ON The Insider: Sexiest Magazine Covers of All Time
CNET Networks Entertainment:
GameSpot: TGS 2008
GameFAQs
SportsGamer
MP3.com
TV.com
Metacritic

Metroid
Metroid II: Return of Samus
Super Metroid
Metroid Prime
Metroid Fusion
Super Smash Bros.
Into the Future


Super Smash Bros.
Platform: Nintendo 64
Release Date: 03/1999
Check Latest Prices

Samus must have gotten bored during the years after Super Metroid. She was probably a little bitter, too, since she didn't get a Nintendo 64 game of her own--after all, Nintendo's other bigwigs got a lot of exposure in games like Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Amusingly enough, she then popped up in one of the great video game enigmas of the past few years: Super Smash Bros.

screenshot
Samus about to get scrappy.		screenshot
Samus takes on Star Fox.

screenshot
Samus tackles an old foe.

Super Smash Bros. was a truly weird idea--Nintendo took all its biggest characters and threw them together into a simplified four-player fighting game. Samus Aran was one of the initially selectable characters in the game, and she could attack with such classic Metroid weapons as her standard arm cannon, bombs, the screw attack, and Super Metroid's grappling beam. The game also used the space-pirate planet Zebes as one of its backgrounds, and you could even see Samus in her bikini when she got electrocuted during gameplay. Small potatoes for hard-core Metroid fans, sure, but at least fans of the series knew during the rocky 64-bit years that Nintendo wasn't letting the Metroid franchise die out entirely.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
Platform: GameCube
Release Date: 11/05/01

Released around the same time as the GameCube system, Super Smash Bros. Melee was the follow-up to the original Smash Bros. on the N64. The game worked in basically the same way as its predecessor, bringing new characters, backgrounds, and other additions to the four-player Nintendo fighting madness.

screenshot
Samus squares off against Princess Zelda.
 
screenshot
Hanging on for dear life with the grapple beam.
 
screenshot
Samus is locked and loaded in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Of course, Samus Aran was back to represent galactic bounty hunters everywhere, and once again she sported all her trademark moves. Super Smash Bros. Melee even featured several action minigames, one of which starred Samus as she jumped from platform to platform up a long vertical corridor. This brief level teased players with an idea of what a 3D Metroid with 2D gameplay might have been like, but alas, it wasn't to be. Still, it was a cool addition to the game.


 

« Previous Page What does the future hold for Samus Aran? »