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, alternatively referred to by the Space Pirates as the Hunter and by the Chozo as the Hatchling and the Newborn, is a video game character created by Nintendo, and is the main protagonist in the ''Metroid'' series. Samus is a bounty hunter who wears a full-body Power Suit with a number of advanced technologies built into it, including an arm cannon and the ability to morph into a ball. The suit is of highly advanced Chozo origin. The original Metroid game intentionally led players to believe Samus was a male cyborg (including references to the character as male in the English instruction booklet) until the very end of the game, where it was revealed that Samus is in fact a woman, making a statement about gender roles in video games at a time when heroes were predominantly male. Although Samus wears the Power Suit throughout most of the Metroid series, it has become tradition to depict her in more revealing attire at the end of each game, often as a reward for completing the game quickly or with a high percentage of the game’s items collected. Her main mission is to aid the Galactic Federation in defeating the Space Pirates. She also battles Metroids throughout the series, and a vaccine made with Metroid DNA is eventually integrated into her body to cure her of an X Parasite infection at the beginning of the game Metroid Fusion. During most of the series, Samus rarely talks, speaking only in some game introductions and during cutscenes in Metroid Fusion. However, her voice has never been heard, and the only sounds she makes during the games are cries of pain if she is attacked. Physical Characteristics Equipment Whenever Samus goes on missions or anywhere that could be considered dangerous, she wears her Power Suit. It acts as a personal armor, and a built-in arm cannon allows her to fire various types of weaponry including beams and missiles. The basic function of the arm cannon is to fire unlimited, powerful blasts of energy at her foes. This ability is known as the "Power Beam." The suit can also be fitted with various modular upgrades which augment Samus’s natural abilities. All the Metroid games involve searching for those power-ups for Samus, which include a variety of beams, more enhanced Power Suits, Energy Tanks, bombs, Hi-jump Boots, visors, etc. The scanner visor also sports a sophisticated cracking utility that can easily intrude upon Space Pirate computer systems (and presumably other computers of similar levels of sophistication), allowing Samus to extract information from, manipulate hardware of, and disrupt or sabotage those systems. For transportation, Samus uses her gunship, a custom starship that made its debut in Metroid II: Return of Samus. Metroid: Zero Mission revealed that her original ship, a similar model colored red, had crashed on Zebes when she wiped out the Pirate base there. In the prologue to Metroid Fusion, Samus’s custom gunship was destroyed when she lost control of it due to delirium, and the Federation gave her a new ship – albeit with some conditions. Colored purple and sporting retractable landing gear, this ship is governed by a sentient A.I., from which Samus is supposed to take orders in Metroid Fusion. She names the ship's computer Adam, after the name of her old commander, Adam Malkovich. Within the games, the ships usually serve as a base where Samus can recharge her health and ammo, and save. Name pronunciation Samus' name has only been spoken aloud in four Nintendo games; Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Japanese and European versions of Metroid Prime, and now the Flash website for Nintendo's most recent Metroid game, Metroid Prime: Hunters. (IPA pronunciation). For an audio example, visit http://www.metroidhunters.com and access the Flash site. SSBM actually pronounces Samus's name two different ways in the same game. The different ways to pronounce Samus' name are: SAH-MUSS, SAM-US, and SAH-MOOSE. Her last name has been pronounced AH-RAHN, UH-RAN, or AIR-IN. In both Super Smash Bros. it is pronounced like Sah-Muss by the announcer, but the "audience" in SSBM that cheers for the characters in battle prounounce it Sam-Us. On the Metroid Prime: Hunters official website it is pronounced Sam-Us and her last name was pronounced Air-In. Biography Samus Aran is the legendary bounty hunter who is well-known for defeating the Space Pirates and wiping out the dangerous Metroids. Nintendo first referred to Samus as a "he"; Samus revealed her true identity after she defeated the Space Pirates on Zebes for the first time. Her reputation grew as her reliability almost always guaranteed success in her hired jobs. Her childhood and Zero mission The events of this section are from the Metroid e-Manga, Metroid and Samus was the daughter of two colonists (known as Rodney and Virginia Aran) on the Galactic Federation colony world K-2L. When she was 3 years old, the species known only as the Space Pirates, led by Ridley, destroyed the colony, leaving Samus (with her pet, Ponchi) as the sole survivor. A pair of Chozo who had earlier been to the planet she was on (one of whom had befriended Samus) picked up the distress signal from the colony, and took Samus with them to their home on planet Zebes. They selflessly raised and loved her as their own, infusing her with their blood for her to gain their natural powers and resistance to the planet’s environments. In , Samus has flashbacks to her childhood with the Chozo when she sees a mural depicting a Chozo warrior, and also as a sequence of pictures in a connectivity bonus between Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission. Eventually, she had left Zebes of her own accord with the Power Suit, seeking full military training in the Galactic Federation. However, her military career didn’t last after the death of her commanding officer, Adam Malkovich, and she soon left to become a bounty hunter (although not a greedy or vicious one). As she sought to make a name for herself, the Space Pirates attacked Zebes seeking more information about the Metroids they had recently taken from Federation custody, captured and reprogrammed the planetary control, Mother Brain, and killed the entire Chozo population from the planet. Samus heard of this and was sent in by the Federation as a last resort to finish off the Pirates and stop their production of Metroids. Samus succeeded, defeating Kraid, Ridley, and Mother Brain in the process, but as she escaped the time bomb detonated by the Mother Brain in her final throes, she was shot down by a fleet of Pirates. In the struggle she lost her Power Suit and was forced to fight her way to her old home in Chozodia. There, Samus was tested by an ancient Chozo shrine, and given the type II suit upgrade with the recognizable shoulder pads. She then defeated the cyborg creature Robo-Ridley (also referred to as Mecha-Ridley) and escaped the Pirates’ Mothership using one of their small fighters. Hunting down the Pirates
Battle of the Hunters The events of this section are from Metroid Prime: Hunters Soon afterwards, a telepathic message was intercepted by Federation empaths. The mysterious voice called itself a creature known as an Alimbic. The message read, "The Secret to the Ultimate Power lies within the Alimbic Cluster." The Federation was worried that it would fall into the wrong hands, so they contracted Samus to recover this "Ultimate Power," or if it was uncontrollable, keep it hidden or destroy it. However, this message was also heard by six other bounty hunters: Kanden, the genetically engineered supersoldier, Spire, the rock creature searching for clues to the death of his race, Weavel, the crippled Space Pirate with a cybernetic suit, Sylux, the secretive hunter who greatly despises the Galactic Federation, Noxus, the spiritual being who brings justice to evildoers, and Trace, a member of the evil Kriken species, who will do anything to find a world to conquer. All of these hunters traveled to the Alimbic Cluster to search for eight Octoliths, the key to the Ultimate Power. The Octoliths were spread out across two planets and two space stations; Alinos, the fiery planet with many remains of ancient Alimbic ruins, Arcterra, the frozen planet, Celestial Archives, a station partially destroyed by a giant impact, and Vesper Defense Outpost, a weapons storage and development facility frozen over by a toxic spill. The Octoliths were sealed in another dimension, in rooms known as Stronghold Voids. It required three artifacts to access each Stronghold Void. The two strongest Alimbic machines guarded the Octoliths, known as Cretaphid and Slench. Once Samus defeated the creatures, their Octolith was hers. However, it would also activate the Alimbic defense system, and she had to escape within a certain time limit, defeating Alimbic Guardians along the way, or risk being instantly destroyed. There was also the risk of other hunters stealing Samus' Octoliths and having to track the hunters down to retrieve them. Once Samus retrieved all eight Octoliths and upgraded her arm cannon fully, she returned to Alinos to get her reward, the Ultimate Power - but things were not as simple as they seemed. She activated the Alimbic Cannon, but instead of helping her, it freed the prison ship Oubliette from the Infinity Void, holding an immensely evil creature, Gorea. Gorea was the one who truly sent the telepathic message - it was a trick. Samus traveled to the Oubliette to stop this great evil. Samus docks with Oubliette just after the other bounty hunters do. When Samus entered Gorea's prison room, to her surprise, the six other hunters were all there shooting every last bit of firepower they had, in hopes of freeing what they thought was the Ultimate Power from a shell-like prison, but it did nothing to Gorea. The "shell" turned out the be the Seal Sphere, Gorea's source of energy and what the Alimbics used to trap Gorea. Gorea suddenly appeared, retrieving the Sphere and lashing out six tentacles, stealing the hunters' weaponry and leaving them for dead. Samus defeated Gorea after a tough battle, but after shooting some symbols on a wall in a specific order, Gorea was revived in a new, almost inpenetrable form, and Samus was transported to another battlefield, for one last battle with Gorea. Samus used the powerful Alimbic weapon called the (which is possibly the "Ultimate Power" that is referred to in the message. It is also the only weapon able to damage Gorea) to defeat it once and for all, its subsequent explosion destroying Oubliette. Samus escaped in her gunship. The player can also see, coming out of the explosion, six points of light of the different colors of the weapons (the same 6 colors as the other hunter's weapons). These are the other bounty hunters escaping, who recovered in time to escape the blast (it is known at least one of them will be appearing in future games, but it has not been revealed which). In the final cut scene the Alimbic appear, telepathically thanking Samus for what she did, and Samus warped away in her gunship. Samus's affinity bonus allows her missiles to home in on her opponents, which makes her a very dangerous hunter to play. Her morph ball is the fastest alternate form in the game, strongest as well if used right (Though, from a technical standpoint, it is only third strongest). It damages foes by using it's boost and laying morph ball bombs. The term "alt-spammer" has been given to players who stay in their alternate form the majority of the match. Due to the speed, damage, and versatility the morph ball is capable of, samus users are often called "Spamus" instead. Spark between Light and Dark
Mission: Eradicate the Metroid species The events of this section are from Metroid II: Return of Samus With the Federation now aware of what Metroids were capable of, they hired Samus yet again. This time, they directed her to the uninhabited planet SR-388. It was this planet where it was believed the Chozo created the Metroids, though the knowledge of doing so and why was unknown at the time. Samus had to fight through the natural beasts and life that had become aggressive as of late due to the activity of the Metroid queen, as well as alter the environment to continue on her quest. As she gathered more tools and weapons, she began to fight her way through the swarms of Metroids in new and more dangerous forms to face the queen, and in a difficult fight, eventually destroyed her. As she began to leave, she came across one last Metroid egg that hatched just as she arrived. The newborn Metroid, imprinting on Samus, mistook her for its mother and floated around her, chirping affectionately. Samus couldn’t bring herself to destroy the confused Metroid hatchling, despite it being the very last one on the planet. She ultimately decided to take it with her to the scientific research space colony Ceres, for research. A return to the past The events of this section are from Super Metroid Very shortly after Samus left, the space colony was attacked. When she returned, she found the computer systems down and the researchers dead at their stations. Also, the hatchling was missing from its glass canister mounting. As she searched the colony, she found the hatchling, which was held by Ridley. There was a brief confrontation, during which Samus discovered she was too underpowered to defeat this new Ridley. Samus, her suit's power levels dangerously low, could only watch as Ridley escaped with the hatchling Metroid, and the colony's self-destruct systems were set off, forcing her to evacuate (it is possible to have Ridley flee by damaging him enough). In the aftermath of the station’s destruction, Ridley escaped to the closest planet, Samus following close behind. It was the former homeworld of Samus Aran and the Chozo that raised her: Zebes. Samus wandered the ruins of the planet, still charred and decaying from the time bomb the Mother Brain had detonated years before, discovering the ruins of the old Space Pirate base that she had explored on her last visit to Zebes. For some reason, it still had power. With the recovery of her old Morph Ball ability, a mysterious security device was activated. Upon returning to the surface, Samus discovered that full power had been mysteriously restored to the facility, and that the Space Pirates had returned to salvage and rebuild the remains of their base and begin their work again in secret. Once more, Samus traveled the planet above and below the surface, searching for the Metroid hatchling through areas that were rebuilt or newly formed in the many years since Samus destroyed Mother Brain, as well as the wreckage of an abandoned spaceship. Samus hunted down Kraid, Phantoon, and Draygon, destroying them all in the process. Finally, Samus encountered Ridley and he too was defeated. However, when Samus entered the next room, there was only a broken container which had previously carried the hatchling. Now, the only other place to go was Tourian, which, due to the defeat of the four bosses, could now be entered via an elevator in Crateria. On the way through their planetside HQ, she found dried out remains of monsters and Space Pirates alike, completely drained of their life force. She was then attacked by a massive Metroid which started to drain her energy at an alarming rate. It stopped seconds before killing her and released her from its hold, floating a bit confused as if it recognized her, before running off. It was in fact the Metroid hatchling Samus had previously saved - now transformed by the huge influx of energy into the eponymous "Super Metroid." Samus managed to get to a recharge station, taking the time to recover before seeking out Mother Brain’s chamber. The laser and lava trap having been restored, Samus fought her way through and shattered Mother Brain’s case, laying waste to the leader to destroy her once and for all. Or so she thought. The room locked as Mother Brain rose with a new exo-skeleton. Gigantic and fierce, the combined power of all of Samus’s weapons had little effect on her. Mother Brain poured its mental power into a beam, which might have destroyed Samus completely had it not been for the interference of Super Metroid, who attacked Mother Brain and drained her energy. The Metroid then clung to Samus and began to transfer the energy into her body, wanting to save its “mother”. However, Mother Brain began to regenerate, and began attacking the Metroid as it transferred its energy to Samus, weakening it severely. With Samus’s health restored, the Metroid prepared to attack Mother Brain again, but one powerful blow struck the weakened Metroid down, destroying it completely. Samus began to pulsate with a blue light, and discovered that she now possessed an immensely powerful weapon- the Hyper Beam. Unleashing a series of destructive blasts that Mother Brain could not defend against, the Hyper Beam destroyed the exoskeleton and made Mother Brain topple to the floor. The final blow was struck, and Mother Brain was reduced to ash. Her death set off the self-destruct system, leaving Samus with only a few minutes to escape. With seconds to spare, saving the animals that had helped her along the way, she made it back to her ship and launched into space once more. This time, the destruction erupted straight from the core, and the entire planet was completely destroyed, leaving nothing but dust in the wake of the explosion as Samus took off into space with a chance to finally rest. The new threat
Appearances in games
Samus in the Super Smash Bros. series In the game Super Smash Bros., Samus is best classified as a heavy-weight fighter, though not as heavy as Donkey Kong or Bowser. Her flying kicks are among the most powerful in the game. In addition, she can use an array of projectiles inspired by her weapons from the Metroid series, including the Power Beam, Screw Attack, and Morph Ball Bombs. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Samus is designed for defensive play and setting traps. Her powerful projectile weapons and simple but brutal melee moves help her excel at this, and her trademark Screw Attack and Bomb abilities allow her to escape many predicaments. The bomb attack can be used to cover great horizontal distances without much loss of elevation by timing the bombs to explode at the precise moment to make Samus jump up, similarly to the bomb jumps in previous games. New attacks include her standard missile and a less powerful homing missile. She is also one of the few characters that can wall-jump in Super Smash Bros. Melee (others include, but are not limited to Mario, Young Link, and Captain Falcon). Samus has also been announced for the new Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Nintendo's next generation console Wii. Screenshots reveal Samus to be playable with or without her suit, the latter dubbed "Zero Suit Samus." In this form (based on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, , and also in Metroid Prime: Hunters), Samus wears a blue, skin-tight suit and no headgear. Her weapon of choice, rather than being the traditional arm cannon, is a handgun that can turn at will into an energy whip. This attire and weapon is similar to that which was used in a part of Metroid: Zero Mission, in which Samus is stripped of her Power Suit. The official website states that "Samus will 'remove' her Power Suit" under certain conditions". Other appearances Samus was also a semi-regular character in the Captain N: The Game Master comic books from Valiant Comics, published as part of the Nintendo Comics System. In these comics, Samus, who did not appear in the animated series the comic was based on (even though Mother Brain was the show’s primary villain; Jeffrey Scott claimed in an interview that he didn’t feature Samus in the cartoon because he didn’t know who she was), filled in the void left by Simon Belmont and Mega Man, who did not appear in the comic due to the characters being owned by Konami and Capcom, respectively. In these stories, Samus has romantic feelings for Kevin Keene, despite his own affections for Princess Lana. However, as she states in the story “Breakout”, she’d prefer to win Kevin’s affections fairly. Samus also starred in her own comic story, apparently set in the same continuity, titled “Deceit du Jour”; it was the only ten-page story to have the Metroid umbrella title. In this story, Samus duels with another bounty hunter, “Big Time” Brannigan, whom Mother Brain has hired to capture her, and who claims to be just as efficient as Samus. In the end, Samus proves her superiority by sabotaging her own Arm cannon before handing it over to Big Time. When Big Time attempts to kill her with it later on, it explodes, covering Samus’s escape. Samus also starred in two comic adaptations featured in Nintendo Power: a 60-page one for "Super Metroid" and a 24-page one for "Metroid Prime".. A chibi doll in Samus' likeness drove the plot for a Mario VS Wario comic that was published prior to the Super Metroid comic. Samus was also set to appear in Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, to taste the player's coffee once instead of one of the E. Gadd appearances; this was changed, however. | |||||||||||||||
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