Samus Aran

Samus Aran (, Samus Aran) is the protagonist of the series. Samus is the galaxy's most famous bounty hunter, thanks to her constantly helping the Galactic Federation in their fight against the Space Pirates. Samus is widely praised as one of Nintendo's most iconic heroes, and a groundbreaking example of proactive, powerful female protagonists in gaming.

As a member of the "perfect-attendance crew", Samus has been featured as a playable character throughout the  series.

Origin
Samus made her first appearance in  (1986) for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The original game concepts for Metroid were done by director Makoto Kanoh and designer Hiroji Kiyotake.

Much like Link, Samus is largely silent during gameplay and defined by the player's actions, although she is occasionally given spoken dialogue or internal/introductory monologues, with her level of expressiveness varying between games. This carries over to both her incarnations in Super Smash Bros., where the "standard" Samus is completely silent (although the Galactic Avenger event description in SSB4 is written as if spoken by her) and her Zero Suited self has a small number of spoken lines. Metroid: Other M attempted to introduce more personality, characterization and backstory to Samus; however, the game's approach resulted in significant fan and critical controversy. Metroid: Samus Returns and Metroid Dread, in addition to subsequent Super Smash Bros. games (particularly through small amounts of characterization such as in 's reveal trailer), would revert Samus to her previous, largely silent and stoic depiction, with body language helping to get her thoughts across.

A Nintendo Power comic adaptation of Super Metroid was the first depiction of Samus's backstory, which was later fleshed out in a Monthly Magazine Z manga. These comics established that she was born on the Earth colony K-2L to parents Virginia and Rodney Aran, the latter being a member of the Galactic Federation. When Samus was 3 years old, her parents were on a mission in the K-2L mines to retrieve a precious mineral known as Afloraltite when the Chozo arrived as observers. The Chozo quickly befriended Samus and left when they believed all was well. Soon after, the mining team were ambushed by the Space Pirates, led by a creature known as Ridley. While Ridley considered Samus cute when they first met, he decided to kill her out of mercy, but accidentally killed Virginia as she jumped between the two. A wounded Rodney then shot at the Afloraltite, causing it to explode, killing him and most of the space pirates. Anyone left alive quickly fled. The Chozo returned soon after to assess the damages when they came across Samus as the sole survivor of the incident. They decided to adopt the now orphaned girl and took her to planet Zebes. As she grew up, she trained with them and was given a Chozo power suit. Eventually, Samus left the planet and joined the Galactic Federeation, but quickly left due to her disagreements with the higherups over procedures and general distaste for authority, as well as an incident in which her superior officer, Adam, was forced to sacrifice his brother Ian to save a civilian shuttle, despite Samus' protests. Samus became a bounty hunter instead, and quickly developed a reputation as the best in the galaxy.

The original  saw Samus on her first mission on the planet Zebes, sent to stop the Space Pirates and destroy Mother Brain, the mechanical lifeform that controlled the fortress and its computers. She was later sent to Planet Zebes to stop the Space Pirates on Zebes, who were attempting to use a newly discovered species called the "Metroids" and destroy Mother Brain, the computer who controlled Zebes's ecosystem. Samus successfully carried out the mission, destroying Mother Brain. The original Metroid ends here, but in the remake , Samus's ship is shot down after takeoff, and Samus must fight her way out of the Space Pirate mothership with only her Zero Suit and Emergency Pistol; it is here that Samus gets her most well known Power Suit and, with it, she escapes from the Space Pirates.

The original Metroid kept Samus' gender a secret (with the intent of surprising gamers after they completed it); even the game's instruction manual refers to Samus as a male. However, clearing the game would unlock an ending where Samus would remove her Power Suit to reveal a bikini, and the well-known "JUSTIN BAILEY" cheat code would allow her to be playable in a leotard. Since then, almost every game in the series would depict an unsuited Samus in some way, typically as part of an ending sequence. Metroid: Zero Mission and later games would consolidate Samus' appearance and abilities outside of the suit, resulting in the version of the character known as Zero Suit Samus.

In , Samus was responding to a distress call from the Space Pirate Frigate, which had been studying a new form of mutagen called Phazon, three years after her adventure to Zebes. There, she encountered Ridley, who was thought to have been destroyed in their previous battle. Samus pursued the reborn Meta Ridley to Tallon IV, where she learned that a meteorite had landed on the planet long ago, warping a sole Metroid into an evil creature known as Metroid Prime. Additionally, Samus learns of a Chozo colony that once made Tallon IV their home in order to seek a more spiritual existence, only for the Phazon meteorite to disrupt their harmony and destroy them. Samus searched through Tallon IV for information on the creature, uncovering not just Space Pirate research on the Phazon mutagen and the Metroid Prime itself, but Chozo lore as well, detailing their serene life on Tallon before their end. Samus tracked down the creature, once again destroying Ridley, and seemingly destroying Metroid Prime. Unbeknownst to Samus, Metroid Prime was reborn as Dark Samus, taking on the bounty hunter's image after stealing one of Samus's Power Suit upgrades.

In , Samus is sent to the Alimbic Cluster after Galactic Federation empaths intercept a message claiming that "Ultimate Power" lies in the center of it. Samus explores four separate areas: Alinos, Arcterra, Vesper Defense Outpost, and the Celestial Archives, and secures the Octoliths, keys to the Infinity Void, where the ultimate power was said to be. Other bounty hunters named Sylux, Trace, Noxus, Spire, Kanden, and Weavel, stand in her way, each seeking the ultimate power for their own ends. The message turns out to be a trap, an attempt by the monstrous evil being Gorea to escape Alimbic imprisonment. Samus, after securing an ancient Alimbic superweapon called the Omega Cannon, vanquishes Gorea and earns the respect of the Alimbic people.

In , Samus was sent to the planet known as Aether to find a lost group of Federation troopers. It was there that Samus encountered Dark Samus. A Phazon meteorite had struck Aether, splitting it in two at the dimensional level: one dimension being regular Aether and the other an oppressive world called Dark Aether, which boasted a literally corrosive atmosphere of evil. Samus went through the planet, destroying dark elements and reclaiming the light of Aether. With the help of the Luminoth species, Samus stood against the Dark Aether-born Ing creatures, destroyed Dark Aether and apparently Dark Samus as well, but her dark counterpart reformed above Aether orbit once Samus was out of the system.

In , Dark Samus, now leading the Space Pirates, plots to corrupt the entire galaxy with Phazon, rendering them under her control. Samus also confronts Meta Ridley again. Dark Samus manages to "corrupt" Samus, along with three bounty hunter allies, Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda, while they are attempting to assist with the defense of Norion. The other three are sent off to 3 planets, Bryyo, Elysia, and the Space Pirate Homeworld. But they are completely corrupted and Samus is forced to kill them as she makes her way to the Space Pirate Homeworld. Once there, she and the Galactic Federation travel to the planet Phaaze where Samus defeats Dark Samus once and for all and wipes Phazon off the face of the universe. As Samus once more flies off into space to resume her life as a bounty hunter, an unknown ship (confirmed later on to be Sylux) follows behind her.

 marks Samus' first appearance in the series as a supporting character. During the events of the game, Samus is hired to investigate the Bermuda System, a three-planet system with abandoned Galactic Federation resources. As the mech suit-equipped members of Federation Force are already undertaking missions there, Samus occasionally intervenes to assist them. Samus eventually discovers that the Space Pirates are building a "strategic weapon", the battleship Doomseye, to attack Federation headquarters; however, she is kidnapped and brainwashed, and serves as the game's final boss under Space Pirate control. Once freed from the brainwashing, Samus helps the Federation troopers escape from the Doomseye and rescues them from the void of space using her gunship.

In , Samus is sent to SR388, the homeworld of the Metroids, to wipe out what remains of them because they were deemed too dangerous to exist. Samus accomplishes this mission, destroying even the Metroid Queen, but after completing this task, one last Metroid egg hatches and follows Samus as though she were its mother. Samus chooses to spare the baby Metroid, remembering that she was the sole survivor of the raid of K-2L, and decides to take it to the Ceres Space Colony. The game's story is retold and expanded upon in the remake , most notably by having Samus and the baby Metroid encounter Ridley once again after the alleged completion of her mission.

In , with the last Metroid in captivity, the galaxy is at peace. The scientists begin to study the Metroid and their scientific properties. Just as Samus leaves the colony, it is attacked by the Space Pirates. Samus turns back and witnesses a reborn Ridley making off with the infant Metroid. Samus chases him to Zebes where she once again defeats Kraid and Ridley, along with many other creatures, but is attacked by a giant Metroid on her way to Mother Brain. Recognizing Samus just in time, the Metroid, which was the previously captured baby Metroid, releases Samus, who goes on to confront Mother Brain once again. In a final epic battle, Samus fights Mother Brain, who is using a mechanical body, but is almost defeated. But she is saved by the baby Metroid at the last moment, though it is killed by Mother Brain. Using the Hyper Beam the Baby Metroid had taken from Mother Brain, Samus easily avenges her "first child"'s death and presumably kills Mother Brain, then escapes Zebes before the planet explodes.

In , Samus receives a distress signal, deliberately named the "Baby's Cry", which is meant to attract attention. Samus decides to travel to the Bottle Ship, where she meets up with Adam Malkovich, her former Intergalactic Commander, and his team. Samus soon discovers that the scientists on the Bottle Ship were creating illegal weapons made from the Space Pirates, but they had escaped, riddling the ship with monsters. She later discovers that they had used the remnants of the Baby Metroid that had saved her, which were attached to her suit, to create Metroids for use as bioweapons. However, in order to control them, they created an android with Mother Brain's AI, naming her "MB." When the MB began to develop emotions and opposed the Bottle Ship scientists' policies, she was scheduled for reprogramming. She tried to protect the Metroids when everyone else wanted to destroy them and abandoned the project, leading to chaos throughout the Bottle Ship. In the end, Adam sacrifices himself to kill the remaining Metroids, Samus destroys the Metroid Queen, and the Galactic Federation kills MB. Samus is able to leave the Bottle Ship with Anthony Higgs (a Federation Platoon 07 survivor and an old friend) and Madeline Bergman (a surviving scientist and MB's former companion). After Samus leaves, the Galactic Federation decides to destroy the Bottle Ship via self-destruction. Samus is allowed to return to secure Adam's armor helmet, which she succeeds in after a brief battle with Phantoon. Samus makes her escape just as the station is destroyed.

In , Samus is assigned to collect samples of life on SR388 when she is infected by an X-Parasite, and subsequently crashes into an asteroid while in her ship. Unconscious, her suit is surgically removed due to the X-Parasite infecting it. Her life is saved only after she is given the, which was made from the Baby Metroid, giving her Metroid-esque qualities such as immunity to X-Parasites and weakness to cold. Her Power Suit is also massively altered into what is colloquially called the. After this, Samus is sent to the BSL Research Station to investigate an explosion in the Quarantine Bay. There, she encounters the SA-X, an X-Parasite that merged with her infected Power Suit. Learning that a rogue Federation branch is planning to clone Metroids as a bioweapon and secure the X-Parasites for the same purpose, Samus resolves to destroy both the station and planet SR388 to prevent such an outcome. Samus is able to complete the mission, sending BSL crashing into SR388 and escaping after absorbing the SA-X and destroying an escaped Omega Metroid.

In , Samus is dispatched by a currently unknown party to ZDR, having received supposed video evidence of X-Parasite presence on the planet despite their supposed destruction at the BSL. As the only being in the universe with immunity against the X Parasites, Samus seeks to uncover whether they truly still exist. Soon after arriving on ZDR, Samus encounters a hostile, living Chozo named Raven Beak, leader of the warmongering Mawkin tribe (who previously appeared in the Chozo Memories of Metroid: Samus Returns). Raven Beak attacks her and steals her abilities, though a new power awakens in Samus enabling her to temporarily escape his grasp. As she wakes up and explores the planet in search of a way back to her ship, Samus encounters the E.M.M.I. robots, which have gone rogue and now seek to kill her and extract her DNA. A friendly Chozo chieftain, Quiet Robe (leader of the peaceful Thoha, rival tribe to the Mawkin) warns Samus of Raven Beak's plans to dominate the galaxy using the power of the Metroids, with Samus vowing to stop him. Samus' latent Metroid abilities begin to awaken, one of many side effects of the Chozo DNA granted to her by Raven Beak along with the "Metroid" vaccine that saved her from the X. This culminates in Samus obtaining the Metroid Suit and unleashing tremendous, but wild power, destroying Raven Beak, the remaining X and ultimately, ZDR itself. Samus' new condition almost dooms her when she nearly drains her ship's batteries inadvertantly, but an X-possessed Quiet Robe restores her original condition, allowing her to escape once more.

In all depictions, Samus is a hardened warrior that has no qualms with killing to complete the mission. This is seen in the many creatures, space pirates, and boss characters she effortlessly mows down. Samus is fearless in the face of danger, willing to take on enemies much larger than herself. An exception to this is in Other M where she experiences a post traumatic stress disorder episode when fighting against Ridley. Samus would kill Metroids in particular, as she was ordered to on several occasions. However, the fact that she refused to kill the baby Metroid shows a softer, sympathetic, even maternal side of Samus that was explored more in the following installments. She also greatly respects her Chozo heritage, seen in Dread where, after Quiet Robe beseeches her to stop Raven Beak's plans, she responds in the language of the Chozo people with a promise to end the warlord's ambitions.

As a playable character
Samus makes her first appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series in the original Super Smash Bros. as a starting playable character. Samus is a heavy, yet floaty character. Her design is based off her appearance from Super Metroid. Her neutral special move is the Charge Shot, which can fire small blasts that do little damage; but when it is charged to full power, it is quite devastating. Her up special is the, which causes Samus to shoot up in the air, spinning her around very fast. Her down special is the, which can be used for a recovery through using it to air stall. However, Samus is considered one of the weaker characters in the game due to her lack of combo attacks, and being the only character in the game who cannot pull off a zero-to-death combo via natural combos. This has lead to her position on the current tier list, where she is ranked 8th out 12.

Samus' in-game character description reads as follows:


 * Samus Aran
 * Samus Aran is the toughest bounty hunter in the galaxy. Using a special suit powered by the technology of the bird people which allows her to execute daring acrobatic feats, Samus pursues the airborne life form,, throughout the universe.


 * Works:
 *  (NES),
 * Metroid II: Return of Samus (GB),
 * Super Metroid (SNES)

As a playable character


Samus returns as a starting selectable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee, in which her moveset has been tweaked. Her design is still based off her Super Metroid appearance. Her new side special move is the Missile. Samus's tier list placement is much higher than in the previous game (11th out of 26, in the C tier) due to her improved projectiles and edgeguarding capabilities, as well as a hugely improved recovery with many options, including bomb recovery and the wall grapple.

Trophies
Samus as a playable character is featured on three trophies. Her normal trophy is acquired by beating the Classic mode with her on any difficulty, and her Smash Red and Smash Blue trophies are acquired the same way by beating the Adventure and All-Star modes, respectively. The only other trophy that features Samus is the Samus Unmasked trophy. However, this trophy is only obtainable via special events or by hacking.

As a playable character
Samus returns in Brawl, with an embellished design based on . After using her Final Smash, the, her Varia Suit will fall off, thus making her become. Her color can be changed to resemble the color schemes of some of her other suits, like the  or. When her suit color is changed in such a way, her color also changes and has different markings on the back. Her tier ranking is far lower than it was in Melee (32nd out of 38, in F tier) due to her severely nerfed KO power and projectiles.

Trophies
Samus has many trophies about her, including her main one that is awarded each time is completed with Samus on any difficulty.

As a playable character
Samus returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. Her appearance now matches the design used in Metroid: Other M, albeit with minor cosmetic additions. However, she can no longer turn into, who is now a separate character.

Currently, Samus places 37th out of 55 characters on the Smash 4 tier list in the D tier (tying with ). While her Charge Shot gained KO power and had its speed increased, she had seemingly not improved much since Brawl. However, Samus received many helpful buffs in game updates, with the most noteworthy being update 1.1.5, which increased her air speed and noticeably improved her dash attack, forward tilt, forward aerial, and tether grab. Charge Shot and Missile also saw their start-up lag reduced, strengthening her camping options. Thanks to the buffs Samus has gained through updates, she is now considered to be better than how she was in Brawl and during the early days of Smash 4.

As a costume
Outside of her role as a playable character, Samus's helmet is available as headgear for all three Miis in the base game, while her Varia Suit serves as the basis of a downloadable content costume for s. Buying the Varia Suit costume will automatically unlock the helmet if it hasn't been unlocked already. Nintendo also released a QR code for those who wish to have the exact Mii used in the costume's advertising.

As a playable character
Samus is playable once again as a starting character, using her design from Super Smash Bros. 4. Samus has received numerous changes that drastically change her playstyle from Smash 4, making her more of a powerhouse character with a stronger projectile game. Furthermore, Zero Suit Samus dons the Varia Suit during her Final Smash, using the same model as the playable version.

Aside from the two playable incarnations of Samus, multiple versions of her appear as Spirits, including the Fusion Suit and Gravity Suit.

As a costume
Samus' outfit for the Mii Gunner returns from the previous game, now being available from the start as a customization option.

Trivia

 * In Smash 64 and Melee, the announcer pronounces the first syllable of "Samus" as /sɑ/ (as in "saw"). However, in Brawl onwards, it's pronounced /sæ/ (as in "Sam"). This change in pronunciation is consistent with the way "Samus" is pronounced in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Metroid Other M.
 * Samus's floaty nature in the Smash Bros. series is an approximation of her physics in the first three Metroid games, which were all released prior to the original Super Smash Bros. Later Metroid titles give her a significantly faster falling speed, but that has not carried over into Smash.
 * Samus has the longest dodge duration in the Super Smash Bros. series.
 * Samus has the shortest height when rolling due to her decreasing in size when shifting into her Morph Ball form.
 * As of Melee, Samus is the heaviest character that can wall jump.
 * Samus and are the only two playable characters to appear in another character's Final Smash in the same installment (' version of  and 's Pair Up in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate), although in Samus' case, this is due to the fact that both characters are the same individual.
 * If separate installments are counted, Palutena shares this trait; she appeared in 's Final Smash in Brawl, then became playable in SSB4, with 's Final Smash being changed accordingly.
 * Samus is the first ever female playable character in the series as well as the only female playable character to appear in every installment.
 * While Samus' face is normally obscured by her helmet (a feature of the suit's visor in Other M), her face can be seen through her visor in some Subspace Emissary cutscenes, 's promotional artwork, and 's reveal trailer, using the same facial model as her Zero Suited self in all cases.
 * Samus has never officially used her basic as an alternate costume in any Smash Bros. game, in spite of how much she's worn it in her home series. It is only seen in her Classic trophy in Melee and its own trophy in Brawl.
 * In all Smash games, Samus is the heaviest female character by default.
 * Samus is the first character to be a standalone character in one game and become a transformation fighter in the next game. She and Zero Suit Samus are also the only transformation fighters to not transform through down special.
 * In the official one-shot manga The Nintendo All-Stars Free-For-All! Smash Brothers, Samus assumes the role of a henchman to Phantom X, the main antagonist of the manga. She, along with Link and Fox McCloud, decided to create these alter egos so the other characters can stop bickering and unite as friends against a common enemy.