Samus Aran

Orphaned at the young age of three, she was adopted by the Chozo to train her as a fighter on the planet Zebes.  They injected their blood into her system, allowing her to survive in places normal humans cannot.  She is often considered a super athlete, since she can run faster and jump higher than anyone else.  It probably helps that Zebes has much more intense gravity than Earth does.  Her Chozo family also made her a special powered suit, which she wears throughout the series.

She is known as “the Hunter” within the Metroid series, and is feared and hated by the infamous Space Pirates (since they have vapor for brains).  To the rest of Nintendo’s cast, she is the “intergalactic queen of badass.”  Nothing will stop her from getting the job done.  If a planet gets blown up in the process, then so be it.  If Ridley shows up, he’ll wish he didn’t.  If the Space Pirates show up, she’ll slaughter them in droves.

Samus measures in at 6’3” and weighs 198 pounds (all muscle, and without the Power Suit).  Her age has not been revealed, although it could be that the Chozo DNA makes her age difficult to determine.  She’s as beautiful as she is deadly.  She’s often seen wearing her signature Varia Suit, but every once and a while, we’ll see her wearing the form fitting Zero Suit or some variation of it, usually to reward us for beating the game fast enough, collecting everything, or both.  Metroid games are very popular for speedruns and 100% runs.  After all, Samus has some of the best curves in the galaxy!

I fell in love with Samus after playing through Super Metroid for the first time a few years ago, and it’s still one of my favorite games of all time.  Metroid Prime is a very close second.  I just can’t say no to Samus Aran.  I don’t think anyone can.  If you did, she’d probably shoot you in the back or kick you, and since Zebes has much stronger gravity than Earth does, I doubt you’d get back up afterward.

When the original game was in development, one of the developers said “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if the person inside the suit was a woman?”  This idea was accepted, and this decision gave rise to one of my favorite Nintendo females.  The manual for the first game kept her identity a secret, even going as far as calling her a man.  Imagine someone’s surprise when that helmet came off and the blonde hair burst from it.  Of course, everyone knows that’s really a woman running around in that powered armor blasting the crap out of everything.  But she was the first female protagonist in gaming, proving once and for all that she can kick just as much butt as the boys.

She and Rosalina are my favorite characters to use in Smash 4 (both versions).  I love how fast and powerful Samus is.  I prefer speed over brawn throughout the series.  This way I can cover more ground quickly if I need to, which slower characters are not good with.  Her new Jet Boots does give her more power, and they sacrifice none of her agility.  Yes, even with those high heels, Samus could still chase you down.  Regular heels wouldn’t slow her down either.

This version of Samus comes from Super Smash Bros., which reuses her character models from Metroid Other M.  While I found that game at most decent, I loved the detail on Samus, for both her forms.  Seeing her appear in Smash 4, and being one of my favorites to use, I had to draw her again.  So I found a cosplayer (don’t remember her name) with the pose I wanted, but she wore the older model of the Zero Suit.  To match the details on her new look, I printed out her artwork from Smash 4, and took multiple screenshots while playing as Zero Suit Samus in the Special Smash in slow motion.  This mode is great for capturing screenshots, especially for drawing references.  Her gun did not give me any trouble at all, but her shoes did.  I spent longer on her shoes than anywhere else on this picture, and I’m still not convinced they are perfect.  They have so much detail, it was hard trying to replicate it.  At least when making the base form, my time drawing the Sailor Guardians helped out a lot.