Let's Talk About Metroid - Metroid 1 Enemies

 

Metroid was a game that came out well before I was even born, and even then I'd go 12 years of my life where my only knowledge of Metroid was "that cool orange guy from Smash Bros." My first ever Metroid game was actually Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, which is to this day my favorite game of all time. Ever since that point, Metroid has been a big deal to me as one of my favorite Nintendo franchises, up there with Pokemon and Pikmin.

I WOULD take this opportunity to talk about Prime 2's enemy design, but it wouldn't have existed without the original Metroid of course. That and the first game seems like the best place to start anyhow. Besides, it's Metroid's 35th birthday today, so what better way to celebrate than talking about all the creatures!

Zoomer/Geemer:

The term "Zoomer" is funny to me cause I can never not think of these guys when I hear or read it. These things are essentially Metroid Goombas, the basic enemy that somehow shows up almost no matter what planet Samus is on, and merely mosey along walls and ceilings being relatively harmless. Almost makes you feel bad for gunning them down by droves.

But they're adorable! I like their spiky hide and little noodle legs, a feature that's been dropped in all future iterations of the creature. It even does the good idea of communicating that Metroid ain't anything like a Mario game, despite being a side-scroller, by giving it the spiky shell to deter kids from possibly jumping on the thing to try and defeat it.

I'm not gonna cover ALL the Zero Mission iterations of every creature, just the ones I feel are worth noting. But this is more what Zoomers and Geemers these days look like; a spiky, grumpy beetle thing. The weird tentacle limbs are certainly more unique for an insectoid creature, but I can't help but have an affinity for neat beetles.

Skree:

Skrees are odd bat-like creatures with no "wings" so much as huge pincers. They hang upside-down on ceilings and fall down on top of Samus, like it's a hunting method of theirs. This is definitely a good example of how good the Metroid series can get with its "alien animal" designs. It looks recognizable enough to clearly be a living thing of some kind, but it's almost nothing at all like something off of Earth. Even its taxonomy is pretty vague. It's clearly got a chitin exoskeleton of some sort, but it still has some fleshy bits and claws with digits, so it's not entirely an arthropod, just arthropod-like. 

I'm also a sucker for wildlife enemies in video games that have like, actual readable and somewhat realistic behaviors rather than solely functioning as obstacles. Sure, the Skree is a ceiling-hanging enemy that drops on top of you, but that's easy enough to see as its hunting method! Supposedly using those huge claws to tear apart whatever it falls on top of to eat. It even "drills" once it hits the ground, causing it to burrow into the ground where it'll supposedly find another tunnel to do it again. Neat!

Mellow:

Some of these early Metroid enemies have funny names. Mellows are little pest enemies that attack in large groups, but are easily killed in one hit. And again, what a neat little alien creature! It's clearly an insect, but it follows no body structure even close to Earth insects, with it mostly just being an insect head with wings and not to mention all those eyes!!

Sadly no official artwork exists of this, but Zero Mission also introduces Mellow Hives as an enemy, which is an odd sack of fleshy-looking stuff that expells Mellows that defend their hive. WHAT exactly is a Mellow Hive, even?? Is it possible that Mellows are not only carnivorous, but also repurpose some carcasses into makeshift hives??? There's no canon explanation to them, so that's what I'M gonna headcanon...

Ripper:

If Zoomers are the Goombas, then Rippers are the Koopas as probably the Metroid series' second most iconic enemy. This adorable little shelled thing does nothing but mosey back and forth in the air, totally defying gravity on account of their lack of wings. But they're also almost completely invincible, usually only vulnerable to things like Screw Attack. They have a tendency to be used as platforms once you get the Ice Beam as well.

And it's just plain adorable! I love its conch-like shell with a little insect head poking out, pointed off with a little proboscis. The odd set of legs poking out of the shell also gives it a unique flare even among "hermit crab" type critters!

And sadly, if anything, I feel like the more "modern" version of the Ripper is a good example of how normalizing and "refining" a design can often take the soul out of it. Zero Mission Ripper isn't a bad creature, but it looks certainly a lot more generic now, doesn't it? It's no longer a flying hermit crab of some kind, rather just a beetle with a turtle shell. I do like the face shrouded in darkness, but its "weird alien animal from a subterranean planet" vibes are kinda just gone.

Waver:

Waver is definitely another weird one. It flies up and down, despite a lack of wings. I mean, they kinda look like wings, but they form around the thing more like a shell. It almost looks like it'd belong in the same taxonomic group as a Skree, with the shell in a very similar position to the Skree's pincers. And that bumpy shell is just plain so well drawn, it's neat! Makes me think of bivalve shells, a bit.

Zeb:

Zeb on the other hand is a much more clearly rhino-beetle-like creature. These are weak enemies that practically exist to be refill stations, with an infinite number of them emerging from surprisingly cartoonish green pipes and are offed in one hit. If nothing else though, it is a nicely well-drawn bug! Can't go wrong with bugs, it's just uncharacteristically "vanilla".

Rio:

Like Wavers and Skrees before it, Rio here kind of looks like it'd be in the same general taxonomic group as Mellows. They are however much larger, and usually don't attack in as big of groups, simply hanging out on the ceiling and diving down to harass Samus. It's once again little more than an insect head with some appendages hanging off of it, but that just serves as a really effective way to make an alien monster, as it turns out! And those weird wings it has are super cool, almost looking more like plant matter than actual insect wings.

Diorumu:

Also rather inelegantly known as "Charge Beam Beast", even its Japanese name there just means "Beam Beast", simply to signify that you receive the Charge Beam for defeating it. Diorumu is a completely new creature for Zero Mission, which added quite a few new bosses on top of the usual Kraid, Ridley, and Mother Brain. Diorumu is the first boss you encounter in the game, just after you receive Missiles.

It certainly feels a lot more "familiar" than a lot of the OG enemies up to this point have felt, with it mostly being a spiky bobbit worm-like monster, with its one thing setting it apart being a huge cycloptic eye. It's kind of another case of "not bad" but I feel like it could've used a bit more to stand out. Cause as-is, it looks like a Terraria boss more than anything.

Menu:

As usual with a lot of older games, some enemies share behaviors, and Menu is essentially a sprite-swap of Mellow. But it's even more alien and weird, with something barely considered a face and weird little "wings." Its "mouth" looking a bit like a cicada's clypeus is also neat. It's just overall an odd, very alien beastie!

Geega:

Look at this adorable insectoid shag carpet! Geega is another fun alien critter with odd slimy wings and what seems to be a lamprey-like mouth, which makes a weird design even weirder. Sprites, however, depict it with more of a traditional mouth, which I guess I can see in the official art too now. Eh, a lamprey mouth would've been even more fun!

Zeela:

Easily one of the Metroid series' cutest enemies are the Zeelas! Little insectoid turtles with no facial features poking out of their shell other than a pair of comically oversized eye stalks. It's so simple but what else could you possibly ask for from a funny little eye stalk beetle??? They get even better in Zero Mission where they're thankfully faithfully recreated, but also have their eyes bug out in a panic whenever Samus creates a big impact like Super Missiles or Shine Sparking. Adorable!!!

Side-Hopper:

Another fairly iconic enemy to Metroid, especially 2D Metroid, is the Side Hopper. Again, it kind of looks like a flightless variant of the other "insect head with limbs" fellas that Zebes is apparently famous for. These things are a bit closer to grasshoppers, as their name suggests, with their made mode of attack being to leap at Samus repeatedly. My only complaint with this design is that it looks oddly mechanical, with the perfectly round tubes that make up its legs. Other than that, I love its feet that almost look like tarantula "paws."

Baristute:

Once again, no official art of this fella seems to exist, but Zero Mission made its own new, extra-tough variant of a Side-Hopper called a Baristute. And they do look the part of being appropriately extra-monstrous! I love the juxtaposition of its big burly, intimidating body almost looking like a crouched or cropped version of an extra-large beast, but nope. That's the whole guy. And of course, I can always appreciate a cycloptic creature.

Kraid:

The original Kraid definitely looks odd compared to how he looks these days, huh? Depicted as an almost bowser-like dinosaur thing with spikes jutting from his chest, he doesn't look terribly spectacular to me personally, other than his luscious locks of hair, which stands out quite a bit for a lizard design.

THAT'S more the Kraid we're used to. But Zero Mission's official art style doesn't lend the best reference material, so to get a better look at him...

Rather than update the old Kraid, Zero Mission just took Kraid as depicted in Super Metroid and updated that instead. Which, y'know, fair enough. I do think this is the design for Kraid that wound up sticking for a reason. Yeah, he's a little "rule of cool", but here he has a much more unique head shape with bony plating and a third eye on his forehead just to add that little bit of weirdness to him. I do also like how bumpy and warty his skin looks, almost makes him look equal parts toad and lizard, at little bit. And of course, modern Kraid has made his fatness a look that stuck with him, with how he's meant to be this 5-story tall dinosaur creature, so he's a little bit built like Godzilla. And the spikes he shoots from his stomach are another case of adding just a bit of weirdness to an otherwise standed-cool kind of design.

And just as a general thing, I do like that Kraid and his fat ol' self is just treated as something that's cool about him. Gosh know there's enough media out there that would've rather made fun of a monster like this.

Mella:

Mella is another swarm enemy like the Mellow, and is the first creature we're covering within the fiery area known as Norfair. Like several others before it, it's an insectoid but with tube-like legs instead of the usual arthropod legs, and is also distinct by being constantly on fire. It's neat, if par for the course of what we're used to by now!

Squeept:

Yet another arthropod-adjacent thing, but this time it's an odd platform creature that has a tendency to get frozen by the Ice Beam. It simply leaps out of lava using its fiery jet, and it's interesting that in a game where a planet's biological fauna make up the cast of enemies that this is simply presented as a regular biological function on the planet, being the ability to emit fire. With how many creatures spit or sputter acid on our own planet, it's not too far-out, in a fictional sense!

Squeept itself has a lovely face with a lumpy, mushroom-like head attached to another simple body with nothing but a couple limbs. And those compound eyes it has on top are simply adorable!

Polyp:

This almost looks like a machine more than a creature, but this enemy is simply a hole in the ground that lobs orbs at Samus in an arc. Nothing too exciting, it's more an obstacle than a creature, but it's listed as one, so...

Nova:

Which are apparently called "Sovas" these days. These enemies fill the role of the "The Zoomer" in the Norfair area, crawling on walls and other surfaces. They're another enemy that is mostly a fireball with an insect attached to it, but get a load of that insect's face! Three big eyes, and a face tipped with a big beak-looking thing. A neat fire bug!

Gamet:

Here's an enemy that's likely been lost in translation between the official artwork and the sprite artist. In artwork, these things are big, helmet-like creatures with a huge exoskeletal husk, some bird legs, and a pair of wings to give them flight. The oddity comes in that little pill-shaped thing floating in what appears to be their mouth. 

This is what the original sprite of the Gamet looks like. Combined with the black background that is every background in the OG Metroid, it looks more like an eye peering out of a dark hole in its face, while the "eyes" of the artwork looks more like a simple couple pixels of highlighting. If nothing else, it's really interesting to see how this creature likely got interpreted off of a screenshot alone, and how it got translated to paper that way.

A new Metroid artbook releasing alongside Metroid Dread even shows us some artwork that had previously gone unreleased! And look! There's Gamet there, more or less "accurately" portrayed with a single eye inside a cavernous part of its face. Oh Gamet, how silly you are.

Acid Worm:

Another Zero Mission enemy with a rather blunt name, this is another new boss they added into the mix that is almost essentially a giant version of the Yapping Maw from Super in that it'll bite from side to side. It is a neat design though, with a big mouth with just a ring of teeth around it, and a strange fleshy segment (serving as its weak point) that is kinda reminiscent of an earthworm's clitellum.

Dragon:

Another strangely straightforward creature is the Dragon, which is quite visibly a seahorse. Or, lavahorse, in this case, as it peers out of lava to spit fire at Samus. Still though, its grungy, lumpy face and grumpy demeanor is oddly adorable, and it's even almost worm-like in overall proportions. It's just a very seahorse-shaped worm with a proboscis!

Multiviola:

As far as the original Metroid goes, it's odd that this one is even classified as a creature, given it's almost quite literally a fireball. Is there something in there?

Well, Zero Mission took the route Super did and gave Multiviolas a spooky face, which is considerably more original. But it still leaves the question of what even IS a Multiviola? Metroid manual states that they're not a naturally forming species, but a creation of Mother Brain's by giving life force to molten rock. The result is apparently an odd lava ghost, which is certainly spooky if nothing else.

Geruta:

Gerutas behave like Rio in that they'll repeatedly dive after Samus. These sky crabs are kind of funny looking, especially juxtaposed with the honkin' pinchers and skinny arms and "legs", which combined with the fire they emit, looks a bit like a crab's pair of swimming legs. So it's funny to imagine a crab flying via a pair of natural rocket boots.

Kiru Giru:

Next up is a Zero Mission diversion; this larval, eyeless maggot thing that's simply adorable in the way any caterpillar-adjacent thing is. I'm very intrigued with the ribcage-like structure on its underbelly and whatever is appears to be holding. Is that just how it stores food? Are those its organs??? It looks a bit like the former; that it's just clutching some food it's gathered, but it's still never stated.

Ensnared Kiru Giru/Tangle Vine:

What's less adorable is when the poor thing gets ensnared by a vine-like plant, that seems to be parasitic somehow! Like a wicked, plant version of a cordyceps fungus!! This thing oddly enough serves as a mini-boss where you have to destroy the vines so that the poor Kiru Giru's falling corpse opens the way forward. Nonetheless, it's wicked-looking in a gross kind of way. 

Imago:

But when a Kiru Giru is allowed to live until it cocoons, it emerges as the wasp-like Imago, a new full-on boss for Zero Mission. It's still clutching what seems to be important innards with a ribcage structure on its underbelly, which is a neat visual here too. Oh and of course, it seems to just be covered in large, compound eyes, but wait until you see its sprite...

This thing just has eyes all along its back, which is a fun horror-insect visual as well. I feel like the only thing I'd trade on this thing is a mouth with more insectoid mouth parts, or even a proboscis.

Zebbo:

Back to OG Metroid, there's Zebbo, a simply ADORABLE little bug thing that is all bee-like in proportions, which is just a recipe for a cute bug, but then it throws in some daring mantis forelimbs to keep the danger in check! Love this little fella!

Holtz:

Another creature that almost looks more like a machine than an animal of some sort. Holtz is another Rio-like enemy that dives after you, and the simple but effective menace this thing has with the horns and a single, staring eye is just oddly badass for something that's just a head and some pedipalps.

Viola:

Apparently the "larval" form of the Multiviola. Once again, in Zero Mission they look closer to the Super version where it's a ball of flame with the same ghastly face. This version of the Viola is so amusingly out of place for the rest of the enemy cast of alien insects among other things. It looks more like a Kid Icarus enemy.

Desgeega:

Another Sidehopper-like creature, and this one is a little more visually coherent than the OG sidehopper, though I kinda miss the locust-like face it had. Instead this one's face kinda basic insectoid by comparison. Though it being covered in miniature feelers is oddly funny.

Ridley:

And at last, it's... Ridley...? Man, I can't help but wonder about an alternate universe where this design of Ridley stuck. Sure it's a weird dragon with a big nozzle mouth and bug-like eyes but it's MY kinda weird. Imagine if THIS silly-looking this is what made it into Smash Bros.

And yeah, it's clearly a mismatch, cause in the game Ridley is portrayed closer to his usual self, but that still would've been interesting.

Sure though, as far as fairly standard-looking dragon characters go, Ridley does look the part of quite the badass and I respect him a lot as a nemesis to Samus. The thing I've always loved about him is how scary and skeletal he looks, with a very visible collarbone, back spines that look like a... well, spine, and a ribbed chest that looks like he's so skinny his ribcage is showing. And not to mention that thin, gangly neck. Traditional Ridley definitely wins menace points by just being limber and at least lightly unsettling looking. If they could just make some excuse for bug-eyed Ridley up there to be canon somehow, that'd please everybody!

Metroid:

Look, the main character! OG Metroids in their artwork form where much more literal in the jellyfish department, with tentacles instead of the sharp, menacing pincers they're known for these days. I'd say it'd be cool to have this as a subspecies of Metroid, but I suppose that's kind of what the Prime series' Hunter Metroids are.

And once again, it's an obvious case of sprite artist and official artist being on different pages, since even the original sprite much more resembles the traditional image of a Metroid.

And sure enough, the Zero Mission artwork follows suit and shows us the Metroids we're used to. Obviously, the series is named after them because they tend to be the center of the conflict in most of the games, but I do definitely see why they've become so dang iconic. This design is so alien and menacing with a see-through head and nothing resembling actual facial features, just a couple pairs of teeth to emphasize their face-latching nature. 

These floating, toothed jellyfish are also... oddly cute? Because they're made up of such simple shapes and those nuclei in its head can be "seen" as eyes, you can kind of sell plushies of these things? I mean, they HAVE sold plushies of these things. What I'm saying is this thing is weirdly enough the perfect mascot for a sci-fi franchise run by Nintendo specifically. Menacing in-universe, but still somehow innocent-looking enough that you can make a sequel where Samus adopts one and then goes on a revenge quest to save it as you beg the game to let the dog live.

Mother Brain:

And as far as Original Metroid goes, that just leaves us with the final boss. This is once again a case of another design eventually being what sticked, but there's definitely something creepy about not just the brain-in-a-jar trope, but also one hooked up to machinery and having a hollow, soulless-looking face with nary a facial feature but a couple of empty eye sockets. In-universe, giant brains tend to be synonyms for supercomputers, between Mother Brain, Aurora Units, the BOX robot from Fusion, and even more brain computers are showing up in Dread, but before all that there was definitely a lot of horror to be had in good ol' Mom Cranium.

These days though, Mother Brain is much more brain-like and sports nothing but a single eye instead of the face. I kind of like both designs about equally enough, just depends on whether I feel like being spooked by an empty face or spooked by a single, mile-long-staring eye. It's just like picking ketchup or mustard.

Ruins Test:

Mother Brain is where the OG Metroid ended, but Zero Mission adds on an epilogue segment where Samus loses her power suit and travels deep into some Chozo Ruins to meet this thing, a Chozo robot ghost that attacks with lightning and holds a crystal ball that you have to shoot when the image of Samus goes away to damage it.

The official art strangely portrays it as a physical thing, when it's much more like an apparition ingame. It's well serving enough as a cool Chozo robot that bares resemblance to Samus' iconic suit, so it does its job.

And also, while there are a number more enemies that appear in Zero Mission, a lot of them are from Super Metroid. The reason I'm not covering them here is so if I do this but for Super Metroid enemies one day, I don't wanna have them all eaten up by Zero Mission, so that's why there's no Space Pirates or Atomics in here.

Mecha Ridley:

And at last, the final boss of Zero Mission is a robot version of Ridley. Apparently he built it himself, but it was never fully finished, which is why it looks like a shambling mess with no legs. Ridley's design translates well enough as a robot, and it definitely looks the part of being a half-built mess of a robot, with wires hanging out of its lower half and a very obvious and exposed weak point in its chest. I'm just not so sure it feels like a final boss per se, but hey. I guess Zero Mission has to end on a climactic battle somehow.

Overall, the original Metroid has a really neat aesthetic for its alien fauna that I kinda wish more modern Metroid games had, but I still like the creature design of other Metroid games enough to where I'll probably do this again for Metroid 2 or Prime or what-have-you some day. But until the, see you next mission!

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