Castlevania’s 25 years old today (in America)

Hey folks, one of my favorite franchises has hit the magical 25th birthday today…in America, anyway. Nester did celebrate the Japanese anniversary last year, but I tend to like focusing on American anniversaries meself. Alas, I don’t have much time to ruminate today, but there is no shortage of CV love on LVLs. Here’s some choice bits:

Opinions:

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Nester’s Favorite Games:

Castlevania: Bloodlines (1994)

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (2006)

Nester’s Feature: The Illusions of Castlevania

Wildcat’s Favorite Franchises: Castlevania

Castlevania Imagery

Music Selections from Song Highlights after the jump!

Metroid Zero Mission – Deja Vu

Metroid Zero Mission (Game Boy Advance)

The Mission – Samus Aran, bounty hunter, must infiltrate her former home world of Zebes, now overrun with a Space Pirate menace, and eliminate the threat before they have a chance to wage war with the Galactic Federation.  It is also believed that the Pirates have incorporated alien life forms to utilize as weapons.  These must also be terminated at all costs.

…Yes, it’s a remake of the first Metroid.  Samus does have some new skills, new foes and a whole new endgame to engage, though!

The Game – The game’s plot is relatively unchanged, but the game engine is anything but the same.  Samus must traverse a completely remade Zebes, one that has more ties to its Super Metroid rendition than the NES original, and there’s far more going on than the original featured.  The boss count is greatly increased, the amount of supplies to pick up multiplied by a significant amount, and it’s far more player-friendly.  A map helps greatly, and Samus has a slew of skills from Super Metroid and Fusion as a part of her repertoire here (which I’ll get into shortly).  Cutscenes spruce up the proceedings, and there’s a completely new section following the battle with Mother Brain that is very well done and unexpected, with a completely different gameplay style that I personally really liked.  In short, Zero Mission refines its origins quite nicely with very few mistakes.

In fact, the only major nitpick I could throw at it is the revision of Kraid.  In Metroid, he was a stout little lizard beast who would lead to a massive surprise for his return in Super Metroid, where he became gargantuan in size and even had a fake-out minion outside his lair.  Alas, Zero Mission aborts this entire novelty for another mammoth Kraid encounter, which just destroys that neat bit of continuity.  Ah well.

Samus Aran – Samus carries over a lot of her tricks learned in Metroid II, Super Metroid and Fusion into Zero Mission on top of her original arsenal.  Power Bombs, the Power Grip, the Charge Beam, the Speed Booster, the Plasma Beam, and a true Gravity Suit were all added into the game to further boost Samus’ talents.

One thing Zero Mission did not carry over from its original was the Justin Bailey suit, instead inventing a whole new outfit for the Metroid canon to adopt – the Zero Suit.

After defeating Mother Brain, a whole new segment appears where Samus must infiltrate a Space Pirate Mothership to be able to escape Zebes.  Her Power Suit was disabled while she was attempting to flee the planet before she was shot down, so she’s equipped with her Paralyzer and this skintight blue suit.  Apparently this suit became all the rage in Nintendo-land, because they keep using it over and over again, from Echoes to Corruption to Other M to even Smash Bros. Brawl and various cameos (Fatal Frame 4).  Personally, I don’t mind the Zero Suit, but I do prefer Samus to be in her Power Suit – that’s how I envision her.

Curios – Crocomire, the famous midboss from Super Metroid, was planned to be in this game but was scrapped somewhere along the line.  Another Super Metroid nod casualty included the ability to enable or disable aspects of Samus’ arsenal.

- Mother Brain has an eye here, which her original NES sprite did not feature.  She also can attack you, the first time she could in this form.

- Shinesparking is taken to a ridiculous degree here – if you’re good at that, kudos to you, because I’m not! XD

- Connecting this to Metroid Fusion via GBA link cable enables you to check out all of the ending art from that game in a special gallery.

- Beating Zero Mission will unlock the NES Metroid as a bonus.

Availability – Only for the GBA at this time, but it isn’t too tough to track down.

My Thoughts – This is my second favorite 2D Metroid, and 3rd overall in the overall franchise.

Data Files:

Metroid Prime 2 Echoes – Restoring the Balance

Metroid Prime 2 Echoes (Gamecube)

The Mission – Shortly after the events of Metroid Prime, Samus is deployed to the planet Aether in order to discover the whereabouts of a Galactic Federation Marine vessel that had given its last report around the planet before disappearing.  Upon arrival, Samus’ ship is damaged by the extreme weather surrounding the atmosphere of Aether and is forced to land.  She stumbles upon the corpses of the Marines, and scattered among them are bodies of her nemesis, the Space Pirates.  However, this isn’t as clear cut a mission as it first seems.  Aether is in the middle of a power struggle between two beings inhabiting two different dimensions on the planet.  The Ing, sinister blob-like beings who seek to plunge Aether into darkness, are overwhelming the diminishing population of the Luminoth, the guardians of “Light” Aether.  The Ing are capable of reanimating the dead or forcefully taking over the living a la parasitic domination, and this trait has made the balance swing dangerously in their court.  Another menace is the doppelganger Dark Samus, who stalked Samus to Aether and intends on absorbing her completely into her psyche.  Dark Samus shows Samus the path to the “dark” half of Aether, the one where the Ing are fully in power and are at their strongest.  She is overwhelmed but left alive, minus her best gear, and realizes quickly that her standard Power Suit and weapons were not up to the task of fighting either threat – fortunately, the few Luminoth who remain are willing to work with Samus and enable her to incorporate their technology into her suit, giving her new abilities that will grant her a chance at conquering these two antagonistic powers roaming about in Dark Aether.

In the end, the Emperor Ing is crushed, the light of Aether fully restored, and Dark Samus is defeated…for now.  Its role in the Prime series has not reached its conclusion, and it will haunt Samus in the last game in the Prime trilogy, Corruption.

The Game – Retro Studios returned to develop Prime’s sequel, and decided to tweak the Metroid formula, for better or worse, with Echoes.  The major shakeup revolves around the Light and Dark aspect of Aether, and this is embodied in many different ways.  Samus has an evil twin to conquer, the planet has two dimensions to explore, and the dark and light forces have distinct stylistic traits that help symbolize this battle between these two adversaries.  The Ing are simple and organic, using their parasitic capabilities to consume the living and the dead to build their ranks.  The Luminoth are advanced technological beings, with complicated architecture, weapons and devices.  The Ing are not stupid, though – they know what key treasures of the Luminoth to capture and defend, and Samus notes in her encounters with these guardians that they are able to utilize the Chozo and Luminoth technology they protect into their very bodies.  The Boost guardian, for example, is quite adapt at using that skill to punish Samus in that fight.

The issue with having two dimensions to roam around with is that it can become very confusing to the player.  Retro did an admirable job trying to minimize problems with the help system, limiting the Dark parts of the map to smaller chunks, and by throwing in several gates to be able to jump back and forth between dimensions, but on the whole the Dark half is not that fun to wander around in.  That’s partly due to its volatile nature – extended stays in Dark Aether will whittle Samus’ energy down over time unless you step in a Light Barrier.  Naturally, most battles will occur in vast stretches of darkness, and you need to blast the scattered Barriers to enable them, so combat is not as free-feeling as it was in Prime (or in the Light sections of the game, for that matter).  Most of the boss fights take place in Dark Aether as well, so a dwindling life bar is something else you have to keep tabs on while you fight.  If you like extra pressure, then this probably won’t be an issue.

The addition of an ammo system might, though.  Unarguably the biggest complaint with Echoes was that Samus couldn’t barrage opponents with a constant stream of beam shots – the Dark and Light beams required ammo to fire, and this could be a major thorn if you happen to run out.  Ammo is somewhat plentiful in the scenery’s pods and barrels, but when the beams are required to get out of a room or return to the other dimension, it can be a little annoying to see you’re out of “bullets”.  Retro aborted the concept for Corruption, but I wish that it didn’t see the light of day for Echoes, too.

To wrap up, Echoes expects players to have experienced Prime, because it’s much harder than its predecessor was.  Definitely play Prime first!

Samus Aran – Samus herself saw new suits added to her arsenal, plus some new beams and visors.  The Dark and Light suits were radical departures from the Chozo-styled suit we’ve seen in the past, and are solid designs that helped build upon the new technology premise Retro was gunning for.  The Light and Dark beams, plus their successor the Annihilator Beam, played off of the standards set by Prime, but were novel changes.  She also had access to a Dark and Echo Visor, which helped Samus in her encounters with the Ing and Dark Samus.  The Screw Attack came back for Echoes after being benched for Prime, although it functions more like a wall jump here than an enemy slayer in the 2D Metroids (although it does have that capability, it’s just really unwieldy).

After Prime made such valiant attempts to get Samus out of the “skimpy clothing reveal” line of ending reward, Echoes is the first game to use the Zero Suit as a reward for completion.  It doesn’t serve much of a purpose stripping Samus of her Varia Suit to stand in front of her ship and look back at the player (with DEAD EYES AH), but one could argue it’s a little less demeaning than her Justin Bailey outfits.

Curios – Ridley sat out of this one, making it one of two games he made no formal appearance in (the other is Metroid 2: Return of Samus).

- Echoes featured a somewhat lackluster multiplayer mode.  My opinion was obviously not impressed by it.

- Oddly enough, Warioware: Smooth Moves borrowed a scene from Echoes for a microgame.

- The game was used to demonstrate the Wii controller back when it was known as the Revolution.

Availability - Echoes did fairly well for the ‘Cube, and shouldn’t be too hard to find.  It’s also on the Wii trilogy.

My Thoughts – Echoes is a fine sequel that made some design flaws, but it’s definitely worth some playtime if you enjoyed Prime.  I’m happy to have it.

Data Files:

Metroid Oddities AND Wildcat’s Favorite Series Cameos Extravaganza

Just to show that I haven’t forgotten about Metroid in the last month (I don’t know if I should take on these franchise-wide challenges anymore – they wear me out XD ), I’ve decided to discuss the three curious Metroid offshoots and a smattering of cameos from the series today.  Let’s begin with the weirdos.

Oddities

Super Smash Bros. (series)

Samus Aran has made a playable appearance in all three games thus far, armed with her Charge Beam, Screw Attack and Bombs for her specials (the Missile would join in for Melee onwards), the Grapple Beam for her throw/tether recovery, and the ability to fight as Zero Suit Samus in Brawl.  Zebes has been the most popular place from Metroid to battle, with the majority of the three game’s stages being plucked from there (SSB – Planet Zebes, SSBM – Brinstar, Brinstar Depths, SSBB – Norfair), with only Frigate Orpheon representing the potential worlds outside of that doomed planet.  Ridley has been in all three games (background in Planet Zebes in SSB, trophy in SSBM and boss/trophy in SSBB).  Kraid made his sole 3D appearance in Melee in the Brinstar Depths stage, and a Mother Brain-styled prop in the background shakes up the acid on the Melee Brinstar stage.  Metroids appeared as Assist Trophies, and the Screw Attack has been an item from Melee onward.

Metroid Prime Pinball

Developed by Fuse Games, who preceded this title with Mario Pinball Land, this revisits the setpieces of Retro’s Metroid Prime, but forces Samus to bounce around in Morph Ball form in a pinball re-imagining of that game’s events.  Apparently it was pretty decent!  I will admit to not having played it, so I don’t know how much more I can go into it at the present.

Metroid Prime Hunters

Another Prime spin-off, but this one was handled by Nintendo Software Technologies.  This was a second attempt to create a pure Metroid FPS (Echoes’ shoddy attempt of a multiplayer mode predated this a bit), and although it worked a little better, it required extensive use of the touch screen to control, and honestly I don’t think the Metroid universe needs to have the FPS style infest it.  Nintendo backed off from that angle after this game’s release, and I don’t know if we’ll see it return beyond the updated Echoes multi in the Wii Prime Collection.

Notable Cameos

The ones I’m including here are ones I find neat.  Metroid Database has a slew of official Nintendo ones as well as a few done by fans of the franchise for a more complete list than the one I provide.  Screen shots courtesy of one of my haunts, NinDB.

Kid Icarus (NES)

Metroid and Kid Icarus were in development at around the same time by R&D1, so I suppose the devs, hoping that the Metroids would be notable enough, snuck in an eerily similar Komayto (or in Japan, Kometo, or “child Met”) to populate the Greek-styled worlds of Pit and Co.  They’re on their way back for the 3DS Uprising, too.

Tetris (NES)

Samus, alongside a heap of other oddly-rendered Nintendo heroes, pop up in this celebratory screen for those who conquered Game B on the “speed 9, height 5″ settings.  She turned out the best, honestly.

Kirby Superstar (SNES)

Kirby can occasionally transform his Stone ability into this great Samus pose from Metroid II’s box art.  It’s pretty rare but also really awesome.  Samus’ Screw Attack symbol is also a treasure that can be earned in the Great Cave Offensive, here called the “Screw Ball”.  Clever pun.  In the DS remake, the Samus statue is seemingly gone but the Screw Attack remains.

Super Mario RPG (SNES)

Square must have liked Metroid a little to sneak Samus into Peach’s bed in the Mushroom Kingdom castle.  To see her, according to NinDB admin Fruguy64:

When you reach Land’s End for the first time, instead of completing it, head all the way back to the Mushroom Kingdom and sleep in the Castle’s guest room. When you wake up, head to Princess Toadstool’s room and check the bed.

Also, an action figure of Samus appears with a few other Nintendo cameos in a box in Booster’s Tower at the top.

Kirby’s Dream Land 3 (SNES)

Among the more obscure cameos in this game (Japanese-only Famicom Fairytales: Yuuyuuki and Shin Onigashima, anyone?) is Samus and some Metroids.  Here’s the details courtesy again of NinDB to gain Samus’ Heart Star in Iceberg L2:

To earn her Heart Star, collect the Ice power before you enter the volcano and defeat all of the Metroids that you find hidden in each room. After defeating them all and reaching the end of the stage, Samus removes her helmet and awards you with her Heart Star.

Failure to defeat all of the Metroids will keep Samus’ helmet firmly on.

Those are my top 5, although there are plenty of others.  What Metroid cameo’s your favorite?  Feel free to share in our comments!

Metroid Prime – A New Threat is Born

METROID PRIME (Gamecube)

The Mission – Set between the events of Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus, Samus Aran is sent off to the new world of Tallon IV, a former Chozo planet, to uncover the whereabouts of the Space Pirate’s recent invasion of the planet and why they’ve taken a foothold there. Landing on a nearby Space Station, Samus is stunned to find a variety of corpses littering the ship, and is even more surprised to see Ridley make a triumphant resurrection from his apparent demise in Metroid. Following the demon to Tallon IV, she sets out to track down the Pirates and eradicate their presence from this world. Along the way she discovers that the Pirates are reproducing Metroids on Tallon IV and are experimenting with a dangerous substance called Phazon, which is producing strange but potentially promising effects on the test subjects for use as weapons. With these two projects the Space Pirates could become even more threatening to the safety of the universe, so Samus commits herself to sabotaging their efforts as best as she can (which comprises the plots for the next two Prime games Echoes and Corruption). Unfortunately, Samus becomes a victim to Phazon’s influence, being coated in a Suit overwrought with the material. While it didn’t cause her any immediate harm, the Suit would later merge with the defeated husk of the Pirate’s breeding achievement, Metroid Prime, creating a foe potentially more sinister than even the Space Pirates – Dark Samus. All this is unbeknownst to Samus, who left the planet following the defeat of Meta Ridley and Metroid Prime, losing the Phazon Suit, and then escaping the chaotic self-destruct sequence, but she would come face to face with this new terror in the near future.

The Arsenal of Samus Aran – The Arm Cannon Pt. 2

Welcome back to The Arsenal of Samus Aran.  This time we’ll wrap up her versatile Arm Cannon by covering beams that appear in only a handful of the games as well as her missiles.  Her primary beams were covered last time in case you missed it.

Note – There be spoilers within!

Metroid Fusion – The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

METROID FUSION (Game Boy Advance)

The Mission – After the events of Metroid: Other M, Samus Aran is sent out once more to SR-338, the former Metroid homeworld, in a survey mission with the Biological Space Laboratories.  Upon arrival, the team discover a new species of life, which they quickly dub the “X”.  Unaware of what the X are capable of, Samus and her crew return to a nearby space station, but Samus has been infected by the parasitic X, which have the talent of infecting a host, replicating their appearance and traits, and then slaughtering them and moving on to the next.  She loses consciousness and nearly dies as her ship rams a nearby asteroid – luckily, her ship ejected her toward the colony.  Onboard, the medical staff manage to surgically remove her Power Suit, and in a brilliant stroke of luck, was inadvertently injected with the vaccine – the team used a Metroid DNA sample that also featured Samus’ DNA, but the X were devoured by the formerly indigenous Metroid population of SR-338, making Samus the perfect counter to the X threat.  Before Samus fully recovers in her new Fusion suit, the X invade the lab, creating essentially an isolated chaos that Samus must now penetrate to be able to escape with her life.  The biggest threat is that her former Power Suit, maxed out from Super Metroid and Other M, has taken on a life of its own thanks to the X and is now patrolling the ship in search of her.  Inheriting the susceptibility of cold temperatures from her Metroid injection on top of its predatory absorption of the X, she now relies on her former commanding officer Adam, replicated as a computer AI, to traverse the lab, conquer the X and manage to flee the doomed colony.

Metroid Fan Art/Music Shoutout #5

We’re gonna go all out on this final set of incredible fan renditions of Metroid’s look and sound – six pics and songs.  There may be some musician crossover from an earlier post, but I think they earned a second spot on this spotlight.  Enjoy!

Lil’ Metroid by jackin

Norfair by Metroid Metal

Metroid Fusion: Samus vs. SA-X by Selie

Just a Little More Prime by Darkesword (OC Remix)

Super Metroid 05 by ravenshield

Suite for Violin and Piano by Gabe Terracciano and Shnabubula (OC Remix/IGN)

Metroid Prime 2: Torvas Blogg by kelii

One Small Step for Aran by Daniel Alm (Dwelling of Duels)

Ridley NES by speedking

Kid Samus by prozax (Dwelling of Duels…with a little Kid Icarus on the side!)

Warrior by spacecoyote

Dieselbrainage by Mazedude (Heroes vs. Villains OC Remix/The Bad Dudes album)

Super Metroid – Revenge of the Space Pirates

SUPER METROID (Super NES)

The Mission – Following the conclusion of Metroid II: Return of Samus, the Galactic Federation adopts Samus Aran’s baby Metroid and discovers its energy producing potential.  Shortly after Samus departs to find a new bounty, the space colony is suddenly under siege – Ridley has returned to kidnap the Metroid for the Space Pirates!  After he escapes (despite Samus’ attempts to stop him), Samus tracks him back to Zebes, where the Pirates have reestablished their headquarters.  Samus swears vengeance and sets out to vanquish the villains once and for all.

The Arsenal of Samus Aran – The Power Suit

Welcome to my second major feature series celebrating the history of Metroid – with The Arsenal of Samus Aran, I’ll be going through the incredible weaponry and armor Samus Aran utilizes in the franchise bit by bit, highlighting its development and innovations throughout.  To begin with, I think Samus’ iconic Power Suit would be as good a choice as any.

The Power Suit
Appearances – Metroid, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid: Other M*

Samus’ standard Power Suit is what she often begins the games in.  In Zero Mission, Samus starts off with her original suit given to her by her Chozo guardians, but after the defeat of Mother Brain she removes the suit as she attempts to escape, and is shot down by Space Pirates.  With her ship lost, she’s forced to infiltrate the Pirate base in her Zero Suit, and in the midst of this she uncovers a second Power Suit that is the basis of her look up to Fusion.  The Power Suit has a starting energy value of 99 units, which Samus can enhance with Energy Tanks.  Her Arm Cannon, her primary weapon, leads off with a simple Power Beam, but can be upgraded multiple ways (and will be covered in its own article).  The Suit is also able to curl up into a ball, known as the Morph Ball, allowing Samus access to tiny passages.  I’ll discuss the Morph Ball’s versatility in a later piece.  The Power Suit is surprisingly adapt with accepting technologies into it, including those outside of Chozo origin.  Its most distinguishing feature is the difference in the shoulders – most of Samus’ suit upgrades enhance the shoulders into a large circular design, but her original suit features flatter designs that are more conventional in look.

Samus is able to make her armor disappear at her discretion, although the helmet can be taken off manually.  In times of extreme duress, the Power Suit may vanish without Samus’ control, due to the suit’s heavy toll on the focus of its wearer.

*= While Other M refers to its suit as the Power Suit, and the Varia and Gravity upgrades as “features”, it looks like the Varia Suit, so I’m not fully counting it as a Power Suit by my definition.

Other Examples:

The Varia Suit
Appearances: Metroid*, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime II: Echoes, Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid Prime III: Corruption, Metroid: Other M, the Super Smash Bros. series

The Varia Suit is Samus’ most recognized armor, and is the one most often used in promotional material.  Its most notable difference from Samus’ standard Power Suit are the dynamic shoulders.  In-game, the Varia Suit offers Samus additional protection against enemies, makes the suit more heat resistant (commonly allowing her access to hot areas), and, depending on the game, lets her plunge into acid or lava without harm.  Its notable color is orange, compared to the Power Suit’s yellow.

Some games begin with the Varia Suit as the default armor – Echoes, Corruption and Other M do (although, as I stated above, Other M considers the Varia look the Power Suit).  The fully-powered Varia Suit from Super Metroid is also Samus’ adversary in Metroid Fusion in the form of SA-X.  In the Super Smash Bros. franchise, Samus competes against her Nintendo contemporaries in her Varia Suit (save Brawl, which allows Samus to duel in her Zero Suit as well).

*= In Metroid, the Varia Suit does not alter Samus’ appearance beyond changing her shade to pink – the suit changes would begin in Metroid II: Return of Samus due to the Game Boy’s limited color palette.

Other Examples:

The Gravity Suit
Appearances: Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid: Other M

The Gravity Suit is one of Samus’ strongest upgrades, often the culmination of the Power Suit’s effectiveness in the games in which it appears.  The Gravity Suit eliminates the denseness of the Power Suit, allowing Samus to behave in water, lava or acid like she’s on land.  It also reduces damage taken even further than the Varia Suit.

In Prime, Samus can see underwater clearer once she gains the Suit.  In Other M, Samus does not gain the trademark purple suit, but instead glows with a purple aura when activating the Gravity “feature”.  It can be used in extreme gravity situations as well.  Yoshio Sakamoto felt that the purple color made the conversations less serious feeling, explaining the change.

In Echoes, a Gravity Boost item was incorporated that gave the Dark/Light Suits the abilities of the Gravity Suit, but the developers did not wish to put in the actual armor over the new ones created for Echoes.

Other Examples:

The Phazon Suit
Apperances: Metroid Prime

The Phazon Suit was only available for Samus to equip in Prime, although the Prime saga would feature it for two more games – the Suit merged with the final boss Metroid Prime at the end to create Dark Samus, the antagonist for Echoes and Corruption.  Blue Phazon no longer harms Samus while she has this suit, overall damage taken is reduced, and she can also fire off a powerful Phazon Beam in certain situations.

Curiously, the Phazon Suit is one of the few instances where Samus does not collect a powerup to gain access to a new Suit – after defeating the Omega Pirate, it collapses on top of Samus, and she absorbs the Phazon-infused corpse directly into her Gravity Suit, which grants it new talents and the dark color scheme.

The Dark Suit
Appearances: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Super Smash Bros. Brawl

The Dark Suit is Samus’ first foreign alien tech upgrade that radically altered her suit from its Chozo origins.  With this Luminoth-created suit, the lethal atmosphere of Dark Aether is more tolerable, she is protected from the Dark Vapor excreted from the Ingclaws, and it reduces damage.  It’s definitely different in style from all of Samus’ prior armors, with its shoulders taking on a radically unique appearance and the overall color scheme and design altering from convention.

The Dark Suit made a second appearance, although not in its full-on design, as a color choice for Samus in Smash Bros. Brawl.  There’s also a trophy for it in the game.

Other Examples:

The Light Suit
Appearances: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Among Samus’ more slick designs is the Light Suit, the most powerful Luminoth armor in Echoes.  The Dark Aether toxicity is rendered null with this armor, allowing Samus to fully explore the region without fear of succumbing to its foul air.  Dark Water is also safe to leap into now.  Ingstorms no longer damage Samus, and, as a nice plus, she can ride Light Shafts, which serve as quick teleports to the four major areas of the game.  A very dynamic piece of equipment.  Samus presumably returns it to the Luminoth U-Mos after defeating Emperor Ing and Dark Samus.

Other Examples:

The PED Suit
Appearances: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

This suit was created for Samus following a run-in with Dark Samus that contaminated her Power Suit, slowly creating Phazon in her body.  In order to prevent the dangerous substance from killing her, the Galactic Federation applied a Phazon Enhancement Device to her suit, giving her a chance to vacate the Phazon through a Hyper Mode, allowing Samus to fire off Phazon blasts at the expense of an Energy Tank.  If Samus does not drain Phazon from her body periodically, she will corrupt into a second Dark Samus.

In time, Space Pirate tech will merge with the PED suit.  This Hazard Shield protects Samus from natural dangers like acid rain, on top of the usual damage reduction.  This is not a true suit, so I’ll just mention it here.

Other Examples:

The Fusion Suit
Appearances: Metroid Fusion, Metroid Prime*

In Metroid Fusion, a X infection threatens Samus’ life, so a quick surgical operation done by the Galactic Federation strips Samus of her trademark Power Suit.  In return, Samus is outfitted with the Fusion Suit, which is infused with Metroid DNA in order to help her combat the X parasites.  It’s also slick like the Light Suit in terms of its design, and it has its own Varia and Gravity upgrades that work like the original Metroid in execution, altering her color, not her armor.  Samus is extremely vulnerable to cold due to her operation, so she packs ice missiles instead of a beam.  She also is able to absorb X parasites directly into the suit to serve as power-ups.  At the end of the game, she is able to reabsorb her original suit, taken over by the SA-X, and combines both skill sets into one, potentially making her the most powerful warrior she’s ever been.  She keeps the Fusion Suit look but takes on her old suit’s colors.

*= If you connected Metroid Fusion to Metroid Prime via the Game Boy Advance/Gamecube link cable, you could play through Prime in the Fusion Suit.

Other Examples:

The Zero Suit
Appearances: Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Metroid: Other M, Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Perhaps feeling compelled to stop putting Samus in her skivvies (maybe Nintendo didn’t want to revisit the NES Leotard sprite?), in Zero Mission a new armorless Samus was introduced in a whole new segment featuring stealth gameplay following the defeat of Mother Brain.  In it, Samus has lost her Power Suit and was forced to sneak around the Space Pirate Mothership in her Zero Suit, armed only with a pistol that paralyzed foes for a brief time (now known as the Paralyzer).  Following Zero Mission, Echoes and Corruption rewarded players who got 100% completion with an extended ending with Zero Suit Samus, and Other M featured the suit extensively throughout (although they remodeled its boots with high heels, which is just wrong).  Smash Bros. Brawl enabled Samus players to play as Zero Suit Samus, too, giving her an unique moveset and insane speed and agility.  The Suit has not come without controversy, though, as some consider Samus’ Zero Suit as yet another attempt to exploit Samus’ sexuality, this time by outfitting her in a skintight outfit.  Like it or not, it appears to be here to stay.

Other Examples:

Justin Bailey
Appearances: Metroid, Metroid II: Return of Samus*, Super Metroid*, Metroid Fusion*, Metroid Zero Mission*

In the original Metroid, speedy players would be rewarded with a revelation that Samus was a woman in a frankly demeaning manner – stripping her down to her underwear.  The asterisks above show that this trait continued through several of the games, although the lingerie Samus modeled became more and more modest over the years, to the point that Fusion and Zero Mission would trot Samus out in public in a two piece bikini that could pass for street clothes in some places for some of the endings.  The original Metroid took this fan service concept the furthest, with multiple unveils for Samus with four degrees of clothes removal (full armor, her helmet off, a leotard, and a skimpy bra and panties combo), with the leotard being a secret playable option via password or game completion.  No other Metroid game since has allowed Samus to prance around alien worlds in a leotard, and I suspect that will continue to be the case.  This peep show is commonly referred to in Metroid circles as “Justin Bailey” thanks to the infamous password that was first discovered to allow players to play as Samus this way.  It’s a curious factor of Samus’ persona that I’ll be writing about in the near future.

Other Examples:

The next time we do this particular feature though, I’ll examine the myriad beams Samus has found for her Arm Cannon over the years.