Samus Aran


 * For fighter info, see Samus (SR).

Samus Aran (サムス・アラン) is the protagonist of the Metroid series. Samus is the galaxy's most famous bounty hunter, constantly helping the Galactic Federation in their fight against the Space Pirates. She has appeared in all five Super Smash Bros. games to date.

Character History
Samus made her first appearance in Metroid (1986) for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game kept the fact that she was a woman secret (with the intent of surprising gamers after they completed it); even the game's instruction manual refers to Samus as a male. Though believed to be created by Gunpei Yokoi, the original game concepts for Metroid were done by director Makoto Kanoh and designer Hiroji Kiyotake. The idea to make Samus a female was spontaneous as during development, one team member asked "Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if the character [inside the suit] turned out to be a woman?” Another source of inspiration for Samus' character was Ellen Ripley, the protagonist of the Alien movie series, which served as larger inspiration for the Metroid series as a whole.

The original "Metroid" saw Samus on her first mission on the planet Zebes, sent to stop the Space Pirates and destroy Mother Brain, the mechanical life-form that controlled the fortress and its computers. Samus successfully completed the mission. Later, the remake Metroid: Zero Mission would reveal more about Samus's backstory, establishing that she was born on the Earth colony K-2L, and her parents died when she was 3 years old, murdered by the Space Pirate leader known as Ridley, she was then raised by the Chozo who took her to planet Zebes. As she grew up, she trained with them and she was given a Chozo power suit and eventually left the planet to become a bounty hunter.

She was later sent to Planet Zebes to stop the Space Pirates on Zebes, who were attempting to use a newly discovered species called the "Metroids" to dominate the galaxy. Samus' mission was to destroy the Space Pirates and their Metroid army, as well as their leader and control system, Mother Brain. Samus was sent alone after a previous Federation strike team had failed. Samus successfully carried out the mission, destroying Mother Brain. (The original Metroid ends here, but in Zero Mission, Samus's ship is shot down after take off and Samus must fight her way out of the Space Pirates' mother ship; it is here that Samus gets her most well known Power Suit and with it, she escapes from the Space Pirates after destroying a robotic copy of Ridley.)

In Metroid Prime (2002), Samus responds to a distress call from the Space Pirate Frigate which had been studying a new form of mutagen called Phazon. While escaping from the doomed frigate, Samus comes across the thought-dead Ridley, having been extensively remade into a cybernetic creature called Meta Ridley. Samus pursued the reborn Meta Ridley to Tallon IV where she learned that a meteorite had landed on the planet long ago, warping a sole Metroid into an evil creature known as Metroid Prime, whilst also spreading Phazon around hte planet, infecting the Chozo colonists that set themselves up there. Samus searched through Tallon IV for information on the creature, the Phazon itself, and any means to purge the corruption from the planet. After defeating Meta Ridley, Samus stormed the Impact Crater and battled Metroid Prime, though the creature stole her Phazon Suit in its death throes. Samus, her duty done, left Tallon IV to recover, though unbeknownst to Samus, Metroid Prime was reborn as "Dark Samus", taking on the bounty hunter's image.

In Metroid Prime Hunters (2006), Federation empaths decode a message claiming that ultimate power could be found within the Alimbic Cluster. Samus is sent to investigate. Samus travels to Alinos, Arcterra, Vesper Defense Outpost, and the Celestial Archives during her investigation, though comes into conflict with other bounty hunters named Sylux, Trace, Noxus, Spire, Kanden, and Weavel, all of which are seeking the "ultimate power" for their own ends. The message was a trap meant to release a powerful monstrosity called Gorea, though Samus and the other hunters pool their powers together to destroy Gorea completely.

In Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004), Samus was sent to the planet known as Aether to find a lost group of Federation troopers. It was there that Samus encountered Dark Samus. Samus discovered Aether was split into two dimensions: one light and one dark, due to a Phazon meteor hitting the planet much like Tallon IV. The Space Pirates had also set up shop there, though the hostile Ing (creatures of Dark Aether) and the berserk Dark Samus hindered them considerably. Samus went through both sides of Aether, restoring the light side whilst putting a stop to the unnatural Dark Aether and combatting the Ing every step of the way. With the help of the Luminoth and their sole active sage U-Mos, species, Samus destroyed "Dark Aether" and apparently Dark Samus as well, but her dark counterpart reformed in orbit around Aether.

In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007), Dark Samus, now leading the brainwashed Space Pirates, plots to corrupt the entire galaxy with Phazon, rendering them under her control. Samus also confronts Meta Ridley again. During an attempt to corrupt planet Norion with a Phazon Leviathan meteor, Samus and three other bounty hunters (Rundas, Ghor and Gandrayda) destroy the Leviathan before it can make contact with the planet, though Dark Samus ambushes them and corrupts them with Phazon. Samus survives, her Power Suit augmented with a Phanzon Enhancement Device to regulate the self-generating Phazon in samus' body. The other three hunters are sent off to 3 planets, Bryyo, Elysia, and the Space Pirate Homeworld. Unfortunately, they are completely corrupted and Samus is forced to kill them as she carries her mission out. Worse still, Samus herself is slowly being corrupted, though she retains her will long enough to help the Federation seize a Leviathan for themselves to take the fight against Phazon to the source. Once there, she and the Galactic Federation travel to the planet Phaaze where Samus defeats Dark Samus once and for all and rids the universe of Phazon completely.

In Metroid II: The Return of Samus (1991) and its remake Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) Samus is sent to SR388, the homeworld of the Metroids, to wipe out what remains of them as the Federation had deemed them too much of a danger to galactic society to live. Samus accomplishes this mission, destroying even the Metroid Queen, but after completing this task, one last Metroid egg hatches and follows Samus, as it thought she was its mother. Samus decides to spare the Baby Metroid, remembering that she was the sole survivor from the raid of K-2L, and decided to take it to the Ceres Space Colony. Samus Returns reveals that the Chozo colony who lived on SR388 created Metroids to combat the X Parasites that menaced the Chozo when they first colonized the planet, but then had to seal the Metroids to the best of their ability once the creatures went out of control. After these events however, the Chozo apparently splintered into two factions leading to one militant Chozo leader killing another and amassing forces to carry out an-as-of-yet unknown campaign. The remake also adds a boss fight with Ridley, who takes on a new "Proteus" form between his usual organic and Meta states. Ridley makes his first attempt to steal the Metroid baby, though Samus fends him off for the time being.

In Super Metroid (1994), with the last Metroid in captivity, the galaxy is at peace. The scientists begin to study the Metroid and their scientific properties. Just as Samus leaves the colony, it is attacked by the Space Pirates. Samus turns back and witnesses a reborn Ridley making off with the infant Metroid. Samus chases him to Zebes where she once again defeats Kraid and Ridley, along with many other creatures, but is attacked by a giant Metroid on her way to Mother Brain. Recognizing Samus just in time, the Metroid releases Samus, who goes on to confront Mother Brain once again. In a final epic battle, Samus fights Mother Brain who now make suse of a gargantuan mechanical body. Samus is brought to the brink of death by Mother Brain's increased power, but she is saved by the baby Metroid at the last moment, though it is killed by Mother Brain. The Metroid bestows the power it drained from Mother Brain onto Samus, granting her the Hyper Beam needed to destroy the Space Pirate overlord. Samus easily avenges her "first child's" death, destroys Mother Brain and escapes Zebes before the planet explodes.

Metroid: Other M (2010) is set between the events of Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion and provides more information about Samus's backstory. Samus suffers from trauma due to the previous game's events, frequently having flashbacks to the Baby Metroid's sacrifice. While continuing her job as a hunter, Samus receives a "Baby's Cry" distress signal leading her to a remote Federation science station, the Bottle Ship. A group of Federation soldiers called the 07th Platoon had also received the signal and went to investigate. Said team is led by Samus' old superior, Adam Malkovich, who acts coldly to Samus due to her leaving his command, although one member of the team, Anthony Higgs, recognizes Samus and acts far more warmly to her. In one controversial scene, Samus, to her horror, encounters Ridley again and freezes up in terror before Anthony saves her seemingly at the cost of his own life. the reason for this was due to the Bottle Ship science division recreating Ridley, the Space Pirates, and unfreezable metroids as part of a bio-weapon program. The woman in charge was Madeline Bergman. To assist in this, Madeline and a team fo scientists created an android named MB (who Madeline later named Melissa Bergman.) MB was to be an android/AI recreation of Mother Brain. MB, however, began straying from what the Federation wanted and was scheduled for termination, though she breaks free and begins a campaign of destruction against the Federation for their transgressions. Samus also becomes aware of the Deleter, thought to be James Pierce, killing the other members of the 07th Platoon as well as civilians in order to prevent the Federation's dark secrets from leaking out of the Bottle Ship. Samus eventually comes across Sector Zero, the source of the unfreezable Metroids. Adam offers up his own life, sacrificing himself to disconnect Sector Zero from the Bottle Ship and destroying it. MB is also brought down by a tear-struck Madeline, who freezes MB with a discarded freeze gun before another Federation strike force gun the android down. Madeline is almost taken into Federation custody as the 07th Platoon is believed completely destroyed and Samus, being an outsider, has no say in the matter. Thankfully, Anthony survived his earlier attack scuffle with Ridley and as a confirmed survivor of Adam's team, is allowed to escort Madeline to safety along with Samus.

In Metroid Fusion (2002), Samus is assigned to collect samples of life on SR388 where she is infected by an X parasite. Her suit must be surgically removed because of its biological components that only Samus can take off and she had crashed into an asteroid because of the parasite, leaving her unconscious and unable to take off the suit by herself. Samus's life is saved only after she is given an anti-X vaccine created from the baby Metroid's DNA. Granted a new gunship, a new power suit and an AI commanding officer she nicknames "Adam" after her old superior, Samus is sent to the BSL Research Station to investigate an explosion in the Quarantine Bay. The station is revealed to have been almost entirely taken over by the X Parasites, who have also created a doppelganger of Samus called the SA-X. Furthermore the Federation are onc emore cloning Metroids. To compound things, the X are also learning at an alarming rate, and are planning to lure the Federation there to infect them and thus gain access to the entire galaxy. Samus resolves to self-destruct the station, though to her shock, her AI commander begins to show signs of Adam's old personality, convincing Samus to instead send the station hurtling into SR388, destroying the station and the X (and the planet itself) in one fell swoop. After a climactic battle with the SA-X and a stray Omega Metroid, Samus escapes the BSL station as it crashes into and destroys SR388. Although Samus has saved the galaxy from the X, her actions (the destruction of the BSL station, SR388 and the Federation's Metroid cloning program) have made her a criminal fugitive and an enemy of the Federation.

As a playable character
Samus appears in Smash Remix along with the rest of the characters from Smash 64.

Just like in Smash 64, Samus is a heavy, yet floaty character. Her B move is the Charge Shot. Samus can fire small blasts but they do little damage, however if she charges it to full power, it is quite devastating. Her B Up is the Screw Attack which causes Samus to shoot up in the air, spinning her around very fast. Her B Down is the Bomb which can be used as a recovery if timed correctly. However, Samus is considered the lowest ranked character in the game due to her lack of combo attacks.

Samus' in-game character description reads as follows:


 * Samus Aran


 * Samus Aran is the toughest bounty hunter in the galaxy. Using a special suit powered by the technology of the bird people (Chozo) which allows her to execute daring acrobatic feats, Samus pursues the airborne life form, Metroid, throughout the universe.


 * Works:
 * Metroid (NES),
 * Metroid II: Return of Samus (GB),
 * Super Metroid (SNES)