Samus Aran

Samus Aran is one of the few women protagonists in video games. She made her debut in Metroid for the NES. The most recent games that Samus has been in is the Metroid Prime Series. The first 2 Metroid Prime games are for the Gamecube, and the third one is being developed for the Wii. Samus is also one of the more popular Nintendo characters in their long list of characters, probably falling right behind major characters Mario, and Donkey Kong.

Metroid series
The Metroid series consists of four games. The latest one in this series is Metroid Fusion, or Metroid IV. This does not include the Metroid Prime series.

Metroid
The first Metroid Game ever created was for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Samus appeared to the public as either a man in a suit or a robot, but mostly a robot. In fact, until the game was actually beaten completely with all achievements, nobody knew that Samus was actually a woman. by completing the game with 100% Acquirements, the player sees Samus in a bathing suit. Using the JUSTIN BAILEY password, the player plays as Samus supposedly nude. However, Samus does not look nude, rather, she looks as if she wears a red jumpsuit, similar to the blue one she wears in Metroid Zero mission. In the original Metroid, Samus appears with green hair. However, she eventually gets blonde hair.

Metroid II
The second Metroid game was for the Game Boy. Having no color, the player was unable to see whether or not Missles were activated. So, a new addition to Samus' Arm Cannon was added. When the player switches to Missles, the Arm Cannon's tip expands and splits apart. This is also the first appearance of the Spider Ball and the Space Jump.

Super Metroid
In Super Metroid, Samus returns to Planet Zebes. Samus acquires almost a dozen new abilities, almost all of which have not made any type of return since Super Metroid. The Power Bomb makes it's debut here.

Metroid IV
Also known as Metroid Fusion, Samus makes the biggest change of all of the Metroid Games. Samus is infected with a deadly parasite known as an X Parasite, and is required to have parts of her suit surgically removed. This drastically altered her physical appearance for the duration of the game, giving her suit a more organic look. Metroid Fusion is the debut of the SA-X, Samus' X Counterpart.

Metroid Prime series
The Metroid Prime series is the second series of video games in the Metroid franchise. The first game in this series was Metroid Prime for the GameCube. The flagship titles are made by Retro Studios, and other spin-offs have been made by both Nintendo and Fuse Games (note though that all of the Metroid and Metroid Prime games are published by Nintendo).

Metroid Prime
This is the first game in the Metroid Prime series. In this game, Samus recieves a distress code that came from a large Space Pirate ship orbiting Tallon IV (The planet where most of the game takes place). Once there, she explores the vessel and finds the Parasite Queen, the boss of this level. Once Samus killed it, she spots Meta Ridley who slams her into a wall and escapes. After killing the queen, the ship's self destruct signal went off, and Samus escaped the ship to persue Meta Ridley.

The game introduced Samus to amazing and expansive 3-D enviroments. There were new items and levels, as well as enemies for Samus to hunt down. The game spawned many more sequels.

Metroid Prime Pinball
Metroid Prime Pinball is, rather than a new chapter in the saga, a retelling of the original Metroid Prime, just in a pinball format.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
In this sequel to Metroid Prime, Samus goes down to the planet Aether, where she meets the peacful race Luminoth. In this game, she must travel through both dark and light worlds to save the species and destroy the enemy, the dreadful Ing.

Metroid Prime Hunters
This spinoff of the series was released for the Nintendo DS. It takes place prior to Metroid Prime 2, and after Metroid Prime. In the game, Samus and the Galactic Federation has recieved a telepathic message stating that the ultimate power resides in the Alimbic system. Samus is put on the mission to investigate this power and retrieve it. Six other bounty hunters have also recieved this message, each one wanting to abtain this power for themselfs. She must then defeat the other hunters, and kill off Gorea, the main boss of the game.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Corruption is the last game in the series. Since the game has not yet been released, not much is known about the game. However, small tibits of information come every once and a while, revealing small but sweet plot tid-bits.

Related

 * Zero Suit Samus
 * Metroid Series