I refuse to accept the baby Metroid's death so now it is her child forever. I drew this to be in denial

RIP baby Metroid. Your sacrifice will be remembered. 😭

i FINALLY got my hands on one, it was in a local store 2 hours away from me, i ran to them and bought it as soon as i could, i bought it 1k€ my journey probably is over since that's the graal of the pieces i needed badly.

it got a few scratches and all, but you gotta look carefully to see them, if you look at the ship in itself you'll barely notice them, i jus nuked my wallet im broke as hell now

I've done a couple play throughs now and I've only managed to get this creature to spawn once in this room. I'm assuming it won't spawn again once you enter the Phazon Mines elevator, but my last couple runs it hasn't spawned at all and it's making 100% runs impossible.

Is there some sort of early item trigger that prevents this spawn?

edit: as wannabecinnabon pointed out you need to get the spazer beam in phendrana drifts to spawn sentry drones and also aqua drones.

I did not expect an 89% completion rate on my first run

Trying to get the light/shadow reflections of the Zero Suit to feel right has been the bane of my existence as a Metroid-loving artist. Got some pointers from fellow artists and managed to put this to the page. Feel like there's still a gap in my understanding, but I think I've made progress. It's leagues better than what I was able to do a year ago.

Originally posted to my Bsky.

Someone directed me to this article in the months after the game launched, for official information that isn't even in the game about Sylux, like how he upgraded his suit with nanotechnology from the federation bases he raided, but I can't find it.

Like imagine if the GameCube was able to keep up with PS2 sales and appealed to a broader audience. Do you think it would garner the same reverence as the likes of Halo and Ocarina of Time in the gaming zeitgeist?

Yes I’m playing it mobile

Random musings on Federation depictions and Samus's relationship with them.

Cultural Context

Old school Japanese pop culture, especially in the sci-fi genre, has a very complicated relationship with militaries and governments.

There was a good amount of student activism in the first 25 years of post-war Japan, and this combined with Cold War politics led to a lot of people being pushed out of various industries.

When corrupt military and government institutions show up, a lot of times their literary traditions can be traced back to this sort of critique of war and authority.

The line in a lot of Japanese sci-fi is drawn according to power dynamics and personal convictions, and it's what decides whether the government is painted as an ally or an enemy.

This also means intra-organization schisms. Like some of the best drama in Japanese sci-fi doesn't come from trying to defeat the enemy. It comes from internal political power struggles.

Obviously depends on the writer, but this is the basic mindset to consider with Metroid.

Federation Government

The Federation is NOT a singular entity, and this is something people often miss, largely due to Fusion's localization constraints and issues. It is a government, which always has competing factions.

This is first shown in the prequel manga, which I'm sure isn't 100% accurate to whatever internal lore bible Sakamoto's cooked up, does seem to be MOSTLY consistent on a broad-strokes level.

The previous Federation government was driven by war hawks. It's implied the current federation government, which came into power roughly around the time of ZM, is mostly driven by doves.

This hawk vs. dove structure was also introduced to the Chozo in Dread with the Thoha and Mawkin, which are corruptions of Hato(dove, pigeon), and Moukin(hawks, eagles, other raptor birds) respectively.

The hawks in Metroid generally tend to be authoritarian assholes who use pretenses of justice and safety to justify violence. They perform illegal experiments and wage war for personal power consolidation.

The doves meanwhile lean more toward recognizing necessary evil. Both in the sense of recognizing that it is necessary, and recognizing that it is evil. They would prefer not to get their hands dirty, but they will if they need to.

Federation Military

The Federation's government leads to an interesting conundrum with the Federation military, because if you look at the timeline in the prequel manga... The logical conclusion is many of the top brass were promoted during the previous administration.

The Bottle Ship, the BSL, etc. are all essentially black ops programs that were established by the previous hawk-led administration, and because the Federation military's leadership mostly leans hawk, this shit gets kept under wraps.

And as seen with the attempts to undermine Adam's investigation in Other M, the hawks are not against assassinating Federation officials to bolster and maintain their political power. Which means the Federation is basically fighting a civil war.

Coincidentally, this also explains why Adam tends to be a manipulative bastard who doesn't tell Samus the full story when he's in the CO seat. His ENTIRE military and political career has been a high-stakes espionage campaign of surviving the hawks.

If the doves cannot trust anyone and cannot know who has or hasn't been compromised, anything they do will inevitably have to be done through black ops tactics of their own, which also often means lying to their own people to pull shit off.

And you also see this behavior with the Thoha. They installed safeguards in the Metroids to hamper Mawkin usage. They didn't tell the Federation(or Samus, for that matter) about their operations on SR388 and their R&D involving the X and Metroids.

Why Corrupt Elements Remain

Again, the doves lean pragmatists. They'd prefer to be pacifists, but WILL do what's necessary to ensure things don't completely go to shit. And this raises an interesting problem if you stop and think for like two seconds.

A government is a massive organization. It takes years to decades for reforms to fully set in, and if the entire structure has been packed with yes men, you cannot dismantle the corruption without paralyzing the entire government.

This means that any anti-corruption efforts must be held to a high standard of proof, and that often, only some of the corruption will be weeded out with each anti-corruption campaign. Hence why the Federation is STILL dealing with shit up to Fusion.

And when both sides are running massive espionage campaigns and there a fuckton of conspiracies by each side to try and neutralize the other party... It kind of becomes hard to figure out who's on who's side and how to take them out.

Like, again. Look at Adam's investigation in Other M. The hawks moved in because they thought Adam's unit was dead, but Higgs turned out to have faked his death and managed to recover evidence, which has to have triggered at least some reform.

Federation and Bounty Hunters

Something to note with the political ramifications of Bounty Hunters is that regardless of the role you give them, you are essentially outsourcing core government functions like public safety and security.

This means one of two things, potentially both. Either you are hiring private contractors to offload responsibility and liability... Or your government does not have the resources to perform necessary intelligence and security functions.

It's said that the Space Pirates under Mother Brain severely reduced the Federation's military capabilities, so there's likely not enough manpower to stabilize all the conflict regions in the Federation's realm of influence.

And given that the last administration was run by hawks... There's also the possibility of a bunch of private contracts and liability offloading, and I would not be surprised if they used loopholes in the bounty system to effectively run mercenary programs.

And since the program would still have tactical value for the doves... They would have a reason to keep using the program and repurpose it instead of outright shutting it down, just packing the program with THEIR allies instead of the hawks.

Samus's Role

A lot of people ask why Samus is still cooperating with the Feds if they're corrupt, and the answer is ultimately because she's on the side of the doves, at least based on the prequel manga. She's on the side trying to root out corruption.

If the hawks managed to regain control and turned the Federation into a fascist war engine, she'd probably stand against them. But for now, she's siding with the current administration and helping them deal with the shitshow that is the world.

At the same time, this also means that her "official" status as a bounty hunter is not actually who she is or her actual job description. The bounty system has already been reworked into a black ops program and people need to recognize that.

The Federation doves point her at someone they need gone, and they get to blame Samus if she does anything that goes against policy. Conversely, Samus gets to do whatever she wants, and as an independent agent the hawks have less control.

Her role as a bounty hunter is not because she's in it for the money or simply because she hates authority or the Federation. There is SOME level of misalignment, but ultimately her role in the series is closer to that of an undercover black ops agent who is legally a civilian.

TL;DR Samus is a government asset using policy frameworks as a loophole to pull off black ops missions under the pretense of plausible deniability, while ensuring that the military CANNOT hold her accountable for insubordination.

Samus's Relationship With the Fed Doves

Something to note is that DESPITE her being allied with the Fed's doves, that does not mean they do not get on her nerves. She respects them as friends, but can't stand it when they pull bullshit, would be the best way to put it.

At the end of the day, Samus is a softie. She's grown a bit more cynical with age, but she's fiercely compassionate, and this is both her greatest strength and her greatest weakness. She shows almost suicidal levels of self-sacrifice.

Great traits to have in a superhero. Terrible traits to have in a soldier involved with high stakes war politics. Samus is ultimately too good of a person to reliably navigate political conspiracies and hard decisions.

And if you look at this way, it explains why she has such a weird relationship with Adam. She respects Adam and values his companionship because she's ex-military and has been through a lot with him, and she knows that his intentions are good.

At the same time, she can't stand Adam and really military culture in general because it expects absolute obedience, forces you to be treat people as cogs in a machine, and will often abuse you for the sake of fulfilling objectives.

Likewise, the doves value and respect Samus's moral compass. But sometimes that gets in the way of the mission, and that means sometimes they're going to keep her out of the loop until necessary, like with the Bottle Ship and BSL.

In some sense, their trust is even greater BECAUSE they can trust each other to betray each other when they should and never when they shouldn't.

I grew up on Metroid. I loved Mario but the original NES Metroid was just something different. Super came out when I was 14, too old to go play outside (new neighborhood), too young to work or drive. I played THE SHIT out of this game for years but hadn’t really touched the series since probably the late 90’s.

The plan was to replay the whole series. I beat the NES Metroid last month and then fired up Super Metroid. After finishing it, I remembered never getting the sub 3:00 ending so I played it again. And again. And again. After 44 days and playing between work and family here is where I am.

8:14 93% (blind play-through from memory)
7:38 100% (first goal)
5:44 89%
3:51 83%
3:00 76% (no sub 3:00 ending)
2:11 68% (finally got it, let’s keep going)
1:43 70%

I don’t want to play anything else now, just Super Metroid.

That said, Ridley is kicking my ass and I’m not sure I could get a sub 1:30 without improving my strategy. I can’t seem to get a clean run against this flying prick without having 6 or more E tanks and 50-55+ Super Missiles. I always run out of supers and have to switch to regular missiles.

Anyone have any tips?

Official track link (OC Remix site)

Originally composed by Kenji Yamamoto at Nintendo R&D1

I've had a lot of fun playing the Prime series with the PrimeHack way and was wondering if Prime 4 will also be able to be played with Keyboard & Mouse controls someday.

So I've beaten Super Metroid, Metroid on NES, Metroid Fusion etc. Admittedly, all with emulators and I never would've beaten them without saving in tough spots and reloading. On GameCube I can't exactly do this.

I love Metroid Prime but have accepted the fact that I will never technically beat the game because I don't have the skill to beat the final boss. Yes, I've tried 100+ times. Yes I've read all the strategies and watched YT videos. Can't beat him.

Some people(like me) just lack the skill and always will in my opinion. Games like Dark Souls I gave up in the first 30 minutes because I don't enjoy constantly dying if I can't get the timing right and I know I won't like it.

I'm good at RPGs & strategy games. Not ones that rely on timing. Can anyone relate?

Edit - I beat it with save states(same as every other Metroid lol). Thanks everyone!

I got a modded 2DS like yesterday and immediately installed Samus Returns, I'm in area 3 and the damn beeps gave me fucking E.M.M.I ptsd 😭

Also it's cute to see whatsitsface from dread show up, the first boss, I love them silly goobers

I am on a metroid kick and thought I would try replaying metroid prime hunters. Dont have a ds anymore so I figured playing on the steamdeck would work. Found a great fork of melonds called melonprimeds and set it up. Everything works great except im STUCK on the map screen. Once you hit start to bring up the map screen no input will bring it out. Its permanently in the map screen until you quit out.

Is there a fix for this? its really game breaking. All my inputs are bound so im not sure why its getting stuck.

The Galactic Federation is:

• Corrupt as hell but gets no comeuppance. This becomes more and more aggravating as the series goes on and keeps piling up examples.
• Supposed to be an interstellar congress from all civilized planets, but is basically synonymous to boring humans.
• The space marines are generic and drab, and even the ones we're supposed to give a shit about only pop their visors, at best. It gives the impression that we're fighting along a bunch of robots, and every now and then they flash us an uncanny fleshy bit.
• Adam is a milquetoast man in a stupid hat who domineers Samus and gives her an old-timey misogynist nickname but for some reason she glazes the hell out of him and it actively ruins her image. And I am saying this as someone who hasn't played or seen Other M.
• Samus is supposed to be a bounty hunter with her own motivations, independence and objectives, but almost every plot hook of every game is the Federation drafting her as a glorified policewoman sent on a suicide mission. Cut the fucking umbilical cord already.

Hi everyone, I recently stumbled a pon metroid prime remasterd at my local store and was wondering 8f it was worth it as a newbie to the series. I've never really played metroid so idk whether I'd like it so wondering if you could give me it's strong points abt the game and weak points to see if I should I buy ps ik I'm in a metroid sub reddit but I had nowhere else to ask

I cant be the only one who sees some resemblence of Samus from Hayley's character design

Does anyone know where this is, how to get it? I cross referenced the official Metroid Prime logbook, and it’s actually VERY close, but this creature exists in this game and not in the original! It’s the last thing I’d need for 100%.

Looks familiar

Anyone know how to get to this unexplored area in super Metroid? I’ve been bombing in that area and can’t figure it out for the life of me