Dark Samus

Dark Samus (, Dark Samus) is a character from the series. Originally appearing as a gigantic, heavily mutated Metroid that plagued alongside the very toxic mutagen called, Dark Samus is the primary antagonist of the Metroid Prime trilogy and one of Samus Aran's greatest foes alongside Ridley and Mother Brain.

After making cameos as a trophy and sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and as a trophy and Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. 4, Dark Samus transitioned into a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Origin
Before attaining her current form, Dark Samus was originally known as Metroid Prime, the titular creature of the game. After Samus Aran defeated it in the final boss fight, it lashed out at Samus and stole her upgrade before dissolving into a pool of Phazon. While Samus evacuated the collapsing, Metroid Prime had, unbeknownst to her, survived the battle.

In a post-credits stinger scene, an armored hand emerged from the Phazon pool, signaling the rebirth of Metroid Prime as a Phazon-based cyborg: Dark Samus. This hybrid acquired all of Samus' abilities, as well as sapience. However, she was also obsessed with consuming Phazon, a trait retained from her time as Metroid Prime.

Dark Samus, as she would come to be known by the Space Pirates, is mentioned by the Pirate Logs in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. They initially believe she is Samus wearing a new suit, but are disturbed as she only cares about absorbing the Phazon mined on. Her meddling results in the Pirates' operation being discovered by the Galactic Federation, leading to Samus' arrival. Dark Samus attacks Samus on sight, and the two fight multiple times across Aether.

Once Samus defeats the and triggers the dimensional collapse of Dark Aether, Dark Samus interrupts her escape. Overloaded by Phazon, she holds her own against Samus despite the latter's powerful, but is ultimately bested again. She then disintegrates after failing to steal Samus' Light Suit, and appears to perish in Dark Aether.

Following this defeat, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption opens with Dark Samus' remains being unknowingly collected by the Space Pirates, allowing her to reconstitute in one of their Phazon transports. She absorbs all Phazon aboard the ship, which further develops her sapience alongside streamlining her physical body. Thanks to this sapience, Dark Samus brainwashes the Pirates with Phazon and initiates a new goal: galactic conquest via the spread of Phazon.

Leading the brainwashed Pirates, Dark Samus captures, a Federation supercomputer, and implants it into , the sentient planet that is the source of all Phazon. Dark Samus controls the spread of Phazon by launching Phaaze's s, living Phazon asteroids that corrupt the planets they strike into Phazon wastelands. She targets key Federation planets to cripple their galactic defenses.

Although Samus stops one of the Leviathans, Dark Samus corrupts her and three other bounty hunters (, and ) with Phazon. The other hunters ultimately fall victim to Phazon corruption, forcing Samus to kill each of them on her journey to kill the Leviathans. In the finale, Dark Samus confronts Samus for the final time on Phaaze, first in direct combat and then by merging with Aurora Unit 313. Samus destroys 313 and, because of its symbiotic connection to both Dark Samus and Phaaze, seemingly kills Dark Samus and renders all Phazon inert.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Dark Samus appears as a trophy and as a sticker. Additionally, a "Dark Samus" appears in Co-Op Event 7: Battle of the Dark Sides, though it is merely a blackened version of Samus and not the actual Dark Samus. It teams up with Dark Link against two players that play as their normal counterparts, with Link as player one and Samus as player two.

As an Assist Trophy
Dark Samus appears as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. 4. Unlike her trophy in Brawl, she uses her design from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Some of Dark Samus' attack animations are similar to ', such as her down tilt and her up smash. She hops around with long jumps, attacking with three different moves:


 * Her first attack involves firing a volley from her straight forward, dealing multiple low damage hits and knocking opponents away on the final hit. The volley deals a total of 21% and has low knockback.
 * Her second attack sees her firing four homing energy spheres into the air. Each sphere deals 6% and has moderately low knockback.
 * The third attack only occurs if she is near an opponent. In this case, she generates Phazon tentacles to erupt from the ground, which deal 12% and have moderate knockback.

Before leaving, Dark Samus strikes a pose in which she holds her Arm Cannon in front of her face. Like several other Assist Trophies, she can be defeated if she takes enough hits. Upon being defeated, Dark Samus will disappear by fading out in a bright blue flash, similarly to when she is defeated in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

As an alternate costume
Dark Samus' color scheme is also the basis of one of Samus' alternate costumes. In the Galactic Avenger Event Match, this color scheme is used to simulate Samus battling Dark Samus. Similarly, the color scheme appears in the Final Battle Team-Up co-op Event Match that features several playable antagonists as opponents.

As a playable character
Dark Samus appears as a newcomer in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and was formally announced alongside, , , and during the Super Smash Bros. Direct on August 8th, 2018. According to Masahiro Sakurai, Dark Samus and Chrom were included because of significant fan demand from overseas and Japan, respectively. Unlike in Brawl and SSB4, Dark Samus' design is a combination of her organic features and color scheme from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and her redesigned Phazon Suit from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

As an Echo Fighter of, Dark Samus is virtually identical in regard to function, although she does deviate from Samus in a few ways. As with other Echo Fighters, she has different animations, taunts, and victory poses (including a distinct victory fanfare). Unlike Samus, Dark Samus' rolls do not involve her transforming into a, but are compensated with slightly less ending lag. She also uses Phazon in her moveset, which is indicated by blue flames with the electric effect for all but two of Samus' respective flame-based moves, and dark blue energy for both Charge Shot and Phazon Laser (her version of the ).

Trivia

 * Dark Samus is the third of four summonable characters to become playable in a later installment. The first was Charizard, the second was Little Mac, and the fourth was Isabelle.
 * Like Little Mac and Isabelle, she was an Assist Trophy prior to gaining this distinction.
 * She is also the only playable former assist character to have made an appearance in the series prior to her appearance as an assist character, as she appeared as a trophy and a sticker in Brawl.
 * Dark Samus is the second playable character to be created outside of Japan, and the first to be created in the United States.
 * She is also the second playable character not created by Nintendo to be solely created by a Nintendo-owned subsidiary (being Retro Studios). The first was Shulk, who was created by Monolith Soft.
 * Dark Samus' Brawl trophy description is not entirely accurate. If the player achieves 100% completion in Metroid Prime, a cutscene will play that shows Metroid Prime's essence being reborn into Samus' stolen . However, this fact is only hinted at in-universe from Samus' first scan of Dark Samus in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
 * Dark Samus is the second moveset clone in the Super Smash Bros. series to also be a canonical clone of the character she is derived from. The first is Dark Pit.
 * Unlike Dark Pit, however, she is a cybernetically enhanced hybrid instead of a genetically identical clone.
 * Dark Samus and Kazooie are the only playable fighters whose games of origin were neither released first in Japan nor worldwide, with both (Metroid Prime 2 and Banjo-Kazooie, respectively) releasing in North America first.