Areas in the Metroid Series
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Brinstar
Brinstar is the name of a ficticious area of the planet Zebes in the Metroid video game series.
Location
Brinstar is the second area the player will reach in Super Metroid. It is directly below Crateria, which is essentially the surface of Zebes.
Geology
Brinstar, like most of the other areas in Super Metroid, is a subterranean area. It has been portrayed in several different ways between the Metroid games, but most thoroughly in Super Metroid, in which it was composed of two partitions. The first one the player encounters resembles a jungle. The second features rock surroundings and looks more like a cave. The jungle area is green, while the cave area is red.
It should be noted that there is no absolute concrete barrier between the two areas. The best indicator is probably the change in BGM that occurs when the player enters the cave area, or the change in soil colour to a deep red as opposed to the pale pink rock which is still considered jungle Brinstar.
Inhabitants
The following creatures are native to Brinstar in Super Metroid.
- Geemers: Small semi-circular creatures with spikes along their backs. Their intelligence is limited to walking in set patterns along the terrain, meaning that Samus must accidentally run or jump into them in order to be harmed.
- Zeela: Yellow creatures very similar to crabs. They behave exactly like Geemers.
- Rippers: Small brown turtle-like creatures which float back and forth at a set speed. Their shell is extremely hard; nothing short of a Super Missile can destroy them.
- Rocket-Rippers: Variant of the Ripper, coloured red rather than brown, which travels much faster and produces an exhaust flame.
- Cacatac: Appears to be a plant but is actually animated. Swells to a larger size before expelling spike-shaped projectiles in all directions.
- Spore Spawn: This is the boss of this area, fought pretty early for the super missiles. He combines falling spores (hence the name) and a waving motion of his elongated plant-like neck to attack.
- Sidehoppers: These come in a couple sizes ranging from small, medium, large, and even large spiked ones only found in lower Norfair
- Zeb: Mysteriously, Brinstar (and many other areas in Zebes) are covered in green pipes which look similar to the pipes in Super Mario Bros., another Nintendo game. The Zeb flies out of these pipes at the enemy. However, it is very lightly armoured and does not do much damage. They continue to attack in infinite number, so standing in front of a pipe and repeatedly killing them for their health or missile powerups is an easy way to recharge in the abscense of an energy station or missile station. There is a unique pipe enemy for each region of Zebes.
Notability
Metroid games
In the context of the Metroid games themselves, Brinstar is often the introduction into the game in that it tends to be the first area the player explores which gives them a full feeling of the game. For example:
- In the original Metroid for the NES, the player starts immediately in Brinstar.
- In Super Metroid, the player enters Brinstar after a very short stay in Crateria which involves minimal combat or advancement.
Other games
Brinstar has made appearances in other video games as well. An example would be the Brinstar Depths stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Music
Especially in the video game music subculture, Brinstar is famous for a few of its soundtracks. The theme from the original NES incarnation of Brinstar is perhaps the most well known Metroid song of all and has been remade several times for other Metroid games such as Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. The Super Metroid Brinstar themes are not as popular, but are considered masterpieces by many game music enthusaists. The track used in the green jungle area was remade as the default BGM for the multiplayer mode in Metroid Prime 2, while the track used in the red soil area was remade and used for the Hydrodynamo area in the same game.
Ceres Space Colony
The Ceres Space Colony, named after the Roman Goddess, is mentioned in the prologue of Super Metroid. It is a large metal structure in an unnamed Asteroid field, with notable scientific equipment on-board.
General
The Station is where Samus Aran, after the events of Metroid II: Return of Samus, has deposited the only remaining Metroid larva for study by the Galactic Federation. In the game's intro sequence, a distress call is received from the station and Samus investigates. It is later revealed that the Space Pirate Captain of the Guard, Ridley, has broken into the station. The crew is deceased and the Metroid larva is missing. At the end of a short series of rooms, Samus encounters Ridley in a pseudo boss battle. After the battle is concluded, a timer appears in the corner of the screen, beginning at 1 minute. This is the self destruct timer, and Samus must escape within that time. When the player escapes, a scene shows the colony detonating and Samus' ship flying away from it.
Notes on the Boss Battle
The fight against Ridley has two rules that make it unique in Super Metroid. Ridley can be defeated either by being shot 100 times or if Samus' energy is reduced below 30. However, Ridley is only 'defeated' in the sense that he grabs the Metroid larva and retreats. The boss 'battle' is more like an interactive cutscene in that it has a set outcome which cannot really be altered by the player.
Other notes
There are approximately 104 unique tiles composing Ceres station. Each tile is a 16x16 pixel object that can be flipped and rotated. The musical loop for Ceres is approximately 4.26 seconds long. While Samus is in the station, but before meeting Ridley, the screen has a bluish tint on the front. This blue follows a specific pattern: The bottom 56 pixels have their blue value (on the RGB pixel format) increased by 112. Above that, each 16 pixels has their blue values decreased by 16 every 16 pixels, creating a blocky fade. The three scientist corpses in the room where the Metroid larva was shown in the introduction have Purple hair, though it appears blue with the filter applied by the SNES.
Crateria
Crateria is an area of the planet Zebes from the Metroid video game series.
Location
Crateria was the top most surface of Zebes, and was a very desolate place, merely a shell hiding the rich life below it. On the surface was the Wrecked Ship, an ancient vessel which stood slowly dissolving in Zebes's corrosive atmosphere. Slightly below the surface lay the Mother Brain's stronghold, Tourian, which would be the direct cause of Zebes' destruction.
Inhabitants
Despite its seeming unimportance to the life beneath it, Crateria's rich chemical deposits were a major importance to the forests and seas which once thrived beneath it. Some creatures in Crateria include the KiHunters, flying allies of the Space Pirates that glide with their wings through the air.
Norfair
Norfair is a fictional area present in many of the games in the Metroid series. It is the home of Ridley, the most famous of the Metroid villains.
Location
Norfair is far below the surface of Zebes. Norfair is the lowest point in Zebes the player can explore. It is below Brinstar and Maridia.
Geology
Being so close to the core of Zebes, Norfair, especially the innermost part, is the hottest natural region of Zebes. The extremely potent heat generated by the magma is capable of melting even the most resilient of metals, which neccesitates the obtainment of the Varia Suit. This upgrade protects Samus from intense heat, although not as well as the Gravity Suit.
Inhabitants
Wrecked Ship
The Wrecked Ship is a level in Super Metroid video game. It consists of a Space Pirate spaceship which has crashed into a body of water on the planet Zebes. Some people have speculated that the Wrecked Ship is the same ship that is destroyed at the end of Metroid: Zero Mission.
Inhabitants
Environment
The ship is partially submerged. It is very heavily damaged and when Samus first arrives the electricity is not functioning. After defeating Phantoon, the power is restored and doors requiring power can be opened .
Maridia
Maridia is the water-flooded area of Zebes in Super Metroid. This area is in beetween Brinstar, Crateria, The Wrecked Ship and Norfair. You can get to this place from Crateria or Brinstar by elevator and glass bridge (break with a Power Bomb) respectively. This near-completely underwater place is home to many different creatures like; new pirates that can only be taken out with the new Plasma Beam, mini-boss Botwoon, a snake-like creature that constantly flows into and out of it's hole in the wall to attack you, and the boss of the area, Draygon, which is a huge crustacian resembling a lobster (also has a skull formation on it's forhead and on other various places on it's body).
Creatures
Maridia is also home to many sand pits and, for being submerged, are now sinking sand pits. Samus also may find Mochtroids, the pirate's attempts at cloning Metroids (you can tell because these only have one nuclei). There is also a creature thats like a machine, with grinding gears for feet to cut through hard rock/sand, and creatures resembling shellfish.
Tourian
Tourian is the central base of the Space Pirates on planet Zebes and is the lair of the Mother Brain. It is the last region in the original Metroid and in Super Metroid, but Metroid Zero Mission has more of Zebes to explore afterward.
While the rest of Zebes is formed from natural caverns, Tourian is entirely artificial. No creatures patrol the corridors except the Metroids, and Rinka projectors which line the floors and ceilings. Red Zeebetite barriers protect Mother Brain, who resides in her transparent case.
In Super Metroid Samus Aran is able to explore part of the old ruined Tourian from Metroid/Metroid Zero Mission as part of Crateria.
After defeating the Mother Brain, a self-destruct countdown commences, leaving Samus only a few minutes to reach the planet's surface, board her gunship, and blast off. In the original Metroid and Zero Mission, Tourian's destruction only damages a small part of Zebes, but Super Metroid's countdown leads to the destruction of the entire planet.
