Longtime Metroid fans might be aware that Super Metroid originally had a different Game Over sequence. This fact was unearthed in a Japanese developer interview translated by the Metroid Database many years ago. The interview revealed that Samus was intended to be naked under her Power Suit, and to scream when she died. The scream was recorded by one of the game’s composers Minako Hamano, but due to the voice sounding inappropriate and American objections to nudity, the voice was removed and clothes were added to Samus. Yoshio Sakamoto claimed in the same interview to have a special version of the ROM with the original death sequence.
Recently, a member of The Cutting Room Floor, a wiki devoted to archiving unused video game content, may have unearthed this cut content. In late June, a user called ValjeanLafitte uploaded a voice sample they found in the Super Metroid ROM (all regions) that sounds like a female moan. Valjean speculated that this represents Hamano-san’s unused cry, and further noted that the sound appears to be of a lower quality than intended, perhaps due to hardware limitations. They edited the sound to improve its pitch and speed. You can listen to the original and edited sounds on TCRF at the link below, as well as Wikitroid.
