Metroid

[Jonathan]

Metroid (Japanese: メトロイド Hepburn: Metoroido?) is a science fiction action-adventure video game series created by Nintendo. The series is primarily produced by the company's first-party developers, although some installments were handled by other developers, including Fuse Games, Team Ninja and Next Level Games.

The series chronicles the missions of space-faring bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from the depredations of the Space Pirates and their attempts to harness the power of the eponymous Metroids. Metroid combines the platforming of Super Mario Bros. and the exploration aspect of The Legend of Zelda with a decidedly darker atmosphere and a greater emphasis on nonlinear gameplay.

The series consists of eleven games that were released on almost every Nintendo video game console. It is one of Nintendo's most successful franchises, and the games have received varying levels of critical acclaim. As of September 2012, the Metroid series sold over 17.44 million copies.[1] The series has been represented in other Nintendo media, including the Super Smash Bros. series. Additional media for the Metroid series has also been released, including soundtracks, comic books and manga adaptations.

Contents

[Jonathan]

The Metroid series contains gameplay elements from shooter, platformer, and adventure games.[2] 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 primarily through exploration, and occasionally by defeating alien creatures through real-time combat with the suit's arm cannon. Many such upgrades enable further avenues of exploration.[2][3] A recurring upgrade is the Morph Ball, which allows Samus to curl into a ball, roll into tight places and plant bombs.[2]

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.[2] The game differed in its atmosphere of solitude and foreboding.[2] 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.[4]

[Jonathan]

Timeline of release years
1986 Metroid
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991 Metroid II: 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
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016 Metroid Prime: Federation Force
Main article: List of Metroid media
The twelve 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.

Metroid
Samus travels through the caverns of the planet Zebes to stop the Space Pirates from exploiting the parasitic organisms known as Metroids for galactic domination. She confronts the cybernetic lifeform Mother Brain, as well as its guardians, Kraid and Ridley.[5] It was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, also known as the NES.[6]
Metroid II: Return of Samus
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. After it helps her escape back to her ship, Samus hands the hatchling over to the Ceres research station for study.[5] It was released on the GameBoy and is also playable on 3DS.[7]
Super Metroid
Just after she leaves, Samus receives a distress signal from the Ceres research lab. She returns just in time to catch Ridley stealing the hatchling, having killed all of the scientists. She follows Ridley to a rebuilt base on Zebes, where the Space Pirates are once again attempting to clone the Metroids and use them as weapons. Samus kills the reborn versions of Ridley and Kraid, as well as new guardians Phantoon, Crocomire, and Draygon, then confronts Mother Brain once again.[4] Samus is nearly killed in the battle, but the Metroid hatchling, now having grown immensely, rescues her. Mother Brain kills it just after it restores Samus's energy,[5] and Samus in turn destroys Mother Brain with a supercharged weapon known as the Hyper Beam apparently left by the hatchling's death. She then escapes Zebes during a countdown that leads to the entire planet exploding, taking with it the few remaining cloned Metroids.[5] It was released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), and said to be "one of the greatest games of all time" by IGN.[7]
Metroid Fusion
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.[4] Doctors surgically remove portions of her armor and cure the X infection with a vaccine created from the DNA of the Metroid hatchling (Metroid II: Return of Samus).[4] 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.[5] 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 triggers a security system that ejects it into space, killing the Metroids. Realizing that the X pose a threat to galactic civilization, Samus's 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 both X populations.[4] 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.[4] It was released on the Game Boy Advance.[8]
Metroid Prime
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 defeats Ridley before delving deeper into the impact site and discovering Metroid Prime, a matured Metroid, mutated and corrupted by Phazon. Metroid Prime had been feeding off the Phazon Core of the meteor to increase in size and strength. During the final battle against Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime grabs and takes Samus's Phazon Suit from her. She flees the impact site and after the credits, there is a glimpse of a dark hand coming out of a pool of Phazon in the arena where Samus and Metroid Prime fought. It is implied that this hand is Dark Samus in the future games and that Metroid Prime by taking Samus's suit becomes Dark Samus.[4] It was released on the GameCube[9] and is the first of the Metroid Prime Trilogy.
Metroid: Zero Mission
Metroid: Zero Mission is an enhanced remake of the original Metroid designed to retell the game's story. It has an addendum to the original storyline: After defeating Mother Brain, Samus is ambushed by Space Pirates and her ship crash-lands back on the surface. With her ship and arsenal destroyed and armed with only an emergency pistol, she is forced to infiltrate the Space Pirate mothership to find a way off the planet. She finds ancient Chozo armor more powerful than her original while deep within Chozo ruins, then goes on to defeat the Ridley Robot and escapes from the mothership before it self-destructs.[4][10] It was originally released on the Game Boy Advance,[11] and a version was released for the Wii U Virtual Console.[12]
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
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. She does this by going to Dark Aether and absorbing the energy into her suit, then placing the energy back into the Energy Controllers on Light Aether. By completing this task, she destroys Dark Aether and the Ing that inhabit it. The final boss fights consist of one against the Emperor Ing and Dark Samus. Dark Samus vaporizes in front of Samus's eyes, but as she flees, Dark Samus is shown to reform in outer space.[4] It was released on the GameCube in 2004.[13]
Metroid Prime Pinball
Metroid Prime Pinball is a pinball version of Metroid Prime, following the same storyline and has similar gameplay elements; however, it is just presented through pinball format rather than as a first-person adventure.[14]
Metroid Prime Hunters
When the Federation receives an unusual telepathic message regarding an "Ultimate Power", Samus is sent to the remote Alimbic Cluster in the Tetra Galaxy to investigate and secure it. Others have also received the message, and six rival bounty hunters arrive with similar intent. When all parties arrive at the source of the transmission, it is revealed that the message was a false lure sent by an ancient creature known as Gorea, who intended to manipulate visitors into releasing it from a void between dimensions. Upon this revelation, Gorea attacks and syphons the energy from the other hunters, allowing it to commandeer their weapons. After killing Gorea, Samus and the other hunters escape the cluster, empty handed, but alive.[4] It was released on the handheld Nintendo DS in 2006.[15] It was also the first game that many played on the DS since, at its original release in some regions, the console came bundled with a game card entitled Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, a demo of the game.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Space Pirates shut down and infect Galactic Federation supercomputer network formed by the Aurora Units systems and then engage in large scale combat in an attempt to further spread Phazon. Enormous Phazon-based seedships, called 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 a 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 Dark Samus and Phaaze. A ship is seen following her into Warp Space at the end.[16] It is the final game of the Metroid Prime trilogy, and was released for the Wii console.[17]
Metroid: Other M
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, has been conducting research on illegal bioweapons for the Federation. 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.[18] The Federation soldiers are mysteriously killed by a secret assassin among their ranks. Samus refers to this assassin as "the Deleter". His or her identity is never explicitly revealed in-game, but the Deleter is thought to be James Pierce for a few evidential reasons.[19] Samus later discovers that these weapons are Metroids that have been genetically modified to remove their weakness to cold, making them virtually indestructible. Adam sacrifices himself to detach Sector Zero, the Metroid breeding area, from the main ship and activate its self-destruct sequence. After defeating a Queen Metroid, Samus finds the real Madeline Bergman, who tells her the truth about the android she found earlier. The artificial intelligence, named MB, took on a human shape to build an ideal relationship with the Metroids, similar to the one Samus had with the Metroid hatchling (Super Metroid). After developing emotions, MB revolted, telepathically ordering the cloned Zebesian life forms on the ship to attack their captors. MB appears and attacks Samus and Madeline, but is stopped when Galactic Federation reinforcements show up, led by Anthony, the only surviving member of the original squad. Samus, Anthony and Madeline all escape on Samus's gunship. In an optional epilogue, Samus returns to retrieve "something irreplaceable": Adam's helmet.[18]
Metroid Prime: Federation Force
Announced at E3 2015, Metroid Prime: Federation Force is a spin off of the Metroid Prime series. The game is a 4 player co-op game focusing on missions. It also features a mode called Metroid Prime: Blast Ball.
Development Edit