Metroid (universe): Difference between revisions

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Metroid'' (universe)}}

|latestinstallment = ''{{s|metroidwiki|Metroid Dread}}'' (2021)

After the incredible success of ''[[Mario (universe)|Super Mario Bros.]]'' and ''{{uv|The Legend of Zelda}}'' for the Famicom / NES, Nintendo began work on ''{{b|Metroid|game}}'', an action game inspired by Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror film ''Alien''. Nintendo set the game in the labyrinthine, subterranean cave network of a science-fiction alien planet to help impress a feeling of desperation and solitude on the player, and attempted to set the game apart from other games by making it a nonlinear adventure-based game that required exploration and backtracking. Like ''Zelda'', ''Metroid'' helped pioneer the concept of acquiring permanent tools during the quest that would open up the way forward once the player returned to earlier areas. ''Metroid'' was also one of the first games to contain multiple endings, which were awarded based on how fast the game was completed; this had a hand in popularizing the concept of the "speedrun". Finally, ''Metroid'' was one of the first video games to feature a female protagonist - and this was initially presented to the gaming public as a concealed secret until the game was beaten in a fast-enough time.

For all these reasons and more, the August 1987 release of ''Metroid'' for the NES was another revolutionary and enormously successful release for Nintendo. ''Metroid'' had a palpable effect on the future of the video game industry, integrating what was technically several styles of gameplay that had already revolutionized the industry on separate prior occasions into a new formula that was married with a foreboding atmosphere. The revelation that the player-character, [[Samus Aran]] - appearing as a suited, mechanized soldier that the instruction manual referred to with masculine pronouns - was a woman underneath the armor plating was lauded as innovative for blowing away established norms of females in video games (like the damsels in distress in ''Mario'' and ''Zelda'').

Many retrospectives, however, find faults with some of the original game's design and layout in comparison to modern action-adventure standards, and these shortcomings were only partially addressed in the first sequel, ''Metroid II: Return of Samus'', released for the Game Boy in November 1991. This sequel did something that very few Nintendo series attempted to do during this time frame: directly continue the story from the previous game. The adventure was considerably linear, with the only goal being to track down and exterminate all of the [[Metroid (creature)|Metroid]]s on Planet SR388, but it served to lay the foundation for the gameplay and story to come.

By far the most significant evolution of the ''Metroid'' formula, however, was the seminal ''[[Super Metroid]]'', released on the SNES in April 1994. With vastly refined combat, exploration mechanics, world design, and dialogue-free storytelling, the game garnered universal acclaim and is often labeled by official publications as not only one of the best games on the SNES, but also one of the best video games ever made. The greatest irony is that the American and PAL versions of ''Super Metroid'' sold well as a result of aggressive marketing by Nintendo that was spurred on by the game's poor sales in Japan. Analysts proclaim that the Japanese release of ''Super Metroid'' was poorly timed, not only because of more commercially successful games being released at the time like ''{{s|mariowiki|Donkey Kong Country}}'', but because of the launches of the next-generation systems Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn. This was a big contributing factor to what became a now-legendary eight-year hiatus for the series, which remained dormant despite Samus's appearance in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' on the Nintendo 64, and Nintendo mentioning the possibility of an N64 installment which had never came to fruition.

The franchise would continue its presence in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series as Samus reprised her role in ''Melee'', but no new core entry appeared to be on the horizon. The rebirth of the ''Metroid'' franchise at the end of 2002 was arguably one of the most daring and ambitious for any video game franchise; two completely separate, high-profile ''Metroid'' titles were released on the same day in the Americas, on November 17, 2002. The first was ''Metroid Fusion'' for the Game Boy Advance, which was an all-new adventure based on the familiar two-dimensional sidescrolling formula of ''Super Metroid''. However the more noteworthy title of the two was ''Metroid Prime'' for the Nintendo GameCube, the series's inaugural transition into the third dimension, which was highly controversial prior to release. Not only was it being developed by a then-unknown company in the United States, the Texas-based [[Retro Studios]], but its presentation with a first-person perspective led to accusations of being a complete departure from the ''Metroid'' fabric for the worse. The released product ultimately allayed these concerns, to say the least; ''Metroid Prime'' garnered extremely enthusiastic acclaim from critics and fans for managing the task of faithfully transplanting the classic formula into three dimensions and using the first-person viewpoint to its advantage and became one of the GameCube's best-selling titles as a result, securing the franchise's place as a Nintendo staple for the foreseeable future.

Throughout the 2000s, the ''Metroid'' franchise settled into a more regular release schedule following ''Prime'' and ''Fusion''. ''Metroid: Zero Mission'', released for the Game Boy Advance in February 2004, was a top-to-bottom remake and expansion of the original NES ''Metroid'' that incorporated elements and design choices from future installments such as the control scheme, power-ups, and movement mechanics. The key difference from the original was that while the first game allowed Samus to be playable without her armor using a cheat code, ''Zero Mission'' established Samus' abilities when outside of the Power Suit, [[Zero Suit Samus|making Samus playable in the new "Zero Suit"]] as part of the narrative. ''Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'', for the GameCube in November 2004, was a ''Prime'' follow-up that changed several concepts and was tuned to a much higher level of difficulty. ''Metroid Prime Hunters'' was an ambitious effort to present the graphically intensive ''Metroid Prime'' first-person formula on the restrictive hardware of the Nintendo DS in March 2006. Retro Studios concluded the ''Metroid Prime'' subseries (albeit temporarily) with the August 2007 release of ''Metroid Prime 3: Corruption'' for the [[Wii]]. The final chapter in the original trilogy, this entry introduced immersive pointer controls to the series for controlling Samus and aiming her weapons, which were carried over to the Japan-only "New Play Control!" rereleases of the first two ''Prime'' games. In late 2009, all three games were compiled into one disc as the limited-edition ''Metroid Prime: Trilogy'' for Wii, bringing with it updated textures and slight difficultly revisions along with faster load times and a unified interface. The compilation eventually came to the Wii U Virtual Console in January 2015 after the physical version went out of print.

 

Following the Wii compilation's original release, Retro Studios would shift its focus to revitalizing another dormant Nintendo franchise in ''[[Donkey Kong (universe)|Donkey Kong Country]]'', leaving them preoccupied for the time being. After the conclusion of the ''Prime'' trilogy, ''Metroid: Other M'' was introduced in August 2010 for the Wii, developed by Team Ninja of ''Ninja Gaiden'' fame. Its new third-person action-adventure gameplay aspects were generally well-received; however, some reviewers criticized its strikingly linear approach to level design, approach to characterization of Samus, the voice acting and dialogue (with the English dub directed by the non-English-speaking Yoshio Sakamoto), and the game's methods of telling a cutscene-heavy story, with these aforementioned elements causing a high degree of fan controversy and backlash. This, combined with the game's poor sales outside of Japan, dealt a critical blow to the series's success streak and marked the beginning of a second hiatus for the franchise.

 

Five years later at E3 2015, a new game in the series was announced for the Nintendo 3DS, ''Metroid Prime: Federation Force'' by [[Next Level Games]], a spinoff of the ''Metroid Prime'' series due for release in 2016. The game is a cooperative first-person shooter, where the player assumes the role of a faceless Galactic Federation Marine and featuring gameplay elements similar to that of ''Metroid Prime Hunters''. The game also featured a side mode called "Blast Ball" in which two teams of four Federation troops blast a large soccer ball to the other team's goal. Much like ''Other M'' before it, the game was met with a highly polarized reception, though ''Federation Force'' was lambasted for its change in graphical style, heavily reduced focus on Samus, focus on combat over exploration, and its overall departure from the series's general tone. Further criticism was aimed at the fact that the first ''Metroid'' game announced after the franchise's five-year hiatus was a spin-off title and not a core entry in either the 2D series or the ''Prime'' series, particularly for the franchise's 30th anniversary. On release, ''Federation Force'' sold poorly and was generally met with lukewarm reviews, now being considered "dead on arrival" to critics and fans.

 

With the controversy surrounding both ''Other M'' and ''Federation Force'', as well as the five-year hiatus between them, the early-to-mid 2010s marked a period of uncertainty surrounding the state of the ''Metroid'' series. However, two new mainline ''Metroid'' titles were announced during E3 2017 - ''Metroid Prime 4'' for the [[Nintendo Switch]], and ''Metroid: Samus Returns'' for the Nintendo 3DS. The latter of the two is an enhanced remake of ''Metroid II: Return of Samus'' developed by MercurySteam, who previously handled the ''[[Castlevania (universe)|Castlevania: Lords of Shadow]]'' games. ''Samus Returns'' would release in September of that year and the reveal of these two games marked the true end of the main series' hiatus and, together with a new sub-line of ''Metroid'' [[amiibo]], signaled the return of ''Metroid'' as one of Nintendo's flagship franchises.

 

While ''Samus Returns'' saw incredibly positive reception from fans and critics for bringing the series back to its roots despite lukewarm sales (which can be partly attributed to the waning lifespan of the 3DS), information on ''Metroid Prime 4'' was hazy at best. Shortly after the game's teaser announcement, it was confirmed that longtime developer Retro Studios would not be returning for the new entry. Instead, it would be handled by an unspecified new development team. Roughly two years later, even after the series saw an increase in representation in ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'', it was announced in January 2019 that the game's development would be restarted from scratch. Shinya Takahashi cited development struggles under the new team to meet the quality standards of the previous ''Metroid Prime'' titles and the expectations of series fans. As a result, series producer Kensuke Tanabe would restart the game's development, but with none other than the original developer of the ''Metroid Prime'' series - Retro Studios. Meanwhile, producer Yoshio Sakamoto would continue working with MercurySteam to develop ''Metroid Dread'' for the Nintendo Switch, the first proper continuation of the ''Metroid'' storyline since ''Fusion''.

 

Overall, the ''Metroid'' series is often held up as one of Nintendo's greatest classic franchises and maintains a dedicated fanbase, particularly in the West. ''Super Metroid'' and the ''Metroid Prime'' trilogy in particular have garnered significant praise from fans and reviewers. Samus herself, while not achieving the same level of recognition as [[Mario]] or [[Link]], is widely praised as one of Nintendo's most iconic heroines and a groundbreaking example of proactive female protagonists in gaming.

The ''Metroid'' series stars Samus Aran, a battle-hardened, one-of-a-kind professional bounty hunter raised by a now-extinct race of bird-like humanoids named the Chozo and sporting a powered suit imbued with fantastic Chozo technology. With an arm-grafted cannon that can shoot a variety of projectiles seemingly without limit, and a suit function that affords Samus the seemingly superhuman ability to transform into a perfectly spherical metal ball that can self-navigate tight quarters, Samus is regularly called upon by the primary known sovereign government of the ''Metroid'' setting, the Galactic Federation, to go on infiltration missions into planets and compounds occupied by races of alien Space Pirates. The series' namesake is a floating, jellyfish-like lifeform called a Metroid, which has the seemingly supernatural ability to siphon life energy out of its victims; Space Pirates seek to breed and harness these creatures, so it is up to Samus, seemingly the only individual with the upgradeable weaponry capable of killing them, to explore Space Pirate-occupied worlds and destroy their operations down to the core. Each primary ''Metroid'' title adds to a chronology of canonical games, which is laid out below:

*'''Metroid''' / '''Metroid: Zero Mission''': Samus' first mission is is to infiltrate the formerly Chozo-inhabited planet Zebes, since overtaken by Space Pirates, and destroy their standing forces and their stable of Metroids. Along the way, Samus battles the foremost "enforcers" of the Space Pirates - the colossal reptilian [[Kraid]] and the dragon-like [[Ridley]] (likely named after ''Alien'' director Ridley Scott) - and ends up battling the organic artificial intelligence helping dictate Pirate operations, [[Mother Brain]]. Immediately after a seemingly successful mission, however, Samus runs into some bad luck during her escape attempt, and is forced to find a way off the planet in just a [[Zero Suit Samus|light blue body suit]] while equipped with a [[Paralyzer|stun gun]]. After successfully escaping, Samus is able to harness the power of the ancient Legendary Power Suit (which more closely resembles her usual design) by proving herself at the Chozodia temple. With her newfound power, she tears through the Space Pirate mothership, destroys a giant robot shaped in Ridley's likeness, and narrowly escapes the planet intact.

*'''Metroid Prime''': Samus tracks remnants of the Space Pirates to another outpost on the planet Tallon IV, and she discovers that they are experimenting on augmenting their capacity for warfare with a mysterious mutagenic substance called Phazon, which was brought to the planet by an enigmatic meteor strike long ago. She destroys the Space Pirates' research and standing forces once again, but along the way inadvertently allows for the incidental birth of a dark opposite to herself - the sentient Phazon entity [[Dark Samus]].

*'''Metroid Prime Hunters''': When the Galactic Federation receives a mysterious telepathic message that the key to the "ultimate power" resides in the Alimbic star system, Samus is sent to investigate and possibly retrieve it, but six other rival bounty hunters from different alien species are also competing for the same goal.

*'''Metroid Prime 2: Echoes''': The Galactic Federation loses contact with a Federation marine vessel that engages a Space Pirate vessel near another Space Pirate outpost planet named Aether, and Samus is sent to investigate. She discovers the planet was struck by a similar Phazon meteor in its past, which has split the planet into light and dark dimensions. Samus must not only separately contend with the Space Pirates and Dark Samus itself, but even more threatening shadow creatures from the dark dimension, the Ing, who threaten the peaceful Luminoth race.

*'''Metroid Prime 3: Corruption''': With the Space Pirates' Phazon-based operations now in disarray from Samus' meddling, the Space Pirates turn to a rejuvenated Dark Samus for aid, and allow themselves to get indoctrinated by the entity. Dark Samus seeks to corrupt the galaxy with Phazon and has the Space Pirates launch simultaneous attacks on separate Federation planets, and Samus herself gets her suit corrupted during the struggle. Granted new technology that allows herself to harness her own suit's Phazon corruption, Samus goes on a planet-hopping quest to end the Phazon menace forever, even as her fellow bounty hunters become corrupted and turn against her. Along the way, Samus realizes the truth about the origin and nature of the Phazon-filled "living meteors" called Leviathians. Samus reactivates the Valhalla and takes the fight to the planet Phaaze, the source of all Phazon and home of Dark Samus. After a hard-fought duel against both her dark doppelgänger and a corrupted Aurora Unit, Samus ultimately prevails and Dark Samus is destroyed for the last time, along with the entirety of Phazon and the planet Phaaze. Thus, the war on Phazon concludes - though not without a mysterious follower tracking Samus's gunship through the stars.

*'''Metroid Prime: Federation Force''': After Samus' elimination of the Phazon menace, the Space Pirates continue to serve as a threat in their own right. In response, the Galactic Federation initiates "Operation Golem" and trains an elite task force of Federation Marines in large mech suits in order to eliminate the remaining Space Pirates, henceforth known as the Federation Force. A significant Space Pirate presence is detected in the three-planet Bermuda System and the Federation Force are sent to eradicate them, with some occasional assistance from Samus herself. After their success, a mysterious figure infiltrated their base containing a Metroid egg, which the figure then prematurely hatched. He presumably stole it under the noses of the Federation troops.

*'''Metroid II: Return of Samus''' / '''Metroid: Samus Returns''': The Galactic Federation has deemed the Metroid species too great a threat to be allowed to live, and so tasks Samus to cull every individual specimen off the surface of the Metroid homeworld, SR388. Samus destroys Metroids that have matured into advanced, more monstrous forms, and squares off against the Metroid Queen itself, but at the end of her mission, she spares a lone hatchling and donates it to the Federation's research division on the Ceres space station.

 

*'''Super Metroid''': A revived Ridley promptly raids the Ceres station and takes back the Metroid hatchling by force, prompting Samus to return to Zebes on another mission to thwart the Space Pirates' last efforts to preserve and harness the species. She infiltrates the Space Pirates' reconstructed subterranean base on Zebes, and discovers and once again battles each of her classic foes - Kraid, Ridley, and the Mother Brain - before detonating the entire planet and achieving the extinction of the Metroid species.

 

*'''Metroid: Other M''': Samus follows a distress signal towards a "Bottle Ship" floating near a Federation vessel, and discovers some of her companions from her days in the Federation militia, including her former commanding officer Adam Malkovich, on board in the middle of a mission he does not tell Samus about at first. After Adam begrudgingly allows her to cooperate with the platoon, they discover the first signs of a darker side to the Federation.

 

*'''Metroid Fusion''': While leading scientists on a Federation-sanctioned survey across SR388, Samus is attacked by a native parasitic lifeform, the X Parasite, that was originally kept in check by its natural predator, the Metroids. Samus survives, but becomes permanently bound to a "fusion" form of her suit. The research station floating above the planet later becomes infested with X Parasites that mimic other organisms. Thus, Samus, whose new form is immune to the infestation, is sent on a mission by the Federation to fight and wipe out the creatures, or at least that is what she was led to believe her mission is about before discovering that the Federation is using the remaining Baby Metroid cells to clone new Metroids for their own purposes. Samus fights her way through the X Parasites, the newly cloned Metroids, and a terrifying X Parasite clone of herself, the SA-X, before destroying the ship and setting off for the unknown.

 

*'''Metroid Dread''': Some time after the events of ''Metroid Fusion'', Samus receives an unknown signal informing her that the X Parasites still live on. She follows this signal to the remote planet ZDR and finds herself relentlessly pursued by a series of invincible Federation robots called the E.M.M.I., narrowly keeping one step ahead of the contraptions as she uncovers more and more of the uncharted planet. This title is planned to be the conclusion of the storyline of the intertwined fates of Samus and the Metroid species.

*'''[[Samus/Zero Suit Samus]]''' ([[Starter character|Starter]]): Unique to ''Brawl'', Samus can transform into Zero Suit Samus. Unlike other transformations, the player can switch between the two via [[Final Smash]] rather than their [[down special]] (or in Samus' case, also by a series of [[taunt]]s). While only Samus is shown on the [[character selection screen]], the player can start the match as Zero Suit Samus by holding down a certain button depending on the controller when selecting Samus.{{clr}}

==Games with elements appearing in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series==

The ''Metroid'' universe has games represented throughout the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series with a total of 14 games. The latest game represented in this universe is ''{{s|metroidwiki|Metroid Dread}}'', released on October 8, 2021.

**{{gameIcon|SSB}} Main character and Bounty Hunter [[Samus Aran]] is playable in all five ''Super Smash Bros.'' games. Her [[Screw Attack]], [[Missile]], Morph Ball, and {{b|Bomb|Samus}}s originate from this game. One of her alternate costumes, though ostensibly based upon the Gravity Suit's sprite in ''Super Metroid'', more closely resembles the Varia Suit in this game.

**{{gameIcon|SSBB}} A {{iw|metroidwiki|Chozo Statue}}, Kraid, the {{iw|metroidwiki|Morph Ball}}, a Metriod (as two stickers) and Mother Brain appear as stickers in ''Brawl''.

**{{GameIcon|SSB4-WIIU}} "'''{{SSBUMusicLink|Other|Famicom Medley}}'''"  (''For 3DS / Wii U''): Contains a section of "Brinstar".

**{{gameIcon|SSBB}} {{iw|metroidwiki|Sheegoth}}, [[metroidwiki:Metroid Prime (specimen)|Metroid Prime]] (Core), and Metroid Prime (Exo), which originate as bosses from this game, appear as trophies in ''Brawl''.

*Stage Elements:

**{{gameIcon|SSB4-WIIU}} {{iw|metroidwiki|Adam Malkovich}}, {{iw|metroidwiki|Little Birdie}}, {{iw|metroidwiki|King Kihunter}}, {{iw|metroidwiki|Mystery Creature}}, {{iw|metroidwiki|Vorash}}, {{iw|metroidwiki|Melissa Bergman}} (MB), {{iw|metroidwiki|RB176 Ferrocrusher}}, and {{iw|metroidwiki|Madeline Bergman}} are from this game.

*''Metroid'' and {{uv|Xenoblade Chronicles}} are the only universes with more female than male playable characters.

*''Metroid'' is one of three universes to have more than one playable antagonist, the others being the {{uv|Mario}} and {{uv|Kirby}} universes.  

*''Metroid'' is the only veteran franchise in ''Ultimate'' to introduce multiple new characters in the base game.