History NightmareFuel / MetroidPrime3Corruption

** There's one part where you enter a small storage locker. The second you open the door, ''[[JumpScare a dead Federation trooper's corpse greets you and instantly decomposes!]]''

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mIWrmJsGdI background]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41AFeu2ZD4A music]] aboard the ''Valhalla'' is downright haunting, even by ''Metroid'' standards. It starts out ominous enough, but once you've set foot into [[https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/Aurora_Access_(G.F.S._Valhalla) a certain corridor]] for the first time, the music [[UpToEleven becomes tenfold eerier]] for the rest of the game. ''Brrr...''

* '''''[[GhostShip THE G.F.S. VALHALLA.]]''''' A lot of players consider it one the scariest levels in the whole series, and its easy to see why. You don't encounter much life while on board: aside from mutated Metroids and the occasional Phazon-mutated creature, all you have to keep you company are the mangled corpses lying in various states of agony, creepily quiet music, the [[RedFilterOfDoom eerie blood-red glow]] of the nebula outside, and the occasional shuddering of the structurally unsound ship.
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mIWrmJsGdI background]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41AFeu2ZD4A music]] aboard the ''Valhalla'' is downright haunting even by ''Metroid'' standards. It starts out ominous enough, but once you've set foot into [[https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/Aurora_Access_(G.F.S._Valhalla) a certain corridor]] for the first time, the music [[UpToEleven becomes tenfold eerier]] for the rest of the game. ''Brrr...''

* The Pirate Homeworld isn't quite as scary as the ''Valhalla'' or the Skytown Xenoresearch Labs, but it's one foreboding place all the same, and not just for being the Space Pirates' capital. Not only is it more corrupted with Phazon than the planets before it, it also suffers from extreme industrial pollution, with acid rain constantly falling from the [[RedFilterOfDoom ominous red sky]]. Some of the strongest standard enemies in the game are encountered here, and the Pirates have rigged the place with lethal booby traps to hinder your progress.
** When first visiting the Pirate Homeworld, your main concern isn't so much the Pirates themselves as it is the weather. Even if you're at full health, the acid rain kills you ''in seconds'' [[TooDumbToLive if you try to walk through it without the Hazard Shield]].

* '''''[[GhostShip The GFS Valhalla.]]''''' A lot of players consider it one the scariest levels in the whole series, and its easy to see why. You don't encounter much life on the ship: aside from mutated Metroids and the occasional Phazon-mutated creature, all you have to keep you company are the mangled corpses lying in various states of agony, creepily quiet music, the [[RedFilterOfDoom eerie red glow]] of the nebula outside, and the occasional shuddering of the structurally unsound ship.
** You can use the scan visor on corpses to determine how they died. While you can do that in multiple places, the death messages are creepiest in the Valhalla. Among these [[CruelAndUnusualDeath "gems"]] include: crawling towards an exit before being attacked from behind, impaled with a scythe before being tossed into exploding canisters, a PED malfunction eating a Trooper alive, Phazon grenades, ExplosiveDecompression due to broken visor, self-inflicted and friendly fire while trying to remove Metroids, and getting attacked through walls by phase-shifting Metroids.
*** Two of the last trooper corpses you find in the Valhalla belong to two PED Troopers whose PED devices explosively ruptured; when you find them, their corpses are impaled and suspended from the Phazon tendrils, looking almost as if they were crucified. Worse still, scans reveal that the Phazon is consuming their flesh, and shooting the two troopers reveals that there's nothing left inside their armor.
** There's one part where you enter a small storage room. The second you open the door, ''[[JumpScare a dead Federation trooper's corpse greets you and instantly decomposes]]''!
** Whatever you do, don't look out the windows of the Valhalla. That entire nebula out there? Metroids as far as the eye can see, some of them MASSIVE.

** Even by ''Metroid'' standards, the Valhalla's background music is downright haunting. It starts out ominous enough, but upon entering [[https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/Aurora_Access_(G.F.S._Valhalla) a certain corridor]] for the first time, the music becomes tenfold eerier and remains so for rest of the game.
*** The Valhalla BGM is also known as "Dark Sad Kowa". The last of those three words [[BilingualBonus means "fear" in Japanese]], befitting such a BleakLevel as the Valhalla.
** And finally, there's the [[ApocalypticLog "secret message"]] from Aurora Unit 313, its voice ominously slowing down and becoming less coherent as it powers down and is gradually corrupted with Phazon. Its last two words (quoted above) become even worse when you consider the fact that Dark Samus' {{leitmotif}} is titled "Darkness"; some have speculated that she entered the AU's room at that moment to watch her henchmen claim their prize.
* As if the GFS Valhalla wasn't bad enough, there's also the Metroid Xenoresearch Labs at East Skytown on Elysia.
** As you enter the labs, you're welcomed with a disintegrating PeekABooCorpse JumpScare identical to the aforementioned one on the Valhalla, except with a Space Pirate instead of a Federation trooper. If you've played ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' before, you'll probably recognize exactly ''what'' caused the Space Pirate to decompose: [[LifeDrinker having its life sucked out by at least one Metroid]].

** This one's even worse because it's self-inflicted; as noted you bypass all these properly contained Metroids (who do nonetheless try to eat you, it's unnerving to see one try), but when you get to the room with the Seeker Missiles, there's an energy cell powering the entire place. By now you've probably encountered at least one so you know taking it will disable things. Thus, the feeling of dread when you know that taking it [[ButThouMust (which you HAVE to do)]] will release the Metroids. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoAkTKW3fpU Once the power's out, the game uses the music to put you even more on edge, to boot!]]

* After Gandrayda is defeated, she goes through a ShapeShifterSwanSong, finally settling on Samus' form. As Dark Samus appears to absorb her the way she did the last two bounty hunters, Samus knows there's nothing she can do to help Gandrayda, and essentially goes through the epic mindfuck of watching ''herself'' die horribly. Even worse is that Samus herself is pretty corrupted by this point, and the dying Gandrayda shows her just how corrupted she's become.

* The Aazelion, a creature found on Phaaze, is the page picture on the ''series''' page for good reason. In one of the last rooms on the planet before the final boss, Samus falls down a shaft... and is suddenly ensnared by the Aazelion, which slowly drags Samus towards its mouth in an attempt to eat her. It's even worse on Hypermode difficulty, as the creature's increased health makes it all but impossible to prevent it from taking a bite out of Samus. To add fuel to the nightmare, the Aazelion is one of the few creatures in the trilogy that has no records in Samus' Scan Visor, and [[https://bensprout.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/aazelion/ was only expanded upon post-release by the creature's designer]]; it's essentially a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere.

** One of the creepiest parts of the Valhalla is when you go through a certain door[[note]]located just down the hall from the aforementioned storage room with the PeekABooCorpse[[/note]] and the already-haunting background music suddenly becomes tenfold eerier. The new music (variously called "Abandoned Ship", "The Valhalla's Depths", or simply "Valhalla") continues playing aboard the ship for the rest of the game.

** As you enter the labs, you're welcomed with a PeekABooCorpse JumpScare identical to the aforementioned one on the Valhalla, except with a Space Pirate instead of a Federation trooper. If you've ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' before, you'll probably recognize exactly ''what'' caused the Space Pirate to decompose: [[LifeDrinker having its life sucked out by at least one Metroid]].

* The Game Over screen for this game consists of a slowly expanding pool of Samus' blood on a white background. If that's not enough, if you get [[NonStandardGameOver Terminal Corruption]], the blood is ''[[AlienBlood blue]]''.

* ''Corruption'' adds the [[GhostShip GFS Valhalla]], complete with [[ApocalypticLog logs of the Aurora unit slowly being corrupted with Phazon]].
** What makes the Valhalla even creepier is that you don't encounter much life on the ship: Aside from mutated Metroids and the occasional Phazon-mutated creature, all you have to keep you company are the mangled corpses lying in various states of agony, creepily quiet music, and the occasional shuddering of the structurally unsound ship.
* You can use the scan visor on corpses to determine how they died. While you can do that in multiple places, the death messages are creepiest in the Valhalla. One of them saying that the trooper was trying to crawl towards the exit before being attacked from behind, but there are probably far worse [[CruelAndUnusualDeath "gems"]].
** Some deaths include getting impaled with a scythe before being tossed into exploding canisters, a PED malfunction eating a Trooper alive, phazon grenades, explosive decompression due to broken visor, self-inflicted and friendly fire while trying to remove Metroids, and getting attacked through walls by phase-shifting Metroids.
** Two of the last trooper corpses you find in the Valhalla belong to two PED Troopers whose PED devices explosively ruptured; when you find them, their corpses are impaled and suspended from the Phazon tendrils, looking almost as if they were crucified. Worse still, scans reveal that the Phazon is consuming their flesh, and shooting the two troopers reveals that there's nothing left inside their armor.
* Oh, did we forget to mention that these Metroids can now phase through walls? Because ''they can now phase through walls.''
* Whatever you do, don't look out the windows of the Valhalla; that entire nebula out there? Metroids as far as the eye can see, some of them MASSIVE.
** Particularly freaky is when you see one of these Metroids floating lazily down a hall...and then you notice that it's dragging a corpse behind it.
* Then there's the part where you open a door, everything's fine, everything's good. '''Then the second you open the door a dead Pirate's corpse greets you and instantly decomposes'''!
** The fun doesn't stop there: If you've played to the end of ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' before, as you'll probably recognize exactly ''what'' caused the Space Pirate to decompose: having its life sucked out by at least one Metroid.

* Venturing deeper, you pass by several trapped Metroids, but they do nothing, as they are properly contained. Then you acquire the Seeker Missile, the lights go out, and you KNOW what's waiting for you on the way back. And if it's your first run, PRAY!
** This one's even worse because it's self-inflicted; as noted you bypass all these properly contained Metroids (who do nonetheless try to eat you, it's unnerving to see one try), but when you get to the room with the Seeker Missiles, there's an energy cell powering the entire place. By now you've probably encountered at least one so you know taking it will disable things. Thus, the feeling of dread when you know that taking it (which you HAVE to do) will release the Metroids. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoAkTKW3fpU Once the power's out, the game uses the music to put you even more on edge, to boot!]]
* Then you learn that this mutated breed of Metroids can not only phase through walls, but ''missiles'' as well.

* One of the cooler features of the game is the ability to sometimes see Samus's eyes inside her visor while playing. As you become corrupted, her eyes go from Green( non-PED Suit), to blue, to blue with some strained blood vessels, blue with glowing eyes, and finally [[http://36.media.tumblr.com/015bd89a81cf7471652819db009560c3/tumblr_mzxgexAiZP1tp2bino1_500.jpg deep blue glowing eyes, with tendrils made of pure phazon crawling up her face]].

* Omega Ridley is pretty horrifying in ''concept''; he's a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot sadistic cyborg space pirate dragon-like alien pirate/terrorist]], and you can clearly tell that Ridley himself is pretty much just a ''living corpse'' under the cybernetic enhancements. Even as a cybernetically-enhanced corpse, he still takes a large amount of effort to put down, and even ''after'' Samus defeats him again, the zombie cyborg Ridley manages to escape the destruction of Phaaze.

* TheStinger ends the game, and by extension the trilogy, on an ominous note. After reminiscing about her fallen comrades, Samus leaves Elysia, heading off for more adventures. [[TheEndOrIsIt Mere seconds later, a sleek, blue and green ship slowly and quietly hovers into view, engaging its engines before jumping after Samus.]] After years of speculation, [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/06/17/e3-2015-what-metroid-primes-producer-wants-in-the-next-sequel?utm_source=IGN+hub+page&utm_medium=IGN+%28front+page%29&utm_content=5&utm_campaign=Blogroll it's since been confirmed]] that it was none other than Sylux. You know, the one who wants to burn the entire Galactic Federation to the ground out of sheer hatred? [[ParanoiaFuel He has been known to successfully shadow Samus, after all]]...

* The Aazelion, a creature found on Phaaze, is the page picture for good reason. In one of the last rooms on the planet before the final boss, Samus falls down a shaft... and is suddenly ensnared by the Aazelion, which slowly drags Samus towards its mouth in an attempt to eat her. It's even worse on Hypermode difficulty, as the creature's increased health makes it all but impossible to prevent it from taking a bite out of Samus. To add fuel to the nightmare, the Aazelion is one of the few creatures in the trilogy that has no records in Samus' Scan Visor, and [[https://bensprout.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/aazelion/ was only expanded upon post-release by the creature's designer]]; it's essentially a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere.