Nintendo gave Samus neon urine yellow high heel jet boots and supermodel make-up and a boob job, so I decided to try my hand at taking my own Samus design and adapting it for something a little Smash Bros-friendly.

I wanted to play with the idea of “exposure,” a gameplay concept introduced at the tail end of Zero Mission, where Samus invades a Space Pirate ship sans Power Suit, and has since been used as a means of sexualizing the character – what once was a testament to her ability to work under difficult circumstances quickly became a symbol of emotional fragility and “nakedness,” which I never felt befit such a character.

Rather, I went more the “exposed circuitry” route with this, not dissimilar to Iron Man and his more incomplete rigs. Everything is relatively makeshift, looking like it’s part of a greater whole which was never completed. I abandoned the whip (because it was stupid), made her boots look less stiletto and more “bipedal nuclear tank,” and give it all a color scheme reminiscent of her traditional Power Suit.

In a perfect world… I still wouldn’t have a chance at designing Samus on an official capacity! But it’s a lot of fun thinking about “what-ifs,” and even more fun taking frustrations I have with Metroid’s creators and channeling them as something like this.