Mother Brain (Metroid)

Mother Brain
Mother Brain's artwork.
Series	Metroid
First Appearance	Metroid (1986)
Created by	Nintendo R&D1 Intelligent Systems
Voiced by	Levi Stubbs (Captain N: The Game Master)

Mother Brain is the main antagonist of the Metroid series, first debuting in the NES video game Metroid. She is a large mechanical being which, as her name implies, resembles a large brain. In the middle of her is a large eye which presumably sees any oncoming threat, including the Space Pirate's dreaded enemy (the protagonist of the series) Samus Aran. Various metal cables protrude from within her. She has appeared in Metroid, Metroid Zero Mission, and Super Metroid.

She is a cold and hot-tempered artificial intelligence created by the Chozo, but turned against them when the Space Pirates and Ridley invaded Zebes. Mother Brain saw potential in the pirates and decided that with their help, she could bring true order to the universe by "resetting everything back to zero".

Appearances

Metroid

Mother Brain is the final boss and main antagonist of the game. Samus fights her in Tourian at the bottom of Planet Zebes. Mother Brain is encased in a glass case. Before Samus can defeat her, she has to break open the glass that covers her. Preceding that she has to traverse through a sequence of traps that put her jumping, dodging and shooting skills to the test. After Samus breaks the glass case, she must shoot missiles at her to defeat her.

Her main form of attack is shooting out lasers via her single eye. It is a challenge to dodge on the account that 1. Samus is standing on a single pedestal, and on both sides of it is lava, 2. There are on coming projectiles, and 3. The laser is rapidly shot out.

Metroid Zero Mission

In this remake of the original Metroid, the fight with Mother Brain occurs mostly the same. However, she is not the final boss as Samus's ship is gunned down leaving Zebes. She must explore the Space Pirate Mother ship and defeat a robot based on Ridley.

Super Metroid

Mother Brain is also the final boss and main antagonist of Super Metroid. Samus first fights her the same way as in the original game. However, after she is defeated, she returns in a large robotic body. Samus attacks her by shooting missiles at Mother Brain's head and brain. Towards the end of the fight, Mother Brain uses an attack that gravely damages Samus near the point of death. The baby Metroid that thinks Samus is its mother from SR388 she saves at the end of Metroid II: Return of Samus comes and begins attacking Mother Brain. It dies, but not before giving Samus the energy it sucks from Mother Brain. Samus receives the Hyper Beam, which she then uses to defeat Mother Brain once and for all, from this. Afterwards, another self-destruct sequence is triggered. However, this one destroys the entire planet Zebes, purging Mother Brain from the universe for good.

Captain N

Mother Brain from Captain N.

Mother Brain is the main antagonist of the cartoon and comic series Captain N: The Game Master. She appeared frequently in the first two seasons, but was largely absent from the third season only appearing in "Battle of the Baseball Know-It-Alls". Her henchmen are King Hippo, Dr. Wily and the Eggplant Wizard. The late Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops provides the voice for Mother Brain. He is also well known for voicing Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors.

Levi Stubbs.

Trivia

• Aurora Unit 313, who is a final boss of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, seems to be inspired by Mother Brain. In the Metroid Prime 3 Preview Channel, one of the videos shows the Aurora Unit in a setting very similar to the final boss level of Metroid.
• Mother Brain is also the name of the main supercomputer of the Phantasy Star series.
• Since the Metroid series was inspired by the Alien franchise, Mother Brain's name may have derived from "Mother", the name of the computer on the Nostromo.
• WatchMojo.com listed Mother Brain as #5 on their "Top 10 Female Video Game Villains" list.