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Zebes is the fictional planet that hosts the headquarters of the Space Pirates in the ''Metroid'' video game franchise. It is the second planet from the sun, FS-176, according to the Metroid comic. Its name is sometimes spelled Zebeth due to ambiguous transliteration. Zebes is the locational setting of the original Metroid, its enhanced remake, , and Super Metroid. The Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion manuals refer to the Space Pirates as "Zebesians", but later games have revealed them to be nomads, not native to the planet. The pronunciation is disputed: IPA: according to the original US ''Metroid'' commercial, but IPA: according to an unused voiceover from Metroid Prime*. Samus Aran, the heroine of the Metroid franchise, was raised on Zebes by Chozo after her home on an Earth colony, K-2L, was destroyed by Space Pirates. Zebes is destroyed by the time bomb at the end of Super Metroid after Samus defeats the Mother Brain, barely escaping the planet with only seconds to spare. There are mapping discrepancies between Metroid: Zero Mission and Super Metroid because of the Space Pirate Mothership explosion at the end of Zero Mission.
Brinstar
Inhabitants The following creatures are native to Brinstar in Super Metroid. Music Especially in the video game music subculture, Brinstar is famous for a few of its soundtracks. The theme from the original NES incarnation of Brinstar is perhaps the best known Metroid song of all and has been remade several times for other Metroid games such as and Metroid Prime, and also the Super Smash Bros. series. The Super Metroid Brinstar themes are not as popular, but are considered masterpieces by many game music enthusiasts. The track used in the green jungle area was remade as the default BGM for the multiplayer mode in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, while the track used in the red soil area was remade and used for the Hydrodynamo area in the same game. The Red Brinstar theme is also featured in a portion of Maridia. Crateria
Chozo Ruins This is the intermediate area between Crateria and Chozodia in Metroid Zero Mission. The first Unknown Item (Plasma Beam) and the Power Grip can be found here. Maridia Maridia is the water-flooded area of Zebes in Super Metroid. This area is in between Brinstar, Crateria, the Wrecked Ship and Norfair. The player can get to this place from Crateria or Brinstar by elevator and glass bridge (break with a Power Bomb) respectively. Maridia is almost entirely underwater and is home to many different creatures, such as new Pirates that can only be taken out with the new Plasma Beam, the mini-boss Botwoon, a snake-like creature that constantly flows into and out of its hole in the wall to attack you, and the boss of the area, Draygon, which is a huge crustacian resembling a lobster (and also has a skull formation on its forehead and on other various places on its body). Some fans think that parts of Maridia may consist of debris from the Mother Ship that Samus destroyed in Zero Mission. Inhabitants Maridia is also home to many sand pits which, due to being submerged, are now sinking sand pits. Samus also may find Mochtroids, the pirates' attempts at cloning Metroids, which only have one nucleus, as opposed to the Metroids' three. There is also a machine-like creature called the Shaktool, with grinding gears for feet to cut through hard rock/sand, and creatures resembling shellfish. Norfair The Norfair is a magma filled labyrinth, the lowest point in Zebes the player can explore. In Super Metroid, Norfair is divided into two sections, the upper portions being the Hot Lava Area, the lower portions being the Ancient Ruins Area, which is apparently an ancient Chozo civilization amidst the heat and fire. It is the home of Ridley, the most famous of the Metroid villains. In , Ridley's domain is known as simply Ridley, while in the original Metroid, it was known as Hideout II. The music from Lower Norfair (from Super Metroid) was reused for Metroid Prime's Magmoor Caverns. Being so close to the core of Zebes, Norfair, especially the innermost part, is the hottest natural region of Zebes. The extremely potent heat generated by the magma is capable of melting even the most resilient of metals, which necessitates the obtainment of the Varia Suit. This upgrade protects Samus from intense heat, although not as well as the Gravity Suit, which in addition to providing protection from the heat, also enables Samus to swim through lava without losing energy (in Super Metroid, this is true only in the upper levels of Norfair). Continuity discrepancies can be found when comparing the versions of Norfair as shown in Super Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission, as the Super Metroid version is fairly consistent in its depiction of Norfair as a hot, somewhat hellish environment, where Zero Mission also shows Norfair as being hot and inhospitable, but not throughout, as some parts (such as where the ensnared Imago mini boss is fought) are more jungle-like, almost reminiscent of Brinstar from Super Metroid. Inhabitants of Norfair include: Viola, Multiviola, Dessgeega, Holtz, Gamet, Polyp, Geruta, Nova, Dragon, Zebbo, Magmoor, Mella, and Squeept. Wrecked Ship This area consists of a spaceship which has crashed into a body of water. Some people have speculated that the Wrecked Ship is the Space Pirate ship that is destroyed at the end of ; however, there is an unnamed location in Chozodia in Metroid: Zero Mission that lies next to the mother ship that has similar graphics to those of the Wrecked Ship and even includes a few of the Wrecked Ship's enemies. The location in Zero Mission is also interesting in that some of the rooms before the section look vaguely like the rooms in Crateria in Super Metroid. The rooms before this section and the first part of the mother ship also have versions of the Wrecked Ship's music from Super Metroid (both areas have different versions). While both Super Metroids manual and Super Metroid director Yoshio Sakamoto have said that this ship is not the Space Pirate Mothership (see below), some fans believe otherwise. Featured in Super Metroid. Inhabitants Environment The ship is partially submerged. It is very heavily damaged, and when Samus first arrives, the electricity is not functioning. After defeating Phantoon, the power is restored, and doors requiring electricity can be opened. Space Pirate Mothership The spaceship which transported Ridley and some Space Pirates to Zebes in . Samus explores this at the end of the game. The ship is linked to Chozodia, which the Space Pirates are investigating. In Zero Mission, Chozodia was overrun by Space Pirates after being linked to their mothership by a Power Bomb-breakable tube. Contrary to popular belief, it did not appear in Super Metroid as the Wrecked Ship. Tourian Subterranean fortress of Zebes and where the Mother Brain and the Metroids lurk; the only way to enter the Tourian is by defeating the bosses of Zebes: Kraid and Ridley, and, in Super Metroid, Phantoon and Draygon as well. While the rest of Zebes is formed from natural caverns, Tourian is entirely artificial. No creatures patrol the corridors except the Metroids, and Rinka projectors which line the floors and ceilings. Red Zebetite barriers protect Mother Brain, who resides in her transparent case. In Super Metroid Samus Aran is able to explore part of the old ruined Tourian from Metroid/Metroid Zero Mission as part of Crateria. After defeating the Mother Brain, a self-destruct countdown commences, leaving Samus only a few minutes to reach the planet's surface, board her gunship, and blast off. In the original Metroid and Zero Mission, Tourian's destruction only damages a small part of Zebes, but Super Metroid's countdown leads to the destruction of the entire planet. None of the Tourian areas feature complicated melodies for background music. Metroid, Super Metroid and Zero Mission all use use a similar simple melody. The first two have a constant bubbling sound effect in the background; Super Metroid also uses a continuous mechanical hum and every few seconds a growling sound. | ||||||||||||
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