Welcome to the tenth episode of 23 Endings: The Early Years, the show where we put old school video game endings into proper context. Today we're talking about Metroid, Nintendo's very first big twist. Be surprised all over again when you watch this brand new episode of 23 Endings: The Early Years!


It's the distant future and a group of space pirates have attacked a Galactic Federation research vessel and stolen samples of a mysterious alien creature. Their plan is to replicate these Metroids and use them as a biological weapon. Things look dire, but don't worry; the Galactic Federation has a plan. They decide to send a lone bounty hunter named Samus to infiltrate the hostile planet and destroy Mother Brain, the biomechanical life-form that controls the space pirate's base.

Samus is sent in with relatively no equipment and forced to search the large and winding world for upgrades while also staying alive. This masked hero eventually works their way through the caverns, finding an ally of the space pirates that goes by the name Kraid. Samus then turns their attention to Ridley, the commander of the space pirates. With both defeated, Samus sends a few well-timed missiles at Mother Brain and escapes to safety. The whole thing leads to this thrilling reveal.

That's right, Samus is a WOMAN! Okay, so maybe that's not surprising in a world where the character looks like this, but gamers were legitimately shocked back in 1986. A few were even angry. I don't know how widespread it was, but there was a feeling amongst some of my friends at the time that video game stars needed to be men. Thankfully, Samus was able to put that kind of talk to rest with a string of incredible sequels, including the game Electronic Gaming Monthly named the best game of all time. I would like to think today's gamers would react differently, but then I remember that somebody wrote this on my Rock Boshers DX review.

Beyond the twist, this ending sends some mixed messages. It starts by telling me that I single-handedly brought peace back to space. That's no small accomplishment. But then it goes right into worrying that the Metroids might return, which we all know happens over and over and over and over and over and over again. It's not thoughts and prayers that are going to stop the Metroid scourge, but rather hiring a lot more people like Samus to fight the war.