If you get hit by the steam, you lose precious time to escape.
Happens again during the escape from planet Zebes, only the steam's escaping from the ground itself.
Expanded Universe: Many characters and stories such as Chairman Keaton, Chief Hardy, Old Bird, Adam Malkovich, and Armstrong Houston made their first appearances and/or are fleshed out in the Japanese manga and the Nintendo Power Super Metroid comic.
Faceship: Samus Aran's Gunship has the design of her helmet built on it.
Also, Samus' death scenes in Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Zero Mission in particular show her armor blowing off, leaving her in a skimpy outfit before the screen fades to white.
Force Field Door: A staple of the games. Doors that open simply by being shot are handwaved as being set up to keep out unwanted wildlife. Certain fluff scans suggest they don't always succeed.
Foregone Conclusion: Judging from the dialogue in Fusion, Adam Malkovich will sacrifice himself in Other M. Also, Ridley reappears in that game — and, of course, dies, allowing its remains to get frozen.
Other M also explains why Ridley fell apart so easily when you encounter the body in the freezer in Metroid Fusion and the X parasite escapes its body. The last we see Ridley in Other M, it is a dried, gray husk after having its life sucked out of it by the Queen Metroid.
The more well-known one involves a small blip flying away from Zebes's ruins at the end of the game, indicating that some creatures you rescued have safely made it off the planet.
The other is far less significant but still awesome nonetheless: During your escape from Ceres at the beginning of the game, one of the doors will actually explode behind you, leaving behind an impassible hunk of glowing hot metal. This one is a lot more likely to go unnoticed, due to all the other explosions and random chaos on screen (not to mention that your escape is timed.) It's also the only instance of a door exploding in the entire game.
Freeze Ray: A vital tool of the series, both for its creative uses, and for stopping the titular threat.
From a Single Cell: X-Parasites, if not absorbed, will simply reform into another body.
Also from Fusion, the Federation had preserved a Metroid cell culture from the Metroid Hatchling. A vaccine made from these Metroid cells was used to cure Samus when she was infected by an X in the game's intro.
Fungus Humongous: found in a few corridors of Crateria in Super Metroid, yet noticeably absent in Brinstar. Also, the Phazon-irradiated mushrooms in the Phazon Mines.
Mushrooms also appear near the entrance to Tourian in Metroid: Zero Mission, which is in a section of Brinstar close to Super's "green" zone, but otherwise still rocky.
Game Changer: Metroid: Zero Mission: Samus destroys Mother Brain and blows up the Space Pirate's base on Zebes, just as she did in the original game. Then pirate ships ambush her starship and send her crashing back down to the surface, now without a suit, weaponless, and with little hope of escape.
Game Mod: Super Metroid has several. Of the complete overhauls of the game, amongst the best are probably Super Metroid Redesign, Golden Dawn, Super Metroid Dependence, Super Metroid Limit, and Metroid Legacy. Other good ones include One Room, T-Metroid, Magma, and Reverse. Of these hacks, Metroid Legacy is by far the easiest, being only negligibly more difficult than the original game (there are a couple of segments that require the use of "glitches" like the mockball and the wall jump, but by and large there is very little trickery required to complete it). Golden Dawn is somewhat more difficult, but still not that difficult. Most of the others are at the very least Nintendo Hard and often descend gleefully into Platform Hell territory. Redesign, for example, has a segment where you are required to go into the toxic regions of Norfair without the Varia Suit, and must progress rapidly and kill enemies in order to survive. (There is a way to get the Varia Suit before this with Sequence Breaking, but the sequence break is probably even more difficult). Worth special mention is Super Metroid Impossible, a "slight" overhaul of the original game that, thanks to the withholding of crucial items and strategic placement of obstacles, brings it up to Kaizo Mario World levels of difficulty. It is also worth noting that, while most of these hacks are roughly equal in size to the original game, Redesign is absolutely gigantic, being maybe three times the size of the original game. Redesign is also unique among Super Metroid hacks for significantly altering the original game's physics, which makes playing it a significantly different experience from playing any other Metroid game.
Genius Bruiser: Samus and Ridley in addition to being twenty different flavors of bad ass. The character page has more.
Ghost Ship: Literally, with the Wrecked Ship from Super, with the ghost-boss Phantoon, the GFS Valhalla from Prime 3, and the Bottle Ship from Other M to a lesser extent. Though this one is played more straight in the epilogue, when it gets taken over by Phantoon himself.
Gotta Kill Em All: An ever-present counter in Metroid II shows how many Metroids are left to kill. This becomes more disconcerting as the Metroids start to mutate, resulting in a mini-boss encounter with each one. (The 50th and final Metroid is, of course, the dreaded Queen.) Ironically, the game concludes with Samus adopting a Metroid hatchling; rather than snuff out the hated race once and for all ("Have I the right?"), Samus takes it under her wing and begins a peaceful climb back to the surface.
Gratuitous Japanese: Maru Mari means something akin to "rolling into a ball". It's the only item in the original Metroid to keep its Japanese name in some translated releases.
Prime 3 is the only game in the series to really cut you a break on this. At a certain point in the game, you can launch exploration probes to the various planets you visit. These probes will report back every collectible you have yet to pick up. There are still a handful of items that reside on a derelict ship that you absolutely need to find yourself but otherwise, it is within reason for everyone who plays the game to get 100% without consulting a third party source.
Half-Human Hybrid: Samus is a genetically augmented human with Chozo DNA, and then later receives an anti-X "vaccine" made from Metroid cells, which allows her to eat the X as if she were a metroid.
Happily Adopted: Samus considers the Chozo her "real" family as much as anything, and they certainly don't skimp on their love for her.
Fans who'd grown to associate Samus with this trope were understandably peeved when in Other M Samus refers to Adam as "the only father figure she'd ever known".
Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: Zero Mission has this on Normal. The final boss gets significantly more challenging if you've got 100% completion, but by that point, you're so armed to the teeth anyways, it barely matters.
Has Two Mommies: In the manga, Samus' two primary caretakers are Old Bird and Gray Voice, two presumably male Chozo elders. However, in the games, her younger self's depiction of her "parents" includes a third Chozo never shown in the manga. This may be Platinum Chest.
He Who Fights Monsters: Samus nearly succumbs to this in the third chapter of the manga. On the planet of Jigrad, she saves a group of slaves from the Space Pirates. When confronted by Samus, the last remaining Space Pirate pleads with her to show mercy. Driven by her memories of her homeworld K-2L being mercilessly razed by the Space Pirates, Samus is about to murder the last Space Pirate in cold blood when the sound of a small girl crying snaps her out of her rage. Shortly thereafter, the small child thanks Samus for saving her, and Samus tells her that she saved her as well from becoming just as much of a merciless killer as the Space Pirates.
In Metroid II, Samus is charged with the task of eradicating the Metroids once and for all. After destroying the Metroid Queen, Samus finds a newly hatched Metroid. Despite knowing that Metroid is a Chozo word for "ultimate warrior", she still can't bring herself to kill a child.
Heel Realization: The baby Metroid in Super has one just before it drains all of Samus' energy when it recognizes who she is.
Heroic Mime: In Prime 3, the first voice-acted game in the series, she has no voice acting beyond her usual grunts, on the grounds that Samus talking would be "too creepy." In Fusion, she's a veritable chatterbox, but it's mostly internal monologue. She also does some narration in Super.
Now she'll be talking in Other M, which, combined with the fact that she had verbal taunts in Brawl, seems to suggest she's going the "talking hero" route.
Heroic Sacrifice: Samus almost attempts one in Fusionby detonating the self-destruct charges on BS-L to destroy the X-Parasites aboard; herself included. The AI Adam, however, informs her that doing that would be stupid, as it would not destroy the X on Planet SR388, and only serve to destroy the X's greatest obstacle: Samus. A different plan is then created, which destroys all the X in both locations and allows Samus time enough to escape the station.
In Other M, Adam Malkovich, The Metroid in Super Metroid.
Both of Samus' parents sacrifice themselves as well. Her mother does to save Samus, and her father sacrifices himself blowing up the Space Pirates vessel, along with most of their force. Ridley later taunts Samus by revealing that without a ship, he consumed the bodies of the dead humans to stay alive. Including her mother.
Ridley is an interesting case. He was not even near the planet when Kraid was defeated, only just landing on it when Samus reaches his hideout. In Super Metroid, he plays this pretty much straight, for both encounters.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Mother Brain attempts to finish off Samus with the Hyper Beam at the end of Super Metroid. Before dying, the infant Metroid steals it from her and gives it to Samus...
Also the Space Pirates in the remake portion of Zero Mission. Turns out the reason Tourian is empty is because the Metroids they were producing got loose and killed them all.
Hopeless Boss Fight: First fight against Ridley in Super; you can sort of win, as he fumbles the hatchling if you hit him enough times, but he still takes off with it after.
Not to mention the Super MetroidFinal Boss, which can only be won AFTER the Baby Metroid's Heroic Sacrifice — and yes, it's possible to fumble it and LOSE during this fight. And SA-X before Metroid Fusion's finale. And the Giant Metroid in Super Metroid.
In-universe, however, it's ironically fitting, considering that she has Metroid DNA in her as of Fusion. Also, Metroid is apparently the Chozo word for "Ultimate Warrior" (or something along those lines). Which is pretty much what Samus is.
An Ice Person: Samus, considering all the ice power-ups. She gets this affinity turned around on her in Metroid Fusion; because she has Metroid DNA, cold becomes her greatest weakness. The organism in her old suit, the SA-X, uses her old ice beam to devastating effect whenever she bumps into Samus.
I'm Melting: A particularly brutal and graphic example occurs in Super Metroid, when the mini-boss Crocomire is pushed into a pit of acid. After bobbing up and down a bit trying to get out, it screams at a very high pitch and flesh starts peeling off in gooey streaks until only the skeleton remains.
Insectoid Aliens: The "Ki-Hunter" pirates of Super Metroid, Fusion, and Other M. The main space pirates seemed to be too but Prime revealed them to be reptilians in insectoid armor. Zero Mission pirate are not reptilian but still revealed what their heads look like under the helmet. The latter design was prominent in Prime 3.
Interquel: All of the games released after Fusion, though their exact placement in the timeline varies.
Interspecies Adoption: Samus was raised by the Chozo, who also taught her everything she knows as a bounty hunter.
Irish Names: Both "Samus" and "Aran" are generally Irish in origin. Samus being a female variant of James and Aran being a group of islands near the West coast of Ireland.
It's Personal: Just read the manga and you'll see that Samus has quite the bone to pick with the Space Pirates, Ridley, and Mother Brain.
Joker Immunity: Ridley will not stay dead, even if a planet is blown up under his feet.
Actually, he will if he was weakened enough. Super Metroid is his canon death. The next two games in the continuity feature a clone of him, but that clone was killed off after the second game, Fusion.
Just Following Orders: Inverted; Samus, a bounty hunter, usually gets orders to the effect of "investigate X" and does everything else under her own steam.
Taken a step further in Fusion, where disobeying orders is actually part of the plot.
Kill It With Ice: The titular monsters, annoying as hell before you get some weapons effective against them. Though not as much with some of their later forms, the games rarely throw those at you
Last of His Kind: Super Metroid features the last Metroid. Samus herself might even count, given that, although human, she's carrying the DNA of the practically-to-totally extinct Chozo race.
Late Arrival Spoiler: The ending of Super Metroid is spoiled in the opening cutscene of Other M. Then again, it's one of the most iconic games in the series, so odds are a new arrival looking up Metroid info has already stumbled across it on a message board or something anyway.
While later games make lava a ''lot more realistic'', Samus is still able to dive in it. This is justified by her suit most likely being more dense. In addition, the lava-proof Gravity Suit is a device whose primary function is to treat liquid as air, so by the time she's completely protected against lava, she should have no problem at all submerging in it.
Left Hanging: Some people are a bit annoyed at the lack of a sequel to Fusion, in no small part because the ending to that game addressed but didn't resolve a little factoid: Samus just blew the shit out of a Federation-owned scientific laboratory, taking a planet with it. Sure, Samus was getting rid of the repli-Metroids and the X all in one go, but certain elements of the Fed wanted to keep both of those around so they could use 'em as weapons... meaning that Samus is, in all likelihood, an outlaw now. And then they spend the next decade making prequels. Is it a little too much to ask for a game about this, Nintendo?
LEGO Genetics: Samus is a human being genetically enhanced by Chozo blood. By Fusion, she's also part-Metroid.
Leitmotif: Ridley, ever since Super, has his own boss music, a remix of his/Draygon's/Torizo's/the escape theme from Super.
The SA-X also has its own distinctive theme music.
Le Parkour: Samus can do it in every game except Prime, and that may count too because she still has awesome cutscene moves.
Living Gasbag: Many of the organisms float this way, including the titular Metroids.
Load-Bearing Boss: At least one in every game which will inevitably result in the destruction of a nearby planet (if not the planet under Samus' feet)...except Metroid II. At least, during the course of the game...
The original: Mother Brain. The remake adds Mecha-Ridley.
Prime: Parasite Queen and Metroid Prime.
Prime 2: Emperor Ing
Prime 3: Meta Ridley and Aurora Unit 313.
Super: Mother Brain
Other M: Phantoon
Fusion: SA-X
Lowered Monster Difficulty: The titular creatures are the scourge of the universe in Metroid and Super Metroid, needing to be frozen and pelted with missiles to kill. Through the Prime series, they become progressively less of an actual threat. In Prime 2, they can be beaten with enough firepower from any of your weapons, and in Prime 3, you eventually get the ability to kill them in one shot. Until then, though...
Possibly justified; the Metroids in the Prime games are a different strain (Tallon Metroids) that have been horribly mutated by massive, repeated exposure to Phazon. The SR388 and Zebes strains, on the other hand, are only vulnerable to cold until late in their life cycle.
Meaningful Name: To paraphrase The Other Wiki, Samus is the female variant of the name Seamus, which is celtic for James and means "One who supplants." Her last name, Aran, is the name of an island. One who supplants an island, or One who conquers isolated territory by force.
Perhaps also, one who is an island, in a metaphorical sense — one who is isolated, existing and subsisting as an entity unto herself. Samus does pretty much always operate alone, without any outside aid or companionship (except for in Other M and briefly in the beginning of Corruption).
Me's a Crowd: The SA-X in Fusion. Since the X parasites multiply asexually, by the time you finally see SA-X die, there are still ten Samus copies running around the space station! One of the rare cases where this isn't good for the "me" in question.
Most likely this was intended as Paranoia Fuel, as you never see more than one SA-X at any given time and You can explore the base all you want and you will never see another SA-X.
Metamorphosis Monster: While on their home planet at least, the Metroids go from floating parasitic jellyfish to beetlelike creatures to giant armored lizards. In an interesting twist, the first stage is not only the most well-known and arguably most dangerous, but while nearly every game has a variant of the jellyfish stage, the later stages have only appeared in a handful of games.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Samus' Metroid extermination campaign caused an explosion in the population of the X Parasites, which the Metroids had been designed to kill. Oops.
In Super, there are two gray Space Pirates that fight by using martial arts, which were called "Ninja Pirates" by fans.
Nintendo Hard: The original game (given the trope is named after the NES having abusively difficult games, not surprising). Geting 100% without a guide is hard, doing that while beating it in under 2 hours is even harder.
The other games are easier due to gameplay refinements. But if this is you first time playing any particular game, be you a veteran or a newcomer, you WILL die at least 20 times. Now try and get 100% under 2 hours without dying on hard mode!
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Samus to Mother Brain during the mother of all Mama Bear moments at the end of Super Metroid. After what Mother Brain did, she completely deserved it.
Noob Bridge: The Trope Namer is a crumbling bridge encountered early in Brinstar in Super Metroid, and the first place in the game that would require any player (of less than insanely good skill) to use the run button. The run button, however, is not part of a standard control scheme even within the Metroid series. Many newbies get stuck there, unaware of the otherwise obvious solution.
No Transhumanism Allowed: One of the rare and surprising aversions: not only are cybernetics commonplace and carry no notable social stigma, Samus herself is a transgenic lifeform, with her adoptive Chozo caretakers having grafted their species' DNA onto her own to increase her adaptability to the harsh environment of Planet Zebes. Further, by the end of Metroid Fusion, Samus is also part Metroid, and that's not even getting INTO her brushes with Phazon...
Not to mention, Adam (and many other political and scientific figures) regularly underwent Brain Uploading.
Opening the Sandbox: Fusion is the most linear game in the series yet, and thus has very few opportunities to let you backtrack to earlier sectors on your own until the endgame.
Optional Stealth: In Zero Mission, when you reach the Zero Suit sequence, you have the option of using complete stealth if you have the right skills. Being spotted only affects the background music for the rest of the sequence (you can't kill enemies, only briefly stun them).
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Arguably the Space Pirates, who often are found in lairs breeding bioweapons but rarely found actually committing piracy.
Justified in that Samus is usually sent in to pirate lairs post-piracy. You can see the pirates in action in the opening sequence of Super Metroid, when Ridley pirates the last metroid from the research station. Presumably, pangalactic police prevent protracted piratical processes, only summoning up their favourite bounty hunter to go in and blow up the place when they track down the actual lair — which would probably be largely immune to a head-on raid by federation forces.
The Pirates did quite a bit of pirating in Prime 3: Corruption, in which they hijacked an entire Federation battleship (GFS Valhalla), murdered its crew, and stole its onboard Aurora Unit. Later, they tried to pull the same trick against the GFS Olympus. They didn't count on The Hunter being aboard...
Plug 'n' Play Technology: Samus' suit is described to be "modular", which means it can also identify other technologies and adapt them into itself. The suit is able to form new abilities just by absorbing "data" acquired from rooms and the DNA of the X parasites in Fusion.
Subverted in Zero Mission, where you find a few upgrades incompatible with your suit. You need the Fully-Powered Suit to use them.
In Metroid Fusion, once you go up to the main deck to alter the station's trajectory, every possible route back to the various sectors is sealed off. Your only option left is to finish the game. Except in New Game Plus, which does not seal off the sectors until the final evacuation countdown.
Posthumous Character: Adam Malkovich is technically this, although Fusion puts an odd spin on it. Other M, which takes place before Fusion, shows him before his death.
Power Crystal: The Lensman-like hand crystal on the back of her left hand. Originally just a visual effect, Zero Mission made it integral to use of the Power Grip, and the first Prime game made it the source of the Grapple lasso.
Recurring Boss: SA-X in Fusion, though it's not really a boss until near the end of the game. Ridley may be a better example, considering he appears in almost every game, twice in Super and Corruption. Also, The final boss of Metroid Prime, comes back as Dark Samus for the second and third games of the trilogy.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: In the manga, Samus' pet Ponchi appears to be about half squirrel, half rabbit, and all adorable. Also, the Etecoons *
(monkey-koala hybrids)
and the Dachoras *
ostrich-style creatures
in Super and Fusion. Maybe the "little birdie" of Other M as well.
Revenge on the space pirates could be seen as one of Samus' main motivations, especially against Ridley, who personally killed her mother right in front of her when she was four years old.
The last bits of Metroid: Zero Mission The defeat of Mother Brain is spoiled by space pirates shooting you down. And your suit is lost. Then you get a better one which is followed by the annihilation of every Space Pirate on the Mothership.
Sand is Water: In Maridia, when the Gravity Suit is acquired, water no longer renders Samus sluggish. However, flowing sand pits underwater still slow her down.
Savage Setpiece: Multiple non-hostile indigenous creatures will turn into this if you attack them.
Save Point: The second type is a common sight in the series starting with the second game; the first game used passwords instead. With the exception of Chozodia save points in Zero Mission and Samus's gunship, they never refill health. The Save Stations in the Prime series, however, save and heal.
Scenery Gorn: Old Tourian in Super and post-Mother Brain Zero Mission, Sector 5 (ARC) in Metroid Fusion.
Schematized Prop: Many of the more recent games have taken up this trope, most notably using a Power Suit schematic as the item/weapon status screen (Zero Mission, Prime, Prime 3, Super, Fusion; the schematized suit was also seen in the instruction manual for Metroid II).
Scifi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale: Very few of Samus's weapons have numbers behind them, but those that do are absurdly powerful — like "fully automatic nuclear explosion launcher" powerful.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: In the 3rd chapter of the manga, Samus - a newly recruited Galactic Federation Police Officer - and two fellow officers Mauk and Kreatz, are sent to planet of Jigrad on a recon mission to monitor the Space Pirates' activities there. Finding the Pirates are using human children as slave labor, Samus jumps in and massacres the Pirates before they can execute a child for being "unfit" for labor instead of reporting the find and waiting for orders. She and her team are later scolded by Chief Hardy, but Samus is praised by the Jigradian people for her help.
Sea Monster: The boss Serris is a sea serpent with Super Speed. Before Serris, there was Super miniboss Botwoon, who was a serpent like Serris who sped up as he took damage, and could spit acid spread-shots. Also Draygon, the boss of Maridia.
Sequel Hook: Fusion sure seemed to leave one hell of a sequel hook, what with Samus having illegally blown up a Federation outpost and become something way other than human. Sure, Samus had her reasons, but all the implications in-game are that the Fed will be pissed as shit with her now.
A sequel on the DS with 2-D gameplay, Metroid Dread, was supposed to have been shown at E3 2006, but was mysteriously dropped. Potentially hinted at again in Corruption, however.
Sequence Breaking: the Metroid fandom coined this term from their extensive experience with this trope.
Shape Shifter Baggage: Samus herself with the morph ball but the shape shifting is not actually the worst thing about it(the issue of vision is) nor is it the most glaring example, that goes to the X parasites. They not only multiply impossibly fast but they can take on new, often large, forms nearly instantly.
Shark Tunnel: These are a common feature, starting with the tunnel between Brinstar and Maridia in Super Metroid, to the underwater tunnel in Sector 4 in Fusion, the skywalk between Chozodia and the Pirate Mothership in Zero Mission, and the skywalk from Magmoor to Phazon Mines in Prime. All of them can be shattered with power bombs to allow free travel between the two areas.
She's Back: In Zero Mission. Getting shot down and losing your Power Suit? Running and hiding from just about everything? A Chozo Trial boss fight, then The Hunter, who sends waves of terror throughout the Space Pirate legions, is reborn, more powerful than ever.
There's also the Agon Wastes in Echoes and the Experimental Simulated Desert in Other M.
Shout Out: Several to the Alien franchise. Ridley is named after director Ridley Scott, and the opening shot of Prime is almost identical to that of the first film. Even the title logos have similarities (ALIEN - メトロイド).
A non-enemy creature in Super Metroid has a turtle like shell that flies around while spinning. Likely a nod to Gamera. Or possibly Bowser. Its offspring look strikingly similar to Buzzy Beetles.
A blink-and-you'll-miss-it example is the name of the planet that houses one Federation shipyard, where the GFS Olympus and Samus' gunship (the one used in Prime 2; she goes through gunships like other people go through tissues) were built: Aliehs III.
And then there's the fact that, as of Super Metroid, Samus can SHIIIIINESPAAAAAAAARK!
Houston from the Super Metroid Comic in Nintendo Power seems to refer to Captain Dallas from the first Alien film.
In-universe example: The final boss fight of Fusion. You get reduced to 1HP in a single swing (no matter your remaining health prior to this), and then someone shows up to save your hide. That creature gets killed, Samus gets a new upgrade (including a new beam), and you beat the unholy tar out of whatever you were fighting. There are some discrepancies, but the similarities to Super Metroid are obvious.
The original Famicom Disk System version of the first game's Escape theme and subsequent arrangements in future games don't have it, but the NES version features a slight expansion that includes a recurring six-note melody from the Kid Icarus soundtrack.
Outside the actual series, in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, one of Zero Suit Samus' air-attacks is the Inazuma Kick from the Gunbuster-series.
In the Wanpakku manga/strategy guide for the original game, there's a sequence where Samus comes across a door for the first time, but doesn't know how to open it. She tries saying "Open Sesame!", followed by "Bamble, bomble, bambopp!" and "Pastel, popple, poppinpa!". (Neither of them worked.) The latter two phrases are incantations from Magical Girl shows (specifically Magical Angel Creamy Mami and Magical Idol Pastel Yumi, respectfully).
Slippy Slidey Ice World: Sector 5 - ARC. There's also the Cryosphere in Other M and the Phendrana Drifts in Prime.
Sole Survivor: Samus, twice over: first when the K-2L colony was slaughtered by the Space Pirates, and again when the Space Pirates, under Mother Brain's direction, invaded Zebes and killed the remaining Chozo. Well, on Zebes, anyway. And then there's the last remaining Metroid from Metroid II.
The only Space Pirate who actually survived Super Metroid without being cloned or remade was Phantoon.
Many fans realized what the mysterious trailer for Other M was as soon as Adam said "Any objections, lady?" Prior to this, it was intentionally unclear what the game in question was.
Space Pirates: The primary antagonists for most of the series; only three games didn't have them as the main attackers, and in two of the three, they made cameo appearances anyways.
Samus herself had once been a Space Marine when she was serving under Commander Adam Malkovitch.
Speed Run: Super Metroid and the following sequels have their maps designed so that you can solve them in a fraction of the expected solving time by using special techniques like wall jumping, bomb jumping, mock ball, etc. to get key items ahead of time.
Stealth-Based Mission: Infiltrating the Space Pirate Mother Ship without your suit in Zero Mission.
Steam Vent Obstacle: In the intro level for Super Metroid, Samus needs to escape a space station, while avoiding gushes of steam coming out from practically everywhere. Getting hit by the steam doesn't cost you energy, but you lose precious time to escape.
Sub Boss: Return of Samus is the only game that doesn't have at least one, if tougher Metroids don't qualify.
Suddenly Voiced: In Brawl, Samus finally spoke her taunts. However, they sounded rather... odd. In Other M, she speaks for the first time in her own series.
Suicidal Overconfidence: The first few free-floating X Parasites encountered in Fusion will attempt to infect Samus again, not knowing she's now part-Metroid and can eat them on contact. They learn to avoid her quickly, but it takes another lesson for the cold X Parasites after Samus regains the Varia suit.
Superweapon Surprise: Don't mess with Chozo statues... just, don't: "Those who defile [our statues] shall know our wrath, unfettered and raw."
In addition to that: do you know what you get when the peaceful, spiritual race bird race actually trains someone to fight, and gives them the technology to do so? You get Samus Aran.
And there used to be many more just like her (albeit Chozo). Samus is referred to as the first "Chozo" in many generations to choose the path of the warrior.
Survival Horror: Metroid Fusion will never be confused with Silent Hill 2, but the claustrophobic environment, the strictly linear gameplay, the profusion of locked doors, and the relentless pursuit by an invincible enemy give the two games an uncanny resemblance.
Suspicious Videogame Generosity: If there is a save station — and possibly recharge room — next to a huge room, expect a boss to be nearby...
Swiss Army Weapon: Samus' cannon shoots various beams, including power, ice, plasma, and wave, and also missiles. The whole power suit kind of qualifies.
Sympathy for the Devil: As the series goes on, you realize the Metroids aren't so bad — this culminates with Samus becoming part-Metroid in Fusion.
In Other M, MB when you know her past and the reason of her rampage.
Theme Music Power-Up: This occurs in every Metroid, but perhaps the most gratifying moment is in Zero Mission when, after running for your life from Space Pirates with nothing but your Emergency Pistol and defeating the Chozo Ghost, Samus' unknown items transform into the Plasma Beam, Gravity Suit, and Space Jump. At this point, you can finally kill the Space Pirates... with ease.
Took a Level in Badass: In Super Metroid, Samus' surrogate Metroid child returns. It's gone from tiny to around four times as big as Samus. It later holds off Mother Brain.
In most games, the Ice Beam is a useful weapon, but not that powerful. In Metroid Fusion, Samus develops a weakness to cold and loses the Ice Beam. It becomes a weapon of pure murder when used against her, and it's the last weapon she gets in the game.
Trauma Induced Amnesia: Happens to Samus in the manga. The trauma of watching her homeworld being destroyed and watching her parents die is essentially forgotten until Ridley forces Samus to remember what happened in their first encounter many years later. After remembering the event, Samus suffers a horrendous Heroic BSOD and begs her comrades to kill her.
Turtle Power — The oft-forgotten and turtle-like Tatori and Tatori, Jr. creatures in Maridia are non-hostile toward Samus; Tatori even lets Samus stand on top of it to access an Energy Tank and a Missile Expansion.
The Undead: Coverns (Three skulls stuck together), Phantoon (Huge malevolent spirit allied with the Pirates), Chozo Ghosts, Dark Troopers, and Skeleton Crocomire.
Underground Level: The setting of a good majority of Super Metroid. All of the action in Metroid II takes place in the caverns of SR388. The only part of the surface the player sees is the immediate area around Samus' ship, and the hills behind it at the end of the game. The first Metroid is entirely underground as well.
In what may be the most over-the-top instance of this trope in the series, Corruptionends on a sentient planet.
And to finish things off, Other Mbrings a cloned Metroid Queen back for a showdown in a secure room aboard the Bottle Ship. At the end of the epilogue, Phantoon is fought in a giant, wide open room with glass Phantoon attacks from.
Samus in Metroid Fusion had all her abilities copied by X. After killing X-infected bosses (which tend to be able to produce similar attacks), she can absorb the X-parasite to regain that power.
Metroid Prime 2 does something similar, where, after losing most of her starting abilities to a mob of Ing, she has to regain them in one-on-one boss battles where they're used against her.
The Phazon Suit from the Omega Pirate in the first Prime. Metroid Prime 3 has Samus gain the Ice Missiles, Plasma Beam, Grapple Voltage, and all the Phazon upgrades this way.
A dedicated fan is remaking Metroid 2, but with an engine similar to that found in Fusion and Zero Mission. Curiously enough, is named Another Metroid 2 Remake. So was there a first one?
Wall Jump: Starting with Super Metroid, Samus quickly became one of the most notable employers of this technique. It also is the primary tool of sequence breakers.
Prime 2 was the first game that explicitly informed the player that this was one of Samus' abilities; in all previous games, it was a secret, and admittedly optional, technique.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Averted in Metroid II. Samus couldn't bring herself to kill a child, even if said child was a parasitic monster and a potential threat to the galaxy. It certainly helped matters that she felt an attachment to the creature.
Wolverine Publicity: The Varia Suit is used in almost all of the series' covers and promotional images, even though it's typically only the middle of three suits.
Womb Level: The innards of the Leviathans in Prime 3, though that's more of a case of 'Womb Boss Chamber'. Phaaze is a living planet, too, though only a few parts of what we see of Phaaze is definitely organic.
The Impact Crater in Prime and a couple of the rooms in Red Brinstar in Super also qualify.
You Don't Look Like You: Samus suffered this problem until about Metroid Zero Mission. She was usually a blonde — except when her hair was brown, green, or Dark Skinned Purple — and her various facial features and overall style of rendering fluctuated. However, once Zero Mission/Prime 2 hit, her appearance seemed to standardize. Her Fusion appearance could be explained by the surgery, or her altered DNA.
Her armor also changed drastically between Metroid 1 and 2, and all flashbacks to the first game depict the redesigned armor. It got a further redesign in Metroid: Other M, which is also depicted in flashbacks to Metroid 2 and Super Metroid.
Zeerust: It's not really apparent in-game, given the low graphical capabilities of the console and the general lack of technology aside from Samus' suit, the doors, and the elevators, but the artwork of Samus for the original NES game makes it very apparent that Metroid was made in The Eighties. It has a rather boxier look than later portrayals, for one thing. Later games aged much better in this regard: even the immediate sequel to the first game, which was released only a few years later, features an artwork design for Samus that still looks pretty good even after twenty years.
Zip Mode: Samus' Speed Boost could be considered this if having to trek along a long straight path; she will travel fast enough to kill all normal enemies in the way.
Zombie Apocalypse: The BSL station succumbs to one courtesy of the X Parasites. It's a small taste of what could have happened to the entire galaxy had they got off the station.
See you next mission
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It takes place between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, making it the only game since Fusion to take place after Super.Across the entire franchise, a number of characteristic elements have persisted, such as the continuous string of upgrades which Samus acquires over the course of the game, most notably the "Morph Ball" (or "Maru Mari," one of several translation oddities), which allows Samus to roll into the shape of a small ball, for better maneuverability in areas where this shape is more convenient.Being the codifier, this is one of the two best known series of the Metroidvania genre—action adventure games with an emphasis on exploring a continuous non-linear world and finding powerups to advance. Technologically, the original Metroid is noteworthy as one of the first multi-way scrolling platformers. Its North American release was also the first game to use a password system to save progress. The Japanese release of Metroid for Nintendo's disc-based system allowed the players to save their progress on the disc, the cartridge-based US system lacked this ability, so presented a 24-character password which encoded the state of the game, allowing the player to resume his or her progress later.The ending of the original Metroid is a Tomato Surprise: if the player did sufficiently well, they are then treated to a (then) stunning revelation: Samus Aran's armor is removed, revealing the bounty hunter as a shapely (by 8-bit standards) woman. This reveal is also in most of the other games, although no longer a surprise. Those who Read the Freaking Manual would see that Samus is openly referred to as a female by Metroid II.Though Samus herself has never appeared on television (except in commercials), Mother Brain was featured as the Big Bad of the Nintendo-themed animated series Captain N: The Game Master. (Reportedly, the production staff actually didn't know about Samus); the comic book adaptation introduced her as the Sixth Ranger/The Lancer. A live-action feature film based on the franchise was optioned after Metroid Prime was successful, but appears to have lapsed.Spinoffs include:Vote on the best game here!
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