The History and Legacy of the Metroid Series.

As a fan of the Metroid series, it was refreshing to see a brand new Metroid game, despite it not being an official release. As some of you are aware, the fan game, made by DoctorM64, was taken down almost immediately and development was cancelled entirely.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Metroid is a series of video games made by Nintendo. It follows the dark, grim and violent life of a space bounty hunter named Samus Aran, a woman who was born on the Earth Colony K-2L to her parents, the Chief, Rodney Aran and his wife, Virginia.

When Samus was still a young girl, her colony was attacked by the Space Pirates, her father blew himself up and her mother was killed in right front of her, protecting her from the leader of the Pirates, a huge dragon-like creature named Ridley. 

After the carnage, Samus was the only survivor. She eventually was found by a being that had recently done some negotiations with her father, only to return to the aftermath of a mass genocide. He was part of an ancient bird-like race know as the Chozo, he was referred to as "Old Bird."

Taking her in as their own, the Chozo raised Samus on planet Zebes until she was a teenager. She was infused with the DNA of the Chozo, making her into a super soldier and was put under intense training monitored by an AI known as Mother Brain, being created by the Chozo.

One day, the Space Pirates attacked Zebes after Mother Brain betrayed the Chozo and gave them away. Samus fled, she wasn't ready to take on Ridley at that point. The Chozo were killed and Mother Brain took over the Space Pirates and the planet.

Samus wouldn't return until years later, after she had joined (and quit) the Galactic Federation. She looked at her commander, Adam Malkovich, as a sort of father figure and mentor in her early adult years. Yet, she left after Adam's brother was killed in a botched mission. Samus left to attain her goals on her own, becoming the greatest and most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy along the way.

She returned to Zebes, in the events of the 1986's 'Metroid' for the Nintendo Entertainment System, after learning the pirates were experimenting with creatures, created by the Chozo to fight X parasites, called Metroids and were using them as a Bioweapon. Knowing of this, Samus slaughtered her way to Mother Brain, finding and killing Ridley and the Metroids along the way.

Samus finds Mother Brain, but instead of being a simple machine as she had last seen, M.B was a pulsating, seeping, spiked, disgusting brain-like creature. After killing it, Samus fled to her ship and escaped.

Samus was shot down and crashed back on Zebes near the Mothership of the Space Pirates, as depicted in the extended plot of 2004's 'Metroid: Zero Mission,' a remake of the 1986 classic. After killing the pirates and destroying a mechanized duplicate of Ridley, she fled Zebes in an escape pod.

About a year later, in 2002's first 3D entry, 'Metroid Prime,' Samus received a distress signal from Space Pirate frigate, Orpheon. By the time she arrived, they were all dead. Killed by their own genetically modified test subjects. She finds the Parasite Queen, a disgusting abomination found in the core of the ship, and kills it. While escaping, she encountered a cybernetic, Meta Ridley, and was heavily damaged by an EMP. 

Samus escapes to her ship and lands on Tallon IV, a planet formally inhabited by the Chozo. After exploring, she learned that years ago, a meteor crashed into the planet creating a substance called Phazon, Samus even gains a suit made of it. She finds the source of the Phazon.

"The Worm" was the name dubbed by the Chozo, but it turned out to be a fully grown Metroid, the "Metroid Prime" and was the source of it all. Samus defeats it, all of the  Phazon was gone, but the Metroid Prime absorbed the Phazon in Samus' suit, creating a being later dubbed "Dark Samus."

The events of 2004's Metroid Prime 2 & 2007's Metroid Prime 3 have Samus fighting her evil counterpart from the dimensionally split planet of Aether to planets such as Bryyo, Norion and Elysia.

1991's 'Metroid 2: Return of Samus,' later remade by a fan (having spent 10 years in development) in 2016, takes place on SR388, the birthplace of the Metroids, it's Samus' job to exterminate every last one of the Metroids, having mutated in much stronger beings. After defeating the Queen Metroid, Samus finds an egg that hatches and having a Metroid imprint on her, starting the events of 1994's 'Super Metroid,' a game that revolutionized the entire game industry in the 90's.

Samus delivers the Baby Metroid to a research facility. The place was attacked by the Space Pirates after Samus had left. Samus returned to find dead bodies and the Baby Metroid was in the hands of seemingly alive Ridley. Setting off the self destruct sequence, Samus escapes the facility and follows Ridley to Zebes.

She was going to save her baby and nothing was going to stop her. She killed creatures such as the humongous Kraid, she melted the flesh off of one known as Crocomire and she killed Ridley. 

Samus was attacked by an overgrown Baby Metroid, the Super Metroid. Before it could finish Samus, it realized who it was attacking and fled in shame. Samus made her way in and found Mother Brain, she had seemingly killed it when it formed a giant, mechanical body. It had almost completely killed Samus when the Super Metroid had came in and stunned M.B, giving itself enough time to heal Samus.

The Super Metroid was obliterated while protecting its mother, the remnants of it going into her suit, powering it. Samus unleashed her full arsenal, including an overcharged beam. Samus had finally defeated Mother Brain and fled Zebes, it exploding in the process.

2010's 'Metroid: Other M' basically retconed the entire Prime series and had many inconsistencies and plot holes, just know that this is where Samus' commander, Adam, dies.

2002's 'Metroid Fusion' is the final game in the timeline, Samus being around 26 years of age. Having been sent on a mission to SR388 to investigate the X virus, Samus attracts it, unknowingly. Samus' suit was surgically removed after she was found unconscious in an asteroid field, it had fused with her skin and DNA, altering it. She was given an injection that gave her the ability to absorb the X parasites.

Waking up, she was sent to investigate a series of explosions in the Lab Space Station, where she contracted the virus. Her new Gunship had an AI with the memories of Adam Malkovich, which aided her through the entire mission.

Then it appeared, an evil, hollow parody of the once powerful bounty hunter with dead, white eyes... The SA-X. It was made up of Samus' old suit and her DNA and was fully upgraded. Samus couldn't do anything but run and hide, working her way up until she fought a genetically modified clone of Ridley. She discovered that the Federation had been making clones of different beings, such as the Metroids.

Samus fought the SA-X until it became unrecognizable and just another monster, like everything else, like the Federation. It escaped in a jell-like state. Samus made her way out of the station, having set the self destruct sequence. She plannedon killing everything, the infected, the experiments and the X virus.

She nearly made it to her ship, but wasambushed by the Omega Metroid. It beat her till she was near death when she came into contact with the SA-X, absorbing it and restoring her to her former glory.

She killed  the Omega Metroid. She escaped to facility and blew it up. Now, just like how she traversed through her missions after all these years, she was alone. She's most likely a fugitive to the Galactic Federation and will have to go into hiding.

2006's 'Metroid Prime Hunters' and 2016's 'Federation Force' take place during the Prime trilogy and are merely side stories, but have elements that hint at a much larger Metroid universe.

After 5 hours of continuous, non-stop writing, the history comes to an end for now.

Samus Aran never had an easy life. It had been full of mass genocide, whether caused by her or not. But it was one full of triumph, she had saved countless lives across the entire galaxy many times and overcame impossible odds. Regardless of what direction the series will go with her, she will always be remembered for her impact in the video game industry, being one of the first female protagonists in gaming. If only she could know her impact she had in her world... And ours.