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• Samus: A Visual History of Metroid's Heroine

  A full decade before popular female leads like Lara Croft and Jill Valentine became mainstays of gaming, Samus Aran, the badass bounty hunter of the Metroid Series, made waves when her pixilated feminine form was revealed at the end of 1986's Metroid. While video game princesses like Peach and Zelda were being rescued by stocky guys, Samus was blowing up giant brains and committing galactic genocide. Defying gender stereotypes, Samus has consistently been portrayed as an independent, solitary and self-sufficient soldier -- that just happens to be a total space babe under her Power Suit armor. We've dipped deep into the Metroid archives and put together a retrospective that highlights the lovely, lethal Samus Aran.

  

  

  

   

   

  Metroid (1986, NES)

  Depending on how well you performed in Metroid, Samus appeared in varying degrees of attire at the end of the game; if you weren't convinced by the flowing locks, then the pixilated bikini should have been enough to convince you that Samus was actually a girl. Codes allowed players to explore the game suit-less -- and gave Samus green hair, for some reason.