Metroid/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The subjective tropes from Metroid.

  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Is Adam a truly good, noble man who cares about Samus or an abusive Jerkass who actively tries to demean her?
    • Did the SA-X ignore Samus for the Omega Metroid due to sheer instinct? Or did it develop its assimilated human emotions to the point of wanting to save Samus for being such a Worthy Opponent?
    • Some believe that Phaaze was simply a massive parasitic lifeform, without the sentience to understand the detrimental effects of its reproductive cycle, and that Dark Samus, which was actually a Metroid Prime that assimilated Samus's Phazon suit, enslaved it.
  • And You Thought It Would Fail: According to a interview with Yoshio Sakamoto, Super Metroid was close to being put down not one, not two, but three times. And one of the biggest critics of the game was actually Gunpei Yokoi... yeah, that's right, the creator of the series. Reportedly, he often angrily asked the team "Are you trying to make a goddamn masterpiece?". Well, the game came, and it was pretty much a masterpiece, and Gunpei apparently liked it so much that he for a long time used it as a reference of how a good game should be. Sadly, he and Sakamoto never had the time to make up before his unfortunate death.
  • Anticlimax Boss: Mother Brain in the NES game is a stationary target whose only methods of attack are her turret cannons and rinkas. It's a tricky fight, but if you have enough missiles after you destroy the Zebetites, it's far from insurmountable.
    • Metroid Fusion:
      • Arguably, the Omega Metroid; not only is it nowhere near the strongest boss in the game, it isn't even as strong as its previous appearances in Metroid II. However, it's arguable whether it counts as the final boss; most fans believe that the SA-X is the true final boss, and the Omega Metroid is just designed to be one last challenge before you escape the station.
      • Neo-Ridley. It's just that usually Ridley is That One Boss and this iteration of him is actually pretty easy, or at least comparatively easy. Compared to the final version, this is a joke
    • Super Metroid:
      • Kraid can be taken out with two well-timed Super Missiles before he even finishes rising up from the ground. Ostensibly a glitch, Kraid can be defeated in little time even without it by a seasoned player. Just like his Metroid 1 and Zero Mission versions, he also is fought in an area that has the most intimidating theme song in the game just to make himself even more disappointing as a boss.
      • Draygon, the boss of Maridia, is very vulnerable to cheese. By shooting out the wall turrets in the room, then letting Draygon grab you, you can Grapple Beam onto the turrets and electrocute Draygon, killing it in seconds. He's the only boss vulnerable to Shinesparks, and two or three of them can kill him in under a minute. Finally, if you use a glitch to get the Plasma Beam early, you can zap him with a Charged Plasma Beam and then repeatedly use the X-Ray Beam, which resets Plasma's damage, allowing Draygon to be beaten by firing a Charge Shot at it and then rapidly tapping A.
      • For a Final Boss, Mother Brain isn't all that challenging. She has three attacks for most of the fight, then gets a fourth when low on health, but none of them deal very much damage and are fairly easy to avoid. The room is a single screen large and, due to Mother Brain's sprite design, the player can almost always hit her by aiming diagonally up at her. Finally, if the player comes here with even a moderate amount of missile upgrades, Mother Brain will go down fairly quickly. This all adds up to a Final Boss where you just stand in the corner of the room with a shoulder button held down bombarding them with missiles, only needing to occasionally jump to avoid an attack.
    • And Mecha-Ridley in Metroid: Zero Mission, who is incredibly easy. He gets more challenging, however, if you've gotten 100% of the items, or if you're doing a 15% item run.
  • Awesome Art: Ever since Super Metroid, nearly every game in this franchise (most notably Metroid Fusion and the original Metroid Prime) has had some of the best graphics on its system.
  • Awesome Music: Has its own page.
  • Base Breaker: Other M, particularly Samus' portrayal.
    • Zero Suit Samus from Super Smash Bros.. Brawl also has this effect on a certain portion of the fandom.
    • Adam Malkovich, in large part due to being the face of the controversial authorization mechanic, Samus' questionable role model, and for shooting Samus in the back with a Metroid hovering right above.
  • Complete Monster: Ridley in the manga, which isn't all that far off, all things considered. His whole motivation for what he does is implied to be nothing but simply For the Evulz.
  • Demonic Spiders: The X infected Ki-hunters in Metroid Fusion do massive amounts of damage even by this game's standards and are faced during a section where you've likely taken tons of damage from an SA-X chase. They're also reasonably durable without using Power Bombs until you get the Plasma Beam. In fact, the first room after you obtain the Plasma Beam, you encounter rows of Ki-hunters, specifically designed to show off the new weaponry.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Ridley has gathered a big fanbase around him (and in the manga, he was essentially the one who steals the show). Also, Rundas from Metroid Prime 3, Sylux from Metroid Prime Hunters (the appearance of a ship that looks like the Delano 7 in the 100% ending of Corruption may have been a nod to Sylux's popularity), and Anthony Higgs from Metroid: Other M.
    • The Nightmare boss in Metroid Fusion is extremely memorable due to the sheer horror of all the things that surround it. That's probably why it was brought back for Metroid: Other M.
  • Epileptic Trees: In Fusion, the extent to which Samus absorbs the X is only vaguely hinted at. Thus, it's unclear as to whether she's absorbing their DNA, or just their energy.
    • It's believed that the Ing are a form of semi-solidified Phazon. This is supported by the appearance of the Phaze-Ing in Prime 3, which is basically a blue Inglet. This could very well be untrue, though, as it raises a lot of other questions...
    • What. Metroids absorb energy. Samus is imbued with Metroid DNA. Therefore, Samus is absorbing energy.
    • Almost nothing is known for certain about Sylux, except that it hates both Samus and the Federation. Fertile ground for the trees right there, including that it is female.
    • Nobody really knows what Kraid is or what his actual connection with the Space Pirates is, beyond being a high-ranking member, but everyone sure loves to speculate. Pre-Zero Mission, a lot of them focused on whether he grew or was enhanced between the original game and Super Metroid, because he went from being tiny to being huge.
    • The identity of the dead soldier lying outside Kraid's room in Super Metroid. The body's purpose is to this day unknown, and has prompted much discussion and speculation over who it was, what faction it was with, and why it was there. Theories abound among fans, with claims that it could be anyone from Expanded Universe bounty hunter Houston Armstrong to Weavel (from Prime Hunters). It doesn't help matters that the soldier is the only human-looking sprite left on Zebes.
  • Even Better Sequel: Metroid basically created the modern Metroidvania genre, and Metroid II wasn't exactly bad, either, but it wasn't until Super Metroid that things really got swinging.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: There is a Metroid Manga that is supposedly canon, but is ignored even by most who bothered to look it up in the first place.
  • Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Tall, buxom, gorgeous, athletic, highly flexible, intelligent, a strong and aloof exterior hiding a girl in need of a big hug... We could be here all night.
  • Franchise Original Sin: After eight years in rest since Super Metroid, the franchise exited hibernation with two well-received games in 2002, one of them being Metroid Fusion. Despite the positive reception, a point of criticism from fans was its stronger focus on a story, more linear level design and game progression, and it was even the first time Samus interacted with another character in-game. Since the generally poor reception of Metroid: Other M (particularly that game's choices in characterizing Samus Aran and making the game very linear), many have tried to lay the blame for that direction at the feet of Metroid Fusion.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Much of the Japanese series' fanbase is based in America, which might be why the 3D revival of the series was given to an American development studio.
    • In fact, Other M was designed mostly to get the Japanese to buy it; it worked, but at the cost of losing a good part of the (much larger) American fanbase.
  • Goddamned Bats: Mellows and Weavers in Brinstar, and pretty much any lava enemy in Norfair. The titular enemies, however, skip right over this into Demonic Spider territory.
    • In Fusion, the winner goes to the species of X-infected Ki-Hunters. They're quite quick, contact damage with them takes about 50 energy, and their stinging attack takes a way a full energy tank. They're also found right before and after you have to flee from a super powerful SA-X, causing frustration for anyone who gets unlucky and isn't able to reach a save spot in time.
  • Growing the Beard: The first two Metroid games were fine games, but had very noticeable flaws. The original Metroid had very confusing environments and downright merciless difficulty. Metroid II added some very welcome improvements such as the Save Stations, attempted more diverse environments and cut slack on the difficulty, but was a more slow paced, linear adventure as a tradeoff. Super Metroid improved all of that, and everything else. It had better gameplay, better bosses (including one of the most highly regarded Final Bosses of all time), masterfully told a minimalist story and most importantly, finally added a map. It also practically defined the Metroidvania genre.
  • Hell Is That Noise: "Skreee!"
    • Ridley's screech in Fusion and Zero Mission is like listening to someone use a chainsaw on a chalkboard.
    • The 'tap tap tap' sound from Fusion will be in your nightmares.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: This interview is funny as hell now that Other M has been released, and ends up making most of the complaints much much Older Than They Think.
  • Internet Backdraft: The Zero Suit alone has sparked discussions and flamewars about whether or not Nintendo turned Samus into a slut. Whether your definition of Stripperific extends to Latex Space Suit or goes to Absolute Cleavage and Thong of Shielding will determine your standing.
  • It's Short, So It Sucks!: Metroid Fusion drew some criticism for its short length.
  • It Was His Sled: When the original game first came out, many players were shocked to discover that Samus Is a Girl. Not so much anymore, in large part because one of the original reasons why it was originally so shocking (a girl protagonist in a video game?!) is pretty pat nowadays.
  • The Jimmy Hart Version: The rising four-note phrase in Mother Brain's battle music from Super Metroid actually sounds a lot like the three-note motif used for Man in Bambi.
  • Memetic Badass: Samus, as evidenced by her nickname on this very site: The Intergalactic Queen of Badass.
    • Also, Admiral Castor Dane, in part due to a scene where it seems he's standing in the Urtagian acid rain, which is strong enough to kill well-armored Samus in a few seconds, with no protection[1].
  • Memetic Mutation: "REMEBEH ME??!?!?" After the trailer was released, it took about .372 seconds for "Mysterious Black Guy" to become a meme.
    • TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUBES! Space Pirates are reputed to have an obsession with tubes, especially ones which are just the right size for Samus to use in morph-ball mode.
    • The logs found in the Prime series reveal that Science Team has lots of enthusiasm for research but not much success, leading to the memetic comment that "Science Team has vapor for brains."
    • "That seems inefficient"
  • Memetic Sex Goddess: Believe it or not, Samus was a sex symbol long before the games made the jump to 3D. Doing so simply took her status as such Up to Eleven.
  • Misblamed: At one point, Yoshio Sakamoto gave an interview with Kotaku where he said that he initially wanted Other M to be "on-rails." What he meant by on-rails was "on a 2D sidescrolling plane." What the article gave the impression of with what he said, however, was "Rail Shooter." Unfortunately, the misinformation spread like wildfire, and fans were up in arms over how Sakamoto was trying to derail the series with an unneeded Genre Shift. The uproar dissipated once Sakamoto was able to clarify what exactly he meant.
  • My Real Daddy: After the base-breaking insanity of Metroid: Other M, many would say that Retro Studios should handle the series from here on out, due to the critical and commercial acclaim of the Metroid Prime trilogy.
  • Narm: Some of the sound effects in the Famicom Disk System version can be this: most prominently, the Screw Attack sounding like an electronic fart, and Kraid/Ridley sounding like they say "OW!" whenever they get hit.
  • Never Live It Down: Fans like to say that any planet Samus lands on will explode at some point. They must not think Tallon IV, Aether, Norion, Bryyo, Elysia, and the Pirate Homeworld exist, then.
    • And even then, Zebes' destruction wasn't her fault. And, even though she was directly responsible for Dark Aether and Phaaze blowing, it's pretty much safe to say that it's a very good thing they were destroyed.
  • Paranoia Fuel: in Metroid Fusion, when the X Parasite takes over your former suit, you get to see a cutscene announcing there's another "Samus" lurking in the game. It has all of Samus's powerups, aside from the Gravity Suit and (oh thank god) the X-ray scope. Good luck trying to play it without being nervous.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Retroactively. Many find Computer-Adam in Metroid Fusion to be a far more pleasant character than his living counterpart in Metroid: Other M. His line of "Would he sit in a safe Command Room and order you to die?" could even be interpreted as a Take That! to an incredibly stupid move the original Adam made.
  • Sacred Cow: Super Metroid is frequently cited as THE pinnacle of game design and environmental storytelling. While most of the other Metroid games have at least a few criticisms, Super Metroid is easily the definitive Metroid game for most Metroid fans.
  • Scrappy Level: The second play through of Sector 2 TRO, in Fusion, is arguably the hardest part of the game due to the plant overgrowth, lack of weak enemies, and the fact that every enemy you do encounter deals at minimum 1 bar of energy in damage (nevermind the SA-X, who takes 3 of them every time you touch her).
    • You get a hint of what's to come after beating the boss in your first visit. All those creepy little worms suddenly pupate...and when you get back to one of the tall rooms you use the pupae to climb, you can see their adult shapes forming inside.
  • Scrappy Mechanic: In the NES game: no matter how many energy tanks you collect, Samus will always start with exactly 30 health. To avoid Fake Difficulty and getting killed within seconds of walking in a room with tougher enemies, players must give in to Fake Longevity by farming weaker enemies for health (which takes even longer after getting your first missile expansion, since enemies will often drop missiles instead of health regardless of how many missiles you're currently carrying).
    • Wall-jumping in Super Metroid, due to the unforgiving timing required to pull it off correctly. Fortunately, there is only one optional occasion where you have to use it before you acquire the Space Jump, which is a much easier way of doing the same thing. Fusion, Zero Mission, and Other M subsequently made wall jumping a lot easier.
    • And then some difficult romhacks of Super make the timing even more unforgiving...
      • Any long-time Metroid player's blood pressure goes up when they see water in a Metroid game.
  • Scrappy Weapon: As a general tradition of Metroid games (not counting Metroid 1, the Metroid 2 trilogy and Metroid Fusion), standard Missiles basically become one of these once you make it far enough into the game; the only purposes that they serve effectively enough to justify their limited ammo are opening doors, making "early game" enemies easier, and being an extremely easy thing to "rapid fire" into bosses. Oh, and that's not even mentioning how much more powerful Samus' beam often ends up becoming when compared to standard Missiles (especially in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Super Metroid)...
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny:
    • The original Metroid got this in recent years, due to the confusing layout comprised of Cut and Paste Environments(which was more of a result of the NES's limitations) and clunky controls. At the time, it was rather innovative, creating the Metroidvania genre and its famous twist at the end of the game, which is pretty much common knowledge by now.
    • The open world exploration may seem kinda basic and slow nowadays, but back in 1994, no SNES game was as huge as Super Metroid (it was the largest SNES game released at that point).
      • While the game's overall design is still held in universal high regard, several players hold the controls to have aged poorly. Issues include Samus's floaty jumping, a redundant run button, having to switch between various weapons with the Select button, and not having Missile mode simply being activated by a trigger. For newer Metroid fans, the smoother controls of later 2D games can make Super Metroid's controls hard to get accustomed to.
  • Sequel Difficulty Drop: Super Metroid eliminated the Fake Difficulty of Metroid 1 by having actually good game/level design, while Metroid 2 was considerably more linear than Metroid 1.
    • Also, Metroid Prime 3 eliminated quite a bit of the combat difficulty of Metroid Prime 2 by giving Samus an always-available Hyper Beam.
    • And, of course, Metroid Fusion was so much more linear than Super Metroid that it practically played itself.
  • Special Effect Failure: In Metroid Fusion, whenever the Omega Metroid slashes with its claw, something about the animation looks wrong even when played at normal speed, as though the Omega Metroid is reaching too far considering the length of its arm. Viewing the animation frame-by-frame reveals the problem: its whole right arm briefly disconnects from the rest of its body. There are a couple frames where the disembodied arm is clearly just awkwardly floating in the air a good distance away from the Omega Metroid itself.
  • Squick: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it example. As you are entering the Olympus, you see Ghor in containment room being scanned. During this time, you see him scratching his head. The problem? This also means that he is scratching his brain.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: "Lower Brinstar" from Super Metroid seems to rather-fittingly be one of these to Metroid 1's "Kraid's Lair", which it occasionally gets remixed into a Dark Reprise of by Metroid fans.
  • That One Boss: Yakuza, Nightmare... And Ridley is hardly a fair fight, in any game.
    • If Ridley and Mother Brain are too easy for you, then Kraid in the NES game will more than make up for it. His attack pattern is merciless: he is constantly shooting spikes from both the front of his body and spikes above his body, with only a brief pause every three volleys of attacks. Unless you have superman reflexes or patience, you will take a lot of damage during the fight. It only takes 25 missiles to kill him, but his stomach spikes can easily block your shots and missiles (and while you can freeze the belly spikes, doing it before he launches them can actually make him harder to fight), and he can quickly turn around if you get behind him, leaving little room for you to attack him. And if you die while fighting him, he can switch to a second attack pattern the next round, which can catch a new player off guard.
  • That One Level: Maridia in Super Metroid generally gets this opinion, due to the quicksand sections slowing down gameplay as well as being more labyrinthine than most of the other levels in the game.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Metroid Fusion's linear progression caused waves of Internet Backdraft.
    • Metroid: Other M is now included mostly because of its interpretation of Samus's personality.
      • And the Retcon for Adam to be Samus' father figure as opposed to the Chozo Old Bird and Gray Voice
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The hunters' backstories are this.
    • Not only do we never find out what happened to the rest of the Diamont, we never even find out how Spire got separated from them in the first place.
    • Sylux's backstory states that it has a deep-seated hatred of the Galactic Federation, especially Samus. That's pretty much all we ever find out. Though his ship is possibly seen in The Stinger for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, so there's a chance of developing this.
  • Tough Act to Follow:
    • According to an interview, the biggest reason there was not a Metroid game for the Nintendo 64 was because nobody could figure out how to make a worthy successor to Super Metroid. Thankfully, when Metroid Prime was released, it mostly avoided this.
    • Metroid Fusion, the true sequel, was pretty much designed to improve many features from Super Metroid, while also ramping up the difficulty. Unfortunately, in replacing the exploration-driven gameplay with a linear plot that forbids backtracking, and discarding environmental storytelling in favor of an annoying Voice with an Internet Connection that practically dictates your every move, Metroid Fusion was seen as this when it first came put. Also, outside of 100% completion, most of the difficulty in Metroid Fusion comes from simply making the enemies hit harder, while combat in Super Metroid was comparatively varied.
  • Ugly Cute: The Metroids are either this or absolutely terrifying.
  • Unwinnable by Insanity: The TRO Trap glitch in Metroid Fusion, which messes up the game's scripting and makes it impossible to finish if you Sequence Break past Yakuza and fight Nettori first. Thing is, it requires a hard to execute shinespark maneuver to execute it, so you'd have to be doing it on purpose in order to trigger the glitch.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: The voice that did the line "The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace." in Super Metroid is actually voiced by a man named Dan Owsen, who, according to Kenji Yamamoto, was someone who made frequent visits to Japan. And so they selected him to do the voice in the opening script.
  • Vindicated by History: Super Metroid was initially overshadowed by Donkey Kong Country in the US and the UK. It was not until Metroid Prime became an unexpected hit that Metroid was considered to have franchise potential beyond being series of videogames games, but fans of Metroid Prime also looked back on Super Metroid to see what they had missed, and Super Metroid soon became a Sacred Cow among Nintendo fans of these regions, akin to Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
    • Metroid Fusion was originally the black sheep of the franchise, with its focus on storytelling and linearity dividing fans. Now, it's remembered more for its boss fights and interesting deviations, while Metroid: Other M gets the insults.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: Especially for an over-20-year-old game, Super Metroid has some very detailed and very cool sprite-based graphics.
  • The Woobie: A young girl is the Sole Survivor of not one, but two holocausts, the first of which happens when she's three?
  1. ↑ The flagship above him probably acts as an umbrella, but you still have to wonder if some rain gets around it...
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