20 years of Metroid 1up.com article - Part II
In Metroid’s Gameboy sequel, Metroid 2: The Return of Samus, Samus travels to the Metroid’s point of origin, a planet known as SR388. The desolate environment proves a perfect grounds for Metroids to spawn and evolve into deadlier incarnations, from the juvenile Alpha Metroid to the huge and lethal Omega Metroid. To eliminate the threat of the Metroid species, Samus locates and destroys each parasite, including the Queen Metroid. On the way back to her ship, she encounters one last hatchling who clings to her–metaphorically, thankfully–after seemingly imprinting Samus as its mommy. Samus, fresh from taking great pains to eradicate the Metroids, knew it was logical to dispose of the creature.
That didn’t mean logic ruled out. At the start of the highly anticipated Super Metroid for the SNES, Samus recalls her mission on SR388 and the hatchling that followed her like “a confused child.” After killing the Queen Metroid in Metroid 2, the bounty Hunter packed up the hatchling and delivered it to scientists, who believed they could harness its energy for the good of mankind. In no time, Space Pirates raided the space station holding the baby Metroid and nabbed it. Samus chased them to Zebes, intent on stopping the Pirates before they could manipulate it for their own purposes and put the galaxy in danger. Samus’ mission seems straightforward at first glance, but as the player draws closer to the final encounter with Mother Brain, events indicate Samus is a little more than a cold bounty hunter. The hatchling she rescued, overfed to a gigantic size by the Pirates, sacrifices itself to save Samus from Mother Brain’s beating. The subsequent battle against the weakened Brain is more than a little emotionally charged. But why did Samus take the risk of rescuing the last Metroid in the first place?
Samus and the Metroid series went into stasis during the reign of the Nintendo 64. Despite the influence its gameplay had on 32-bit classics such as Symphony of the Night, Gunpei Yokoi’s space-faring series was not as popular in Japan as it was in America, and although Nintendo spoke sporadically about a Metroid sequel for the system, a Metroid game likely wouldn’t have helped buoy the N64 as it sank into obscurity in its home country. When the Game Boy Advance and Gamecube came into being, however, American gamers were elated to learn Nintendo hadn’t forgotten the girl from beyond the stars. Samus returned with Metroid Fusion for the GBA and Metroid Prime for the Gamecube.
Nintendo also seemed intent on drawing in new Metroid fans–particularly Japanese fans–by casting players a little more line and revealing a bit more of Samus’ background through the new games as well as by external means. Some fans loved the new, fleshed-out Samus presented first in Metroid Fusion. Others thought Nintendo was bordering on TMI … “Too Much Information.”
Before Metroid Fusion, Samus had very little in the way of spoken text. Her intentions could only be guessed at by her actions and whatever Metroid’s game sprites were capable of pantomiming. Some interesting portrayals of Samus were developed as a result, including the version explored in Valiant’s “Nintendo Comics System,” fueled only by the events in the first Metroid game. As a result, Ridley looked more like a squashed bug than a fearsome reptile, Kraid was about three feet tall, and Samus, as imagined by the comic’s writers, was brash, money-hungry, and fiercely independent, although she made it clear she wanted a go at Videoland’s hallowed protector, Captain N. Driven primarily by bounty, Samus still possessed enough of a conscience to protect her friends, including Princess Lana, her main competitor for Kevin’s affections.
It was an interesting presentation of Samus, even if later games and manga revealed someone of quite a different character. Metroid Fusion presented the first–and, to date, the last–instance in which Samus had a lot to say for herself. Too much, lamented some fans.
“It was a bit much,” complained Will, a long-time fan from Toronto. “It’s pretty cool that we learned something about Samus’ past, but it was kind of forced on you in mandatory cut-scenes.”
The liner, story-driven nature of Metroid Fusion raised some concern among fans. The main storyline involves Samus returning to SR388. Having corrupted the food chain by eliminating the Metroids, a parasitic life form, “X”, now thrives on the planet without the interference of its main predators. One of the parasites infects Samus, and a vaccine made from the DNA of the Metroid hatchling she’d rescued on her initial SR388 mission is injected to save her life.
From the start, Metroid Fusion’s story is much more ambitious than anything presented previously in the series, and it branches further as the game goes on, involving sacrifice and betrayal and even an ill-fated target of Samus’ affections–Her former CO, Adam Malkovich. It’s not uninteresting, but neither does it leave much to the imagination as Samus’ previous games did.
“The other games didn’t spell things out for us, and it was kind of better that way,” Will recalls.
Written by Nadia Oxford for 1up.com