#like Kraid; Mother Brain and the Metroids!

[maburito]

It's nothing much but I love the taking an elevator to get down like in the 2D games but this time in 3D. I don't know it's dumb but I love seeing it all in 3D from Samus pov irjgaoierjg

[sepublic]

People are bringing up how Metroid 2's remake ruined the environmental storytelling it had with the Metroids' lair; But I also think the same could be said for Kraid in Zero Mission. Because in the first game, he's a very elusive guy to find; Players struggle to find him, and unlike Ridley, he even has a doppelganger meant to psyche you out! So when you destroy it, you assume you've done everything, and/or move on to Ridley as well... And then you waste time going all the way to the gate to Tourian, only to realize you got tricked. And then you have to go all the way back to Kraid's lair to find the real one.

I think this provides more characterization than Ridley himself got in the first Metroid, and potentially in Super as well; Kraid as someone who hides, who's clever in his own right and knows how important he is. So instead of facing Samus head-on, he avoids her, possibly because he knows he'll lose.

And this continues into Super, which plays off of gamers' experience with the first game; They're expecting Kraid to be Samus-sized, probably. They find him and then he... dies really easily, so okay, he must have another doppelganger. But the real Kraid must be around the same size, right?

And then he's titanic. Gargantuan. You have to scale the screen to fight Kraid. He doesn't even fit into the whole thing, which is why his actual sprite lacks a tail; There was never going to be enough room for that, so no need to make it.

I do suspect the box art for Super Metroid kinda spoiled that twist... Even if people assumed Kraid and Ridley had their sizes exaggerated on the cover, seeing Ridley be bigger in the prologue would've hinted at the same for Kraid. But man, there really is an unspoken narrative in these games.

Which then fucks me up, how Zero Mission just does away with that entirely! Like yeah I'm fine with Kraid being retconned as always that big. But by reimagining him as a tutorial boss, there's none of that same difficulty and search. There isn't the same mystery, paired with an appropriate theme, behind looking for this elusive figure who hides behind a similar face. He's supposed to be smart like Ridley in his own way, he is a fellow Space Pirate on similar standing.

And it's a shame because Kraid is really lacking in characterization, despite being a boss on the same level as, and arguably harder, than Ridley in the original Metroid; These two and Mother Brain were the OGs, and Kraid and Ridley both are advertised on Super's box art together. I can see why Mother Brain got fleshed out as the big bad of course, and for Ridley, him playing the role of the Space Pirate who manages to get away with the baby Metroid makes sense; He's the only boss mobile enough to leave Ceres.

And by making him a two-parter, that makes him memorable enough (but not too important like Mother Brain) to pay homage to in Fusion... Which leads to that post-game artwork where he leads the Space Pirates because unlike Kraid, you actually fight Ridley('s clone) in Fusion, so it's more meaningful for players of that game to see him in its end screen flashback. And that naturally culminates in the Zero Mission manga where Ridley kills Samus' parents and truly becomes an arch-nemesis more infamous than the OG big bad Mother Brain herself.

But poor Kraid!!! He got shafted. Despite also being in Zero Mission, the manga glosses over him so briefly and he doesn't even have any dialogue or characterization; He's just 'Ridley's comrade', but what does it mean to be brothers-in-arms with that sadist? Which is why I'm grateful for Dread, because Mercury Steam realized he was actually underrated and needed a return, unlike Ridley who already came back as Proteus in their previous game.

They took advantage of the fact that he technically doesn't die or explode onscreen in Super, just sinks into the ground... And the same happens in Dread too. So I'm hoping for some setup with Kraid as Samus' new arch-nemesis (timeline-wise, in terms of real life games coming out that's clearly Sylux). And maybe one day we'll get more story content... Or at least in-game scans and logs that elaborate on Kraid's personality.

[beelzeballing]

my opinions on the metroid games' soundtracks because im soooo bored rn:

metroid: surprisingly has some fucking RIDICULOUS bangers considering its an nes game (kraid's hideout helloooo) but also has mother brain battle. which. yeah.

return of samus: i mean whats THERE is as good as ever, sr388's surface theme goes hard but. uh. i hope you like random atmospheric gameboy bloops. it works for what the game is but yeah youre not gonna be putting any of these on your spotify playlists

super: are you KIDDING me? its super metroid. obviously there is nothing but fucking bangers on that ost. super metroid has never missed in any way shape or form lol. honorable mention to, of course, brinstar depths and also my extremely beloved maridia (swampy caverns).

fusion: are you KIDDING me part 2, electric boogaloo. slightly hampered by the fact that the GBA's sound system was so fucking ass but by god did it work around that. this game's ost is so tense it can veer into horrifying. shoutout to tension before a core-x and environmental investigation for being utterly terrifying

zero mission: ok the gba sound system did not do this one any fucking favors. fusion could get away with it but zero mission... like theres definitely great tracks here but its all SO fuzzy.

prime: kenji yamamoto is the fucking BOSS good LORD this soundtrack goes hard. might be my favorite ost in the whole series. i am disgustingly biased but also like. listen to the fucking title theme and then tell me you dont get it. you cant! you literally cant! i think my fav track would have to be... uh. the staff credits. yes, really.

echoes: kenji yamamoto returned with a vengeance. i honestly dont even know what to say tbh, this is up there with prime 1 for me. chykka? the emperor ing? dark samus? hell yes.

corruption: TRIPLE WHAMMY, KENJI YAMAMOTO YOU CRAZY BASTARD!!!! i like this one the least out of the three prime games BUT i do have to shout out phaaze and phazon pool here cuz i absolutely love the phazon sound effect. and it has some VERY fusion coded tracks (positive)

hunters: were back at 'extremely low quality sound hardware', yall want anything? and its for such a good soundtrack too. it can get away from the usual "metroid sound" on some tracks but like. theres banger after banger here, surprisingly enough. sylux' theme... the menu select.... GOREA FINAL BOSS THEME??

other m: yeah.

samus returns: wow we are so fucking back!!!! banger remix after banger remix! im listening to the playlist rn tho and im kinda confused cuz i havent played this game in ages. why are there lower brinstar and crateria tracks. this is metroid 2. we arent on zebes. what the fuck. anyway catch me bumping the gamma metroid theme

dread: i hate to say this but the ost is. a little underwhelming. burenia goes hard but the rest is just... very middling. mercury steam brought the heat with dread but particularly outstanding composers they have not.

[coldgoldlazarus]

Hi there :] For the metroid ask game:

4, 12, 13, and 14?

4 - What are you most excited for in Metroid Prime 4?

There's a lot, but I think the two big things are seeing what Sylux's deal is, (just hope it won't be disappointing) and having whole new areas and environments to explore. That shot of the giant rainforest at the end of the trailer was easily my favorite part!

12 - Which games do you think are the hardest and easiest overall?

Zero Mission and also Zero Mission. (Dread is punishing in a raw difficulty way, but the movement tech also makes it pretty reasonable once you've got a handle on things.) Zero Mission is incredibly easy if you just go for a normal playthrough without getting everything, but it was also absolute hell for me specifically as a completionist. Maybe it was just my emulator or my old computer causing problems, but I also maintain that some of those shinespark challenges were designed by sadists, and were the first time I truly ragequit out of trying to get 100%. (AM2R also had some difficult ones, but not to the same bullshit extent as ZM's.)

13 - Favorite boss fight(s) in the series?

I'm gonna be unoriginal and say Quadraxis is an easy number one for me. That aside, though, I also wanna give Gandrayda her dues, both for being a fun pop quiz on a bunch of Prime 3's prior encounters plus her own new flavor, and for the emotional impact afterwards that I felt on par with Rundas. For the 2D games, Experiment Z57 is a new classic, (though I also have a soft spot for Drogyga,) and while I would have done things slightly differently, I did still really enjoy AM2R's take on the Metroid Queen fight, even as she kicked my ass over and over.

14 - Least favorite boss fight(s) in the series?

Kraid.

Also Spider Guardian, but it's been long enough since I last played Prime 2 that the rage over that one has healed over a bit. Kraid, though, is far more recent, and in some ways far more frustrating. The Spider Guardian's final stage is a pain in the ass, but the problem is mostly with timing and wrestling with the Morph Ball physics on those hills, and right up until then it's a really cool and unique encounter. Still needs work, but I can at least think of ways to make it work.

But Kraid is just. Pain. He's a bullet hell boss in a game series that until Dread, did not have the manuverability to make that work. I only beat him in Zero Mission by restarting the game and sequence-breaking to face him only after loading up on an excess of Missiles and Supers and spamming like hell as soon as I entered the room. In Super, he's ground my playthrough to a standstill. And even in Dread, where the 360° aiming at least spares me the indignity of jumping around like a maniac trying to line up a decent shot, I still hate the third phase where I'm stuck on a small magnetic strip and keep getting knocked back down to the second. The best thing MercurySteam did for the fight was give me the option to just not do it after the first phase, and while I have given doing the full thing an honest shot, I genuinely prefer just doing the grapple bomb skip.

Mother Brain is also a pain, but at least she has NEStroid as an excuse.

(That being said, I would still like to see Retro give a 3D Kraid fight another shot, because I feel like the concept would probably be a lot more enjoyable with another axis of movement to work in.)

[beevean]

My Metroid hot take as someone who still needs to Get Gud at playing the games: Ridley is overused and overrated as a rival for Samus. The much more interesting relationship is the one she has with Mother Brain, as per the manga where Mother helped raise her and even tried to recruit her when she (Mother) initially betrayed the Chozo.

Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly disagree

A take as hot as Norfair. I respect that :P

Agree: Ridley is overused. This is true. He has pushed himself to the forefront to the point that there are only three games without him at all - and one of them, Metroid 2, was effectively replaced by Samus Returns where he's the twist final boss. In some games, it really feels like he's there just for the sake of being there... yes, I'm looking at Fusion. Other M, too, even though he's supposed to be narratively important... ehhhhhhh let's not dwell on that.

SR is perhaps the most obvious example of "why are you here. The story is done the moment Samus spares The Baby. That is the climax of the plot. Yes, Prometeus Ridley is cool and visually it connects Omega Ridley with the fully fleshy Ridley in SM, but come on.

Disagree: Ridley is overrated. I think he has earned his popularity. While the ZM manga posthumously adds the backstory of him killing Samus' mother and causing her father to sacrifice himself, he was turned into an efficient rival in SM by him being much more hands-on than the other Space Pirates, displaying intelligence and cruelty that carried over subsequent titles. Even without the personal backstory, I can feel his threat, and why Samus, of all enemies, takes him seriously (contrasting poor Kraid who Samus treats as a nuisance lmao rip).

I agree that Mother Brain was rather unused, though. Maybe it's because her design and modus operandi of just sitting there don't make for a memorable villain - yes her humanoid form in SM is scary, but that fight is mostly a glorified cutscene, sadly. (also, very personally speaking, I'm not particularly interested in AI characters, whether they learn emotions or start to believe themselves to be superior to organic lifeforms) But still, it's frustrating that the only game where Samus could have thought about her feelings regarding Mother Brain was OM, a game that even ignores her Chozo heritage for the purpose of propping up Adam.

[spinningbuster98]

Kraid's Lair can be a bit of a twisted joke

It's by far the easier to access between the 2 boss lairs but while it's technically the smallest it's insanely cramped and twisty by design making it really fucking easy to get lost and get killed by the atrocious enemy placement

You can actually find a Fake, blue Kraid here. I guess he's supposed to trick the player? But there's no way you'd find him without a guide honestly, finding the real Kraid is way easier by comparison

Kraid's fight is a mess, he constantly throws shit at you that you have no hope of dodging and those spikes of his often protect him from missiles and projectiles. The most surefire way of handling him is to just spam bombs on him, but that requires that you have the Varia Suit for extra defense and lots of Energy Tanks so that you can hope to kill him before he kills you

One thing I think Metroid 1 does actually really well despite its age is its general atmosphere: of course tha game doesn't have any explicitly scary moments like Fusion, and its character designs can be pretty fucking goofy (Ridley looks like Barney the Dinosaur, Kraid is like a fat, hairy mole and Samus looks like some dude in spandex wearing an oversized astronaut helmet), but the overall aesthetic of the game gives it a genuinely eerie feeling through the use of dark, "acid" colors, mostly mechanical and cold architecture and pitch black backgrounds which were most definitely to save memory space but genuinely sell the idea that the game takes place inside of a giant cave system

Then you add to this the music: yeah Brinstar's theme is catchy and heroic, but the themes of Norfair and Ridley's Lair sound genuinely dissonant and a bit disturbing. Kraid's Lair has my favorite track, being simultanously harmonic and unsettling.

I believe this game's composer, Hirokazu Tanaka, once stated that he purposefully made this soundtrack to be as unorthodox and "weird" as possible in order to drive home the game's unsettling feeling and well...mission accomplished! I still think that this game has some of the best ambience of the series, actually way better than its remake Zero Mission. In fact I think the original trilogy has geberally a much eerier atmosphere than all of the other games, Fusion included, but that's a topic for another day

So! Tourian!

Pro tip: don't bother killing the Metroids, just freeze them and let them go, 'cause you're gonna need all the missiles you have. Yeah it's a bit dumb that Samus' mission is to kill all the Metroids to prevent the Space Pirates from using them for galactic conquest....and yet it's better to leave them alone for ammo preservation. Well this place is gonna blow either way...

And then there's Mother Brain, who might as well have the power of Chaos Control because my God LOOK AT HOW MUCH SLOWDOWN THERE IS! Because of all the shit that those turrets fling at you every second the game just slows down to an absolute crawl and when you mix this with the cramped as fuck design of the room preventing you from dodging reliably and the fact that those zebetite pillars will start to regenerate almost immediately after you hit them, this fight sucks absolute ass and it's incredibly easy to just die over and over again!

I hope for your sake that you found the Varia Suit and the Screw Attack to deal with those Rinkas from Hell, and also that you don't screw up the final escape sequence with those tiny ass platforms!

I've always found it interesting how the game very nonchalantly told us that "space could be invaded by the other Metroid". Were they really so sure there was gonna be a sequel? This is one of my favorite aspects of the series: even though when you get down to it these games are basically written pretty episodically,much like other classic game series such as Zelda or Sonic, they almost always leave some general loose plot point that future games can exploit to make the series look like it has an overarching plot...evn though that's not really the case

Also yeah, Samus is a woman, what a surprise!

And before anyone says something: no. She wasn't made a woman in order to "challenge gender norms" or "for trans rep" or whatever. Those are very modern, 2010s/2020s views being applied to a videogame from the 1980s when games weren't exactly interested in politics or activism, let alone Nintendo games, and stuff like wanting to challenge gender norms were most likely not on most people's mind in the gaming business, or most contexts unfortunately.

I can't find the Interviews, but I believe this game's devs once stated that they can't even remember whose idea it was to make Samus a woman (most likely due to how chaotic the game's development was) but the general thought process seems to be that they wanted to give players a nice surprise for beating the game quickly enough and they also wanted to have an Ellen Ripley reference because Metroid borrows a lot from Alien.

I'm not saying that Samus holds no importance in the context of female heroines in gaming or feminism or whatever. I'm just saying that there's an important difference between saying that she BECAME an icon for female representation in games and saying that she was always MEANT to be one.

[overculturedswine]

Metroid: Zero Mission astonished me with how good it was. Ages ago I tried to play both Metroid NES and Super Metroid - both of which I bounced off of. I just found movement and aiming clunky in both, though I will try SM again soon.

I played Dread when it launched and that was incredible, everything feels so tight and precise. Even if I’m methodically combing through to 100% it, everything happens exactly when I want it to, so I feel like I’m rocketing through the area. I always tell myself I’ll stop at the next save room, and then zoom through it cuz of the incredible flow state I end up in.

What surprised me about Zero Mission was how few changes it needs to feel exactly like that, most of which are just hardware limitations. I missed the 360 aiming, general world traversal doesn’t feel as good without it, but the GBA doesn’t have a joystick so of course that wouldn’t work. I missed the slide, double tapping into the morph ball just didn’t feel as good as sliding and morphing in the same quick motion. But like, that’s it? Other than that it feels just as good as Dread, which for clarity is the game I’ve replayed the most. The main loop of running and exploring and unlocking abilities was absolutely incredible.

I don’t think the bosses were good, like at all. Fighting Kraid I realized it was the same pattern as Dread, died twice super early, and then killed home without taking hardly any damage. I stumbled into the Ridley fight, unloaded a bunch of missiles, and then won. Mother Brain my first few attempts I was wondering if anyone had ever beaten this fight because the amount of stuff in that room is way too high - I died a few times on the approach, those rooms are packed. Then my final attempt, in a new session, I did all the same things, and cleared super easily first try. With the bosses I never felt like I was learning patterns or beating an enemy, I felt like I just got lucky, every single boss, every single victory, it was really unsatisfying.

When the suit gets taken away, I was interested at the start, but quickly realized those parts weren’t great. Because stuff like Samus’ height and the enemy’s vision wasn’t communicated well, I stumbled through the final area. It was very difficult, but not very fun. Taking the power suit away is a really interesting idea, but I don’t think it worked. I didn’t feel tense, I felt annoyed. Maybe worked after all though, cuz when I got my suit back I was cackling until the end of the game. The Brinstar music came back, now with cymbals, you’re tearing through the pirates, it’s amazing.

[megahorous]

Still on my NES kick from those old Valiant Comics--it was Metroid this time !

-- This series stars a strong and independent woman, but it’s never really been a favourite because of all the fumbling and bumbling around and it’s one of the darker series...but, I like it anyway, to some extent !

-- Samus is a problematic fave; she is always blowing up planets and trying to steal Captain N from Princess Lana.  And I’m once again reminded of the wise words of Zangief “just because you are Good Guy doesn’t mean you are Good Guy !”

-- The Mummy movies also end with self-destruct sequences, like the Metroid series !

-- If they ever brought back Captain N, Kraid and Ridley should be Mother Brain’s bumbling henchmen !  A classic duo like Ernie and Bert

-- I suppose I will have to try to play through Metroid Dread at some point; I’ve done the other four.  But, not right away

-- Pray for a true peace in Space !

[hexihertzgameart]

Hear me out, Metroid.

Have it be a mostly silent film with very little dialogue and often said dialogue being deliberately not understandable, similar to the use of Japanese in Isle of Dogs but with Chozo or something. The main words we need to understand is the mission statement. Everything else needs to be environmental.

As for what it covers, likely the first Metroid game with aspects of Super Metroid. Samus arrives on the Planet Zebes to find the prescience of Metroids. Some information is given in a soft, robotic voice along the lines of “You are approaching planet [insert weird planet code]. Originally a Mining Colony, it has recently become a central hub of Space Pirate Activity. Your Mission is to investigate the presence of the Artificial Lifeform [insert weird code hear] usually referred to as Metroid, and dispose of them. We will ensure you are paid favourably for this operation, Good luck!” Samus turns off the transmission and gets ready to land. A brief cut to a memory of Zebes before or during the invasion by the Space Pirates occurs. One last look at Samus before she prepares to enter the planets athmosphere. Cut to an establishing shot of Zebes as we watch the ship enter, camera lingers on Zebes as the words appear in Chozo, with its English below.

The plot then starts with Samus exploring the ruins of Zebes and encountering the two Pirate leaders, perhaps with direction from a It covers at least:

Crateria: the surface of the planet, drenched in acid rain. Lower ground segments resemble the original Brinstar West Wing.

Brinstar: A thick jungle similar to the one in Super Metroid, but with a bluer tint, to the east is a set of shafts with red orange rocks, likely artificial

Kraid’s Lair: deepest point in Brinstar contains a statue of a beast used by the Chozo as a symbol of protection, inside its mouth is an elevator to a region who’s names been lost to time, only remembered now as the base of operations for the Space Pirate commander Kraid. The region appears to primarily be a desert, with sparse, cactus like vegetation growing in the grey rocks. though appears to have once been home to an arms facility, which the Space Pirates have been trying to get up and running again. Kraid commands the space pirates from a chamber in the heart of the facility, when Samus finds him. The holographic display being used shows Metroids, an indication that they have them in the facility, a battle with Kraid ensues in the chamber, which goes as it usually does

Norfair: The Volcanic region of Zebes. Also full of bubbles and ruins of former Chozo Civilisation

Lower Norfair; Home to the ruins of the Chozo city Torian, Ridley Sits within a throne room.

True Torian: At the core of Zebes is the Chozo’s greatest creations, Mother Brain. Part responsible to the destruction of the Chozo and the infiltration the space pirates, she plans to conquer the galaxy by force in an attempt to create a golden age of peace across the universe. The unnaturally well preserved metallic halls are now guarded by Metroids.

Additionally I’m thinking Samus and Mother brain could perhaps be interacting regularly, perhaps with Mother Brain acting as an informant in order to try and use her to overthrow the space pirates leadership before trying to dispose of her.

Other story beats would exist obviously, but I’m not sure where though. Hope this minds fart entices anyone

yoinking this from twitter cause i want to hear yalls opinions!

[game-boy-pocket]

Do you remmeber Lemmy's Land and NintendoLand too?

I vaguely remember Lemmy's Land. He did seem like the most popular of the Koopalings back then. Don't remember NintendoLand though.

I think there was an old Metroid Page that I remember liking, because it had bad ass interpretations of Kraid, Mother Brain, and Samus in the fan art section. I remember Samus's armor being bulky with these wing like protrusions on her shoulders, kind of like the red armor in the later Mega Man games. There was also a Zelda one with lots of "HOW TO DRAW MANGA" ass looking fan art that I loved.

[listieshadows]

After having it save-stated at the final area for, like, a month now, I've finally gotten around to beating Metroid.

Honestly, not as tough an experience as I thought id' be going in. Like, yes, I did follow a map and guide that told me where to guy, but like any kid who had Nintendo Power didn't do that. Besides, even knowing where to go, that doesn't mean getting there would be a breeze—and while it never got easy, necessairly, once I got the hang of what I was doing I was fine.

Hell, I didn't even find the Metroid to be a problem. Of couese they got me a few times, but all I had to do was blast 'em with a freeze ray once I saw 'em, and then it was just a matter of gettin' 'em with five missles and chooglin' on.

Really, my big problem was the energy rings in the final area. Those messed me up, especially right before Mother Brain. Now that's a hard part right there. You're jus' tryna break down these barriers with your missiles, and these rings and lasers won't stop comin' and bouncin' you all over the place... in the rest of the game, I never dropped below maybe one e-tank, but in this area I got down to having only one in reserve. It was madness.

Other than that, the only other part that really made me go "Well, that's kind of a problem" was the order the guide I followed had me go in. Now, the guide made it clear that I didn't have to do it this order, but it's what it was recommending, so I did it anyway. In short, it all me go all the way to Norfair to fight Kraid... Then all the way back to a hidden base to fight Ridley... And then back to Norfair to grab a power-up I couldn't before... And then I had to backtrack all the way to Brinstar to get to Mother Brain's area. I don't know if I could've gotten the full bikini Samus if I'd taken out Ridley first (probably not), but I'm sure I would've gotten way closer if I hadn't had to make two seperate trips Norfair. My fault for not realizing how deep I'd hafta go in the second time around, I guess.

But, yeah, with that I've finally completed what I think to be the big Nintendo NES games—all the Super Mario games, The Legend Of Zelda, Metroid, Kirby's Adventure... There's still a couple of things I could do over here on the NES, like EarthBound Beginnings, Kid Icarus or any of the third-party games, but otherwise, I think I'm gonna return to focusing on the SNES like I have been.

Or I'm gonna pour even more hours into Dr. Mario, either way.

[maburito]

Aw hell yes! I get to see these iconic little guys in 3D!

[sepublic]

Weavel’s Identity…???

Fun fact: The first bounty hunter aside from Samus to ever appear in the Metroid series was this guy; "Big Time" Brannigan, who briefly appeared in an early Nintendo comic. He's introduced as Samus' #1 rival with a 100% success rate, someone who often takes jobs from her in order to one-up Samus. Despite this, their rivalry seemed friendly at first; They'd often find themselves working together on the same goal, and had known each other for years.

So when they met on Zebes and finally recognized one another up-close, Samus assumed Big Time was trying to do her mission and wasn’t upset about it either, which made it pretty awkward for Big Time to explain that actually, he was here to capture Samus for Mother Brain. His feelings on Samus seem to be mixed here; He doesn't actively hate her on sight and seems even polite, trying to reason to Samus like an old friend to go along in case it'd save her life.

But his need to prove himself does cause Big Time to attempt to murder Samus anyway when she's in Mother Brain's captivity, as a way to cement his own position as the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. Samus reads Big Time like a book however, having turned over a rigged gun of hers; She knew Big Time would revel in killing Samus with her own weapon, so when he pulled the trigger, it instead exploded, causing a diversion that allowed Samus to escape. Big Time's attempted execution wasn't supposed to happen; He was supposed to leave Samus alive and alone with Mother Brain, who blamed the failure on Big Time and had him dragged off by her minions to be fed to the Metroids.

Curiously, Big Time resembles a Dessgeega wearing armor similar to how Samus' power suit was depicted at the time (This would make him a precursor to Armstrong Houston, another bounty hunter who'd appear in a Super Metroid tie-in comic). None of this is surprising, since this was early in Metroid's run; Back then, Zebesian enemies were often depicted as sapient Space Pirates, due to comic artists needing actual models to pull from when depicting the group.

Otherwise, the only Space Pirates you actually see/fight in Metroid are Mother Brain, Kraid, and Ridley; And Ridley himself might just be one of the local fauna, based on his description! Plus, this was when Metroid leaned more into having funky, goofy aliens, so it's not unreasonable to say that a lot of the enemies were the sapient Space Pirates who masterminded all this, and not just animals acting as obstacles. Aliens don’t necessarily adhere to anthropomorphic indications of sapience. Super Metroid would eventually acknowledge these absences by properly introducing the Zebesians as the Space Pirates we'd heard so much about.

Nevertheless, we have a rival bounty hunter to Samus with technology like hers, wielding a powerful gun, who is essentially an upper torso that walks around on his arms. He has three fingers on each hand and moves by hopping around (if his species is any indication), he's affiliated with the Space Pirates, and gets screwed over fighting Samus on Zebes during her Zero Mission...

Yes; I am considering the hilarious idea that Weavel's original body was a Dessgeega. That he has surprising similarities with Big Time. And that the Halfturret is less an Alt-Form for Weavel, and more his true form; Specifically, a more accurate callback to his original organic body. Basically, what happened to Weavel was that he was given a cybernetic version of his old body, as well as a turret with walking legs to ride on when it wasn't firing at targets.

I honestly wonder if Richard Vorodi was inspired by obscure Metroid character Big Time... Probably not, he'd have likely mentioned it by now. But it's a hilarious thought; Amidst all of the speculation that Weavel was a Zebesian or Tallon IV pirate or some unique, yet-unseen species, what if he was just canon's version of Big Time; Samus' first fellow/rival bounty hunter in the history of the Metroid franchise.

The idea is so ridiculous that a part of me wants to adapt it into my own headcanon despite what I’ve already said about Meta Weavel, because I’ve unironically wanted to see Big Time incorporated into the current canon. Especially the absurd bit about him being Samus’ main rival, because being just an upper torso somehow doesn’t impede his skill whatsoever (which makes some sense since this would be normal for his species, he’s just moving as he always has). Him being second only to Samus means he’s a better bounty hunter than all of the other ones we’ve seen, no less; Sylux, Rundas, who???

Imagine Samus fighting Weavel in Brinstar and he looks like and IS an updated version of Big Time. Maybe being punished by Mother Brain led to Weavel having mixed feelings about his organization, hence leaving yet still working with them, like how Samus does the Federation. It’d also mean Weavel’s cybernetic body is actually accurate to his original one, which gives less reason to be angry at the Space Pirates for that at least; Hence Mother Brain becoming the new motive for cutting some ties, since she does stop being leader for a while (because she was dead). So Weavel would feel more comfortable maintaining a connection to his old group after that; Dunno how he feels about her brief return in Super, or if he just patiently sat that one out and went back when Mother died for real.

I am attached to Zebesian Weavel who leads the Space Pirates during the Mothership segment, however. Given what I’ve written about Project Meta, I could reconcile these by saying that Weavel’s new body was meant to emulate the two best bounty hunters in the galaxy; Samus Adam’s humanoid form, and Big Time’s upper torso build. Which would piss Weavel off I presume; It’s one thing to be forced to adapt to a body that’s already alien enough because it’s machine, but one modeled after the one who made you like this?!?!? (And also some guy Mother Brain hired to capture Samus on Zebes)

[diloph]

Man, I wonder what would have happened if Metroid got the same treatment that Super Mario Bros and The Legend Of Zelda did in the late 80′s/early 90′s (maybe a bit later, considering Super Metroid came out in ‘94) and got an animated TV show in roughly the same era?

Imagine the (goofy) possibilities...

[beevean]

Y'know aside from Kraid's weird appearance I'm really glad that Dread held back from bringing back Ridley and the Metroids again. When I heard about the EMMIs being able to estract DNA I was like "yep, that's it" but no.

This is something Fusion kinda dropped the ball on, not only was Ridley's corpse very forced, but the whole thing with the metroid breeding program was really unnecessary: if you take it out nothing changes, as the GFA is still shown to be corrupt by them wanting to get their hands on the X.

What I appreciate about the 2D games specifically is that the status quo changes drastically from game to game. In M2 the Metroids are almost extinct. In SM they are completely extinct and so are the Pirates. In Fusion we have a new type of threat and technically a new Samus, so I'm glad that Dread kept going in that direction

The Metroid in Fusion feel almost like a legal inclusion, as in, it's not like they can have a Metroid game without Metroids right? :P Good thing Dread permanently fixed the problem!

(I like how they showed the evolved forms again, though. Wish they had come back for other games, not counting SR)

No idea why they felt the need to bring back Ridley, but I suppose that at the time it wasn't overdone yet. I bet that it was by the time of OM that people started to go "oh not again"

Yes, that is one of the most interesting parts of the Metroid lore, how much it's willing to destroy the status quo. It's not just "Samus battles Mother Brain for all eternity", which would have worked perfectly for the standards of the time, stuff happens and stuff sticks.

[totallynotgayforyou]

Here's some more art from the metroid artbook

I don't think we've seen the rest of the mural in the game before it gets destroyed so this seems to be the full one

The security brains as I like to call them, some feel very Mother Brain like

Kraid giving his best on the left there mother brain and the chozo really did him dirty