Samus Aran

The Samus Aran DIY Project: Helmet

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 07:17:33 -0500

The Samus Aran DIY Project: Varia Suit Helmet

Yep, this is it- The completed Samus helmet!

I cannot even begin to tell you what a task creating this costume has been. Just getting the design correct, without a pattern and only by looking at character stills, has been difficult enough. But then there’s the added pressure to create the entire project in under $75…Which means recycling and reusing materials around the house. I would not recommend this project if you don’t have about a month of free evenings, the determination of an ox, and the patience to continue working despite some failures.

I have one week. One week left to finish the costume, and I’m mentally smacking myself for taking my time up to this point. I had the helmet and arm cannon done two weeks ago, and have little to show for progress up til this past Monday. I feel like I just went back to college and it’s finals week- staying up until wee hours of the morning, waking up to make a disheveled appearance at work, then returning home to more work and late nights. Mr. Frog thinks I’m crazy, and I’ll admit my sleep deprivation causes me occasional fits of mad-scientist hysterical laughter. I even talk to Samus like she’s a real robot… but I couldn’t be more pleased with the results so far. In my blog, I’m going to show step-by step instructions on how to make this Samus Aran costume DIY style. But first, a little quip about Samus, and why every girl should want to be her for Halloween instead of another version of Sexy-Vinyl-Cop.

Read More

zatransis: Dedicated to @ for the premium sub on DeviantArt....

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:05:00 -0500

zatransis:

Dedicated to @ for the premium sub on DeviantArt. It’s pretty rough but I hope you dig it, dude! #metroid #ironman (Taken with Instagram)

Photo

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:04:48 -0500

theawkwardgamer: Justin Bailey Pinup by ~Phobos-Romulus

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 10:52:35 -0500

theawkwardgamer:

Justin Bailey Pinup by ~Phobos-Romulus

portraitofagamer: Metroid Comic Book Art.

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:45:50 -0500

portraitofagamer:

Metroid Comic Book Art.

arkhane: Samus: Varia (Metroid fan art) by StuartHughe

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:45:24 -0500

arkhane:

Samus: Varia (Metroid fan art) by StuartHughe

Photo

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:22:07 -0500

dcb-z: Lock-On by ~RottaC IS THAT QUADRAXIS.

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 15:27:22 -0500

dcb-z:

Lock-On by ~RottaC

IS THAT QUADRAXIS.

dcb-z: Samus Aran Fanart by ~lorenzolamass

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:36:34 -0500

dcb-z:

Samus Aran Fanart by ~lorenzolamass

weirdandpissedoff: I’ve never owned a Nintendo, so I’m not a...

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:36:30 -0500

weirdandpissedoff:

I’ve never owned a Nintendo, so I’m not a massive fan of either of these characters, but what a cool piece by Cliff Rathburn! He needs to draw more books when he’s not doing the gray tones for Walking Dead and the inks for Invincible month in and month out.

(Source: cliff-rathburn)

thenintendard: Samus vs Ridley by Jeex-Farfadet

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 10:25:13 -0500

thenintendard:

Samus vs Ridley

by Jeex-Farfadet

Photo

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 10:25:06 -0500

milkymelancholy: http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=med...

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 11:38:14 -0500

milkymelancholy:

http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=18086499

bountyhuntersamus: [X] [[ samus taking off her armor ]]

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 11:38:05 -0500

bountyhuntersamus:

[X]

[[ samus taking off her armor ]]

Photo

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 14:07:06 -0500

reddevil17: Samus

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:37:12 -0500

reddevil17:

Samus

Photo

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:39:06 -0500

What went wrong with Metroid: Other M

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:25:28 -0500

djcblog:

Today, I went to a friends house. He had a Wii, and a few choice games I didn’t get to play before mine broke. One of them was Metroid: Other M. Well, I do like shootin’ up Space Pirates, so I decided to pop it in.

Here’s the thing: the gameplay is awesome. The controls were tight, the different play mechanics were pretty inventive and fun, and the game itself just looked awesome. It was classic side-scrolling Metroid, only on a modern console (of course, I use “modern” to describe the Wii very loosely). I really did enjoy the Prime trilogy, but in my opinion, Metroid is best when it’s a side-scroller.

So, this game was doing a lot right. Great levels, awesome gameplay, fun mechanics, pretty decent graphics for the Wii…so why did I facepalm and eventually quit halfway through?

Now, like I said in my Zelda post, I’m not the world’s most die-hard Metroid fan. I can’t list off the names of every single boss off the top of my head, but I can tell you that they’re insanely enjoyable games. A large part of that has to do with the fact that you’re playing as the galaxy’s most badass bounty hunter.

(Boba Fett wishes he was as cool as Samus Aran…)

Seriously, Samus is a boss. She gets the job done, no questions asked, and yet never hesitates to save the galaxy one time or fifty. She has an arsenal of weapons that would make Link jealous, a suit that Tony Stark wishes he built in a cave, and a rogues gallery of grotesque alien beasts that are too evil for even Mos Eisley.

The fact that she’s a girl is almost an afterthought.

Yeah, remember at the end of the original Metroid? And it was revealed that this badass bounty hunter you were playing as the entire time was actually a woman?

That was a pretty groundbreaking at the time. Back then, women in gaming were the damsels in distress. The fact that Metroid not only defied that mentality, and that it became such a huge hit, was a pretty huge deal, and solidified Samus’s place in video game history.

The next few games dived a bit more into Samus’s character, but one thing remained: her badassery. She was a bounty hunter who played by nobody’s rules but her own, and took down any alien threat that came her way, despite the risks. And she did it all in style.

The old-fashioned mentality of “boys would never want to play as a female character” was gone. Completely gone. Samus wasn’t sexualized like Lara Croft, nor was she helpless like Princess Peach. She was an action hero, and a damn awesome one, who just so happened to be female.

For the longest time, Samus enjoyed a pretty spectacular career. From amazing handheld games to the her first foray into the FPS genre, Samus continued to grow as one of gaming’s leading ladies.

Then…

Other M’s biggest problem (and, trust me, it’s a big problem), is its cutscenes. I think there was more bland and overdramatic dialogue spoken in the first cutscene of this game than every other Metroid game combined. And what was the point of these painfully drawn out CG scenes?

To “flesh out” Samus’s character. Or, in layman’s terms, “to reduce Samus from a badass bounty hunter to a fragile little lady.”

Now, sexism is a tricky term. There are obviously some blatant acts of sexism, but there are others that are in a sort of gray area. Some feminists think Harley Quinn is a terrible, demeaning character who is some oversexed male fantasy, while other feminists cosplay as her at Comic-Con.

(Sexy…?)

(…yes. Yes it is.)

I’m not sure how sexist feminists would find Samus’s portrayal in Other M, but I can tell you how I felt about it: it was just awful. Honestly, I didn’t want to see (or especially hear) Samus’s sob stories. I didn’t want to hear how she was constantly trying to impress Officer Adam enough for him to call her “a lady.” I don’t care that she holds him with such high regard that she won’t use her weapons until he says it’s OK. This isn’t Fifty Shades of Freaking Grey, this is supposed to be Metroid!

Samus isn’t a character that needs to prove herself or yearns for the attention or respect of an officer. She’s a hardened bounty hunter, someone who has seen and survived more crazy alien shit than any of the Galactic Federation soldiers combined. Why does she need any of their permission to kick ass?

Actually, this sort of dramatic character change would make a lot more sense if this game was a prequel or origin story, or even if it took place earlier in her career. But it doesn’t. According to the Metroid timeline (yeah, that’s right, I studied up for this article, bitches!), Other M takes place after Metroid, the Prime games, Return of Samus, and Super Metroid. So…it’s the exact opposite. This game takes place when Samus was at her peak, her most experienced.

So why is she acting like a little girl in a suit?

Playing this game ruined the character of Samus for me. Not because they gave her dialogue, but because her dialogue was whiny and unnecessary. Not because they fleshed out her character, but because they destroyed her character.

As I said, the rest of the game was flawless. In fact, upon further research, the game got pretty grand reviews for its gameplay. All Nintendo needed to do was give us the mature, badass Samus we all knew, and flesh her out in a more interesting, less childish way, and Metroid: Other M could’ve been one of their biggest hits in recent history.

Shame.

tentaclesquiggles: Found an unfinished Samus in my doodles! :D

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:12:39 -0500

tentaclesquiggles:

Found an unfinished Samus in my doodles! :D

geeksngamers: Samus and Baby Metroid - by zgul-osr1113

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:12:36 -0500

geeksngamers:

Samus and Baby Metroid - by zgul-osr1113