Metroid: let's review history, waiting for Dread

Metroid

Excluding remakes and spin-offs, a new Metroid hasn't been released for eleven years now. Even twenty-seven have passed since the last purely two-dimensional chapter for home consoles. The October 8, 2021 will arrive on Nintendo Switch Metroid Dread, which in terms of story - according to Sakamoto - will give a conclusion to the events narrated in the previous chapters.

In this article we will remember the story of each episode of Metroid: before going into the details, however, two premises are necessary.

Metroid Dread: arriving on October 8, 2021 on Nintendo Switch. The first concerns the Metroid Prime series which, although excellent, although considered by many to be more important and successful than the two-dimensional one, is treated by Nintendo as a separate entity; it was developed by Retro Studios, far from Japan, and Sakamoto has always considered it "other" than "his" creature of him. The events are not external to the saga, but they constitute a great parenthesis: they are placed between Metroid and Metroid II. Other than this, no two-dimensional episode ever mentions what happens to Samus Aran, the famous heroine of the saga, during the chapters developed in Texas.

Metroid Prime: As beautiful as it is, Prime's storyline is partially separated from the main one. The second premise concerns manga (written by Koji Tazawa and drawn by Kenji Ishikawa), published between 2003 and 2004, which mention some interesting events for understanding the story. For example, they stage the events that took place on K-2L: it is a planet / colony of the Earth, where Samus lives with her parents (Rodney and Virginia Aran) up to three years.

At that moment the community is attacked by the Space Pirates, who leave only one survivor (guess who), a little girl then collected, raised and trained by the Chozo civilization (who rushed there following an alarm signal, a constant adventure). The brief service within the Galactic Federation is also shown in the manga, before Samus sets out on her own as a bounty hunter.

With these clarifications, let's continue with our special on the Metroid plot, revisiting the main events of each episode of the series.

Metroid

Metroid: an image of the first game of the series. The events of Metroid were told in two circumstances: the first on NES, the second through the remake Metroid: Zero Mission for the Game Boy Advance. The portable adaptation has put in a whole portion of the adventure in addition, and above all it has added details to the story, so we will take that as a reference.

It all starts when the Galactic Federation is interested in studying metroids, of potentially devastating creatures that, if domesticated, could prove very useful: the Federation, however, is anticipated by the Space Pirates, who could (and would like to) use them as a biological weapon to conquer the galaxy. The Galactic Federation sends a bounty hunter, Samus Aran, to the planet Zebes.

Her mission is to eliminate every metroid on the planet; the most dangerous enemy she faces is Mother Brain (better known as Mother Brain), an omniscient entity that partially controls metroids as well. After defeating her, and after eliminating enemies that will later become typical such as Ridley and Kraid, Samus Aran tries to escape from the planet with her spaceship, but is hit (in the remake) by the Pirates, and returns to Zebes again. , deprived of her Power Suit. In the original game instead, ending the adventure with the escape of the huntress, if you were good enough, this is where you would discover for the first time the sex of Samus Aran.

Metroid: Zero Mission: Samus fights in the remake for Game Boy Advance. In Zero Mission, Samus finds herself in the ruins of the Chozo civilization, from which she was raised. With extreme effort, she manages to recover a Power Suit, a suit that is not a simple armor, but a real exoskeleton. Eventually Samus destroys all the metroids and also the Space Pirates ship, which she escapes using a space lifeboat.

Now there would be the part relating to Metroid Prime but, for the reasons listed above, let's move directly to Metroid II.

Metroid II

Metroid: Samus Returns, the remake of Metroid II for 3DS, developed in collaboration between Nintendo and MercurySteam. The same team that will take care of Metroid Dread. As happened with Metroid, the events of this game were narrated both in the original (Return of Samus) for the Game Boy, and in the remake for Nintendo 3DS; again, the remake (Samus Returns) contains some additional information ... so we'll stick to that.

The Galactic Federation, despite the work done in Zebes, continues to consider metroids an existential threat : For this reason he sends an army to SR-388, the home planet of these hostile creatures. Predictably the military disappear, but they still manage to confirm the presence of other metroids to be destroyed: the Federation still relies on Samus Aran, who is sent to SR-388 with the aim of destroying every existing metroid.

Metroid: Samus Returns: Samus uses the Grapple Beam. At the end of her adventure, the huntress defeats the Sovereign Metroid, which nevertheless leaves behind a cocoon, from which a small metroid emerges: unlike the others, it is curious and anything but hostile, so Samus decides to spare it, sedating the shot already loaded.

Back to the ship, Ridley is there ready to attack her: the battle is fierce, the huntress seems to have the worst, but she is helped by the little metroid just spared. In the end, she takes him away: she leaves him to the scientists of the Galactic Federation, in a space station, to have him examined and studied.

The last existing metroid is in captivity, the galaxy is at peace . Momentarily.

Super Metroid

Super Metroid: the cover of the game. The events of Super Metroid begin immediately after the conclusion of Metroid II. Samus leaves the researchers' space station, and shortly afterwards a distress call arrives from the same place: he goes back, but the laboratory is already devastated, there are deaths everywhere. Samus just has time to witness the kidnapping of the little metroid, by - once again - Ridley, who had followed the huntress as she left SR-388. Ridley takes the puppy to Zebes, and Samus - of course - follows them: on the planet a new base of the Space Pirates has been created, who have not given up on the project of using metroids as a weapon. And that little guy is crucial for cloning to begin.

Super Metroid: considered by many to be the pinnacle of the series, not without reason. Samus Aran kills everyone, including Ridley and Kraid, including Mother Brain. In this last fight, however, the creature transforms into a sort of robotic dinosaur, which not even Samus seems able to beat. Once again, the baby of metroid (no longer so small) comes to her rescue, who considers her a kind of mother: in an attempt to help her he is killed, but his cells merge with Samus's suit, which acquires the 'Hyper Beam. With this new power, he manages to defeat the terrible enemy.

Zebes explodes, the metroids have officially disappeared. At this point we should move on to Metroid Fusion, the fourth official chapter of the saga: however, at a temporal level, here is Metroid: Other M. Although it is a much less popular game than the Primes, its storyline fits well within the overall one, so it's worth talking about.

Metroid: Other M

Metroid: Other M, developed for Wii in collaboration between Nintendo and Team Ninja. Metroid: Other M begins shortly after Super Metroid: scientists remove particles of the little metroid from Samus Aran's suit, and manage to genetically recreate the species. The bounty hunter receives a signal from a seemingly abandoned space station, the Ark Station, and there she finds the 7th Platoon of the Galactic Federation, led by her former leader Adam Malkovich.

Here, together, they discover a secret laboratory designed to develop biological weapons, led by Dr. M. Bergman, which will reserve more than a surprise for Samus, being - in fact - an AI built on the structural basis of Mother Brain (the same initials coincide, "MB").

Among the monstrosities recreated in the laboratory there is also a Ridley clone, but among all the Sector Zero stands out, where there are many metroids: not simple metroids, but more powerful than the previous ones, also resistant to ice . Adam Malkovich sacrifices himself to destroy this portion of the laboratory, detaching it from the rest of the space station, and dying in the enterprise.

Metroid: Other M: The game is full of cutscenes. Dr. Bergman - the AI, not the original - is killed by the Platoon. Samus is forced to confront a Sovereign Metroid and, before leaving again, against a Phantoon: a huge, almost invincible, semi-ghostly beast whose only weak point is the central eye.

The events of Metroid : Other M, despite being largely a Metroid Prime-style parenthesis, help to understand the end of Adam Malkovich, quite important to the next - and so far last - chapter.

Metroid Fusion

Metroid Fusion: Samus with the Fusion Suit. At the beginning of Metroid Fusion, Samus Aran returns to the planet SR-388: this time not to kill metroid - there are no more, apparently - but to escort a team of researchers from a corporation called Biologic Space Laboratories, who study potential creatures. dangerous on hostile and / or wild planets.

The huntress easily kills an apparently harmless creature, from which however an organism flows which contaminates Samus, the Parasite X. She loses consciousness, crashes into the spacecraft, and is urgently transported to the headquarters of the Galactic Federation.

The contamination is treated by a medical team, through a vaccine that contains metroid DNA: the operation is successful, but the suit / exoskeleton is removed, in turn replaced by the Fusion suit, created artificially. Samus is apparently healthy, but the powers of the Fusion Suit are far inferior to the previous ones.

Metroid Fusion: Samus Aran and SA-X meet. He sets off in the spacecraft to investigate the explosion of a research space station owned by Biologic Space Laboratories, where the old contaminated Power Suit had been brought for study. Samus discovers that the entire station is now corrupted by Parasite X, and is full of infected creatures: at the base of it all is SA-X, the same tainted Suit turned into a living being, a kind of Samus doppelgänger.

In the Samus station (look a bit) he also finds some rooms with metroids, which are destroyed by SA-X and freed: the Federation is angry, because he has been working on that project for years, with the goal of getting an Omega Metroid in a few days (for peaceful purposes, apparently). Having discovered this fact, and ruined the laboratory, Samus and the Federation enter into open conflict.

Samus with great difficulty manages to defeat SA-X with a cunning stratagem: once beaten, she discovers that there are various other specimens around the station, because it is able to reproduce in an asexual way. For this reason Samus decides to have the entire structure impacted on SR-388, so as to destroy the space station and planet at the same time.

Metroid Fusion: an organism infected by Parasite X. A key figure of Metroid Fusion it is the station computer, which guides Samus Aran throughout the adventure: the huntress has renamed it Adam, in homage to her old superior. When the AI ​​finds out, it is first moved, then begins to behave with the personality - previously charged - of Malkovich's own.

Samus becomes stronger and stronger, regaining much of his old powers, and manages to defeat SA-X in direct confrontation. The final battle is a three-way battle of sorts, with a Metroid Omega escaped from the lab, Parasite X from another SA-X, and Samus herself. It is a quote at the end of Super Metroid, with the difference that this time, to help Samus to defeat the Metroid Omega, it is the Parasite X that merges with his Suit, bringing it back to the usual warm shades.

Metroid Fusion: In the game, Samus is led by the computer Adam. The station impacts the planet and, as expected, both explode. The metroids disappear and so does Parasite X. Samus Aran escapes in a spaceship, positively surprised that the personalities of the old leaders have been loaded into the AI, but worried that the Federation, due to recent events, may try and punish her.

At the beginning of Metroid Dread a short animated sequence, for anyone unfamiliar with them, should summarize the events described in this article. But the most important thing is that, after nineteen years, she will restart from the conclusion of Metroid Fusion, so as to give a conclusion to the saga.

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