Luigi's Nintendo Awesomeness #2-Metroid

I created this one around the time that Metroid had its 25th anniversary. I talked about what I thought made Metroid awesome and, of course, went into the history of the franchise. I stared adding more information and "fun facts" about the topics I was talking about. Apparently, I made new posts every week on Wednesdays, which would influence the title of the blog after this second one.

The Screw Attack (right) is used as the series logo and Samus Aran (left) is the protagonist.

OVERVIEW

The first Metroid, which was a combination of Mario's smooth running and jumping and Link's exploration and upgradable inventory, was released on August 6, 1986 in Japan for the Nintendo Entertainment System and a year later in the US. The Metroid series follows bounty hunter Samus Aran as she (Yes SHE) tries to stop the plans of the Space Pirates and eradicate the deadly species known as Metroids. The game was produced by Gunpei Yokoi, who's other notable works include: Game & Watch series, the Game Boy, and the notorious Virtual Boy (more on those later). The music score was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka who also worked on other Nintendo properties like Kid Icarus, Balloon Fight, Duck Hunt and others.

The main man behind Metroid. R.I.P. 1941-1997Tanaka's score gave Metroid an eerie and creepy atmosphere.

IMPACT IN GAMING

Before Metroid was released females usually got the role of damsel in distress and other weak roles. Metroid was one of the first games to have a female protagonist and its credited with making it possible for females to get leading, non-stereotypical roles in video games. When playing the game, people didn't even know she was a woman as she was in her suit the entire game. It wasn't until the end of the game that you found out who you were playing as. Depending on how fast you reached the end, there were 5 possible endings. At the time the concept of different endings was unheard of, but are pretty common in games now. Nintendo has continued this tradition by awarding players with different endings, but as of Metroid Prime the different ending you see is dependent on the percentage of items you have and not the time it took to complete the game. Trying to find all the endings that Metroid had started a different way to play called speed running. Speed running, which is trying to finish a game as fast as possible, is done competitively today in tournaments. At the time, most games were linear and had the player go in a specific, pre-set path. Metroid and Zelda both had you go whichever path you chose, allowing you to find your own way through the game.

This is the ending you got if you beat the game in under 10 hours.
(Ending 2 of 5)

This is the ending you got if you beat the game in under 5 hours.
(Ending 4 out of 5)

METROID AS A SERIES

Metroid spawned one of the most critically and fanatically acclaimed series that, as of now, has 11 other original games, a remake of the original on the Game Boy Advance (Metroid: Zero Mission) and a compilation of the Prime series (Metroid Prime Trilogy). The sense of exploration, being alone in a massive world, its music, the characters and the design make it a popular and my 3rd personal favorite video game series. Collectively, the series has won numerous awards from many print and online publications like IGN, Game Informer, EGM, Nintendo Power and others.  

This is my complete collection of every Metroid game that has ever been released. At the bottom left is the game that started it all.

METROID FUN FACTS

• Typing "Justin Bailey 000000 000000" in the password entry screen lets you play as an armor-less Samus.
• The feature mentioned above is not in the Japanese game since it had battery-backed save data and no passwords.
• If you didn't already know, and you didn't ready any of the above...Samus is a girl.
• Samus transforms into the Morph Ball because the programmers couldn't draw her on all fours when going into small spaces because of the limitations of the NES.
• Metroid takes inspiration from the "Aliens" movie.
• In return, a lot of more recent Aliens movies, games, etc. take inspiration from Metroid.
• The sci-fi setting of Metroid inspired games like Contra, which eventually inspired games like Halo.
• Mother Brain (the main villain in Metroid and Super Metroid) was also the main villain in the cartoon series Captain N: The Game Master, where Samus also makes some appearances.
• Metroid Prime for the Nintendo GameCube started a new genre of games. First person adventures.
• Team Ninja (the people responsible for another great game franchise, Ninja Gaiden) collaborated with Nintendo and Metroid's current director Yoshio Sakamoto to make the 2010 game, Metroid: Other M
• Even though Metroid is just as important to Nintendo as Mario and Zelda, they apparently aren't doing anything for the 25th anniversary. This year is Zelda's 25th anniversary too and Nintendo is having re-releases of games, special offers and concerts for the series, but nothing for Metroid.