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[Metroid Killer]

Today is the 25th anniversary of Metroid. 25 years ago on August 6th, Metroid was released for the Famicom System, and since then the franchise has grown into being one of the most beloved series. Unfortunately it appears that Nintendo will not plan anything special for the anniversary, unlike they did with Mario and now for Zelda.
I thought it would be a shame if nothing was being done, and thus turned to neogaf in hope of some help. With more than 20 people having worked on it for over a month, well, here it is! I’m proud to present Gaf’s take on how to celebrate the best gaming series throughout the years. As I’ve said to everybody involved, I wanted this to be a gaf thread made by and for gaf.

Thanks for coming by, we hope you’ll enjoy our thread

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Updates:
8/6 - Added 14 new avatars
8/6 - Harmony of a Hunter album out now. See Extras for more information
8/10 - Added a ton of new avatars. Hip Tanaka under the people behind the games. likeGdid's great artwork of Samus and Ridley.
8/26 - Added 3 new art pieces by Chet Rippo, MYE and dr_octagon's 10th piece! Contest closes today!
8/31 - Congratz to Shin Johnpv and PixyJunket for winning the contest. New artwork by FreedomFrisbee.
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25 years ago people had just been introduced to Mario and Zelda. Going from left to right was a prerequisite to advance in the same way as it was expected to go from dungeon to dungeon. Right as these concepts were about to be cemented in our brains Metroid came along and shook things up. With a mix of platforming and adventure set in one big labyrinth world, Metroid revolutionized game design. The first screwball is thrown right from the beginning, as you will walk into a seemingly dead-end going to the right, instead you have to go left and get the morph-ball in order to advance. This nonlinear gameplay placed exploration as the most crucial part of the experience, and paved the way for numerous design choices that would become highly influential on other games as well as introducing several elements that would become staples of the Metroid series.
I played Metroid for the first time last year in anticipation for Other M, and I was surprised at how many of the Metroid staples actually originated from it and particularly how solid a game it still was. It is mind blowing that this came out 25 years ago.

Title Screen

Norfair

Ending Theme

by Metroid Killer

Metroid II is often regarded as the black sheep in the series. Its myriad of claustrophobic tunnels, labyrinth design and inherently monochrome colour scheme claim many unfortunate victims. Put some time into it though and you’ll reap the rewards. From the genuinely foreboding atmosphere, to the thrilling and varied Metroid encounters, and of course the introduction of franchise staples such as the Space Jump and Spider Ball, Metroid II is worth the time it takes to figure out SR-388’s intricacies. However, where the game truly shines is in its final minutes – upon defeating the Queen Metroid, Samus encounters a lone Metroid egg which proceeds to hatch in front of her eyes. Within moments, it becomes clear that the Metroid sees Samus as its parent. The Metroid series is well-known for its intense escape sequences, but Metroid II provides one that is starkly different – the music here is tranquil, there are no enemies in sight and there is no time limit to speak of. The baby Metroid even helps Samus reach her ship by clearing the path for her. It’s a genuinely warm moment – a rarity in the series – and an exceptional payoff to a rather unique mission.

Tunnel

Escape

Credits

by _Alkaline_

Super Metroid is the game that miraculously got everything right. Perhaps it had something to do with its position in the series. Created as the third game in a trilogy it had the opportunity to revisit the themes and environments of the original Metroid, but with a much more powerful system and the hindsight to adjust for some of the more arbitrary bits of its predecessor. It also picked up the storyline started in Return of Samus and managed to tie everything together in a satisfying conclusion. However, though it could be argued that the game was poised for greatness from the outset, it would be a disservice to chalk up its genius to simple timing.

A somber title screen quickly sets the tone, depicting a scene which soon falls seamlessly into a gameplay context. This sort of detail is typical of the Super Metroid- a wink and a nod to players which later falls into place during gameplay, creating a sense of continuity. After a brief intro the player is left to their own devices as they explore Zebes, and throughout the experience various cues from that first sequence crop up again at pivotal moments, conveying a memorable narrative arc in spite of the minimalist presentation.

There is a quiet sophistication and underlying sense of freedom in Super Metroid’s hands-off style. Each discovery feels like the player’s own. Every individual aspect of the game seems to integrate seamlessly into the next, and even early areas continue to expand as you gain new abilities and uncover previously inaccessible nooks and crannies. Corridors serve manifold purposes that only become clear over time, and there are usually a number of solutions to any given problem, granted the player has enough skill and ingenuity.

At its crux the game is about choices. Although there is an overarching structure that requires completing certain tasks to proceed, there’s always ample leeway between major events. Entire abilities or sections of the map are optional if your only goal is to reach the end. The sheer number of ways the game can be played is mind-boggling. Do you forgo an upgrade to save time, or do you hoard items to make the next boss easier? Do you follow the “intended” order, or do you purposely push the game to its limits by circumventing obstacles? It’s no coincidence that Super Metroid is the game that popularized sequence breaking, and more than a decade and a half after its release it still yields new techniques and approaches. The possibilities are endless.

The thoughtful, layered gameplay is complimented by an equally engrossing atmosphere. Areas shift seamlessly between somber and sinister, leaving you to explore lonely stretches which lead effortlessly into dramatic boss encounters. The music follows suit, sometimes atmospheric and subdued, other times reaching a heroic crescendo. The entire world embodies the feel of a bizarre alien ecosystem with its own internal logic; one that continues along regardless of whether Samus is there to witness it. The environments themselves sometimes seem alive, and each one has a unique archetypal quality without ever resorting to purely one dimensional themes. There are always idiosyncratic touches that make them uniquely Metroid.

Truth be told, I could ramble on about Super Metroid forever (as you might have guessed), and never do it justice. Although it’s possible to talk around the various great things about it, what ultimately makes the game legendary is non-verbal. It’s a synthesis of every control nuance, subtle visual hint, perfectly paced sequence, throbbing music track, and screeching monstrosity. In short, complete and utter cohesion. Few games come together in a way that feels “just so”, where every element falls into place with almost supernatural ease. To say such a game comes along once a generation would probably be too generous. Super Metroid is not game of the year, or game of the generation, or even game of the millennium. No, it’s perhaps the only game worthy of dusting off that old acronym, GAME OF THE FOREVER.

by GrotesqueBeauty

Another take:

For me, Super Metroid is the Citizen Kane of games. It conveyed an incredible amount of emotion, visual narrative, and sense of place through the simple interaction itself, rather than dialogue and cinematics. It stands up there, in my eyes, alongside "Out of This World," "Ico" and "Breakdown" as one of the best examples of story-through-gameplay. From the eerie start at the off-planet science lab, through the abandoned and destroyed remains of Zebes, ancient alien remains coming to life, maternal instinct, love, and sacrifice, this game delivers these arcs directly to the player in real-time which is how I think video games will inevitably secure themselves as an art form in more people's minds. Not to mention, it's one hell of an adventure....

Brinstar Jungle

Brinstar Red Soil

Theme of Samus Aran

by oracrest

Metroid Fusion took the series into a different direction than previous. Interestingly enough, the 4th installment in the franchise came after a nine year hiatus. Sakamoto defends that the project was always on his mind, but that the hardware available did not make sense unti the Game Boy Advance.
The game actually runs off the Wario Land 4 engine, there is an easter egg that actually exhibits some WL4 objects still left in the game. Most of the team members are also the same. But the direction of design was completely different.
Sakamoto and team began crafting a new adventure accompanied with a new antagonist. The SA-X may initially sound like the typical cliche doppelganger. But something about it just worked. Where the generic shadow samus failed, the SA-X succeeded as a villain.
Metroid Fusion is an action-oriented game with a myriad of brutal bosses. The game provides a much higher difficulty than previous installments. Sakamoto is unapologetic about it, stating that he wanted to provide something different. Sakamoto also wanted to really challenge veterans of the series.
What makes Metroid Fusion special, is that it breaks out of the archetype. Classic franchises have all types of ridiculous impositions placed by a small vocal minority that think there are rules set in stone when it comes to game design. There are NO rules!
Metroid Fusion is my favorite Metroid game. Only question remaining is how long do we have to wait until the next true Metroid.

Sector 4 (AQA)

Crisis Mission

Nightmare Boss Theme

by Shikamaru Ninja

Metroid Prime’s excellence always warrants emphasis: The game has a wild beauty, using decay, rubble and genetic mutation as an unlikely canvas to paint pandemonium. The audio is a calculated weave of sounds and rhythms, giving each territory its own pensive heartbeat. Every moment controls with the absolute immediacy of Nintendo’s very best.
Prime’s fundamental strength permeates these qualities and the entire gaming experience: It is the strength of intelligence. The game knows and trusts in the intelligence of the player, and everything is built on this assumption.
Samus is an explorer, and we are assumed to have gifted recall. Samus is a survivor, and we are assumed to be skilled enough to endure the onslaught. Samus is an investigator, and we are assumed capable of reconciling biased fragments of parallel narratives. Samus is cerebral, and we are assumed to be skilled in manipulating abstract forgotten constructs.
Samus is a hero, and we are assumed to be up to the task.
If Metroid Prime had merely lived up to Nintendo’s standards, this would have been enough. To do what it did, and release as a celestial mad thing of beauty, intelligence, balance and grace, is as startling today as it was in 2002.

Chozo Artifact Temple

Magmoor Caverns Ambience

Phendara Drifts

by Mama Robotnik

I love Metroid. Depending on the day and how I'm feeling, my top ten games of all time list might be up to half Metroid.
That said, I've never really liked the original game. Okay, this seems like a blasphemous thing to say in an appreciation thread - but I didn't say I don't appreciate it. Because I do. I appreciate what it did for its time, and I appreciate how it laid the groundwork for the rest of the series. But playing it today, it feels like... well, pretty much exactly what it is: a great idea that was perhaps a little too ambitious for 1986.
Fast-forward to 2004. When remaking Metroid 1, they could've played it pretty straight. Update the graphics, controls, and general game design to be up to modern standards, and release that. Instead, we got Zero Mission, which does all that and then some. New areas, new bosses, power-ups that weren't even in Metroid 1. And we can't forget the whole post-Mother Brain stealth sequence, which should have been a horrible disaster - A stealth sequence in Metroid? Samus without her suit? A complete change in gameplay mechanics? What the hell? - but somehow managed to be just the right length and difficulty to instead be a nice, unexpected treat at the end of the game, and only made it that much sweeter when you got your fully powered suit and started blowing away the same Space Pirates who had been chasing you only moments earlier.
Also noteworthy about the game is that it's really the only game in the series that fully recognizes the speed running and low percentage challenges people like to take in the series. It's full of secret passages that were intentionally included to allow the player to get items early or skip them completely, and even has rewards for beating the game with low percentages. While this isn't my cup of tea, I recognize that there's a fairly sizable portion of the fanbase that does enjoy playing this way, so I wish future Metroid games would take after Zero Mission in this aspect instead of intentionally trying to lock the player out of sequence breaking like... well, every other post-Super game except Zero Mission.

Brinstar

Norfair

Kraid's Lair

by KevinCow

Echoes looks and feels similiar to its remarkable predecessor, but it’s actually a rather different beast. It’s longer, more confusing, more hostile and more challenging. It’s also an even better game. Echoes feels like the craft of a development studio that had its shackles removed. At times this results in an unnecessarily convoluted experience, but the game also reaches greater heights because of it. Outstanding level design that refuses to be satisfied with itself, breathtaking alien environments that feature a painstaking attention to detail, mesmerizing boss fights more complex than any other in the series, morph ball puzzles that have to be seen to be believed, and Dark Aether – an outstanding example of how to execute a hostile world – all combine to create something truly special. Oh, and did I mention Quadraxis? Or Sanctuary Fortress? No? Well, now I have. Echoes is Retro Studios saying “sure, we did that in Prime, but did we do this?" It consistently delivers above and beyond the player’s expectations, and yet it’s executed so gradually and seamlessly that one barely notices. Echoes can seem a little bitter from the outset, but give it some time and you’ll love the taste.

Title Screen

Chykka Larva

Torvus Bog

by _Alkaline_

The final chapter of Retro's wonderful Prime saga. Compared to the two previous Primes Corruption went for a much bigger scale suitable for the big finale. In turn we got to experience even more worlds and bigger battles, showing off the best art direction and visuals on the wii at the time(and arguably still is). The game was also more streamlined in its progression reminding fans of the more linear gameplay of Fusion. While some were against this move, other rejoiced as it made backtracking and the overall pace flow much better. I can't ignore the controls which showed how a FPS should control, it hasn't been topped yet, and made the playthrough very engrossing.
Retro left the series on a very high note. We can only hope we will get another Metroid of this caliber in the future.

Title Screen

Bryyo (cliffside)

Rundas Battle

by Metroid Killer

There’s a lot to say about Other M, for every shortcoming, there’s an equally solid core element in place, but this is neither the time nor the place for a review. The game is a more than welcome mid point between the classic side scrolling Metroids and the first person Prime series, and I’d love to see this concept being taken further. There are three major issues with the game, that make it a frustrating experience, the cut scenes are boring and counter-productive, it’s decidedly obtuse at presenting its mechanics and overall game logic, and it’s remarkably predictable. Despite its shortcomings, it still manages to bring new things to the table and not only for the Metroid franchise. Thanks to a fantastic camera system, the wall separating 2d from 3d is broken, allowing for the tightness you’d expect from 2d games and still allowing the freedom of movement and design that 3d gives you, culminating in the gravity sequence. It also offers an easy to use combat system that doesn’t punish its players for not using all of its tools correctly, but when used appropriately, manages to carry a perfect tempo that seamlessly blends with the levels and progression that gets supported with some solid platforming and light puzzle solving. It won’t reach the pantheon of greatness some of its older brothers have achieved because the game is filled with questionable and detrimental inclusions and exclusions that hurt it. It’s hard to think of it as your typical Nintendo game because most of their typical values are thrown out the window, and there’s an alarming lack of polish in it, ranging from presentation issues, to inability to connect with the game player, but there’s still something quite exquisite about it.

Ridley Battle Theme

Theme of Samus

Rhedogian

by Boney

Despite celebrating its 25th birthday, there haven’t been many spinoffs or offshoot games throughout the Metroid series’ history. It wasn’t until the series got reignited by the release of Metroid Prime and Fusion, that a couple of extra games were made under the Prime brand.
Metroid Prime Pinball developed by Fuse Games retold the events of Metroid Prime in pinball settings. As odd as it seems to make a Metroid pinball game, it was rather well received, and was perfect as a handheld game to play in short bursts. It was the first DS game to launch with the rumble pack.
Metroid Prime Hunters depicts a side story to the Prime games. It was developed by NST for the Nintendo DS, and was used to show how a FPS could work on the handheld, as well as incorporating online multiplayer mode. Most Metroid fans consider the story mode to be quite barebones.
After having made Metroid Prime 3 for Wii, Retro Studios began working on porting over the first two Prime games to Wii, in order to add the enhanced control method of Corruption. The end result was a nice compilation package, Metroid Prime: Trilogy, with additional features and updated graphics added to the first two games besides the new controls.
Rumors of a Metroid Dread title started emerging in 2005 at Game Informer’s forum. Nintendo never commented on the rumors, which gradually died down. Then in 2007, a secret message was discovered in Metroid Prime 3: "Experiment status report update: Metroid project 'Dread' is nearing the final stages of completion." Rumors were once again set aflame, but Nintendo denied the game’s existence. In 2009 Yoshio Sakamoto finally confirmed that Metroid Dread was real at some point but is currently on stand-by.

 

[Metroid Killer]

Orphanded at only 3 years old, Samus was rescued and taken in by the bird-like Chozo. They brought her to the hostile planet Zebes where she was taught to be a warrior. In order for Samus to adjust to Zebes’ atmosphere the Chozo infused her with their own DNA, giving Samus power and reflexes beyond that of a normal human being. They also gave her a Power Suit, the armor of a Chozo warrior. The suit not only serves as protection against attacks and extreme tempetures, but can be upgraded with many offensive abilities as well as making Samus maneuver in small tunnels via the morph ball or get to out-of-reach spots with the shinespark ability. Done with her training Samus left planet Zebes to pursuit a career as a bounty hunter, eventually she enrolled in the Galactic Federation where she served under Commander Adam Malchowitch in several missions. She mainly hunts down Space Pirates, the murderers of her parents, foiling their plans to exploit the Metroids and other weapons threatening peace in the galaxy.
Samus is one of the first major female protagonists in a video game, and her popularity among fans has helped her top several lists of the best video game heroines.

The Chozo were an ancient bird-like spieces that inhabited several planets throughout the galaxy. Known for their highly advanced technology, the Chozo have been the architects behind many projects, such as the Metroids and Mother Brain, which have had major impacts on the galaxy.
The spieces abandoned living as a warrior race due to their inability to reproduce, and instead chose to become a peaceful race watching over other spieces. Nevertheless they raised Samus Aran as a warrior and armored her with their mighty Power Suit. While not present throughout the games, the techonology of the Chozo is often avilable aiding Samus in the form of Chozo Statues holding various items compatible with the Power Suit.
Their ultimate fate is unknown, and it is speculated that they either transcended to a higher plane or that the remaining Chozo were wiped out by Space Pirates.

The Galactic Federation is the primary known sovereign government in the Metroid universe. Ever since the intergalactic alliance was created there has been a successful exchange of cultures and civilizations between planets, but at the same time the Federation has also been engaged in a long-time war with the Space Pirates.
The Galactic Federation boasts a powerful military force as well as well as advanced science projects. In order to counter the Space Pirates as effectively as possible, the Federation often hires bounty hunters to carry out missions against the Pirates.
Although defined as a wholly altruistic organization, in the quest for power the Galactic Federation has had several dark chapters in the story that unfolds throughout the Metroid games. Several illegal bioresearch projects have been stopped by Samus, possibly making her an enemy of the Galactic Federation by the end of Mertroid Fusion.

Commander Adam Malkovich was a military genius who served both in the Federation Police and the Galactic Federation Army. During Samus’ time in the Galactic Federation, Malkovich was her only commanding officer. The two of them grew a close respectful bond evolving into a friendship which later again was shaken as Samus departed from the military in spite of a controversial order by Malkovich.
During Metroid: Other M. Adam Malkovich sacrificed his life in order to destroy a facility akin to the environment of Tourian of Zebes and full of unfreezable Metroids. He would later emerge as an AI assigned as Samus’ CO during the events of Metroid Fusion.

The titular creatures which the Metroid series revolves around. These feared creatures are artificial bioforms created by the Chozo. They are parasitic by nature and can leech the life energy from living organisms. Meaning ‘ultimate warrior’ the Chozo began its Metroid project in order to combat an even more menacing parasitic organism, namely the X parasite native to planet SR388. Years after they were created, the Space Pirates discovered the Metroids and began using them as bioweapons, thus beginning the story of the Metroid series.
Most Metroids encountered throughout the games are in the adolescent stage, with a body resembling that of a jellyfish. They have up to four red raspberry-shaped nuclei which are believed to store energy, and two pairs of mandibles, one for gripping onto their prey and one for extracting life energy. Once attached to their prey, Metroids are very difficult to dislodge and will quickly drain their victim's life force completely.
Under certain circumstances the Metroids will undergo their natural life cycle, gradually morphing into bigger organisms with limbs and organic shell, until it reaches the final stage; a Queen Metroid.
The only true weakness of the Metroids is their sensitivity to cold temperatures. Once the outer membrane is frozen, the Metroid can be blast to pieces by explosive weapons.

The Space Pirates have been the adversary of the Galactic Federation since its formation. The Pirates raid planets and colonies with ruthless force, often taking remaining survivors of their attacks as slaves. Although powerful on their own the Space Pirates are a subordinate species that naturally follows the orders of a strong master. This genetic feature of the Pirates is exploited by Mother Brain who leads the Pirates through the first part of the series.
The most common form of Space Pirates is the Zebesians, taking their name after the conquered planet. However in their avarice of power and technology, the Space Pirates often alter their own genome as well as other creatures, in order to create stronger variants of Pirates, most of them biologically or technologically enhanced. They are also keen on using foreign technology using both Federation technology for some Space Pirates as well as experimenting with reverse-engineering some of Samus’ abilities.

Mother Brain was an artificial intelligent created by the Chozo and is one of the main antagonists throughout the series. Although Mother Brain initially was created as a benevolent A.I. overseeing planet Zebes and the Metroid project, she turned on the Chozo as Space Pirates attacked Zebes. Her ultimate goal was to reset the universe to Zero and rule together with a more intelligent form of Metroids.
The Galactic Federation has attempted several projects inspired by Mother Brain, all of them, including the Aurora project and Melissa Bergman, have eventually run amok.

As the general of the Space Pirate military, Ridley is one of the most feared creatures of the galaxy. Via Space Pirate technology it has been possible to recreate Ridley several times by cloning or robotics. He led the Space Pirate attack on the human colony where Samus lived, killing both of her parents during the attack, and has ever since been regarded as Samus’ nemesis.
Ridley has a three stage life cycle, the first stage showing a rather docile appearance, which quickly changes to aggressive behavior before the second stage. It’s is unknown whether Ridley is a created bioform or an actual species, the events in Other M points to the latter though.

 

[Metroid Killer]

The following text is a summary describing the events taking place in the Metroid story canon from the Manga to Metroid Fusion. I suggest that every Metroid fan should read the Manga (Vol1 and Vol2) as it provides essential background information for Zero Mission, Fusion and Other M. The original Metroid has been retconned by Zero Mission, though it doesn’t make a big difference really. I consider Metroid Prime Pinball and Metroid Prime Hunters side stories and not part of the main story canon and will not include them in the text.

At the age of 3 Samus Aran lives with her parents on the colonial planet K-2L. There, humans from Earth mine the powerful fuel crystal Afloraltite. Eventually the colony was contacted by the Chozo who wanted to use the Afloraltite in their struggle against the newly discovered X Parasite still hidden from the Galactic Federation’s knowledge. The Federation refuses the Chozo who had to leave empty handed. Not long after the Chozo’s departure the colony is attacked by Space Pirates. Led by Ridley, the massive Space Pirate raid nearly wipes out everyone on the colony, except Samus as the sole survivor. A group of Chozo return to K-2L and decided to bring Samus back to their planet, Zebes.
Due to Zebes’ hostile environment the Chozo infuse their DNA into Samus’s body to boost her ability to adapt to Zebes. Samus is given a Chozo Power Suit and during the next 11 years she is trained as a Chozo warrior under the guidance of her Chozo mentors, Old Bird and Grey Voice as well as the planet A.I. Mother Brain. Finished with her training, Samus leaves Zebes to serve as a protector of the galaxy.
Having failed to obtain any Afloraltite the Chozo began a project labeled ‘Project Metroid’. The Metroid creatures under surveillance of Mother Brain are to be used against the highly dangerous X Parasite which resides on planet SR388.
As Samus hunts down various groups of Space Pirates, the Galactic Federation quickly gets the attention of her and recruits her under Commander Adam Malkovich. She undergoes military training, but defects after an incident where Malkovich ordered his younger brother and good friend of Samus to be sacrificed in order to save lives.
When the Federation discovers that Zebes has been sieged by Space Pirates, it contacts Samus for her first mission as a bounty hunter. At the same time the Federation also learns of the existence of Metroids on planet SR388, where every other life has become extinct.

Zebes has been completed changed from the time when Samus was raised there. The Space Pirates had built a vast base going deep underground the surface of Zebes. In addition to the presence of the Pirates, both the wildlife and environment had gotten even more hostile which could only be connected to Mother Brain in some way. With the aid of power-ups left by the Chozo Samus fights her way through the various areas of Zebes and defeats the respective guardians of Brinstar and Norfair, Kraid and Ridley. It opens up a path to Tourian, the Pirates headquarters. Inside Samus encounters dozens of Metroids roaming freely. She kills all Metroids and finally confronts Mother Brain who had turned on the Chozo and taken leadership over the Space Pirates as well as controlling the Metroids. Samus kills Mother Brain which causes the base to self-destruct.
Barely escaping the explosion, Samus leaves Zebes only to be shot down by a Space Pirate Fighter, crash landing near the Pirates Mothership. With both her gunship and Power Suit destroyed in the crash, Samus has no other option than to infiltrate the Mothership only equipped with a Paralyzer gun. While searching the Space Pirate Mothership for a way to escape, Samus discovers the nearby ruins of an ancient Chozo temple known as Chozodia. There, she gains a new and more powerful Power Suit. With her Power Suit restored, Samus returns to the Space Pirate Mothership, where she eventually encounters the Ridley Robot, a mechanized form of Ridley that had taken command of the ship during Ridley's absence. Upon defeating it, Samus was able to successfully escape the by using one of the Space Pirate Fighters. All of the Space Pirates' research on Metroids was destroyed in the explosion.

Three years after foiling the Space Pirates plans on Zebes, Samus follows a distress signal coming from a space station in orbit above Tallon IV. She discovers that it’s one of the Space Pirates Frigates that escaped her attack on Zebes and that a genetically rebuilt Ridley is onboard. She pursues Ridley down to the surface of Tallon IV where she finds out that it was once inhabited by the Chozo, but that they apparently fled due to a great poison which came from a meteor. This same posion, named Phazon, is now the reason for Space Pirate activity on the planet. Several Phazon experiments are brought down by Samus, including Phazon mutated Metroids. Samus decides to purge all Phazon from Tallon IV and goes for the Impact Crater to take out the source of the poison. On her way she is interrupted by the new Meta Ridley, but with the aid of Chozo spirits Samus defeats Ridley once again and gains access to the Impact Crater. Inside she finds Metroid Prime, a huge mutated Metroid. After having defeated Metroid Prime and blown up the Impact Crater Samus believes that this was the last she would see of Phazon.

Some time after the events on Tallon IV Samus is given a new mission by the Galactic Federation. Contact was lost with a Squad Bravo located on planet Aether and Samus is to find a rescue the team. Samus lands on Aether and soon discovers a portal which leads her to the dark version of the planet. Eventually Samus meet U-Mos, a Luminoth, who explains how the Luminoth have been at war with dark creatures known as Ing. A meteor impact caused a rift which split the planet in two as well as brining the Ing to Aether, and now the two races fight over the planet energy. Samus agrees to help the Luminoth by bringing back energy from Dark Aether, however not only have Space Pirates shown an interest to Aether due to the presence of Phazon, but also a menacing creature mimicking Samus lurks in the dark. Eventually Samus fights off the leader of the Ing and collects the energy from Dark Aether. On her way back to U-Mos Samus is confronted with Dark Samus and discovers that it is in fact the reincarnation of Metroid Prime. Samus destroys Dark Samus just before Dark Aether crumbles away. Samus returns to U-Mos and the remaining Luminoth who had been in hibernation, and returns the energy back to Aether. Done with her mission Samus leaves Aether and the Luminoth.

Six months later Samus is once again hired by the Galactice Federation. Together with three other bounty hunters, they are to help cure a Federation Aurora Unit infected by a Space Pirate made virus. Before they can carry out their mission, they are attacked by Space Pirates and are dispatched to the nearby planet Norion. Amidst the turmoil a Phazon meteor (later discovered to be called a Leviathan) is sighted heading to the planet. The hunters, having restored power to the defense system, rush to the control room but are attacked by Dark Samus just before activating the defense systems. A heavily wounded Samus managed to active the lasers just in time to destroy the Leviathan seed.
Samus wakes up a month later and learns that she and her fellow Hunters were corrupted by Phazon from Dark Samus' attack. However, the Federation scientists discover that Samus's body was now self-producing Phazon and have developed a Phazon Enhancement Device (P.E.D.) that allows Samus to control her internal Phazon. Samus further learns that the other three hunters had left two weeks before for missions to three other planets where Leviathan Seeds have been observed, but the Federation lost contact with them seven days earlier. Samus is ordered to destroy each Leviathan seed and seek the whereabouts of the other hunters. On three different planets Samus find each hunter corrupted beyond help, and as she defeats them she get more corrupted herself.
Then Aurora Unit 217 discovers the location of planet Phaaze, the source of all Phazon and Dark Samus's place of origin. Samus travels to Phaaze and encounters Dark Samus, who fuses with the stolen Aurora Unit 313 that is linked with Phaaze's core. Samus is able to defeat Dark Samus, which destroys the Phazon in her own body and causes the planet to self-destruct. Samus escapes and has finally succeeded in evaporating all remnants of Phazon.

Realizing the threat that the species still pose, the Galactic Federation sends Samus Aran on a mission to land on SR388 and destroy all Metroid organisms. With her experience in past events with Metroids, the Galactic Federation is certain she will succeed. Arriving, Samus lands her gunship near the only entrance to the planet's underground areas. She exits her ship and begins the difficult trek through the planet's dark network of caves and ruins.
One by one, Samus hunts down and destroys each Metroid on the planet. As she does so, she takes note of the steady mutation that each goes through. She discovers Metroids in stages of growth from the small jellyfish-like state into massive, hovering lizard-like beasts.
With their destruction, only one Metroid remains, the massive and deadly Queen Metroid. Samus fights a final battle before finally defeating the monster, and as it crumbles to dust the final volcanic eruption sputters out. Returning to her gunship, Samus comes across a Metroid egg. The egg hatches and before her eyes a small Metroid hatchling floats out of the broken shell and begins to chirp at her. The Metroid, upon seeing Samus, believes her to be its mother. Samus, despite being ordered to exterminate the Metroids, spares its life.
Onboard the gunship, Samus places the Metroid in a container so that it cannot cause any harm to the ship. Noting the immense scientific opportunity that the captured hatchling poses, she departs SR388 and heads to Ceres Space Colony to deliver her groundbreaking find, a domesticated, baby Metroid.

At the Ceres Space Colony, scientists' findings show that the powers of Metroids could be harnessed for the benefit of mankind. Leaving the Baby in their care, Samus leaves Ceres in search of a new bounty to hunt. However, shortly after leaving, Samus picks up a distress call from Ceres and returns to investigate. Back on the space station Samus finds the bodies of the scientists lying about the room that had held the Baby's capsule in a tube. The tube itself is broken and empty. Continuing her investigation, Samus soon encountered Ridley once again, finding him clutching the Baby's capsule. Ridley overpowers Samus and flees the station carrying the hatchling. Samus returns to her gunship and pursues Ridley to the nearby planet Zebes.
Arriving at Zebes, Samus discovers that the Space Pirate base that she had destroyed in her last visit to the planet had been rebuilt during the years in which she made out to eradicate Phazon from the galaxy. Not only is the base rebuilt, but together with Ridley old foes such as Kraid and Mother Brain have been recreated. As Samus traverse the planet fighting off the monsters, she runs into Mochtroids, seemingly weak clones of Metroids. Entering the new Tourian reconfirms her worst fears, as a Metroid cloning project has already been set in motion. After destroying everything in her way, Samus encounters a Metroid far larger than the rest. Before she can attack it, the giant Metroid drains nearly all of Samus’ energy. However, it seems to recognize Samus suggesting that the huge Metroid is the Baby. Samus recovers and takes on Mother Brain, much stronger than in the previous battle. As Mother Brain is about to deal the final blow onto Samus, the Baby Metroid appears and attacks Mother Brain draining her energy until she slumped against the wall, gray and seemingly lifeless. The Baby then attaches itself to Samus and begins feeding the stolen energy to her w. However, Mother Brain soon recovers and begins firing upon the Baby, weakening it until it lifted off of Samus. A final shot destroys the hatchling, leaving its remains to fall upon Samus. Samus rises and ends Mother Brain once and for all. This in turn triggers a self-destruct sequence and Samus rush off to escape the destruction of her home and annihilation of all Metroids.

Having been traumatized by the recent events Samus wakes up at Galactic Federation HQ and finally reports to the Federation counsel about the happenings of her last mission.
Weeks pass, and while still depressed over the loss of the Baby Metroid, Samus picks up a distress signal, dubbed Baby's Cry, from a derelict Bottle Ship. Samus is compelled to follow it, believing that the coincidence is specifically crying for her. Not too long after landing in the seemingly deserted Bottle Ship, Samus encounters the Galactic Federation 07th Platoon, and is recognized and greeted by Anthony Higgs, an old friend from her days in the Federation Army. Leading them is Commander Adam Malkovich, her former commanding officer when she served under the Federation Army. Adam requests Samus' cooperation in their mission, under the condition that she obeys his orders and does not use certain weapons and equipment until he authorizes their use. Samus is then invited on the team, and is briefed on the details of the mission. Due to the critical situation the Bottle Ship is currently in, Adam orders everyone to gather information about what happened, and secure the safety of any survivors.
Samus heads for the Exam Center and runs into a small, furry creature that does not attack her, but feels a violent vibe coming from it. Samus later reaches the Exam Center, and discovers the cybernetic body of a Space Pirate Zebesian with the insignia of the Galactic Federation on its chest. The platoon discovers that the purpose of the Bottle Ship was to conduct research on bioweapons, a practice that is strictly prohibited by the Federation. They learn the person in charge of the project is a woman called "Dr. Madeline Bergman". Samus is ambushed by more cybernetically enhanced Zebesians and ordered by Adam to take them out while the others evacuate the building. After destroying them, she finds the platoon being attacked outside by a large lizard-like creature. Samus fends off the creature and discovers a trail of green blood, which leads her to the molted shell of the fuzzy creature from earlier.
As Samus searches for the lizard creature she finds several members from the platoon dead. At one point Samus spots a a young woman overlooking from a building. Samus tells the woman that she wants to secure her safety. Mistrusting Samus, the woman refuses to cooperate, believing that the Galactic Federation is there to silence the scientists on board the ship, and that Samus works for the Federation. The woman also implies that one of the soldiers was killed by another soldier. The two of them are then attacked by a soldier wearing a Galactic Federation Power Suit, and the woman is separated from Samus
The attacker escapes, and Samus wonders if the woman she saved could be Madeline Begman, and that the whole station is turning into a nightmarish replica of Zebes. She concludes there is a traitor within the 07th Platoon, and nicknames him "the Deleter" until she learns his true identity.
Eventually Samus stumbles upon the empty husk of the lizard creature and finds the creature now fully evolved with wings and fire breath. To her horror the creature is revealed to be none other than her arch-nemesis Ridley, who she thought was annihilated with the destruction of Zebes. Ridley manages to escape and Samus instead chooses to pursues the Deleter to the Bioweapon Research Center.
Once there, Samus instead finds the mysterious young woman again. The woman introduces herself as Madeline Bergman, confirming Samus' suspicions of her identity. She informs Samus about the secret operations there: the Federation was gathering Zebesians and other deadly organisms to serve as bioweapons. More alarming is the fact that the scientists were propagating Metroids as well, cloned from remains found on Samus' armor after she destroyed Mother Brain and Zebes. Together with an AI named "MB", modeled after Mother Brain, created for the purpose of controlling the Metroids, the Metroids were stored in Sector Zero, a recreation of the inner sector of the Space Pirate base on Zebes, Tourian.
Adam, still alive, heads into Sector Zero to blow it up sacrificing himself. He orders Samus to locate a survivor the Bioweapon Research Center and to defeat Ridley. As she returns to the research center she finds the drained remains of Ridley, only to be attacked by a Queen Metroid. Samus takes out the Queen and discovers the survivor who also identifies herself as Madeline Bergman. She explains that the young woman Samus met earlier was actually MB. At first the android displayed amazing skill and learning capability, and developed a consciousness of sorts with the Metroids, but soon began to develop emotions with a nascent sense of herself, eventually developing the same personality as Mother Brain. As the scientists tried to alter her programming, the android fought back and unleashed all of the experiments to run rampant throughout the station, killing all scientists but Madeline and leading to the current state of the Bottle Ship.
Samus and Madeline are then confronted by MB herself, pointing a Freeze Gun at them, but are ultimately saved by Anthony Higgs and other Federation marines. Samus finds Adam’s helmet and leaves as the ship is set to be destroyed, erasing the mistakes of the Galactic Federation.

Some time after the events on the Bottle Ship, Samus serves as body guard for a research team on planet SR388. The team is attacked by a hornoad, a creature native to SR388. However as Samus kills it, a yellow organism emerges from the hornoad and enters Samus's body. Initially Samus feels no effect and continues the escort, but on the way back to the laboratory Samus looses consciousness, and her gunship crashes into an asteroid. Samus is saved from the crash and is quickly attended to by a medical crew, who discover that the creature that entered her body on SR388 was actually a parasitic organism that they soon named X. Large portions of her infected suit had to be surgically removed, dramatically altering its appearance. The doctors had also found out that Metroids are the only known predator of the X; however, since Samus destroyed all the Metroids on SR388 in her previous mission, the X were able to multiply unchecked. Seeing this as the key to curing her, doctors proposed using a Metroid cell from the Baby Metroid to make an anti-X vaccine. Apparently, the Federation had managed to preserve a cell culture from the Baby that saved Samus while she was on Zebes a second time. The serum was prepared and injected without delay, completely eradicating the X. There were, however, two side effects: Samus could no longer be hurt by normal X and could even absorb them to replenish health and ammunition, but she also inherited the Metroids' vulnerability to cold.
After recovering Samus is sent to investigate an explosion on the Biologic Space Laboratories research station, where the specimens from SR388 and the infected pieces of her Power Suit are being held. Samus speaks with her new gunship's computer (who reminds her about Adam) and learns that the specimens brought back by the field team have become infected by the X. The computer also reveals that the X can use the DNA of its prey to create a perfect copy, meaning any organic life on the station may also be infected. More shockingly Samus discovers that her infected Power Suit has been used by the X parasite to create a powerful clone of herself, dubbed SA-X. The SA-X releases several X specimens into the station, which brings Samus to the restricted lab. There, she discovers dozens on infant and adult Metroids in stasis. The SA-X attacks the Metroids, which locks the lab down sending it off to explode in space while Samus and the SA-X manage to escape the lab in time.
The computer explains to Samus that the Federation has been working on a secret Metroid project for "peaceful applications". The stations environment is a replica of the SR388 ecosystem, ideal for raising Alpha, Gamma, Zeta, and even Omega Metroids. Furthermore Samus is taken off the mission for having caused so much damage and the Federation will take over the investigation as it has taken an interest in the X and SA-X and believes that this life-form has endless applications. Samus is strongly against this and activates station's self-destruct mechanism in order to destroy the X.
The computer locks Samus in a Navigation Room, but as she shouts at the computer she accidentally yells Adam out loud. The computer’s reaction causes Samus to realize that her ship's A.I. truly is Adam Malkovich, whose personality had been uploaded to a computer prior to his death. Adam cooperates with Samus and she defeats the SA-X gaining back her Power Suit and full strength. As she heads out for her ship she is being attacked by a fully grown Omega Metroid. Samus kills it and escapes the station just in time.
As Samus leaves the station, it is shown crashing into SR388, destroying both the station and the planet, ridding the universe of the X forever.
Samus doubts people will understand why she destroyed the X, nor will they realize the danger that was barely averted. Samus believes she will be held responsible for defying the Federation, but Adam comforts her, telling her: "Do not worry. One of them will understand. One of them must." A final reflection, Samus goes on to say: "we are all bound by our experiences. They are the limits of our consciousness. But in the end, the human soul will ever reach for the truth... This is what Adam taught me."

 

[Metroid Killer]

In this section we give insight on some of the people who have worked on Metroid games. Obviously we can't cover everyone, but have picked a group we thought represent the people behind the games to a fair degree.

Nintendo Research and Development 1 (R&D1) was Nintendo's oldest development team. Its creation coincided with Nintendo's entry into the video games industry, and the original R&D1 was headed by Gunpei Yokoi. The developer has created several notable Nintendo series such as Metroid, Ice Climber, Kid Icarus, and Wario Land.

Nintendo R&D1 established a close relationship with hardware developer Intelligent Systems, and initially worked together on a couple of projects. There was previous misconception that Nintendo R&D1 members left to work at Intelligent Systems, but that is false. The development team has gradually been reduced with a couple of senior members retiring or joining other Nintendo affiliated companies like Creatures, most notably Hirokazu Tanaka and Hirofumi Matsuoka.

R&D1 developed the hugely successful Game Boy line, which was released in 1989. They developed some of the line's most popular games, such as Super Mario Land, and created the character of Wario.

Team Shikamaru was a small club within Nintendo R&D1 that was composed of Makoto Kano, Yoshio Sakamoto, and Toru Osawa. The group was responsible for designing characters and coming up with scripts for several games including Metroid, Kid Icarus, Famicom Tantei Club: Kieta Kōkeisha, Trade & Battle: Card Hero, and several others.

Work on the Metroid series

• Metroid (NES / 1986) – Developer
• Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy / 1991) – Developer
• Super Metroid (Super Nintendo / 1993) – Developer
• Metroid Fusion (Gameboy Advanced / 2002) – Developer
• Metroid Zero Mission (Gameboy Advanced / 2004) – Developer

Retro Studios is an American developer based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 1998 by Jeff Spangenberg of Iguana Entertainment, the initially idea was for Retro to be an independent studio making games exclusive for Nintendo. Unable to decide where to take the Metroid series themselves, Nintendo offered Retro to work on a new Metroid game for the Nintendo Gamecube, and subsequently acquired the studio completely in 2002. After a turbulent development process, Metroid Prime was released on November 17, 2002, and was both highly critically acclaimed and commercially successful. Retro went on to complete the Prime trilogy and cemented themselves as one of Nintendo ‘s most talented studios. Sitting at currently around 70 employees it’s uncertain if Retro Studios will ever return to work on the Metroid series.
The Metroid Prime games are known for their extreme eye to detail, from the rain on Samus’ visor to every new room being designed down to every little crook and nanny. They successfully portrayed Metroid as 3D games without forfeiting classic series staples, while expanding on aspects such as extensive morph ball segments and emphasis on visor functionality.

Work on the Metroid series

• Metroid Prime (Gamecube / 2002) - Developer
• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Gamecube / 2004) - Developer
• Metroid Prime Hunters (NDS / 2005) - Collaborator
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii /2007) - Developer
• Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii / 2009) - Developer

Yoshio Sakamoto is an employee of Nintendo Company Limited. Sakamoto was born on July 23rd, 1959 in Nara, Japan. Sakamoto is a planner, game designer, story writer, graphic artist, and producer with credentials tying him to some of the most famous and eccentric Nintendo franchises. Sakamoto is considered one of the prioneering elite designers from the famous Nintendo R&D1 team. A graduate from the Osaka University of Arts, Sakamoto came into Nintendo working under his mentors Gunpei Yokoi and Makoto Kano. Sakamoto grew up with Nintendo toys, which he noted to be inventive and occasionally "strange". When the company hired him in 1982, Sakamoto began creating promotional artwork for the company, but for only a brief period of time.

After a couple of months, Sakamoto was assigned to the Game & Watch team with designer Makoto Kano. Sakamoto's first digital contribution became the barrels and cranes featured in the Game & Watch Donkey Kong. Using that experience, Sakamoto was then transferred to the arcade team of R&D1 where he joined Shigeru Miyamoto on the development of Donkey Kong Jr. Manager Gunpei Yokoi expressed to Sakamoto, "that if he could make pixel art, he could design games", and when the Famicom appeared Sakamoto became one of the chief designers for the R&D1 Famicom team. Yoshio Sakamoto went on work on several classic Famicom games including Wrecking Crew, Balloon Fight, and Gumshoe. The two turning points of his career would be his involvement in two games, Metroid, and Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School.

By the middle of 1985, Sakamoto and several designers from the R&D1 team were working overtime to create "new exciting games" for the popular Famicom. Sakamoto recalls the original design for Metroid as a "dark shooting game in space". Sakamoto was actually working on Gumshoe at the time, and was not part of the original conception of Metroid. Senior designer Makoto Kano and programming chief Masao Yamamoto were originally in charge, but the game became overly ambitious and without direction. Yokoi reassigned several of the R&D1 designers back on Metroid to help finish the game. Sakamoto contributes his involvement to Metroid as introducing the item-exploration design focus and helping design some enemies and maps.

Shortly after helping Metroid, and contributing to Kid Icarus, Sakamoto embarked on a career altering decision with a game title Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School. Brainstorming to create an original game, Nintendo decided to collaborate with Square and create a high school simulation story based game and Yoshio Sakamoto found himself in charge of coordinating the software. The game was a surprise success, and pleased Gunpei Yokoi, who encouraged Sakamoto to make more games like it. Yokoi advised Sakamoto to make a game based on a "detective mystery". The encouragement launched Yoshio Sakamoto into creating the cult classic Detective Club series for the Famicom Disk System. Sakamoto and several other of the designers of R&D1 decided to create a coterie group inside the division called Team Shikamaru, which would be a scenario planning and character creation group. Makoto Kano, Yoshio Sakamoto, and Toru Osawa were the creative directors of the cult group "team shikamaru" which was made-up section inside of R&D1, but spiritually it promoted an identity for the design team away from the original arcade roots of R&D1. Sakamoto was a bit nonsensical in the name association he wished to use to identify his involvement on games with, for later he would go on to use the "Team Deer Force" monicker, "Team Battle Card", and most recently the "Project M' monicker

Work on the Metroid series

• Metroid (NES / 1986) – Graphic Design
• Super Metroid (Super Nintendo / 1993) – Director
• Metroid Fusion (Gameboy Advanced / 2002) – Director
• Metroid Zero Mission (Gameboy Advanced / 2004) – Director
• Metroid: Other M (Wii / 2010) – Producer

Makoto Kano was born on 1950 in Kyoto, Japan. Mr. Kano is a planner, game designer, and graphic artist working for the development department of Nintendo Co., Ltd. Kano is considered one of the original character creators and game designers at Nintendo. Kano initially joined Nintendo, and worked for the "Creative Department", which at the time was a group of designers who would work on everything from toys, board games, playing cards, to video games. Kano became Nintendo's first major concept designer and graphic artist working feverishly on everything from arcade games to Game & Watch. Kano describes his work in the early days as everything from drawing pixel characters in the game, to drawing the artwork on the game case.

Makoto Kano served as Gunpei Yokoi's lead designer for several years, as well as mentor to several R&D1 designers including Yoshio Sakamoto and Toru Osawa. He is credited for creating several Nintendo characters like Wild Gunman and Mr. Game & Watch. Quite frankly, Kano was practically involved in creating concepts, characters (Samus among others) and levels for a myriad of R&D1 games from 1978-1996. Kano also took charge of the light gun projects at Nintendo including the NES Zapper and Super NES Super Scope. Today Kano is semi-retired from game development, but still works at Nintendo as an advisor.

Work on the Metroid series

• Metroid (NES / 1986) – Concept Design and Assistant Director
• Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy / 1991) – Graphic Design
• Super Metroid (Super Nintendo / 1993) – Producer

Osawa was hired by Gunpei Yokoi and began his career as a planner, game designer, story writer and graphic artist working for Nintendo Co., Ltd. Osawa is considered one of the prioneering elite designers from then famous Nintendo R&D1 team. Osawa joined Nintendo, and was immediately assigned to the Nintendo R&D1 team working on the R.O.B peripheral and accompanying software. Osawa became one of the main members of the Nintendo R&D1 cult group Team Shikamaru, which concentrated on delivering unique and interesting scenario designs and screenplay dialogue for several Nintendo games.
Toru Osawa went on to work on several games like Metroid, Kid Icarus, Miho Nakayama Tokimeki High School, Famicom Detective Club, and Fire Emblem. Because of his expertise in story writing, Mr. Miyamoto invited him to participate in development of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, having Mr. Osawa take charge of the script and scenario.

Work on the Metroid series

• Metroid (NES / 1986) – Director
• Super Metroid (Super Nintendo / 1993) – Central Designer

Masao Yamamoto was the first lead programmer for Nintendo R&D1. Yamamoto was the program director for games such as Donkey Kong and Radarscope. Yamamoto was also the program director of the original Metroid and VS. Balloon Fight. Yamamoto programmed many of the launch Game Boy and Game&Watch titles.

Work on the Metroid series

• Metroid (NES / 1986) – Director
• Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy / 1991) – Programmer

Hosokawa was an employee of Gunpei Yokoi and the Research & Development 1 Division. He joined the R&D1 Game Boy team as a graphic designer concentrating on environment and object design. Hosokawa became a pivotal designer to the Metroid and Wario Land series and is one of the main project chiefs directing both in-house and co-development projects.

Work on the Metroid series

• Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy / 1991) - Graphic Design
• Super Metroid (Super Nintendo / 1993) – Support
• Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance / 2002) – Director
• Metroid: Zero Mission (Game Boy Advance / 2004) - Course Design
• Metroid: Other M (Wii / 2010) – Director

Kenji Yamamoto is a Japanese video game musician working for Nintendo. Yamamoto is notable for composing music in many titles of the Metroid series, mainly Super Metroid and the Prime trilogy. Yamamoto also plays a role as a music director at Nintendo, overseeing the audio for several Nintendo games. He often collaborates with Minako Hamano.

Work on the Metroid series

• Super Metroid (Super Nintendo / 1993) – Music
• Metroid Fusion (Gameboy Advanced / 2002) – Music Director
• Metroid Prime (Gamecube / 2002) – Music Director
• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Gamecube / 2004) – Music Director
• Metroid Zero Mission (Gameboy Advanced / 2004) – Music Director
• Metroid Prime Pinball (NDS / 2005) – Music Director
• Metroid Prime Hunters (NDS / 2006) – Sound Supervisor
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii / 2007) – Music Director

Hiroji Kiyotake is a video game designer working for Nintendo. He is the original designer of Wario and has been involved in nearly all Wario games. In his early days of Nintendo he directed multiple Nintendo games, but has since moved on to a designer role for most game and lately mostly as an advisor or supervisor. He is the original designer of Samus.

Work on the Metroid series

• Metroid (NES / 1986) – Character Design
• Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy / 1991) – Director and Graphic Design

Takayasu Morisawa is a graphic designer and production artist working for Nintendo Company Limited. Morisawa joined the Research & Devevelopment 1 Division and worked under General Manager Takehiro Izushi. Morisawa first participated in the development of Wario Land 4 and Metroid Fusion.
Morisawa like many other R&D1 personnel followed the transfer into the SPD Production Group No.1 section of the Software Planning & Development Dvision. Morisawa has directly worked on some of Yoshio Sakamoto's more high profile projects.

Work on the Metroid series

• Metroid Fusion (Gameboy Advanced / 2002) – Graphic Design
• Metroid Zero Mission (Gameboy Advanced / 2004) – Graphic Design
• Metroid: Other M (Wii / 2010) – Art Director

Kensuke Tanabe is an employee of Nintendo Company Limited. Tanabe was born January 26, 1963 in Ikeda, Osaka. After graduating from the Visual Concept Planning Department of Osaka University of Arts, he decided to enter the video game industry, and joined Nintendo in April 1986. At first, Tanabe was part of the Entertainment Analysis and Development division. He directed the platform games Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic and Super Mario Bros. 2, and worked on the scripts for the action-adventures The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
In 2003, Kensuke Tanabe was promoted to manager and producer of Production Group No.3 of Software Planning & Development Department of the Software Planning & Development Division. He has worked as a producer on all of Retro Studios games. In recent years, he has become best known for his work on development of video games with partner developers, such as Excite Truck with Monster Games and Punch-Out! with Next-Level Games

Work on the Metroid series

• Metroid Prime (Gamecube / 2002) – Producer
• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Gamecube / 2004) – Producer
• Metroid Prime Pinball (NDS / 2005) – Producer
• Metroid Prime Hunters (NDS / 2006) – Producer
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii / 2007) – Producer

Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka is a Japanese composer and musician best known for his scores for various video games produced by Nintendo. Hirokazu Tanaka got his start in music at the age of five when his parents enrolled him at the privately run Yamaha Music School in Japan. In 19080 Tanaka got hired by Nintendo and in 1984 he started on began working on music for many Famicom titles including, Balloon Fight, Duck Hunt, Wrecking Crew, Kid Icarus and Metroid. Tanaka also worked in a programming capacity for Nintendo. He had always wanted to get more into project development, and it was this that inspired him to design the Gameboy Camera and the Gameboy Printer. In 1998 he left Nintendo to work at Creatures, Inc., where he became president in 2000.

Work on the Metroid series

• Metroid (NES / 1986) – Music

 

[Metroid Killer]

• The development name for Metroid was Space Hunter.
  
  
• The word Metroid is a portmanteau of metro and android.
  
  
• Famous soccer player Pelé was inspiration for Samus Aran’s name. His full name is Edison Arantes do Nascimento.
  
  
• The name of planet SR388 stems from a motorcycle model by Yamaha called SR400. Likewise the Sector 1 (SRX) in Fusion(which is based on the environment of SR388) is based on the Yamaha SRX motorcycle which succeeded the SR400 model.
  
  
• In Super Metroid the screech that Draygon makes is Anguirus’ roar from Godzilla which has become a stock sound fx.
  
  
• In Metroid: Zero Mission, Kraid’s roar has gained stock status and can be heard from the Battlelord in Duke Nukem 3D.
  
  
• I won’t cover all the various Alien references throughout the series as they are rather well known, however the newest ones in Other M deserves a mention: Anthony Higgs’ name is taken from Hicks from Aliens, they both end up as the sole survivor of their squad. Also a reference to Aliens, near the beginning as Lyle shouts: “They’re coming outta tha walls!”
  
  
• In Metroid Prime, the symbols for the different beams were differently colored and shaped hand signs. If you activate the x-ray visor, you can see Samus actually making the hand motion of the corresponding beam whenever she switches weapons.
  
  
• The voice of Spore Spawn(Boss in Super Metroid) is by Kenji Yamamoto, the sound director of the series.
  
  
• Sakamoto's favourite director is Dario Argento and he's an inspiration for him, with his first homage being Detective Club II. He especially likes Deep Red. They were a big inspiration for him for Metroid and the "stylish space adventure" they are.
  “Deep Red has the greatest inspiration on my creative process,” he said. Sakamoto had always liked scary movies but always thought that there was “something missing” from other films. “I discovered that without a doubt, I wanted to create things in the same manner that Argento did.”
  Sakamoto pointed to the director’s use of various tricks to control the “mood, timing, foreshadowing and contrast” to scare the audience, calling out Argento’s use of progressive rock music with its “almost indifferent echo of the stiff and robotic.” Much in the same way, the Metroid games use eerie, sparse music to great effect, heightening the player’s tension and fear.
  
  And here's the Suspiria poster with the orange colors so prevalecent in Metroid.
  
  

 

[Metroid Killer]

A lot of Metroid fans here on gaf have been working hard to create these great pieces you'll see here. More will be added as the thread gets updated.

Click on the link to view image at higher rez when available

Samus vs. Ridley by DM_Uselink (deviant page) (Hi-rez)


Samus and ship by dr_octagon (Hi-rez)


Samus Varia Suit by dr_octagon

Samus Journey by dr_octagon

Samus cardboard by dr_octagon

Samus vs. Ridley by dr_octagon (Hi-rez)


Samus vs. Ridley 2 by dr_octagon (Hi-rez)


Reztroid by dr_octagon (Hi-rez)


Phazon Suit by dr_octagon (Hi-rez)


PED Suit by dr_octagon (Hi-rez)


Samus by Green Mamba

Kraid by Green Mamba (Hi-rez)


Ridley by Green Mamba (Hi-rez)


Mother Brain by Green Mamba (Hi-rez)


Metroid by Green Mamba

Zero-suit Samus by Green Mamba

Space Pirate by Green Mamba (Hi-rez)


Dark Samus by Green Mamba

Queen Metroid by Green Mamba (Hi-rez)


Chozo Statue by GrotesqueBeauty

Dudebro Samus by Jocchan and help from tachiSama and EarthPainting (Hi-rez)


Super Metroid Title HD version 1 by m0dus (Hi-Rez)


Super Metroid Title HD version 2 by m0dus (Hi-Rez)


Super Metroid Title HD version 3 by m0dus (Hi-Rez)


Samus vs. creature by NakedCosmonaut (deviant) (Hi-rez)


Samus by sammy (Hi-rez)


Metroid Bosses by SpacePirate Ridley (Hi-rez)


Metroid cardboard by Typographenia (Hi-rez)


Samus by Zekes! (Hi-rezs)


Disney Samus by Zekes! (Hi-rez)


Metroid blueberry cheesecake by RatskyWatsky (Hi-rez)


Metroid cakes by OnkelC (Hi-rez)


Metroid cake by Metroid Killer (Hi-rez)


Samus Helmet... err... pizza by Metroid Killer (Hi-rez)


Samus confronts Ridley by likeGdid (Hi-rez)


Power Suit Samus by dr_octagon (Hi-rez)


Samus Poster by MYE (Hi-rez)


25 Samuses by Chet Rippo (Hi-rez)


NEW
Shinespark by FreedomFrisbee (Hi-rez)

 

[Metroid Killer]

Shinesparkers.net and OCremix.org have collaborated on an anniversary album. With over 30 tracks (a couple of them made by gaf members!), you do not want to miss out on this!
Harmony of a Hunter is an album created to mark the twenty fifth anniversary of the Metroid franchise. A vast number of people contributed to this project to celebrate and mark this historic franchise, which includes music from the original NES Metroid through Metroid: Other M for the Nintendo Wii. The album features a diverse range of talented individuals covering a variety of genres which we hope will appeal to many musical tastes.
We hope that Harmony of a Hunter will be a fitting tribute to this wonderful series.

The album can be downloaded here and here (direct download of each mp3).

Watch a preview here.

Had Samus not been made into a girl, I’m not sure how great this section would have been… Luckily Samus was born female, and I’ll never say no to these pretty faces.

Cosplay by Yuki

Cosplay by Pixelninja

Cosplay by mewtwo_2222

Cosplay by unknown

The Metroid games have been popular for speedrunning, which is the act of completing a game in the fastest time possible, since players often receive a better ending if they do so. Metroid had five different endings based on how quickly a player could complete the game, a design unheard of at the time. Super Metroid is one of the most popular speedrunning games, and helped popularize speedrunning in video games through its non-linear design that allowed for sequence breaking through secret passages and other means.
There are three main ways to split up the runs:
-Any% run, where you do whatever it takes to get to the end of the game as fast as possible, acquiring or ignoring items as you see fit.
-Low%, where you get the bare minimum number of items and upgrades necessary to complete the game, and still try to go as quickly as possible.
-100% run, where you collect "everything" in the game.
Then there is the difference between a single-segment run, where you speedrun the game in one take, and segmented runs, where saves are used.
Finally we have Tool-Assisted-Speedruns(TAS) that are created by means of emulation, which allows you to advance frame-by-frame, play in slow motion, exploit glitches, etc., to push the games to their limits.

Watch or download the current world records on Super Metroid here. I highly recommend watching Red Scartlet’s 100% run which shows how perfectly the world of Zebes is connected.

Go check Speed Demos Archive for videos for the rest of the Metroid games.

Metroid any% 08:19.32 by Lord Tom (TAS) Link
Metroid 100% 33:25.7 by Lord Tom (TAS) Link
Super Metroid (JPN/USA) any% 38:41.52 by Taco & Kriole (TAS) Link
Super Metroid (JPN/USA) 100% 1:08:10.87 by Cpadolf (TAS) Link

Why not celebrate the anniversary by having a Metroid avatar? First come, first serve! More will be added as the thread gets updated.

Free

Claimed

 

[Metroid Killer]

*** Notice: The contest is over and the winners have been decided. Congratz to Shin Johnpv and PixyJunket. ***

So I've been working on a little secret project that I haven't told anyone about. This is how my working table has been looking for the last couple of weeks

Fabric? Needles? Green, red and white?

Yes I ventured to the unknown worlds of sewing Metroid Plushies. This is the very first time in my life that I've tried sewing, but the end result is ok!

In celebration of the anniversary and the thread I'm handing out Two Metroid Plushies. All you have to do to win one is:

Post a photo of yourself/your room/car/etc. that shows that you are the biggest nerdiest Metroid fan here on gaf.

Last day of submission will be 26th of August. Then Stumpokapow and I will agree on two winners.
I'm looking forward to see metroid bedsheets, morph ball wedding rings and whatnot. Just remember that it has to be a photography taken during this contest.

Oh no the Metroids are attacking the creator's dog!

To everybody involved!
Team Writing: _Alkaline_, Mama Robotnik, KevinCow, Boney, GrotesqueBeauty, oracrest and Shikamaru Ninja and his wonderful blog(The Kyoto Report) which provided a ton of information on the devs.
Team creative force: DM_Uselink, Chet Rippo dr_octagon1, Greenmamba, jocchan, modus, MYE, NakedCosmonaut, OnkelC, Raging Spaniard, RatskyWatsky, Sammy, SpacePirate Ridley, Typographenia, and Zekes! Mik2121 for making the wonderful thread graphics.
To G-Fex, BruceLeeRoy and Stumpokapow for overall help. To shinesparkers.net, metroid-database.com, metroidhat.com, metroid.wikia.com and metroidwiki.org.
And last but not least, thanks to everyone who has worked on given us these wonderful experiences throughout the last 25 years.


See you next mission!

 

[Boney]

dibs, sorry aero, gonna have to closet you for a while!

And Amazing job dude! Let's get to metroid!

 

[TheSeks]

Really? Really? 9 posts and fanart that could've been thumbnailed? :/

 

[Nekrono]

I really haven't been much into Metroid as of lately but holy shit what a thread! Amazing job Metroid Killer and happy birthday Metroid!

 

[Red]

Damn Metroid Killer. I was planning something similar to this for today, but it was nowhere near this scope.

Awesome, awesome thread.

I agree a lot of those pics could be thumbnails though.

 

[54-46!]

Good stuff!

 

[Metroid Killer]

You guys and your impatience XD

 

[Anonymous Tipster]

Amazing OP!

Metroid is one of the finest video game series and it truly deserves as much recognition as it can garner!

 

[DXB-KNIGHT]

Happy Birthday Samus

 

[Sennorin]

Nice thread, even though the yet-again-shitting on-Other M wasn´t necessary.

I love all 3D-Metroid-games. Prime 1 and Other M were the most enjoyable for me. Hope to see a Prime-style Metroid for 3DS, would be godlike.

 

[Aeana]

This is quite a thread. I feel I need to contribute something. So I will link what made Metroid 1 fun for me again after all of these years.

MetroidLUA - a script-assisted hack of the original Metroid to add weapon toggling and a map screen (and minimap), as well as mouse input on the password screen, and some other things. I think it's totally brilliant and it really revitalized the game for me.

 

[Vanille]

Seriously, fuck you Nintendo for not celebrating this.

Fantastic OP though.

 

[Cheesemeister]

Impressive thread. I have to wonder if anybody's already putting something together for the Super NES' 20th later this month.

Also, where's the Yokoi profile?

EDIT: Bonus nitpick: you missed August 6th Japan Time by just over 3 hours. But seriously, great stuff.

 

[[Nintex]]

Amazing, I just watched this that Darren from Shinesparkers put together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqOyhS8hLVI

He even found a ex-Retro guy to say something nice.

 

[slaughterking]

Amazing thread. I'll give it a read later today.

 

[Goldmund]

Wow, just wonderful, thank you.

 

[G-Fex]

Well Killer it's about damn time you made the thread. Great job too.

 

[Deleted member 10571]

Holy shit Incredible OP, and I read it all!

 

[Red]

Nice thread, even though the yet-again-shitting on-Other M wasn´t necessary.

I love all 3D-Metroid-games. Prime 1 and Other M were the most enjoyable for me. Hope to see a Prime-style Metroid for 3DS, would be godlike.

I liked Other M a lot more than Corruption, but that's not saying much.

It's the cutscenes that seem to kill it for people, but playing through on hard with cutscenes skippable really improves it ten fold.

This is quite a thread. I feel I need to contribute something. So I will link what made Metroid 1 fun for me again after all of these years.

MetroidLUA - a script-assisted hack of the original Metroid to add weapon toggling and a map screen (and minimap), as well as mouse input on the password screen, and some other things. I think it's totally brilliant and it really revitalized the game for me.

FUCK WHAT this looks awesome

 

[Zombie James]

Awesome OP.

 

[LethaL ImpuLse]

Incredible OP. Happy birthday to one of the greatest gaming franchises of all time.

 

[Anth0ny]

Amazing thread.

Playing Metroid Fusion for the first time now, love it. Super Metroid is next!

 

[cooljeanius]

I think we may have a competitor to MGS4 for giantest OP on GAF.

 

[forrest]

Amazing thread for an amazing franchise! Happy birthday Samus!

 

[drspeedy]

Beautiful work! Nice OP and a huge thumbs up to everyone who helped create it!



Metroid is and will likely always be my favorite series- I've played every game (save Hunters and Pinball) multiple times and keep coming back for more. The atmosphere, the game play, the constant tension that comes with not knowing what's next... so much awesome.

I feel like a modified avatar is in order...

[EDIT] All better!

 

[wrowa]

Wow, absolutely gorgeous thread.

 

[Metroid Killer]

Nice thread, even though the yet-again-shitting on-Other M wasn´t necessary.

I love all 3D-Metroid-games. Prime 1 and Other M were the most enjoyable for me. Hope to see a Prime-style Metroid for 3DS, would be godlike.

I think you read Boney's text on Other M wrong. Yes he explains that the game is lacking in some ways, but he certainly gives the game a lot of credit. I don't think I would have been as nice as Boney and I enjoyed the game as well.

 

[Joseph Merrick]

MetroidLUA - a script-assisted hack of the original Metroid to add weapon toggling and a map screen (and minimap), as well as mouse input on the password screen, and some other things. I think it's totally brilliant and it really revitalized the game for me.

cool

 

[Bentendo]

No Mark Pacini in the profile article?

Really great OT though.

 

[Zekes!]

That's a seriously incredible OP Metroid Killer. I'm really glad and honoured you asked me to submit some art for this thread.

 

[LordAlu]

Damn, what an OP! Imma gonna go play me some Super Metroid!

 

[Exterminieren]

Superb OP.

Oh, and claimed:

 

[Dai101]

So, you only mae an 25 Anniversary thread to shoucase and promote your Metroid plushies? Shame on you ......

I don't mind on buy one or two though

 

[Infamous Chris]

<-- mine!



As I said before, awesome OP.

 

[eXistor]

Great job on the op there, you really did the the Metroid franchise justice! Super Metroid will probably always battle it out with Earthbound as my favorite game of all time.

 

[XenoRaven]

Amazing OP.

Today was my first chance to play Catherine. Going to have to wait though. Gonna stream a Metroid marathon today.

Shame Nintendo doesn't even acknowledge this as a thing.

 

[Shin Johnpv]

Awesome OP! Best fucking video game series ever. Samus 4 life!

Claiming this one

 

[Metroid Killer]

Impressive thread. I have to wonder if anybody's already putting something together for the Super NES' 20th later this month.

Also, where's the Yokoi profile?

No Mark Pacini in the profile article?

Really great OT though.

Well we(Me and Shikamaru Ninja) could add people forever, but the word limit wouldn't allow it. And we chose to limit ourselves to a handful.

On Yokoi: Obviously he had a hand in the first 3 Metroids, but it's no where near as much as we used to be think in the 90s. He was the producer yes, but he was no where as involved as Kano, Masao Yamamoto and Kiyotake.

We axed out personal retro profiles in favor of a company profile instead... that way we covered them all /cheat.

 

[CrazyArcadia]

This has to be the coolest OP in terms of raw quantity and quality I've seen yet Will provide some leisure reading time, therefore I thank all involved in this great post!

And of course, happy birthday, Samus Aran ^^
Hopefully, we'll see a return rather sooner than later...

Maybe this might be the time for me to finally hunt down a copy of Super Metroid; While I played some Metroid games, that one for some reason wasn't flimmering on my screens yet

 

[Franchuzas87]

Truly awesome job!

I'll read all of it later.

 

[erpg]

That is some great fanart, GAF.

 

[XenoRaven]

<- Claiming

www.justin.tv/xenoraven
www.twitchtv.com/xenoraven

If you want to check out my Metroid marathon stream. Not up right now, but will be later today.

But honestly, you should just be playing these games yourself!

 

[ShaneB]

Absolutely incredible OP. Wealth of information. Thanks so much for this!

Love Metroid, so will give this my full attention later.