Metroid

Metroid (メトロイド, Metoroido?) is a series of science fiction action-adventure video games conceived by designer Makoto Kano and artist Hiroji Kiyotake and primarily produced by Nintendo.[1] Metroid chronicles the missions of bounty hunter Samus Aran who protects the galaxy from the depredations of the Space Pirates and their attempts to harness the power of fictional organisms such as the eponymous Metroids. It is noted for having one of the first female protagonists in a video game, and for its nonlinear gameplay. Metroid combines the platforming of Super Mario Bros. and the exploration aspect of The Legend of Zelda with a decidedly darker atmosphere.[1]

As of 2010, the Metroid series consists of eleven games spanning most Nintendo consoles, from the Nintendo Entertainment System to the Wii. It is one of Nintendo's most successful franchises with 16 million games sold, and all of the Metroid games have received some level of critical acclaim.[1] Samus Aran is featured in many other Nintendo-produced games along with secondary characters such as Mother Brain and Ridley. Nintendo has adapted several Metroid games into manga, and a live-action movie has been considered.[2]

The name "Metroid" is a portmanteau of the words "metro" (as in rapid transit) and android, and was meant to allude to the mainly underground setting of the first game as well as its robot-like protagonist.[3]
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Common gameplay elements
* 2 Recurring characters
* 3 Games
* 4 Development
o 4.1 History
o 4.2 Creation and design
o 4.3 Audio
* 5 In other media
o 5.1 Live-action movie
* 6 Reception
* 7 References
* 8 External links

[edit] Common gameplay elements

The Metroid series contains gameplay elements from shooter, platformer, and adventure games.[1] The series is notable for its non-linear progression and solitary exploration format where the player only controls Samus Aran, with few or no other characters to interact with. The series has been a 2D side-scroller in all its incarnations until the Metroid Prime series changed the perspective to a first-person perspective, leading to a new first-person shooter element. The player gains items and power-ups for Samus's cybernetic suit by defeating alien creatures through real-time combat with her arm cannon, which enables further exploration.[1][4] A recurring upgrade is the Morph Ball, which allows Samus to curl into a ball, roll into tight places and plant bombs.[1]

The original Metroid was influenced by two other major Nintendo franchises: Mario, from which it borrowed extensive areas of platform jumping, and The Legend of Zelda, from which it borrowed non-linear exploration.[1] The game differed in its atmosphere of solitude and foreboding.[1] Metroid was also one of the first video games to feature an exploration to the left as well as the right, and backtracking to already explored areas to search for secret items and paths.[5] Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the first game in the Metroid series to use extensive voice acting; however, Samus is a silent protagonist until Metroid: Other M (although she takes on the role of narrator as early as Super Metroid). There is very little story explanation in the first few Metroid games, although more backstory was introduced in Super Metroid with its opening narration, and the Prime series with the scan visor that allows the player to read information on walls and computer terminals.[6]

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.[1] Metroid had five different endings based on how quickly a player could complete the game, a design unheard of at the time.[1] 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.[5][7] The original Metroid introduced the challenge of having three minutes to escape from either a planet or a ship that is set to self destruct, which is another recurring gameplay innovation of the Metroid series.[1] However, the Prime trilogy had more of a focus on exploration, as the secret endings in the Prime games were unlocked not by quickest time, but by the highest number of pickups (i.e.: missile expansions, energy tanks, etc.) the player had collected, which meant that there was a great deal of time spent on backtracking and exploration needed as opposed to the 2D games, where the player needed to skip areas to achieve a 'perfect ending'.
[edit] Recurring characters
Main article: Characters in the Metroid series
[edit] Games
Timeline of release years 1986– – Metroid
1987–
1988–
1989–
1990–
1991– – Metroid II: The Return of Samus
1992–
1993–
1994– – Super Metroid
1995–
1996–
1997–
1998–
1999–
2000–
2001–
2002– – Metroid Fusion
– Metroid Prime
2003–
2004– – Metroid: Zero Mission
– Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
2005– – Metroid Prime Pinball
2006– – Metroid Prime Hunters
2007– – Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
2008–
2009– – Metroid Prime Trilogy
2010– – Metroid: Other M
Main article: List of Metroid media

The eleven games in the Metroid series focus on the adventures of Samus Aran and her assignments to wipe out threats to the Galactic Federation presented by the Space Pirates and their attempts to harness various biological weapons such as the Metroids and Phazon.

The chronology of the Metroid fictional universe does not match the release order of the games.[8] This section lists the games in chronological order, rather than the order of release.

Metroid/Metroid: Zero Mission (1986/2004)
Samus travels through the caverns of the planet Zebes to stop the Space Pirates from exploiting the Metroid species for galactic domination. She confronts the cybernetic lifeform Mother Brain, as well as its guardians, Kraid and Ridley.[9] The 2004 remake Metroid: Zero Mission has an addendum to the storyline—after the defeat of Mother Brain, Samus was ambushed by Space Pirates and her ship crash-lands back on the surface. Stripped of her Power Suit and her ship destroyed, she is forced to infiltrate the Space Pirate mothership to find a way off the planet with only an emergency pistol for protection. After receiving a fully powered suit from deep within the Chozo ruins, she defeats the Ridley Robot and escapes from the mothership before it self-destructs.[5][10]
Metroid Prime (2002)
Approximately three years after the events of Metroid, Samus receives a distress signal in her new ship and travels to Tallon IV to stop the Space Pirates from exploiting a powerful radioactive substance known as Phazon. She discovers that the Chozo once settled on this planet, and their disappearance, as well as the emergence of Phazon, is due to a meteor impacting the planet decades ago. After ruining a Space Pirate mining operation and collecting the twelve Chozo Artifacts that allow access to the sealed impact crater, she confronts and seemingly destroys Metroid Prime, a Metroid that had been feeding off the Phazon Core of the meteor to increase in size and strength.[5]

Metroid Prime Pinball (2005)
Metroid Prime Pinball is not a separate canon game in the Metroid storyline, but a retelling of the original Metroid Prime's story in pinball format.[11]

Metroid Prime Hunters (2006)
When the Federation receives an unusual telepathic message, Samus is sent to the remote Alimbic Cluster in the Tetra Galaxy to uncover the rumored "Ultimate Power". Six rival bounty hunters that also heard the message actively attempt to secure the power before anyone else, including Samus. It transpires that the promise of ultimate power was actually a lie sent by the creature Gorea, sealed away by the Alimbics in a void between dimensions. Gorea attacks and sucks the energy and weapons from the hunters. After killing Gorea, Samus and the other hunters escape the cluster, empty handed, but alive.[5]
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004)
Samus is sent to investigate the planet Aether after a squad of GF Marines was lost there. Samus finds them all dead, killed by several creatures, mostly by an evil race called the Ing. The Ing possess life forms, transforming them into monstrous "dark" versions of their former selves to wage war with Aether's dominant race, the Luminoth. Upon meeting the only remaining member of Luminoth (the others are frozen in stasis chambers, awaiting the destruction of the Ing), Samus learns Aether has been split into two dimensions by a meteor similar to the one that crashed on Tallon IV. Samus agrees to assist by recovering Aether's planetary energy (the "Light of Aether") from Dark Aether and thereby putting an end to Dark Aether and the Ing; however, Samus yet again encounters Metroid Prime (Dark Samus), a heavily mutated being who had copied Samus' genetic code and stolen her Phazon suit at the end of her Tallon IV adventure, now in the form of Dark Samus.[5]
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007)
Space Pirates shut down Galactic Federation computer systems and then engage in large scale combat in an attempt to further spread Phazon. Enormous Phazon-based seedships, known as Leviathans, impact planets and begin corrupting them with Phazon. Samus is charged with destroying the 'Phazon Seeds' and restoring functionality to the Federation's computer network. After purging three planets of Phazon (including the Space Pirate homeworld), the Federation locates the source of Phazon, planet Phaaze, which is made entirely of Phazon. As the Federation engages the Space Pirates in orbit, Samus enters the depths of the planet and succeeds at destroying Metroid Prime (Dark Samus) and Phaaze. A ship is seen following her into Warp Space at the end.
Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991)
The Galactic Federation deems the Metroid species too dangerous to exist, and after their own failed attempts, employs Samus to travel to the Metroid homeworld, SR388, and exterminate the entire species. After killing every Metroid (among them Alpha, Gamma, Zeta, and Omega Metroids) and the Queen Metroid, Samus finds an unhatched egg behind the Queen Metroid's chamber. Before Samus fires on the Metroid egg, an infant Metroid hatches and believes Samus to be its mother. Helping her escape back to her ship, it is handed over by Samus to the research station, Ceres, for study.[9]
Super Metroid (1994)
Before the scientists can conduct extensive research, Samus receives a distress signal from the research lab. She returns just in time to catch Ridley stealing the hatchling, having killed all of the scientists. She then follows Ridley to the rebuilt base on Zebes to stop the Space Pirates in their new plan to clone the Metroids and use them as a weapon. She kills the reborn versions of Ridley and Kraid, as well as new guardians Phantoon and Draygon, to confront Mother Brain once again.[5] Samus is nearly killed in the battle, but is saved, and her suit supercharged, by the Metroid hatchling, shortly before Mother Brain kills it.[9] Samus proceeds to destroy Mother Brain, and once again escapes Zebes during a countdown to an explosion. This time, the entire planet explodes, taking with it the few remaining cloned Metroids.
Metroid: Other M (2010)
Samus receives a distress signal and follows it to a mysterious vessel named the Bottle Ship. There she encounters a squad of Galactic Federation soldiers, including her friend Anthony Higgs and her former superior officer Adam Malkovich. They find out that the director of the ship, Madeline Bergman, was conducting research on illegal bioweapons for the Federation, which she later discovers are Metroids, genetically modified to remove their only weakness - cold - making them indestructible. Eventually, Samus finds a survivor who claims to be Madeline Bergman, but is later revealed to be an android with an artificial intelligence duplicating that of Mother Brain, so that the bioweapon Metroids can be telepathically controlled. The Federation soldiers are mysteriously killed by a secret assassin among their ranks, who Samus calls "the Deleter", whose identity is never explicitly revealed in the game. Adam goes into the Metroid breeding area, Sector Zero, alone to detach it from the main ship and cause a self-destruct sequence to activate, sacrificing himself to destroy the Metroids. After defeating a clone of Ridley and a Metroid Queen, Samus finds the real Madeline Bergman, and tells Samus the truth about the android she found earlier, named MB. MB took on a human shape to build an ideal relationship with the Metroids, similar to the one Samus had with the Metroid baby. After developing emotions, MB revolted, telepathically ordering the cloned Zebesian life forms on the ship to attack. When their conversation is over, MB shows up. Just as she attacks Samus and Madeline, Galactic Federation reinforcements arrive with Anthony, the only survivor of the original squad, and kill MB. Samus, Anthony, and Madeline all leave on Samus' gunship. In the optional epilogue, Samus returns to obtain "something irreplaceable", which turns out to be Adam's helmet. In a sequence reminiscent of the self-destruct sequences from earlier games, Samus has five minutes to escape the Bottle Ship before it explodes.
Metroid Fusion (2002)
While acting as a bodyguard for researchers on the planet SR388, Samus is infected by a native creature known as the X Parasite, originally the prey of the Metroid species.[5] Doctors surgically remove portions of her Power Suit and cure the X infection with a vaccine created from the DNA of the baby Metroid from Super Metroid.[5] The vaccine not only allows her to survive the parasites, but to absorb them to power up her energy and weapons. She is then sent to investigate a disturbance at the Biologic Space Labs research station, where it is revealed that specimens from SR388 had been carriers of the X parasite. An X mimicking Samus, nicknamed the SA-X, has taken control of Samus's old suit, methodically breaking into different parts of the station to allow the X parasites to infect the entire station.[9] While trying to destroy the rapidly multiplying X as well as clones of the SA-X, Samus discovers a secret Federation Metroid breeding program. Before Samus can react, the SA-X discovers the lab and ejects it into space, killing the Metroids. Realizing the threat that the X posed, Samus' shipboard computer, Adam, suggests that she alter the station's propulsion to intercept with SR388 and destroy the planet as well to finally wipe out the X populations.[5] After changing the station's propulsion, Samus races back to her ship, where she encounters an Omega Metroid which seems to have escaped the laboratory breach, and is also invulnerable to every weapon Samus has. The SA-X returns and tries to kill the Metroid, since the ice-beam it has seems to be the only weapon able to damage it, but the SA-X is badly damaged in the battle. Samus absorbs the SA-X parasite to regain her weapons, destroys the Omega Metroid and leaves the station before it collides with SR388.[5]

[edit] Development
[edit] History
A video game screenshot. A person in a powered exoskeleton travels through a cave, while winged monsters hang from the ceiling.
In the first Metroid game, released in Japan on August 6, 1986 for the Famicom Disk System and then a year later in North America on the NES, the player controls protagonist Samus Aran who fights alien monsters on the fictional planet Zebes.

In the mid-1980s, Nintendo's Research & Development 1 team started simultaneous development of two games for the Famicom Disk System: Kid Icarus and Metroid. The two games, both released on the same day in 1986, have been called "companion games", as they shared developers and gameplay elements such as the introduction of the game saving password system in the North American release.[5][12]

Metroid II: Return of Samus was released for the Nintendo Game Boy in 1991 in North America and 1992 in Japan. It was the first game of the Metroid series whose North American release featured a save system, allowing the player to have three separate save files. Metroid II also established the current "look" of Samus Aran and her Power Suit, namely the bulky look of the Varia Suit upgrade and the visual difference between the "Beam Mode" and "Missile Mode" of Samus' arm cannon.

Director Yoshio Sakamoto began planning concepts for Super Metroid in early 1990, but his studio was committed to making another game, so developers from Intelligent Systems were brought in to help complete the game.[13] After Super Metroid's release, there would not be another sequel for eight years. A Nintendo 64 title was considered during the period, but Nintendo "couldn't come up with any concrete ideas".[14] In 1999, Retro Studios, a newly formed second-party developer based in Austin, Texas, was given the project for Metroid Prime. Nintendo rarely allows overseas teams to work on its games but this was one occasion when they allowed a high profile title to be developed by a studio outside of Japan.[15] After it became a top seller on the GameCube, a trilogy was authorized.[1]

Rumors abounded since 2005 about the development of a title called Metroid Dread, supposedly a 2D side-scroller for the Nintendo DS. In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, there is a message in the Metroid breeding zone of the Space Pirate Homeworld on a computer panel that if scanned says "Experiment status report update: Metroid project 'Dread' is nearing the final stages of completion." Developers from Retro Studios gave a full but cryptic denial of any connection with the rumored game, and Nintendo denied they were making another 2D Metroid title.[16][17][18][19] However, at E3 2009, Sakamoto confirmed Metroid Dread existed at one point, and may still be in development.[20][21] On the May 3, 2010, 75th episode of IGN's Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast, editor Craig Harris confirmed that the story for Metroid Dread was fully written and he had seen it at one point in time, claiming "[Nintendo] has it and can bring it back at any time." [22]

A new Metroid title was announced at E3 2009, entitled Metroid: Other M. This title was developed in cooperation with Team Ninja and directed by long-time series director Yoshio Sakamoto. It was released on the Wii on August 31, 2010.[23]
[edit] Creation and design
A video game screenshot. A weapon points outwards towards a snowy landscape.
The first Metroid Prime game, released in 2002 for the Nintendo GameCube, introduced 3D and FPS elements to the series as the player controls Samus Aran investigating the fictional planet Tallon IV.

Metroid was designed to be a shooting game that combined the platform jumping of Super Mario Bros. with the non-linear exploration of The Legend of Zelda and a distinctly darker aesthetic. Half way through development, one of the staff said to his fellow developers "Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?", and the idea was accepted.[1][24] While Alien was never mentioned during development, the team is said to have been influenced by the film's atmosphere, and the series has since been one of their biggest inspirations.[25]

Metroid, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid: Zero Mission were all developed by Nintendo's internal R&D1 section. The games which have been developed by separate teams are Metroid Prime, 2, and 3 (Retro Studios), Metroid Prime Hunters (Nintendo Software Technology Corporation), Metroid Prime Pinball (Fuse Games),[5] and Metroid: Other M (Project M). The central figures in the production and development of the Metroid series are Yoshio Sakamoto who has directed or supervised the development of all the games (excluding Metroid II), Gunpei Yokoi who headed the Research & Development 1 team and produced the first three games before his death in 1997, Makoto Kano who directed and designed scenarios for the first three games, and Hiroji Kiyotake who designed the characters for the original game.[1] Shigeru Miyamoto, who made the Mario and The Legend of Zelda series, has not been involved with the production of Metroid, but he did act as producer for both Metroid Prime and its sequel.
[edit] Audio

The Metroid series has been noted and praised for its unique style of video game music.[1][26][27] Hirokazu 'Hip' Tanaka, composer of the original Metroid, has said he wanted to make a score that made players feel like they were encountering a "living organism" and had no distinction between music and sound effects.[26] The only time the main Metroid theme was heard was after Mother Brain is defeated; this is intended to give the player a catharsis. At all other times, no melodies are present in the game.[28] The composer of Super Metroid, Kenji Yamamoto, came up with some of the games' themes by singing them while riding his motorcycle. He was asked to compose the music for Metroid Prime to reinforce the series' continuity.[29] Metroid Prime's Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound was mixed by a member of Dolby.[30] Developers from Retro Studios noted how the process of fitting all the sound effects and music for Metroid Prime in 6 MB of space was crucial in producing a quality soundtrack, as each sound had to be of very high quality to be included.[29] Composer Kenji Yamamoto utilizes heavy drums, piano, voiced chants, clangs of pipes, and electric guitar.[30] Metroid Prime 3 took advantage of the increase in the amount of RAM that took place when the series switched from the GameCube to the Wii; this allowed for higher quality audio samples to be used and thus a better overall audio quality.[29] Kenji Yamamoto, who composed the music to Super Metroid and the Prime trilogy, copied the musical design of the original Metroid in Metroid Prime 3, by keeping the music and themes dark and scary until the very end, when uplifting music is played during the credits.[29]
[edit] In other media
See also: List of Metroid media

Characters and elements from the Metroid series have appeared in different mediums. Samus has appeared in Nintendo games such as Super Mario RPG, Tetris (Nintendo Entertainment System version), Tetris DS, Galactic Pinball, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dreamland 3 and WarioWare.[5][31][32] Several characters and game environments have appeared in the Super Smash Bros. series. Samus is a playable character in all three Super Smash Bros. games.[33][34] Super Smash Bros. Brawl, also features Zero Suit Samus, a version of the heroine using the blue form-fitting suit seen in Zero Mission and the Prime series.[35][36] Ridley makes cameos in Super Smash Bros., where he can be seen flying through the level Zebes, and in Super Smash Bros. Melee both as a unlockable trophy and in the game's opening, where he is fighting Samus at Ceres Space Station.[37] In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Ridley, in both normal and Meta Ridley forms, appears as a boss character.[38] Kraid also appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a stage hazard in Brinstar Depths and unlockable trophy. Various other characters such as metroids and Dark Samus appear as either trophies, or in Brawl as stickers too. Comics and manga have been made for various magazines based on Metroid,[39] Super Metroid,[40] Metroid Prime,[41] Metroid Prime 2: Echoes,[42] and Metroid: Zero Mission[43] in both the United States and Japan. Samus Aran and other Metroid characters also feature in the Captain N: The Game Master comic books by Valiant Comics.[44] Mother Brain was also the main villain in the Captain N: The Game Master TV show.[45] Metroids were an enemy encountered by Pit in the NES game Kid Icarus.[5] In Japan, six short "E-comics" were created to chronicle Samus' life and were published by Kodachi.[5] Also in Japan, Comic Bom Bom published a three-volume manga starring Samus called Samus and Joey (メトロイド サムス&ジョイ) [46]
[edit] Live-action movie

In 2003, two producers optioned the rights to create a movie based on Metroid, but the rights expired.[5] John Woo reacquired the rights a few years later, and Lion Rock Productions was to produce and release the film before 2006, but it either has been canceled or remains in development hell.[5][47] On April 1, 2005, IGN posted an April Fool's Day article reporting critically panned director Uwe Boll would be directing the Metroid movie, with Samus being portrayed by Michelle Rodriguez, who stated the Nintendo GameCube is for kids.[48] In 2010, IGN posted an article about potential video game movies and their current status.[citation needed] Metroid was marked as "Dormant." They stated that the last time that the movie was mentioned was in 2004 and that the movie was canceled.[citation needed]
[edit] Reception
Aggregate review scores Game GameRankings Metacritic
Metroid (GBA re-release) 62%[49] 58%[50]
Metroid II: Return of Samus 80%[51] —
Super Metroid 96%[52] —
Metroid Fusion 91%[53] 92%[54]
Metroid Prime 96%[55] 97%[56]
Metroid: Zero Mission 90%[57] 89%[58]
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes 92%[59] 92%[60]
Metroid Prime Pinball 81%[61] 79%[62]
Metroid Prime Hunters 84%[63] 85%[64]
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption 90%[65] 90%[66]
Metroid: Other M 80%[67] 79%[68]

The series has been highly praised by critics, being ranked by IGN as the eighth best franchise ever.[69] In 2001, Electronic Gaming Monthly chose Super Metroid as the best game ever.[70] The Metroid games have since appeared in other "best game" lists, with all games released up to 2005 included in a Nintendo Power "Top 200 Nintendo Games list",[71] Prime in the IGN top 100,[72] Metroid, Super Metroid, Prime and Echoes in a list by GameFAQs users;[73] Metroid and Super Metroid in Game Informer's list;[74] and Prime and Super Metroid in Edge's list.[75] The series has been influential in many other games, including Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.[4] The games have also sold very well, with Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Prime, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption exceeding one million copies sold.[13][76][77] Some characters have received their own reception. Ridley was the number two most requested Nintendo character by IGN and number one by the fans to be added as a playable character to the Super Smash Bros. series[38] and Mother Brain has been commonly ranked among the all-time best video game bosses.[78]

The original Metroid has been described as being boosted by its "eerie" music, adding a "sense of mystery and exploration" to the game by making the game "moody and atmospheric".[1][26] IGN praised the well timed music that helped add suspense to the experience.[27] GameSpot described Super Metroid as better than the original "in literally every conceivable way",[79] Metroid Fusion was noted for its "understated score" which fit the mood of the adventure and its excellent stereo sound effects, making it an uncommonly good Game Boy Advance sound experience.[80] Metroid Prime was considered one of the best games ever upon release, winning Game of the Year from various publications and websites.[81][82][83] IGN called the aural experience with Metroid Prime 2: Echoes "mesmerizing".[84] Music from Metroid has been frequently re-released as part of "best of" video game music releases.[85][86][87] Metroid Prime's soundtrack was called the best sound design on the GameCube. The sound effects were also noted for a high degree of accuracy and blending with the soundtrack.[30] On the popular video game music site OverClocked ReMix, Super Metroid is the tied for the tenth most remixed video game, with Metroid tied for twenty-fifth.[88]

Sales of Metroid games in Japan have typically been lower than in the United States. In particular, the first two installments of the Metroid Prime series did not sell well in Japan. In its first day of release in Japan, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption sold 20,000 copies,[89] and it was the fifth bestselling game during its debut week in Japan, selling 32,388 units, ranking it behind Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Wii Fit, and Gundam Musou Special.[90]

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