Metroid - the infant larva

After watching Nintendo's E3 30 minute presentation, I got really excited about the two Metroid projects presented by them. One was a remake of Metroid 2 for the 3DS, and the other one was a fourth instance of the Metroid prime series. For that reason, I decided to draw the stages of a Metroid development, and maybe try to explain a little of the Metroid lore and information I have read over the years. This won't be a complete description of the story, just a small commentary filled with my opinions. In this first post, I have drawn the second stage of the Metroid, the so called Larval Metroid. It is the stage after the egg, and is the original appearance the monster has in the first game of the series.

The Metroid are a strange alien species from the planet SR388, where they were created (more on that later). They feed on the energy of their prey, and after finishing feeding, only the dust remains from their victim's corpse. Their life begin as an egg, laid by the Metroid Queen, and after hatching, the new born Metroid can already float and resembles the larva from the games, but it is still small and weak, and can be easily killed with ice based weapons. After some time they grow into a big larva, big enough to feed on a human sized animal, and become almost indestructible.

In the story of the first game, a bounty hunter was given the mission of finding and killing the Metroid of the planet Zebes, were Space Pirates were using them as a bioweapon. It isn't exactly explained in the first game, as was common with games from the Nintendo Entertainment System, what the Metroid were or how were they being used. The Metroids were kept in a special area, near the end of the game, protected by a gate that could only be opened by killing two bosses, Kraid and Ridley. There they were fed and grown big and strong to Larval Metroids. When first played the game, by the time I got there, I didn't know that Metroids were weak to ice beams and almost didn't finish the game, since I had changed my weapon to a stronger "wave beam", that unfortunately were useless again the floating larvae.

As I said before, it is explained in a comicbook that was released together with "Metroid Fusion", that the Metroid were created as a strong warrior species by the Chozo, a powerful bird-like alien species natural to the Planet Zebes. This in my opinion is a bit uninteresting, it doesn't taste well as an explanation to the game. This opinion of mine is based on the fact that the Chozo are credited with raising Samus, giving her her power suit, creating the enemy Known as "Mother Brain" and scattering power ups across the Galaxy. The Chozo are a pretty big "Deus Ex Machina"! A big explanation for everything in the game universe. After all of that, they are also the ones that made the Metroids. It just makes the whole thing so simplified and the Chozo's intentions unrealistic. That's why I think that the Metroid origin story is uninteresting.

The truth is I don't play these games because I like the comicbook stories or other lore stuff outside of the games, but because of the game itself and the gameplay. In this sense, the Metroid series is awesome. They were one of the first games that made me feel afraid. The darkness and the claustrophobic feeling of a game that happens underground, fighting monsters and Aliens, while listening to a frightening scifi sound track, that's the thing that made me love this games over the years.

Now let's see if these next two games carry the same atmosphere and feelings that made them such a special game for me, while keeping that silly lore stuff on the side :p

Next we will see the Alpha Metroids :)