It is truly a wonderful time to be a Metroid fan. After years of silence and disappointing entries that seemed intent on utterly destroying any and all of the reputation the franchise had garnered over the year, Nintendo made ♌the right call in not only remaking Metroid II for the 3DS, but also announcing they were de✅velopi൩ng Metroid Prime 4 for the Nintendo Switch. With traditional Metroid on handhelds and Prime Metroid on consoles, every type of Metroid fan wins. With 🌸that in mind, has there ever been a better t♋ime to revisit Metroid’s one and only protagonist, Samus Aran?
She’s the only true female lead in Nintendo’s roster, but she gets the job done better than anyone. Time and♍ time again, Samus is placed into situations that would genuinely be too difficult for her counterparts. Can you imagine Mario or Link trekking through Zebes? They wouldn’t even last ten minutes. On top of being formidable in general, Samus has quite a lot going on biologically. Not only was she trained by the Chozo, she’s encountered Metroids at close range, and even dons a Power Suit designed for anyone but a human. Her body is an anomaly unlike any other, and you’ve probabℱly never noticed.
25 The Morph Ball Minitiarizes Her Body
Although the specifics behind the Morph𝓡 Ball are still relatively unknown, in large part due to a general disinterest on Nintendo’s part to flesh out Metroid’s more in-depth lore, we do know that, t. As Zero Mission establishes th𝄹at the user of the Morph Ball is inside physical🉐ly, and Prime concept art shows Samus within the ball itself, we can deduce that the Morph Ball shrinks Samus in size. It’s certainly a bit💎 more palatꦕable than impossibly crushing her body to fit in a sphere.
24 The Power Suit Is Designed To Hurt Samus
Right up there with Link’s tunic and Mario’🌺s overalls, Samus’ Power Suit is one of the most iconic pieces of clothing Nintendo has ever come up with. Who wouldn’t love their own Power Suit to jump around in and Screw Attack baddies with? Honestly, most people.
You're not going to want to put that suit on. Trust me.
When you look at the specifics of the Power Suit, you’ll realize that it’s actually not made with Samus’ safety in mind. Specifically, the pauldrons of the suit ar๊e designed in a way where they have to be crushing her shoulders at all time. There is no physically comfortable way to wear the suit. This is either an oversight on Nintendo’s part or just further proof that Samus is way ♛more extreme than she needs to be.
23 Samus Has Chozo DNA
It might ruin the integrity of the character for some, but Samus Aran isn’t entirely human. The reason she’s able to pull off as many superhuman feats as she does is due to the fact that she was infused with Chozo DNA at an incredibly young age. Adopted by two membersܫ of the race, Chozo DNA was used as a way to train her and make her all the more formidable.
Unfortunately, there’✃s very little information known past that. The Metroid manga actually ജshows us who donated the Chozo DNA, one of her two foster fathers, Gray Voice, but it doesn’t go passed that point. Knowing Samus has Chozo DNA, though, does make the Chozo influence on the series all the more impactful, however.
22 Samus Has Metroid DNA
As if having Chozo DNA wasn’t enough, Samus is also the proud owner of Metroid DNA by the💦 end of Metroid Fusion. The Metroid baby she saved all the way back in Samus Returns is r💎epurposed into a cure for her body during the events of Fusion. The Metroid DNA allows her to regain her original physiological form, albeit not heᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚr biology. She still looks human, mind 💖you, but she’s basically a Metroid by the end of Fusion. Unfortunately, no game has since followed up Fusion chronღologically so there’s no telling how this new DNA affects Samus, if at all.
21 Samus Is The Tallest Nintendo Hero
, Sam𒀰us Aran is easily the tallest main character in Nintendo’s roster. Even if you were to remove her Power Suit, she’d still tower over her male counterparts. Link is depicted, at most, around 5’6 or 5’7 while Mario is clearly under 5 feet tall. One only has to look a🐎t Super Smash Bros. to see that idea in action.
With perhaps the exception of Captain Falcon, Samus is a contender for the tallest lead. Of course, even with Captain Falcon in mind, it’s important to remember that he never physically appears in the gameplay of his own games and has💝 no recorded height whereas Samus does either through guidebooks, interviews, or manuals.
20 The Logistics Of The Screw Attack
The Screw Attack, like the Morph Ball, is one of Samus’ more iconic, and interesting, abilities. Unlike with t𓄧he Mor𝕴ph Ball, however, we do know just exactly how the Screw Attack works. By upgrading the movement system of her Power Suit, Samus can trigger energy waves around her body while somersaulting to keep her in the air repeatedly. These energy waves act almost like a base to keep her somersaulting, allowing her to crush her Power Suit into enemies at high, controlled speeds.
19 Samus Is A Genius
Not only is Samus a brute, she’s actually quite the genius. Time and time again, Samus shows emotional and mental intellect, properly analyzing situations with an empathetic lense while also acting as an impartial observer. In the few games wherꦰe Samus actively speaks, she’s characterized as a fairly introspective person who can logic her way out of most situations.
Do rememܫber that she’s a Bounty Hunter who consistently hunts down aliens while piloting a fairly advanced ship on her own. Just about every problem she gets herself into, she gets herself out of on her own without any help. She is easily the smartest, and most independent, of Nintendo’s m🍒ain characters.
18 How Samus Absorbs Energy
According to the original Metroid manual, any health or item pickups y💧ou acquire throughout the course of the game that either heal or restock Samus are actually absorbed into the suit. The manual explains that these items are actually leftover energy particles from defeated enemies. Whenever Samus walks over one, her suit is automat꧒ically absorbing said energy into itself, powering Samus up. This idea is also shown in Prime where several w🌱eapon upgrades force themselves into the suit, seemingly harming Samus in the pro💦cess. Don’t play with excess energy, kids.
17 Samus Can Jump About 40 Feet In The Air
It’s important to remember that Samus, despite being biolog🃏ically born a human, was not raised on Earth. Rather, she was raised on a Chozo homeworld: Zebes. According to Metroid Prime, Zebes’ gravity is roughly 960 times greater than th🀅at of Earth’s. When you consider that Samus spent all h🐟er life on Zebes and acclimated her body to that gravity, we can deduce, in an Earth-like environment, that her natural jump would likely reach roughly 40 feet into the air. Of course, it might be more or less depending, but the point is that Samus is going to outjump Mario any day.
16 Samus Is Barely Human
As previℱously mentioned, Samus has both Chozo and Metroid DNA by the end of Metroid Fusion. This doesn’t mean all that much at first glance, but, when you stop to think about it, this actually means Samus is barely human at this point. Going all the way back to her backstory, she was infused witꦫh Chozo DNA to augment her abilities. She is genuinely superhuman in some respects.
When she absorbs ꦐMetroid DNA into her body at the end of Fusion, it’s also♛ done to counteract the side effects of the X Parasite. This means Samus has three foreign bodies influen🍌cing her DNA. Each foreign entity supersedes her original human DNA to shift her biological makeup. By the end of Fusion, Samus is barely human as a result.