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* [[Big Bad]]: Mother Brain in Metroid and Super Metroid.
* [[Big Boo's Haunt]]: The Chozo Ruins (Prime) and the Wrecked Ship (Super).
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: Two times, one in Super Metroid and another in Fusion. In Super, {{spoiler|Samus was losing in a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] with a [[One-Winged Angel]] Mother Brain, after taking a blow from her ultimate attack. Before Mother can finish the job, the huge Baby Metroid zooms in, drains her energy, and then gives it to Samus, restoring her to full health and granting her the [[Eleventh -Hour Superpower|Hyper Beam.]] And then, it dies [[Heroic Sacrifice|while shielding Samus from Mother Brain's attacks.]] Cue Samus curbstomping the crap out of Mother Brain.}}
** And then in Fusion, {{spoiler|Samus had beaten SA-X, plotted the B.S.L. Station on a collision course with SR-388, and was on her way to her ship to escape. But when she gets to the docking bays, the place is a mess, her ship is missing, and there is a huge shedded skin on the floor. Suddenly, an Omega Metroid comes in and screeches at Samus. With one claw swipe, Samus is knocked down to one HP and immobilized. Before the Metroid could kill her, the SA-X appears and blasts its chest with the Ice Beam, but it is defeated by it. However, Samus absorbs its Core-X, which restored her Ice Beam ability, and proceeded to blast the Metroid to dust.}}
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: Almost every game since Super has one. The exceptions are Zero Mission and Hunters.
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* [[Continuity Nod]]: The remixed music in the latest installments, plus pieces of the original Brinstar and Tourian in ''Super Metroid''. Possibly also parts of Kraid and Ridley's lairs, although Kraid's "Lair" (especially the piece in question) is very far from where it ought to be.
** Something of a Call Forward: The temple that you must sneak through at the end of Metroid Zero Mission? It's part of Maridia from Super Metroid, before presumably sinking into the lake. The Pirate Mothership, however, while in the same spot as Super Metroid's Wrecked Ship, is a [[Word of God|completely different craft.]]
* [[Convection, Schmonvection]]: Averted, in a rare video game example. Without her Varia Suit, Samus can't even get near lava without being burned, and walking into superheated rooms will cause her to take continuous, non-trivial damage. Most Metroid games make the lava dangerous to touch even when the Varia Suit provides resistance to convection; only more powerful armors like the Gravity Suit allow her to walk in lava without getting hurt. In ''Fusion,'' she gains a vulnerability to extreme ''cold'' as well, as a side-effect of the Metroids DNA she was injected with.
** And in ''Other M'', her commander sends Samus into a lava area without letting her use the Varia upgrade. Fans did not take that well.
** It should be noted that the only two games to play [[Convection, Schmonvection]] straight are the original Metroid (hey, it was 1986...) and Metroid II: Return of Samus, in which most players couldn't even tell it *was* lava until they explored a section of Metroid Fusion built to simulate the game... ...or [[All There in the Manual|saw a picture in Metroid II's manual]].
* [[Cool Starship]]: Samus' gunship, natch. The loaner ship she gets from the Federation after totaling her own in ''Fusion's'' opening may count as well.
* [[Copy and Paste Environments]]: One of the reasons that the original is [[Nintendo Hard|hard as hell]], [[Surprise Difficulty|especially for people who played the sequels]]; this was, however, crucial in making a fairly large world without running out of cart space.
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* [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]]: For the most part averted, as most characters get along just fine with their cybernetically-enhanced [[Powered Armor]].
** Ghor is a special case. Though he's only 6% organic, he's a very nice guy. When he interfaces with computers or his battle armor, though, he becomes aggressive and bloodthirsty.
* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]]: Most gamers familiar with platformers go from left to right out of habit, but the original ''Metroid'' forces you to go ''left'' in the first area to get the Morph Ball and continue... which is [[Fridge Brilliance]], as Metroid was one of the first games featuring a sprawling open ended world. Making players go left was a way to make players realize that this wasn't just some sort of sci-fi Mario/Pitfall/Whatever game.
** Perhaps in homage to this, the path to the right is blocked off entirely at the start of ''Super Metroid'' (until you get the speed booster and/or power bombs) and for the entirety of ''Fusion'', as the only path out of the docking bay is to the left.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: While ''[[Metroid]]'' itself is already kind of the [[Darker and Edgier]] alternative to Nintendo's other franchises, the earliest version of ''Metroid Fusion'' (then just called "Metroid IV") was... [http://www.unseen64.net/2008/04/08/metroid-iv-fusion-gba-proto-beta/ very unusual.] It sported a "bladed" logo, a number that looked like it was torn from a claw, a darker color scheme, and a new suit that made Samus look hyper-muscled.
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* [[Doomed Hometown]]: Samus lives through ''two'' of these, first on K-2L and then on Zebes.
* [[Doppelganger Spin]]
* [[Do Well, But Not Perfect]]: {{spoiler|[[Final Boss|Mecha Ridley in ''Zero Mission'']] is coded to be much harder to defeat if [[Hundred -Percent Completion|all the upgrades have been collected]]; if you can go without a few missiles or that last energy tank for the first playthrough, the battle will be [[Anticlimax Boss|remarkably brief]]}}.
* [[Down the Drain]]: Maridia, the crashed frigate, Torvus, Sector 4 - AQA.
* [[The Dragon]]: Ridley is a high-ranking member of the Space Pirates under Mother Brain, and is typically the second-to-last boss fought in every game. He also takes the trope to its literal extreme.
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* [[Elaborate Underground Base]]: Arguably, every game features at least one ([[Die Hard On an X|or ARE one]]), though Tourian (both versions) is probably the most classic example.
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: Phaaze is a [[Genius Loci|living, sentinet planet]] intent on infecting as much of the galaxy as possible with Phazon, Gorea is a starborn monster capable of assimilating anything and everything thrown at it, and Phantoon is a bizarre [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|alien parasite ghost]] that can fuck with local space-time and looks a fair bit like something out of the Lovecraft playbook.
* [[Eleventh -Hour Superpower]]: Beginning with ''Super'', most [[Final Boss|Final Bosses]] have a weapon used only against them.
* [[Emergency Weapon]]: The stun pistol in ''Zero Mission''.
* [[Episode Zero the Beginning]]: ''Zero Mission''
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* [[Grappling Hook Pistol]]: Grapple Beam.
* [[Gratuitous Japanese]]: Maru Mari means something akin to "rolling into a ball". It's the only item in the original Metroid to keep its Japanese name in some translated releases.
* [[Guide Dang It]]: [[Hundred -Percent Completion]] is HARD.
** ''Prime 3'' is the only game in the series to really cut you a break on this. At a certain point in the game, you can launch exploration probes to the various planets you visit. These probes will report back every collectible you have yet to pick up. There are still a handful of items that reside on a derelict ship that you absolutely need to find yourself but otherwise, it is within reason for everyone who plays the game to get 100% without consulting a third party source.
* [[Hailfire Peaks]]: Practically every zone in Fusion is "X meets [[Eternal Engine]]". The original and Super had a lot of "[[Underground Level]] meets X".
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* [[Late to The Party]]: ''Fusion''.
* [[Latex Space Suit]]: Zero Suit Samus.
* [[Lava Is Boiling Kool -Aid]]: In the original Metroid, lava was a red palette swap of acid.
** While later games make lava a [[Convection, Schmonvection|''lot more realistic'']], Samus is still able to dive in it. This is justified by her suit most likely being more dense. In addition, the lava-proof Gravity Suit is a device whose primary function is to treat [[Water Is Air|liquid as air]], so by the time she's completely protected against lava, she should have no problem at all submerging in it.
* [[Left Hanging]]: Some people are a bit annoyed at the lack of a sequel to ''Fusion'', in no small part because the ending to that game addressed but didn't resolve a little factoid: {{spoiler|Samus just ''blew the shit'' out of a Federation-owned scientific laboratory, taking a planet with it. Sure, Samus was getting rid of the repli-Metroids and the X all in one go, but certain elements of the Fed ''wanted'' to keep both of those around so ''they'' could use 'em as weapons... meaning that Samus is, in all likelihood, ''an outlaw now''.}} And then they spend the next near-decade making ''prequels''. Is it a little too much to ask for a game ''about'' this, Nintendo?
* [[Lego Genetics]]: Samus is a human being genetically enhanced by Chozo blood. By ''Fusion'', she's also part-Metroid.
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* [[Minus World]]: In the NES original and Game Boy sequel.
* [[Mistaken for Granite]]: The first Chozo Statue in ''Super Metroid'' seems inanimate until you take the powerup it holds and try to leave, at which point the exit seals and it attacks you.
* [[Multiple Endings]]: The Segmented Endings subtrope, whether based on completion time or [[Hundred -Percent Completion|percentage]].
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Samus' Metroid extermination campaign caused an explosion in the population of the X Parasites, which the Metroids had been designed to kill. Oops.
* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: Ridley started as a dragon space pirate, and adds more to this title in the Prime games, culminating in him being a [[Up to Eleven|mutant zombie cyborg dragon space pirate]].
** In ''Super'', there are two gray Space Pirates that fight by using martial arts, which were called "Ninja Pirates" by fans.
* [[Nintendo Hard]]: Geting 100% without a [[Guide Dang It|guide]] is hard, doing that while beating it in under [[Speed Run|2 hours]] is even harder. If this is you first time playing any particular game, be you a veteren or a newcomer, you WILL die at least 20 times. Now try and get 100% under 2 hours without dying on hard mode!
* [[No -Holds -Barred Beatdown]]: Samus to Mother Brain during the mother of all [[Mama Bear]] moments at the end of ''Super Metroid''. After what Mother Brain did, she completely deserved it.
* [[Noob Bridge]]: The [[Trope Namer]] is a crumbling bridge encountered early in Brinstar in ''Super Metroid'', and the first place in the game that would require any player (of less than insanely good skill) to use the run button. The run button, however, is not part of a standard control scheme even within the Metroid series. Many newbies get stuck there, unaware of the otherwise obvious solution.
* [[No Transhumanism Allowed]]: One of the rare and surprising aversions: not only are cybernetics commonplace and carry no notable social stigma, Samus herself is a [[Half-Human Hybrid|transgenic lifeform]], with her adoptive Chozo caretakers having grafted their species' DNA onto her own to increase her adaptability to the harsh environment of [[Death World|Planet Zebes]]. Further, by the end of ''Metroid Fusion'', Samus is also {{spoiler|part Metroid}}, and that's not even getting INTO her brushes with [[Metroid Prime|Phazon]]...
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* [[Scenery Gorn]]: Old Tourian in ''Super'', {{spoiler|Sector 5 (ARC)}} in ''Metroid Fusion''.
* [[Schematized Prop]]: Many of the more recent games have taken up this trope, most notably using a Power Suit schematic as the item/weapon status screen (''Zero Mission'', ''Prime'', ''Prime 3'', ''Super'', ''Fusion''; the schematized suit was also seen in the instruction manual for ''Metroid II'').
* [[Sci -Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]]: Very few of Samus's weapons have numbers behind them, but those that do are absurdly powerful -- like "fully automatic nuclear explosion launcher" powerful.
* [[Sea Monster]]: The boss Serris is a sea serpent with [[Super Speed]]. Before Serris, there was ''Super'' miniboss Botwoon, who was a serpent like Serris who sped up as he took damage, and could spit acid spread-shots.
** There's also Draygon, the boss of Maridia.
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* [[Sequence Breaking]]: Possibly one of the most well-known examples.
** Even after ''seventeen years'', [[Serial Escalation|people are still discovering new tricks]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMuXUvnk6Hg like this.] (See 14:55 in the video)
* [[Shape ShifterShapeshifter Baggage]]: No attempt is made to explain where Samus stuffs the rest of her body when she assumes Morph Ball form. The games say it is about a meter in diameter, but the visual size is arguably smaller than that. X parasites are another example, morphing from single cells to monstrous creatures instantly.
** Even [[Lampshaded]] in-game when the Space Pirates tried to copy the Morph Ball technology, and ending up breaking every bone in the test subjects' bodies.
** The ''Prime'' series depicts her as being turned into energy when in ball form. How she sees is not explained.
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** There's also the Agon Wastes in ''Echoes'' and the Experimental Simulated Desert in ''Other M''.
* [[Shoulders of Doom]]: The Varia Suit adds them.
* [[Shout -Out]]: Several to the ''[[Alien (Film)|Alien]]'' franchise. Ridley is named after director Ridley Scott, and the opening shot of ''Prime'' is almost identical to that of the first film. Even the title logos have similarities (ALIEN - メトロイド).
** A non-enemy creature in ''Super Metroid'' has a turtle like shell that flies around while spinning. Likely a nod to [[Gamera]]. Or possibly Bowser.
*** Its offspring look strikingly similar to [[Super Mario Bros|Buzzy Beetles]].
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** [[Michael Jackson|Moonwalking]] in Super Metroid.
** Outside the actual series, in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, one of Zero Suit Samus' air-attacks is the Inazuma Kick from the Gunbuster-series.
* [[Slippy -Slidey Ice World]]: Sector 5 - ARC.
** There's also the Cryosphere in ''Other M'' and the Phendrana Drifts in ''Prime''.
* [[Sole Survivor]]: Samus, twice over: first when the K-2L colony was slaughtered by the [[Complete Monster|Space Pirates]], and again when the Space Pirates, under Mother Brain's direction, invaded Zebes and killed the remaining Chozo. Well, on Zebes, anyway. And then there's the last remaining Metroid from ''Metroid II''.
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* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: In ''Super Metroid'', Samus' surrogate Metroid child returns. {{spoiler|It's gone from tiny to around four times as big as Samus. It later holds off Mother Brain.}}
** In most games, the Ice Beam is a useful weapon, but not that powerful. In Metroid Fusion, Samus develops a weakness to cold and loses the Ice Beam. It becomes a weapon of pure murder when used against her, and {{spoiler|it's the last weapon she gets in the game.}}
* [[Trauma -Induced Amnesia]]: {{spoiler|Happens to Samus in the manga. The trauma of watching her homeworld being destroyed and watching her parents die is essentially forgotten until Ridley forces Samus to remember what happened in their first encounter many years later. After remembering the event, Samus suffers a horrendous [[Heroic BSOD]] and begs her comrades to kill her.}}
* [[Turtle Power]] -- The oft-forgotten and turtle-like [http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Tatori Tatori] and Tatori, Jr. creatures in Maridia are non-hostile toward Samus; Tatori even lets Samus stand on top of it to access an [[Heart Container|Energy Tank]] and a Missile Expansion.
 
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** In what may be the most over-the-top instance of this trope in the series, ''Corruption'' {{spoiler|ends on a '''''sentient planet'''''.}}
** And to finish things off, ''Other M'' {{spoiler|brings a cloned Metroid Queen back for a showdown in a secure room aboard the Bottle Ship.}}
* [[Victor Gains LosersLoser's Powers]]:
** Samus in ''[[Metroid]] Fusion'' had all [[Power Copying|her abilities copied by X]]. After killing X-infected bosses (which tend to be able to produce similar attacks), she can absorb the X-parasite to regain that power.
** ''[[Metroid Prime]] 2'' does something similar, where, after losing most of her starting abilities to a mob of Ing, she has to regain them in one-on-one boss battles where they're used against her.
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