Metroid (Series)

Some of the information indexed are thanks in part to the Metroid Wiki.

Background

The Metroid games are a series of video games produced by Nintendo. One of the company's most successful franchises, the series' popularity spans several Nintendo consoles, with the first game, Metroid, released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The Metroid games chronicle the missions of bounty hunter Samus Aran in a science fiction setting which contains many similarities to the Alien film franchise. Central plot elements are the Metroid organisms and the Space Pirates which try to exploit the Metroids' powers. The gameplay combines adventure based on exploration and item-gathering with platformer and shooter dynamics. The Metroid games are famous for their nonlinear gameplay, where one can complete a game with a fraction of the items available in the game.

There are over a dozen games in the series. This includes four main games (Metroid, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Super Metroid, and Metroid Fusion), a Classic NES Series port and a remake of Metroid (Metroid: Zero Mission), two spinoff games for the Nintendo DS family (Metroid Prime Pinball and Metroid Prime: Federation Force), a first-person adventure game, with wireless and online multiplayer (Metroid Prime Hunters), the Metroid Prime Trilogy (Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption), and Metroid: Other M, as well as various other ports and remakes.

The Metroid games are set in the same universe. They share most main characters and gameplay elements, with a few notable exceptions.

Samus Aran, the main character and heroine, is a bounty hunter, though in Metroid she was known as a "space hunter". She wears an extremely powerful and adaptable exoskeleton known as the Power Suit, which was made for her by the ancient Chozo.

The Metroids are large, jellyfish-like creatures with several visible nuclei. They are capable of absorbing the life energy from any living organism, generally causing the death of the victim in the process. Metroid II: Return of Samus established a five-stage life cycle in which the Metroids native to SR388 go through two stages of ecdysis followed by two stages of mutation, thus maturing through four forms: Alpha, Gamma, Zeta, and Omega. Metroid Prime introduced two new forms: Hunter Metroids, which sport tentacles enabling long-range energy siphoning; and the Phazon-mutated Fission Metroids, which divide into two new Fission Metroids after absorbing a certain amount of energy. Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes also have an adapted subspecies of Metroids, known as the Tallon Metroid. Instead of absorbing all of their power from victims, they can feed directly off Phazon. They are born as Infant Metroids from cocoons and mature into adulthood when exposed to Phazon. Echoes also introduces Dark Tallon Metroids, Tallon Metroids corrupted by the Ing.

The main villains of many of the Metroid games are the Space Pirates. Mother Brain is the biomechanical organism that controls the defenses of the planet Zebes. Kraid appears as an important boss in Metroid, Metroid: Zero Mission, and Super Metroid. Ridley, a leader of the Space Pirates and Samus' archnemesis, appears in Metroid, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and Metroid: Other M. The organization also includes a winged, mantis-like species, the Kihunters. The Space Pirates are very interested in Metroid research, especially in using Metroids for energy generation or as bioweapons. Their Phazon experiments produced many of the Metroid variants seen in the Prime games.

Another important organization is the Galactic Federation, which was formed force to keep the galaxy at peace while eliminating the Space Pirate threat. However, they have begun showing signs of corruption prior to Metroid: Other M and Metroid Fusion, initially creating bioweapons for military applications, which was strictly forbidden.

Terms

Metroids: Metroids are the titular creatures of the Metroid series. Originating from the planet SR388, they first became known to the universe at large when Space Pirates stole a batch of specimens from a Galactic Federation research vessel and attempted to exploit them as bioweapons. Since then, the species was spread out on numerous planets, endangering all life present due to the Metroids living off of the mysterious "life energy" of their prey. The Metroids were long rumored to be created by an ancient race, though their motive for doing so remained a mystery to the rest of the universe. Eventually, it came to light that the Chozo were responsible for genetically engineering the species, in order to prevent the spread of the more dangerous X Parasites. Appropriately, the word "Metroid" in the Chozo language roughly translates to "Ultimate Warrior". The species became extinct in the wild at the end of Super Metroid; all subsequent Metroids in the timeline have been created in laboratories using the DNA of the last and now-deceased Metroid from SR388.

Phazon: Phazon, as coined by the Space Pirates (formerly referred to as the "Great Poison" by the Chozo), is a highly radioactive substance originating from the planet Phaaze, known for its extreme mutagenic and energy-producing properties. Though at first glance it seems to be only a mineral substance, it is more of a superorganism, capable of interstellar propagation accomplished by the assimilation and destruction of its host planet's ecosystem.

Phazon appears throughout the Metroid Prime trilogy, where its presence is linked to much of the antagonists' actions. Its contamination is responsible for the near-destruction of many worlds, including Tallon IV of the Chozo and Aether of the Luminoth. Its true nature becomes apparent throughout the plot of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption when its spread is targeted toward multiple planets almost simultaneously.

The contamination is first seeded by artificial meteorites, called Leviathans. On Tallon IV, the Phazon devastated and poisoned the ecosystem, eventually destroying the Chozo civilization that existed there and corrupting its dead. On Aether, the Leviathan struck the planet, and it's phazon infested half of aether's one of a kind planetary energy, which split it into two dimensions, driving the planet and its inhabitants into turmoil. Due to various circumstances, contact with Samus in a phazon-based power suit, and a heavily phazon mutated Metroid led to the creation of the doppelganger known as Dark Samus, which imparted Phazon with the sentience that allowed it to quickly overtake a Pirate Homeworld, beginning the series of events in Corruption.

X Parasite: The X Parasite, also known as Unidentified Parasite Creature-X, is an extremely hostile, shape-shifting organism native to planet SR388. They are witnessed in the prequel manga, and make their resurgence the post-credits scene of Metroid: Samus Returns. The X are later discovered and eradicated during the events of Metroid Fusion. They kill and assimilate other life forms in order to survive and spread; though simple-minded and entirely driven by instinct, they are in fact a threat to all natural life in the cosmos if left unchecked. Their very existence is what drove the ancient Chozo race to create the titular and dreaded Metroid species with the intention of wiping out the X Parasite, therefore triggering most of the Metroid series' events.

Power of the Verse

The verse has powerful characters with superhuman levels of strength and speed, hosting cosmic level items and spaceships capable of interstellar travel. The verse also has a large amount of ablities including: Corruption, Higher-Dimensional Manipulation, Conceptual Manipulation, Soul Manipulation, Mind Manipulation, etcetera.

Canon

While there is an official timeline, many are normally confused about what takes place in the metroid series and what is and isn’t canon. The canon titles fall under the following timeline: