When people think of Samus, most of the time it’s either how she looks in her iconic Varia Suit, or her suitless form, dubbed Zero Suit Samus by the Super Smash Bros. series. What the new (or non) Metroid fan may not realize upon first playing the Metroid series is that Samus has a wider wardrobe of outfits she has worn throughout the games, comics and other spinoff media, both canon and not. This feature is intended to cover each of Samus’s outfits, their history and significance.
Zero Suit
The first and most obvious outfit in this feature is the Zero Suit. Introduced in Metroid: Zero Mission, it has appeared in every Metroid game since, establishing a recognizable look for Samus both with and without her Power Suit. It is a blue catsuit that covers her entire body from the neck down, and is adorned with Chozo markings on the backs of her hands, the left half of her chest, and her back. In Other M, the Power Suit is shown to materialize from the sigil on her breast, with concept art suggesting the marks on the back would glow brightly during intense situations. However, during the escape sequence at the end of Other M, they do not glow. Other M’s version of the Zero Suit has since carried over to Samus Returns, Super Smash Bros. 4 and Ultimate, and Metroid Dread.
The Zero Suit is shown in Dread to have been given to Samus as a child, and she continues to use it through her Federation Army days (as seen in Other M’s flashbacks), and bounty hunting career. In Zero Suit form, Samus is equipped with the Paralyzer, which is only capable of stunning, not killing her enemies. She is also much weaker, but more agile and light when moving, even capable of performing flips off a wall in Other M. Smash adds a whip to the Paralyzer that Samus lacks in the mainline Metroid series, and in Smash 4 and Ultimate, Jet Boots that fit over the Zero Suit’s heels, providing her with rocket capabilities.
Between you and me, it’s my hope we get a Zero Suit sequence in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The thought of controlling her with a first person view of the Paralyzer is very exciting, and if they incorporate the Plasma Whip for grappling, that would be awesome.
Justin Bailey
The first instance of a playable armorless Samus appeared in the original Metroid. After completing the game in a certain amount of time, or by entering passwords like “Justin Bailey”, Samus could be played in her suitless form, a magenta one-piece bathing suit with sleeves, an Arm Cannon, and boots. She also had brown or green hair to differentiate between the default Power and Varia Suits. For the purposes of this feature, Justin Bailey refers to both the password and the leotard Samus wears.
The leotard makes a return in Metroid: Samus Returns, if you complete the game on Hard Mode in under four hours. Samus will then appear in her Justin Bailey leotard, recreating her wave goodbye from the ending of Metroid. It is also possible to play as Samus in this appearance in certain WarioWare microgames based on the original Metroid. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl and 4, Zero Suit Samus has a pink alternate costume that may be a subtle reference to the leotard.
Underwear/Bikini
The underwear or bikini, for lack of a better name, is what Samus wears in the so-called “best” endings of Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus. By beating these games in the fastest times, Samus will remove her Varia Suit and strip to her undergarments before posing for the player. She wears boots with the underwear in Metroid, but not in Metroid II which adds bracelets. In Metroid the bikini is pink, while it is black and white or greenscale by necessity in Metroid II; playing with the Game Boy Color’s preset color palette changes the bikini’s color to red, along with Samus’s hair. Back in the day, there were persistent rumors that if you beat Metroid even faster, you would unlock an ending where Samus was completely naked. Yeah, good luck with that.
Samus is also shown in her undergarments at the start of the Metroid manga as she crawls into bed at home, and has a horrific flashback. The Super Metroid comic opens with Samus waking up in bed, wearing a tee shirt and although not pictured, underwear of some sort. So we know she doesn’t wear the Zero Suit all the time.
Casual Outfit
Samus’s Casual Outfit is worn by her in Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission, but it only got its name in a non-Metroid title, Miitomo. The Casual Outfit consists of a sports bra, short shorts, bracelets and boots. These are black in Super Metroid, blue in Fusion and orange in Zero Mission, and each variant has subtle differences. In Super, Samus wears a thong rather than shorts, and in Zero Mission, the sports bra has a triangular cut underneath the collar and above the cleavage. The Fusion outfit is also worn by Samus in her origin story manga, now with a zipper.
In Super and Fusion, Samus is seen in her Casual Outfit when her Power Suit is destroyed in the Game Over sequence. In Zero Mission and all subsequent 2-D Metroid games, Samus instead wears the Zero Suit during the Game Over. Zero Mission’s Casual Outfit appears in endings earned by collecting 100% or under 15% of items. Fusion’s outfit reappears in Samus Returns when completing Fusion Mode in under four hours.
Samus wore a version of the Casual Outfit when revealing her true identity to Joey Apronika at the very end of Samus and Joey. Here, she had a harness with a holster, cropped gloves, and a thong like Super Metroid. Her hair was also tied at the end. In Smash 4 and Ultimate, the Fusion and Zero Mission Casual Outfits were added as alternate costumes. According to Masahiro Sakurai, they were last minute additions by Samus’s designer, who he was quick to mention was a woman. Miitomo, as stated, is the game that names the Casual Outfit. In addition to the blue and orange variants of the outfit, there are original white, yellow, green and black versions.
Military Dress
Samus’s Military Dress is the outfit she wore during her service in the Galactic Federation Army. This consisted of a camo green army shirt that Samus kept partly unbuttoned, revealing a red undershirt. She paired it with grey fatigues, knee guards, a holster on her thigh and brown calf-high combat boots, and the outfit is accessorized with fingerless gloves and an earpiece. When Ian Malkovich made Samus take a photo with him, she had a trench coat on over this outfit. According to concept art, Samus was fifteen to seventeen years old during this period of her life.
I remember it being affectionately dubbed by fans as the “Civilian Suit” following Other M’s announcement, although this ultimately proved to be inaccurate since she wasn’t a civvie when wearing it. I speculated with other fans that Samus in this appearance was her present day form, and there would be a playable sequence at Galactic Federation HQ where it came under attack. Samus, suitless and in this outfit, would have to run to her Gunship to activate her Varia Suit. This did not come to pass, but datamining of Other M has revealed collision data for Samus in this appearance. It may allude to the possibility that at one point, young Samus was playable.
Civilian Clothes
Samus wears an outfit called the Civilian Clothes near the end of Metroid: Other M as she is reflecting on her mission at Galactic Federation HQ. The scenes here mirror the aforementioned moments of a younger Samus looking out the window in her Military Dress. The Civilian Clothes consist of a green military (despite its name) jacket with fasteners on the collar, a high-waisted belt, black leggings and knee-high suede boots with heels. Concept art indicates Samus wears a purple undershirt under the jacket. In Other M, she initially wears this with her hair down, before tying it up into her ponytail – the reverse of what she does at the end of both Metroid II and Super Metroid – and walking offscreen.
Parka
The parka is a small orange, short-sleeved jacket that Samus wore during the massacre of K-2L when she was three, as depicted in Other M. She has short hair in this appearance, and wears blue shorts and orange boots. Concept art for the jacket indicates it has a hood.
The unidentified little girl who played Samus as a child in Past is Prologue, the live-action Other M commercial, wore this outfit as a costume. Previously, in the Metroid origin manga and the flashback in Zero Mission, child Samus was shown to be wearing a jumper/sweater. Even as a child, Samus has recognizable clothes, and orange was always her color.
Training Outfit
The Training Outfit, as I’ve taken to calling it, is a white/silver jumpsuit that we see a younger Samus wearing in the Japanese Metroid Fusion endings and in chapter 2 of the origin story manga published in Magazine Z. The two-piece outfit covers her entire body except the arms, and includes two bracelets. Samus wore it as a child, then a teenager, in her Chozo training. She consistently has her hair down in this outfit. The e-manga recolors the outfit a light pink, and the shade of Samus’s hair color almost looks brown – a potential very subtle reference to her suitless appearance in the original Metroid. One of Zero Suit Samus’s costumes in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate turns the Zero Suit white, another possible reference to this outfit.
You can either unlock the endings by playing the Japanese version of Fusion on Child Mode (which determines whether kanji or hiragana is used), or linking Fusion to Zero Mission with a Game Boy Advance Link Cable, which unlocks the endings in the latter game. If you play Zero Mission through Nintendo Switch Online, the endings are unlocked by default.
Other Outfits
Aside from the seven outfits mentioned above, Samus has four more in spinoff media that she’s never worn in the games. In the Nintendo Comics System’s two page story The Coming of a Hero, which provided an early depiction of Samus’s origins, we see her clad in a skintight blue bodysuit during her Galactic Federation training days. This suit covers her head, with her long hair hanging out as a ponytail. It’s accessorized with cyan gloves and boots with white trim, a white belt, and a laser pistol Samus uses to dispatch a pair of robots.
By the time she became a Star-Tracker, an elite Federation Police officer, Samus’s attire under her suit consisted of a green, collared leotard with sleeves and curved boots, similar to the Justin Bailey outfit, but with blond instead of brown or green hair. She continued to wear this undersuit in her Captain N appearances when out of her armor, such as the story A King of Shreds and Patches.
In the Metroid manga, Samus wears a jumpsuit during her police service with shoulder and elbow pads, and fingerless gloves, with her jacket having a noticeable front zipper. It may represent another precursor to the Zero Suit. Years later, Samus attends the inauguration of Keaton as Chairman of the Galactic Federation on Daiban, wearing a long coat over a bandage dress, pumps, a scarf and a large hat, with her long hair down. This outfit is shredded when, in the midst of thwarting an assassination attempt, Samus activates her Power Suit.
Other characters wearing Samus’s clothes
There have also been examples of characters in other games wearing Samus’s clothing, mostly the Zero Suit. This section does not include costumes based on the Power Suit and its variants.
The Zero Suit is an unlockable costume in Dynasty Warriors Vs., Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (Wii only), Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (Wii U only), Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition, Miitopia and Yoshi’s Woolly World, the latter two via amiibo. Monster Hunter’s Zero Suit costume is worn under the Varia Suit Armor, it can still use the Arm Cannon, and it has a unique male variant. A Zero Suit costume was available through a drop in Miitomo, with color schemes that turn it green, black, purple, red and gold, like some of her alternate costumes in Smash. Miitomo also had the Casual Outfit, as stated.
In New Style Boutique 2: Fashion Forward, the Jet Boots Zero Suit Samus wears in Super Smash Bros. 4 and Ultimate are an unlockable item, obtained by tapping her amiibo.
Lastly, one character in F-Zero is a subtle reference to Samus’s appearance in the original Metroid: Jody Summer has long brown hair, a pink bikini and boots worn over a light pink bodysuit, with shoulder pads and a lightning symbol on her chest. If that wasn’t enough of a callback, she works for the Galactic Space Federation!
Which of Samus’s outfits is your favorite? Let us know on our social media pages!
Written by: Roy