Samus Aran

Samus Aran
Metroid series character
File:Metroidprime3 1.jpg Samus Aran in her Varia Suit, as she appears in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
First game	Metroid (1986)
Created by	Makoto Kanou

Samus Aran (サムス・アラン, Samusu Aran), is the fictional protagonist of the Metroid video game series. Introduced in the 1986 video game Metroid, Samus is a bounty hunter armed with a cybernetic power suit with a number of advanced technologies built into it. She hunts aliens called the "Space Pirates" and energy-draining alien parasites called "Metroids", while attempting to complete missions given by the Galactic Federation. Samus is voiced in Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime Hunters, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption by Jennifer Hale, but only for incidental sounds (such as cries of pain, grunts and death screams).

Her gender was unusual for a game protagonist of her time; Metroid led players to believe Samus was a male cyborg (including references to the character as male in the English instruction booklet) until the very end of the game, where it was revealed that Samus is in fact an athletic young woman. Although Samus wears the Power Suit throughout most of the Metroid series, it has become a tradition to depict her in much more revealing attire at the end of each game, often as a reward for satisfying certain conditions (such as completing the game quickly or with a high percentage of the game’s items collected). Samus is considered one of the earliest and most significant female protagonists in the history of video games.

Samus' creation is usually credited to Metroid producer Gunpei Yokoi, but the original game concepts were done by game director Makoto Kanou. She was designed by Hiroji Kiyotake.

Characteristics

Samus' main distinguishing feature is her Power Suit, a modular suit of armor created for her by a fictional race called the Chozo. The Power Suit's main purpose is to protect her from adverse environments and enemy fire. During gameplay, the suit can be upgraded to various other forms for added protection, and receive various power-ups which augment her abilities, including Space Jump boots, energy tanks, the Screw Attack, and numerous modifications to her weapons.

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Samus' gunship in Super Metroid

For transportation, Samus uses her distinctive gunship. She has had several gunships throughout the series, more than one of which has been described as a custom Hunter-class starship made especially for her by the Galactic Federation. The first appearance of Samus' gunship was in Metroid II: Return of Samus, and the differences in the gunship's design, with very few exceptions, have been cosmetic in nature.

Appearances in the Metroid series

Within the Metroid games, the legendary bounty hunter, Samus Aran, is best known for defeating the Space Pirates and the dangerous, life-draining Metroids. At the start of Metroid, Samus' gender is not specified (although the instruction manual references Samus as a male several times), but she reveals herself as a woman in the game's ending.

Little is known of Samus' past, yet details of her beginnings can be gathered from various sources, including the instruction manual of Metroid Prime, and the Metroid e-manga. Her biography in Super Smash Bros. Melee states that she was orphaned during a Space Pirate raid on her homeworld of K-2L. It also states that she was subsequently rescued by the bird-like Chozo race and infused with "Chozo blood". Information in Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid Prime strongly suggests that she was raised on the planet Zebes by the Chozo, who referred to her as "the Hatchling", and that she became their most prized warrior.

The official Metroid e-manga details the events of Samus' childhood on the planetary colony of K-2L and depicts the Space Pirate attack which resulted in the deaths of all the colonists, including Samus' mother and father. The 3 year-old Samus miraculously survived and was found by the Chozo, who took the orphaned girl back to their home planet of Zebes where she would be raised. The subsequent volume of the e-manga portrays Samus' upbringing on Zebes, and her training with the Chozo there. In order to survive against the harsh environment of Zebes, the Chozo infused Samus with their DNA, providing her with enhanced physical abilities. As she grew older, the Chozo elders donned Samus in her Power Suit which they developed and trained her as a warrior, eventually sending the hunter out to fulfil their legacy and become protector of the galaxy. The e-manga, currently only available in Japanese, has since been fan-translated into English and made available online.

In Metroid, Samus is sent by the Galactic Federation to stop the Space Pirates' production of Metroids after the Federation's own attempts had failed. The original game ends with the defeat of the Space Pirates, but Metroid: Zero Mission continues the plot when Samus' gunship is shot down, forcing her to infiltrate the Pirates' mothership in order to escape.

Metroid Prime chronicles Samus' mission to Tallon IV, where she once again encounters the Space Pirates and discovers a dangerous energy source called Phazon. She also fights and defeats Metroid Prime, the source of Phazon on Tallon IV.

In Metroid Prime Hunters, Samus is charged with locating eight artifacts known as "Octoliths", which are touted as the key to "Ultimate Power". However, she must first battle against six other galactic bounty hunters, as well as various other enemies and the guardians of the relics.

In Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Samus is sent to the unstable planet Aether for a search and rescue mission. She soon discovers a doppelgänger of herself, Dark Samus, formed of the remains of Metroid Prime and Samus' Phazon Suit. Samus works to restore the planet's energy, guided by the indigenous Luminoth and battling against the powerful Ing.

In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Dark Samus corrupts Samus and several other bounty hunters with Phazon, as well as corrupting several planets with Phazon seeds called "Leviathans". Samus must destroy these seeds to stop the Phazon from spreading, as well as her fellow bounty hunters when they cannot handle their corruption.

In Metroid II: Return of Samus, Samus is sent back to planet SR-388 to eradicate the Metroid species once and for all. After defeating the Metroid Queen, she comes across a single Metroid egg that hatches just as she arrives. The newborn Metroid quickly imprints on Samus and follows her around "like a confused child". Unable to bring herself to destroy the hatchling, Samus instead takes it with her to the research space colony Ceres. The scientists there research the infant Metroid for its energy producing capabilities.

Super Metroid picks up where Metroid II leaves off. Shortly after leaving the space colony, Samus receives a distress call from the colony. She returns to find the scientists dead and the Metroid hatchling missing. She encounters Ridley, who steals the hatchling and takes it back to planet Zebes. Samus fights her way through the planet, eventually defeating Ridley and three other bosses, then continues on to battle a cybernetically enhanced Mother Brain, who nearly defeats her before being attacked by the Metroid hatchling. Mother Brain destroys the Metroid in retaliation, then Samus defeats Mother Brain and escapes as the planet self-destructs.

Metroid Fusion takes place after the events of Super Metroid. In this game, Samus returns to SR-388, where she is infected by the X Parasite and nearly dies. She is infused with Metroid DNA and recovers, and is then sent on a new mission to determine the cause of an explosion aboard a research station orbiting SR-388. She receives orders from an artificial intelligence aboard her new gunship, which she nicknames "Adam" after her deceased commanding officer. Much of Samus' past is revealed in this game, mostly through narration by Samus herself. Throughout her mission, she is stalked by her doppelgänger, the SA-X.

Suitless/Zero Suit Samus

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Samus without her helmet in one of the ending sequences of Metroid Prime.

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Samus in her Zero Suit in one of the ending sequences of Metroid: Zero Mission.

While Samus is almost always seen wearing her Power Suit, every canon game in the series gives the player a chance to see her outside of the suit. This tradition began in the first Metroid game, where her suit was used primarily as a way to keep her gender a surprise — players could see Samus in a pixellated two-piece bikini by completing the game quickly, or by entering passwords into the NES version's password screen. Since then, each game has similarly challenged players to complete the game quickly and/or collect a specific percentage of items. Players are then rewarded with special endings that include images or movies of Samus opening her visor, removing her helmet, or completely removing the Power Suit briefly. In recent games, Samus's bikini was replaced by a less revealing and more functional blue bodysuit, dubbed the "Zero Suit."

Super Metroid was the first game to depict Samus' Power Suit breaking apart when the player ran out of energy; similar incarnations of this scene appear in both Fusion and Zero Mission. Zero Mission also includes a section where the player must control the heroine after she has lost her armor. Unlike the original Metroid (where her altered appearance was merely a cosmetic Easter egg), this lack of armor plays a central role in Zero Mission, increasing the amount of damage Samus takes and changing her available weaponry. Samus is again pictured wearing only her Zero Suit at the beginning of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and again in a special ending, which requires 100% of expansion items in order to be seen. She wears her Power Suit throughout the rest of the game, only occasionally removing her helmet during certain cutscenes.

During an official Super Smash Bros. Brawl teaser, Solid Snake is briefed by Mei Ling about Zero-Suit Samus's abilities. According to Mei-Ling, Samus's training with the Chozo has given her superhuman agility and speed that no "ordinary" human could hope to match. This characteristic is implemented in Brawl's gameplay, as Zero-Suit Samus is both lighter and quicker than her suited counterpart.

Appearances outside the Metroid series

Being a well-known Nintendo character, Samus has made numerous appearances in other titles and media.

Super Smash Bros. series

Samus is a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series of multiplayer fighting games, where she can use her array of weapons in combat against characters from other video games. She is identified throughout the series by her trademark icon, the Screw Attack symbol, and the Metroid II version of her gunship appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee for the GameCube.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, players can cause Samus to then switch in and out of her Power Suit by using her Final Smash attack. When not wearing her full armor, she is referred to as "Zero Suit Samus" (ZSS) and wears her blue form-fitting suit seen in Zero Mission and the Prime series. In this form, she has a different set of movements and attacks, and pieces of her discarded Power Suit can be picked up and thrown. This alternate form is selectable at the beginning of a match by pressing a specific button that varies based on controller. Zero Suit Samus was shown at the E For All demo to have used an alteration of the "Crystal Flash" technique from Super Metroid to restore her suit.

Other appearances

Samus is also a semi-regular character in the Captain N: The Game Master comic books from Valiant Comics, published as part of the Nintendo Comics System. In these stories, Samus has romantic feelings for Kevin Keene, despite his own affections for Princess Lana. However, as she states in the story “Breakout”, she’d prefer to win Kevin’s affections fairly. At one point Princess Lana accuses Samus of being responsible for the kidnapping of her father, based on circumstantial evidence which is later discredited. In the animated series of the same name, Samus did not appear, even though Mother Brain is the show's primary villain. Series writer Jake Roddy claimed in an interview that he didn’t feature Samus in the cartoon because he "never heard of her".

Samus also starred in two comic adaptations featured in Nintendo Power: a 60-page one for Super Metroid and a 24-page one for Metroid Prime. Like other major Nintendo characters, she has various cameos in other Nintendo games, including Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Kirby's Dream Land 3, and the WarioWare series.

As well, Samus appeared as the Red Star Commanding Officer of map #2: Donut Island of the title Famicom Wars (the first game in the Nintendo Wars series, which was to later include Advance Wars.)

External links

• Translation of official e-manga detailing Samus' Origin
• Rag, Koran (2004). “Metroid Prime Chozo Lore FAQ”. Accessed July 4, 2005.
• IGN: Smash Profile - Samus