Dark Samus

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Dark Samus

Game series	Metroid series
First game	Metroid Prime
Creator(s)	Nintendo
Designed by	Andrew Jones

Dark Samus is a video game character created by Nintendo, who appears in the Metroid series as the doppelgänger of Samus Aran.

1 Background Information
2 Characteristics
- 2.1 Appearance
- 2.2 Abilities
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Background Information

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Origin

Dark Samus first appears in the full ending of Metroid Prime (awarded for achieving a 100% completion rating). After Samus defeats Metroid Prime, it ensnares her with a tentacle and absorbs her Phazon Suit, but quickly loses its molecular stability and is thus destroyed. In the full ending (after the credits), the hand of a mysterious figure emerges from the remains of Metroid Prime, who is later revealed to be Dark Samus in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

[edit] Confrontation

Samus first encounters Dark Samus near the beginning of Echoes when she stumbles into Dark Aether for the first time. Dark Samus thwarts her escape by shattering a light crystal, prompting a horde of shadowy creatures, the Ing, to attack and steal many of Samus' utilities and power-ups. As in Metroid Prime, this forces the player to spend most of the game reclaiming Samus' possessions.

After infiltrating a secret Space Pirate mining facility on Aether, Samus learns of her doppelgänger's arrival through the pirates' log entries. In these entries, the pirates describe how the "Dark Hunter" repeatedly raids their facilities and appears to be obsessed with obtaining and consuming their supply of Phazon. The entries also briefly speculate that Dark Samus is actually Samus, before dismissing this idea when the real Samus is recorded as having arrived.

Samus encounters Dark Samus three more times throughout the game, with each battle featuring a progressively stronger version of the adversary. During the final boss battle, Samus learns that Dark Samus' extensive exposure to Phazon has deteriorated her outer layers of tissue, revealing her skeleton and central nervous system. Despite this altered appearance, Dark Samus retains all of her capabilities. Defeating Dark Samus with a 100% completion rating yields a special cut scene in the game's ending, showing this adversary reforming in Aether's atmosphere.

[edit] Future

E3 footage from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and articles from Nintendo Power have confirmed that Dark Samus will play a role in the game. Dark Samus will "corrupt" whole planets with Phazon seeds. She also corrupts Samus, along with other bounty hunters. [1]

[edit] Characteristics

[edit] Appearance

Dark Samus' appearance, weaponry and armor are all very similar to those of Samus herself. A log entry in Echoes reveals that Dark Samus possesses a variation of Samus' Varia Suit, which has been mutated by Phazon. Both Samus and Dark Samus have similar statures and builds, and certain scans confirm that Dark Samus contains Samus' genetic material. Unlockable image galleries within the game shown that Dark Samus' skeleton is shaped to fit the Phazon suit, with a wide rib cage and, most tellingly, her right arm within the suit has no hand, just a tube-shape skeletal structure to support her arm cannon. This suggests Metroid Prime used the Phazon suit as a shell within which to grow a body using Samus' DNA.

[edit] Abilities

Dark Samus possesses many of the same abilities as Samus, though these abilities are greatly enhanced. For example, she is capable of unloading barrages of missiles and charged Phazon energy at a very high rate of fire. Additionally, she can fire energy blasts in a wide spray, allowing her to assault multiple targets simultaneously.

Dark Samus is also capable of using variants of her main weapons. For example, while her Phazon beam is already quite powerful, she can also use it to trap her enemies in Phazon crystals or ensnare them in a Phazon-based adhesive. She can also perform a dive attack, which resembles Samus' signature Shinespark and Screw Attack abilities. Dark Samus is also capable of mimicking the Morph Ball, and can roll around and ricochet off of objects with immense momentum, while also rendering herself impervious to damage.

Dark Samus is also capable of hovering indefinitely, and like Samus, she can survive in many hostile environments. She has apparently acquired the ability to teleport at will (according to a Space Pirate log), but requires the use of light and dark portals to travel between dimensions. Moreover, Dark Samus can discorporate her body into a cloud of Phazon particles and re-form in a different location at will, and she can use large amounts of Phazon to form shields and barriers, overload Samus' visors, render herself invisible, and deal extensive damage to her enemies.

[edit] Trivia

In addition to Dark Samus, Samus has encountered another doppelgänger in her missions: The SA-X (Metroid Fusion), which is a powerful clone of Samus made from an X Parasite. These two clones are not related.