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Many series will name themselves in a way that can eventually constrict them. Bayonetta can never shift away from the titular character, Tomb Raider will always feature the raiding of tombs and so on.Metroidis another of those series, but it has found unique ways of expanding past just the eponymous Metroids.
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Each game ultimately ends with the Metroids going extinct, with them always returning too. Until Metroid Dread, where the Metroids truly are well and gone… yet they still find themselves central. So let’s try to compile everything we know of Metroids, and if they really are gone for good this time.
Metroid Abilities And Weaknesses
Appearing physically in almost Metroid game, the Metroids themselves appear late in the original game.Taken by the Space Pirates to be used as a biological weapon, Samus is tasked with taking them both down, though this proves difficult due to the unique genetic makeup of the Metroids.
Unlike just about every other organism in the games,Metroids are immune to all weaponry save those of Aeion energy and extreme cold. As such, they have to be frozen before they can be damaged, shattering them with concussive weapons like missiles.
The reality is that Metroids can only be destroyed bytargeting their internal membrane. Though impossible for most others, this does mean that entering a Metroid allows them to be destroyed from the inside-out as Samus at times does.
When combatting Metroids, it is also essential to know what exactly they are capable of doing to you. They are a voracious species and willattempt to consume anything they come across. Other Metroids notwithstanding, they do not discriminate across targets. They will latch onto any threat andsuck the life from them, growing larger and stronger in the process.
Though rarer,some Metroids are also capable of using the abilities of those they have drained,such as Dark Samus.
Variations Of Metroids
Though in most instances we find Metroids in a grown larval state, we see in Metroid 2 thatthey are actually meant to grow even larger and possess new abilities, a growth they are only capable of on their home planet of SR388. These growth stages are as follows:
Other Metroid offshoots appear in other games as well, primarily the Prime series with Dark Samus being the most prominent.Many of these differentiations are more minute, however, allowing the Metroid to act more effectively in their respective environments.
Creation Of The Metroids
With the Metroid games so light on lore, the history of the Metroids has been compiled over decades from both tidbits in games and information released by the developers and in other extended media.Samus visits SR388 in Metroid 2 to defeat the remaining Metroidsbefore they can escape into the greater universe, making this planet boththe birthplace and resting place of the Metroid species.
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The Chozo themselves are an ambiguous raceshrouded in mystery, their very disappearance from the universe an enigma itself. What is known, however, is that the Chozo once settled on SR388 and encountered the X Parasite, a lifeform that consumed everything in its path and took control over it. The Chozo, viewing this as an obvious threat to their own lives as well as the preservation of the planet,created the Metroids.
Whilethe Metroids were initially successful in their task, almost all the X wiped out, they were soon left without a target. That also meant they lacked a viable food source. Though designed to only target the X, this hunger was a more overpowering impulse, and sothey started to consume the Chozo as well. Here is where a conflict within the Chozo occurred - to preserve the Metroids, or destroy them.
The Thoha chose to destroy them, sealing them underground and flooding their own cities in an attempt to wipe them out.The Mawkin, however, undercut this, killing off the remaining Thohaso that they could use the Metroids as a weapon of war.
However, they were infected with the X Parasite themselves and had to go into hiding on the planet of ZDR. This meant theMetroids were left untouched until they were discovered by the Galactic Federation and stolen by the Space Pirates, leading to Samus' future encounters with them.
Samus And Metroids
Samus is literally inseparable from the Metroids at this point. From her initial encounter with them to their nigh extinction, she is defined by them literally and emotionally. After Samus' family was killed by the Space Pirates, she was saved by the Chozo and spliced with Chozo DNA to allow her to survive and live within Chozo society. Though limited, this also gave hersome resistance to Metroids themselves.
Samus' first encounter with the Metroids was in her mission on Zebes where she battles them in the Space Pirates ship. Though the mission culminates in a fight against Mother Brain, the resulting explosionwipes out almost all the Metroids that had been brought to the planet of Zebes.
Throughout the Prime series, Samus also encounters various Metroids, including the titular Metroid Prime that later copies her to become Dark Samus, fused with Phazon. Samus ultimately defeats Dark Samus and many of the other Metroids across the trilogy, showing the remainder of them in the universe.
Dark Samus was born from the defeat of the Metroid Prime, taking the form of Samus herself in that encounter and further infused with Phazon.
In a bid to finish them off once and for all,Samus was sent to the Metroid homeworld of SR388.Here, Samus rather effectively wipes out the majority of the Metroids.Save for one. As a result of this mission, the Metroids could no longer reproduce, though saving eventhis single baby Metroid would prove a double-edged blade.
It would save her for the first time during her second mission on Zebes, helping her to defeat the rebuilt Mother Brain. When the Galactic Federation became aware of the X Parasite, Samus was sent to eradicate them, but ultimately fell victim to them. Knowing their weakness to the Metroid,Samus was fused with the remains of the baby Metroidshe’d saved, making her into a Metroid hybrid herself.
We see the culmination of this in Metroid Dread, where Samus goes to ZDR and is met with the war-starved Mawkin tribe of the Chozo, all of them infected with the X Parasite. Fused with a Metroid, this gives her the natural ability to absorb X, but as we see in her final encounter with Raven Beak, tobecome a new breed of Metroid herself.
Due to her Chozo DNA, she is able to somewhat keep this in check though there is no denying that Samus is herself now a Metroid.
Are The Metroids Really Extinct?
The biggest question for most people following the end of a Metroid game is whether or not the Metroids are actually extinct this time.Usually, we’ve seen that’s not the case. Samus defeats them in the original, they appear again in Metroid 2. Then again in Super Metroid, and once again in Metroid Fusion having been replicated by the Galactic Federation as a nuclear deterrent. Metroid Dread would seem to be different.
Important to note from the beginning is that the Metroid Prime games have thus far taken place between Metroid and Metroid 2, meaning that until a point where they surpass this point,Metroids will still exist in the universe. As such, Metroid Prime 4 may well feature the Metroids once again, and they will likely be extinct again by its end.
Following along the timeline, however, Dread is the latest point. And across the game,no traditional Metroids appear.
So are they extinct? Well, no.Samus herself is a Metroid now, and having unintentionally awoken to this during her final encounter with Raven Beak, is now a threat. She returns to normal at the end through the guidance of Adam, but this power still lies latent within her, meaning theMetroids can always return so long as she lives.
