Samus Aran

Samus Aran is the main hero of the Metroid games created by Nintendo. Samus is a bounty hunter who wears a cybernetic Power Suit with a number of advanced technologies built into it.

The original Metroid game intentionally led players to believe Samus was a male cyborg (including references to the character as male in the English instruction booklet) until the very end of the game, where it was revealed that Samus is in fact an attractive young woman, making a statement about gender roles in video games at a time when heroes were predominantly male. Although Samus wears the Power Suit throughout most of the Metroid series, it has become tradition to depict her in much more revealing attire at the end of each game, often as a reward for achieving certain difficult goals (such as completing the game quickly or with a high percentage of the game’s items collected).

Appearances
The following Metroid games have featured Samus Aran as the main character (Not including re-releases or demos, and also presented in apparent chronological order where applicable):
 * 1) Metroid (1986, NES, FDS)
 * 2) Metroid: Zero Mission (2004, Game Boy Advance) (Expanded remake of Metroid, counted canon while retconning the original version)
 * 3) Metroid Prime (2002, GameCube)
 * 4) Metroid Prime Pinball (2005, Nintendo DS) (Metroid Prime in pinball form)
 * 5) Metroid Prime: Hunters (2006, Nintendo DS) (Interquel of Prime 1 and 2.)
 * 6) Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004, GameCube)
 * 7) Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007, Wii)
 * 8) Metroid II: Return of Samus ( 1991, Game Boy)
 * 9) Super Metroid (1994, SNES)
 * 10) Metroid Fusion (2002, Game Boy Advance) (released simultaneously with Prime)

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, the third and final installment in the Metroid Prime series, will be released in 2007 for the Wii.

Samus has also made appearances in other Nintendo games (listed in order of North American release):
 * 1) Famicom Wars (1988, Famicom) (Unreleased outside Japan; The Orange Star commander on Donut Island is called Samasuun, and her face on the result screen is Samus' mask.)
 * 2) Nintendo’s Tetris (1989, NES) (Cameo, appears playing the upright bass after the player wins a B-type game of level at least 9 and height at least 2.)
 * 3) F-1 Race (1990, Game Boy)(Cameo, appears cheering before Course 7)
 * 4) Galactic Pinball (Virtual Boy) (Cameo, her ship appears in a minigame)
 * 5) Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996, SNES) (Cameo, appears sleeping in Mushroom Kingdom and says “I’m resting up for Mother Brain,” and a Samus action figure can be found in a toybox )
 * 6) Kirby Super Star (1996, SNES) (Cameo, when Kirby uses his rock defense he can become a Samus statue. Also, the Screw Attack icon (called the Screwball) is a treasure in the Great Cave Offensive segment of the game.)
 * 7) Kirby’s Dream Land 3 (1997, SNES) (Cameo, appears after level 5-2, which also contains six Metroids)
 * 8) Super Smash Bros. (1999, N64) (Playable character)
 * 9) Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001, GameCube) (Playable character)
 * 10) WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ (2003, Game Boy Advance) (Contains a microgame based on NES Metroid)
 * 11) WarioWare: Touched! (2005, Nintendo DS) (Contains a microgame based on NES Metroid)
 * 12) WarioWare: Twisted! (2005, Game Boy Advance) (Contains two microgames based on NES Metroid)
 * 13) Animal Crossing: Wild World (2006, Nintendo DS) (Gulliver, the seagull, references Samus saying “Tell me, have you ever heard of the bounty hunter that can turn into a ball?” Also you can get a 1x1 item that is a Metroid in a case, when you touch it it glows and plays a small clip of Metroid music.)
 * 14) Geist (2005) (Samus’s helmet is seen in a women’s locker room ).
 * 15) Tetris DS (2006, Nintendo DS) (Metroid-based course, Catch; in the title screen, Samus shoots some tetriminoes; A difficulty level on Standard mode is Metroid Themed, with Samus to the right, and clips of the original Metroid playing on the top screen.)
 * 16) Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2007, Wii) (Playable character, Zero Suit Samus is also a playable character.)