When Metroid was released back in 1986, it was something of a revelation as gamers were treated to an unparalleled experience of exploration and intense shooting, all while playing as one of the most influential video game heroes of all time, the power armour-wearing Samus Aran.
But Metroid saved its greatest moment until the very end when Samus Aran finally took off their helmet and revealed to gamers everywhere that the hero whom everyone thought was a dude was in fact a woman the entire time.
Speaking of great trailblazing women, the GOAT team chatted to Sandra Sully on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
This big reveal of Samus Aran’s gender in Metroid wasn’t just one of gaming’s greatest twist endings, it remains arguably gaming’s most influential moment (she is one of the first female video game protagonists) and established her as a feminist icon.
Every part of Samus’ design is subversive to what gamers usually picture female video game characters to be. Instead of a petite maiden or hypersexualised woman with unrealistic body proportions, Samus stands at a towering 190 cm and weighs 90kg.
Instead of playing the usual damsel-in-distress role (like Princess Peach), Samus is her own independent person, is an exceptionally competent warrior, and can more than take care of herself. Hell, she’d be the one rescuing Mario from Bowser instead of the other way around.
By having Samus keep her helmet on until Metroid‘s climax, gamers come to know her as a badarse bounty hunter first and foremost. When she finally reveals herself as a woman, her actions aren’t disregarded due to her gender after having spent countless hours watching her perform heroics.
That said, the reveal itself was somewhat problematic as players get “rewarded” with Samus in a bikini instead of just being helmet-less if they could complete Metroid in under an hour. It took the sting out of what was a powerful moment and rendered Samus into nothing more than just a fanboy’s fantasy, but subsequent games helped remedy that misstep in Metroid.
In 1991’s Metroid II: Return Of Samus, Samus forms a bond with a baby alien at the game’s climax and establishes her as a human being capable of loving. She is more than just a silent warrior in a suit of power armour.
By the time we get to 2002’s Metroid Prime, the most we see of Samus is her face when she takes her helmet off. In keeping her unsexualised, her strength of character is put in the spotlight rather than her gender and the game is all the better for it.
This progressive and feminist characterisation of Samus Aran drew very interesting reactions when she returned in 2010’s Metroid: Other M, which controversially saw the character be stripped of her established personality traits and given a new, highly sexualised look.
While this is something gamers would usually froth over, fans reacted negatively to Samus being sexualised in such a way. Fans see Samus as a warrior and not a sex symbol, and that’s a testament to just how much of feminist hero people view her to be.
Samus Aran helped show that female video game characters can be awesome while also not being a sex symbol for fanboys to fawn over. In an industry where misogyny sadly run rampant, it’s heartening to see how a character like Samus can flourish while taking down all the gender stereotypes pushed upon female characters.
We haven’t seen Samus Aran in a Metroid game for quite some time, but when Metroid Prime 4 finally comes out at some point, here’s hoping she’ll empower a new generation of women in the same way she did when she first arrived on the scene back in 1986.
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