In our review of curiosities of Nintendo characters, today it is the turn of Samus Aran.
The protagonist of the Metroid Saga is one of the most popular Nintendo characters, at the height of other great icons, such as Kirby, Mario or Link. Proof of this is the success of Metroid Dread. Since 1986, the bounty hunter has been accompanying us in the different games of the series and, together with her, we have faced a multitude of intergalactic threats.
In this article, we bring you 10 curiosities about Samus Aran that you may not have known. Do you want to know what they are? Then you know what to do: read the article to the end.
His surname originates from a famous footballer.
If we are going to talk about curiosities about Samus Aran, what better way to start talking about her name? the character designer Hiroji Kiyotake, responsible for Metroid designs, stated in an interview that Samus had a certain relationship with Peléthe famous Brazilian soccer player.
As his words collect, Kiyotake acknowledged that Aran, the surname of Samus, has its origin in the name of PeléEdson Arantes do Nascimento.
A pioneer in the world of video games
Of course, nowadays it is common to find female protagonists in video games, but during the 80s it was not such a common practice. In this sense, it should be noted that Metroid was a pioneering title, as it was one of the first to have a female lead..
In fact, before the appearance on the scene of Samus, the female characters that had appeared in video games were secondary, such as Ms. Pac-Man.
Samus Aran was not raised by humans.
The origin of Samus Aran is one of the greatest curiosities of the entire saga. Although she was born and raised on Earth’s mining colony K-2L, when she was a child, the planet was raided by Space Pirates led by ridley, the mythical enemy of the saga. In the attack, Ridley and his cronies killed Samus’s parents and destroyed the colony, but our beloved protagonist managed to survive.
was found by the Chozosan alien race with a similar appearance to birds, who took her to her home planet, Zebesand saved her from certain death.
They are precisely the Chozos those who they trained Samus in combat and those who gave her superhuman abilities, infusing their DNA into our protagonist’s. In addition, they were also the ones who gave her her peculiar costume, which we will talk about next.
Samus’ costume is not that easy to wear
The Power Suit is Samus’ mythical armor. The Chozo gave it to him, as we have mentioned, and, although at first it may seem like just another piece of equipment, it hides some other secret.
In an interview, granted in 2004, to the director of the first Metroid, Yoshio SakamotoEast stated that, to use the Power Suit, great mental power is necessary.
This explains some scenes, like the ones in Metroid: Other M, the Wii title. In this game, the bounty hunter costume leaves her in certain moments of stress, showing our heroine’s internal struggle to recover her mental integrity.
His real job is not bounty hunter
As you may well know, after leaving the Galactic Federation, Samus became a bounty hunter. Now, in none of the games in the saga has she performed bounty hunter work, that is, we have never seen our beloved protagonist carry out any bounty hunt.
Retro Studios wanted to remedy this and, to do so, proposed implementing bounty hunting side quests in Metroid Prime 3, but Nintendo refused. Why did the big N not accept this measure? The reason is simple: bounty hunting is prohibited in Japan, so they probably don’t want Samus to do something that is illegal in his country.
Samus’s work, in this sense, is more similar to that of a mercenary, only that nuance was lost in the translation. In fact, if we look at the first title that was considered to name the first game in the saga, Space Hunter, this fact is clear.
We could play with Samus without armor in the original Metroid
One of the peculiarities of the first Metroid was the possibility of entering passwords. Well, one of them became quite popular during the 80s, since allowed to play with Samus without armor. The result is what you can see below.
The origin of the Morph Ball
It is worth dedicating a special section in the curiosities about Samus Aran to talk about the Morph Ball. Of course, this is one of the most popular abilities of our beloved protagonist, who has also been present in all the games in the series, for which she is well known.
What is perhaps not so well known is its origin. Since the designers and animators of the original Metroid couldn’t come up with an acceptable desEsports Extrasfor Samus when she crouched and crawled, they decided to turn her into a sphere. They fixed a problem and, in addition, they got an ability that is already mythical today.
The problems in development are not just a thing of the first Metroid, but it is something that has happened over the years. Good proof of this are the Metroid Prime logos.
The shoulder pads on her suit in Metroid II: Return of Samus have a most curious origin
Metroid II: Return of Samus came out for the Game Boy and, unlike its predecessor, it was in black and white. For this reason, the developers had to make a series of changes to make clear the change of costume of our beloved protagonist throughout the game.
Yes, in the NES Metroid, when Samus gets the climate Suit, this is made evident by the outfit the bounty hunter wears changing color, in Metroid II they fixed this adding shoulder pads to our heroine’s armor. A most original solution, no doubt.
His cameos in other games
We couldn’t talk about trivia about Samus Aran and not mention her appearances in other games. Like any good self-respecting Nintendo character, the bounty hunter did not stay only in her video games, but also has cameos in other titles of the big N.
A) Yes, Samus makes an appearance in games like Kirby’s Dream Land 3 and Super Mario RPGas well as in Tetris or in F-1 Race, among others.
Samus Aran and Ellen Ripley, separated at birth
We finish our curiosities about Samus Aran talking about a character with whom she has many similarities. Metroid fans may have already noticed, but our beloved bounty hunter bears many similarities to Ellen Ripley, the protagonist of the Alien saga.
Without going any further, the objective of both is to face an alien threat and exterminate a powerful intergalactic being. But not only that, but the relationship between Ripley and the xenomorphs has many parallels with that of Samus and the metroids.
So far our review of the curiosities of Samus Aran. We hope you have enjoyed the article, do not hesitate to leave us your opinion in the comments.