An apology to those browsing this thread with a mobile device: This post is gonna suck.
Metroid Power Metal.
Why does it feel so good?
Because it is good. It's just the narration that's hilarious, and hilarious narration fits a cheesy and awesome song.
"Samus is under fire! She sent an emergency directive: Join the fight!"
*Bitchin' guitar riff*
Also, suggesting some tracks to be remixed and covered in the next Smash.
The Tunnel
Dark Samus
Serris/Yakuza
Space Pirate Battle
Hive Mecha/Incinerator Drone
Metroid Queen
Rundas
Mutated Emperor Ing
Desbrachian
B.O.X. (Wow, Fusion's soundtrack was strange.)
Bryyo Cliffside
Metroid Prime 2 Title Screen
Metroid Prime 2 MENU Screen
Metroid Prime 2 Escape Theme
So basically, I threw in the kitchen sink. Some of these could use some work (Like B.O.X.'s theme is too short, Bryyo Cliffside needs to be more aggressive, and the Desbrachian theme needs more direction), but they have good energy for a Smash game and cover a wide-range of Metroid music. I was thinking you could combine a lot of them too, like the Emperor Ing theme and the Metroid Prime 2 title screen fit together very well, and the Tunnel could lead into the Metroid Queen music into the victory theme as a sort of Metroid 2 medley.
Also, we need the Other M rendition of Ridley's theme. It's too fucking good.
Just don't use
the Other M Space Pirate theme.
Yeah its a shame how badly Sakurai does Metroid. He gives us lackluster stages, mediocre music selection, no Ridley and almost entirely ignores the Prime series. In an alternate universe there is a SSB with Samus & Ridley as playable characters, Phendrana Drifts, Sanctuary & Phaaze as stages and some good Prime music remixes.
I'm bitter. I'll give a huge wall of text explanation on what I think he did wrong.
There are the characters. Samus is obvious, but Zero-Suit Samus is a head-scratcher. The Zero Suit has only been more than eye-candy twice, and that second time was in Other M years after Brawl. It's bizarre that Zero-Suit Samus would have priority over Ridley or Dark Samus (Or even Mother Brain... I still think she could work). Even ignoring the argument of "who should get in", Zero-Suit Samus is still a bizarre choice. In Zero Mission, you were weak and fragile without the Power Suit and had to rely on stealth. When I think of Metroid, the thing I least want to play as is "suitless Samus" because all the fun abilities in Metroid like the Morph Ball, the Speed Boost, the Grapple Beam, etc. come from the suit. Zero-Suit Samus still turned out to be a really fun character in Brawl (Certainly more fun than Brawl's other Samus), so I don't begrudge her inclusion too much, but can we at least now have Ridley?
Also, Samus in the Smash series is somewhat limited compared to her usual arsenal. I think the Grapple Beam, Missiles, and Bombs transitioned well, and I especially like how the Bomb jump aids with recovery just like the infinite bomb jump in Zero Mission and Super Metroid. I would have liked the Prime-style grapple beam on the other arm because it looks better, but still good. The Charge Shot in Smash is awful and works nothing like it does in the Metroid series. There's no beam switching or stacking, so you're stuck with the vanilla Charge Shot, and it's only good when charged up. You can't even charge it in the air like Lucario's Aura Sphere, even though Samus has always been able to charge while jumping. The Morph Ball also wasn't done well; it's supposed to be a strength, not a weakness, but it only makes her roll worse. Why can't Metroid crawl? The Screw Attack's angle and effect also act nothing like the games, but I guess an accurate Screw Attack would be the most broken thing in Smash, because it's already the most broken thing in Metroid.
The stage selection has been pitiful. The Metroid series has so many interesting places: Abandoned ghost ships haunted by actual ghosts, glowing caverns with radioactive mushrooms, organic tunnels overgrown by ravenous plant life, icy chasms filled with freezing water, technologically-advanced cities guarded by robots, ancient ruins covered in the writings of civilizations long past... Yet there has only been one Metroid stage in the Smash series that was not a lava-filled room. One. And that stage reuses Brinstar Depth's gimmick! I still appreciated Frigate Orpheon as a breath of fresh air, but then in Smash 4 we got
another lava room. This is probably one of the biggest issues with Metroid in Smash: It's a series about exploring interesting alien places, so why are the stages so boring?
The soundtrack has some great tunes, but it's infuriatingly small and some of the choices are bad. There are four tracks from the Prime games: The menu theme, the Meta Ridley theme, the Parasite Queen theme, and the Prime 2 multiplayer theme. They're good, but there's so much more that Kenji Yamamoto composed. Where is Dark Samus? Space Pirate Battle? Hive Mecha/Incinerator Drone (My personal favorite Metroid track
ever)? And as much as we complain about Sakamoto ignoring the Prime games, at least they have music. What about Metroid 2? Nothing. Zilch. Nada. I know people make fun of Metroid 2's minimal soundtrack, but I'd love to see a remix of The Tunnel or the Metroid Queen's boss theme. I used to think there were no Fusion tracks, but it turns out there is one; it's just one of the slower themes that doesn't work at all in a fighting game.
It's telling that almost every single piece of content from Metroid Prime (Menu theme, Meta Ridley, Meta Ridley's theme, Orpheon, the Parasite Queen theme) is from the very start of the game. The only exception I can think of is the Gravity Suit's blue visor. Even if Sakurai didn't like Metroid Prime enough to play past the tutorial, you'd expect at least one intern to go, "Oh, I love <insert Metroid Prime thing>, it's really cool, look at it, you should totally put it in." Because seriously, who wouldn't want the Phazon Suit?
But Smash 4 has Sakurai adding stuff from a new Metroid game, so I have hope. I don't care if it's Other M, I still have hope because he's finally embracing more Metroid. Samus once again has the suit from her newest game, and we have a stage that, while it's a bit typical, at least comes from the newest Metroid title.
(Now spam Sakurai's twitter with the Hive Mecha theme. So good.)
The thing people dont take into consideration is that samus' varia suit is suppose to be super flexible and fast among other things, its suppose to look powerful and such, but also look like she can actually move around in it, like in every game where she runs and jumps and all kinds of things that isnt in prime.
Prime's movement and jumping are far more quick and flexible than people give the game credit for. There's a reason you can speedrun the game in an hour (Well, a reason besides the hilarious glitches).
But I think the bulky look fits Samus well in Smash because she's a bulky character; she's heavy, she's slow, and she is supposed to excel with firepower. If she were faster and more agile, then I would want a more lithe design, but the tank suit from Zero Mission works fine with her Brawl speed.