Patreon Pin Up 3/13/23: Fusion Samus (Patreon)

With Metroid being fairly hot right now due to a couple of recent releases, I thought now would be a good time to remake one of my old Samus pics! And this one IS old. 2015 for crying out loud. It's meant to be Zero Suit Samus in the original pic, (not that you can tell since she's naked) and I wanted to mix it up for the redo here. So I went with Samus as she appears under her suit in Metroid Fusion, which was meant to be basically an anime version of Kim Basinger. No joke there. As I understand it, Basinger was legit the inspiration for her look for Metroid 3 and 4, which is rad. 

Remember those recent releases I alluded to way back in my opening sentence? Well those were Metroid Prime Remastered and a port of Metroid Fusion, and I've been playing the shit out of both of them for the last month. As for Metroid Prime, the remaster took one of the greatest games ever made and made it even better. I'd recommend it to absolutely anyone with any interest in video games, even if you're like me and normally don't like first person shooters. 

As for Metroid Fusion, it's also great but I have some caveats. It's the most insultingly hand-holdy entry in the franchise, for one. The game literally gives you a glowing dot on your map you cannot avoid being shown telling you exactly where to go next and what you'll find there. Kind of a slap in the face to a series about exploration. But the game is cunning and insidious. To compensate for telling your dumbass exactly where to go, it makes discovering the actual path to get there savagely esoteric at times. Prepare to bumble down the same corridors for ages trying to figure out what tiny pixel you've yet to bomb or speed boost through, or just have a guide open and handy. Still fun, but occasionally frustrating. 

Metroid Fusion was one of the last games in the series to reward the player with increasingly nude shots of our heroine depending on your graded performance at the end of the game. It wasn't quite as smutty as it sounds, sadly (well it sort of was in Fusion's case.) It was just a fun little bonus to shoot for. Samus is normally covered in full body armor, making her true appearance mysterious. Her human form got a little redesign with each game, making you want to see what she looked like under all that hardware with every new entry.

I'm not completely sure. But I believe the nude reward system ended with the next game, Metroid Zero Mission. That game introduced the skin-tight Zero Suit that just became her default unsuited look from then on. I'll admit it was a good one to go out on, but I would have liked to see them keep changing her up with every game. As always, I'd love to hear what you think on the matter. Are you a longtime fan? And if not have I at least piqued your interest in the Metroid Prime Remaster? Tell me about it if you would!