Metroid Footware

[KazeAizen]

Ok so unless you've been going outside the past few days most everyone here has seen the new design for zero suit Samus for super smash bros. 4. Namely that they have given her rocket propelled high heels. My question is why is this even an issue? Wait. Before you even start that reply hear me out. Yes we need to tone down or do a better job of representing women in video games. Namely trying to stop making them Barbie dolls or Hooters models. However I really don't see the issue with it. Most of the complaints I see are "Its impractical" "They're sexifying her even more." I'm not sure if people realize this but Samus has always been sexified to a degree. Even before the zero suit. The end of the first game ever she posed in a bikini if you were fast enough. The game over screen for Super Metroid, the third game, shows her busting out of her suit and she's in a black two piece and fairly curvy. She's been a Barbie doll from day one. She just happens to be one that wears a suit of hi tech armor that looks like she stole it from Mega Man.

It seems out of all the Nintendo franchises Metroid seems to be the one taken the most serious. To such a degree that a majority of people flip their lid when she's given high heels for a battle royal free for all beat em up. If its an issue of practicality then let me bring another, very recent, video game heroine that fought evil in high heels. Bayonetta. I saw no one complaining about her fighting impractical high heels. Why? Because the game was fun, she shopped at the same story as Catwoman and Black Cat, and she watched the movie Equilibrium one too many times. So the final questions for discussion will be. Why is it that Metroid is taken so much more seriously than most other Nintendo franchises and why is it such a big deal that she has ROCKET POWERED high heels for a fighting game that features a ninja frog that makes shuriken from water? When did this kind of out there awesomeness become a bad thing?

 

[josemlopes]

Cant really understand it either, its Dante all over again with everyone going "But this is different because this one touches a franchise that I care about".

Its not even stuff for a new Metroid, just for her appearence in SSB4.

 

[Tanis]

Did Radien wear the same sort of thing?

 

[KazeAizen]

Did Radien wear the same sort of thing?

Yes. Yes he did indeed. And he used them with his sword.

 

[Tanis]

That's what I thought...seems like of...weird to me.

Spoiler: Mod edit: Please use spoilers when posting large images

 

[KazeAizen]

That's what I thought...seems like of...weird to me.

You sir should post this in the more popular threads complaining about her heels.

 

[EternallyBored]

. Bayonetta. I saw no one complaining about her fighting impractical high heels. Why? Because the game was fun, she shopped at the same story as Catwoman and Black Cat, and she watched the movie Equilibrium one too many times. So the final questions for discussion will be. Why is it that Metroid is taken so much more seriously than most other Nintendo franchises and why is it such a big deal that she has ROCKET POWERED high heels for a fighting game that features a ninja frog that makes shuriken from water? When did this kind of out there awesomeness become a bad thing?

Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't exist, I saw plenty of people complaining about Bayonetta, her heels probably didn't get much focus because there was the whole stripper dancing for the camera and taking her clothes off to use her moves that were much more blatant things that people focused on.

If Samus's new moveset involved her doing pole dances and using sexual teasing to beat her enemies, then yeah, people would likely not be complaining much about the heels, the comparison to Bayonetta is completely silly.

Now, the reason that Bayonetta tends to be viewed as more acceptable, and I personally can mostly enjoy Bayonetta as a character, while still looking at Samus's heels and think it's a stupid addition, is that Bayonetta's character is worked around how she moves and fights. Her heels are a part of an entire package that focuses on Bayonetta being sexy, and showing that sexiness off to other characters in the game and the people playing it.

Samus's character has involved her fighting in her suit, that's her entire powerset, the one time she was caught without her powersuit, she had to stealth her way past invincible enemies that she could only stun, and she did that for the entire purpose of just getting another powersuit. Now, there's no harm in changing a character's powerset, and indeed, the SSB games are a departure from the norm to begin with, so some leeway with canonical abilities is accepted.

But it comes down to exasperation at the changes pretty much always being to make a character sexier when it comes to Samus. It's never, "let's give her shoulder mounted rocket pods, or maybe make her suit buikier or sleeker to fit different weapon loadouts". People get annoyed that Samus's design changes in the last half decade seem to be running along the lines of "What excuse can we use to get her in the zero suit outside of just an ending bonus? and what can we add to the zero suit to make Samus Sexier?"

Even in a game like SSB you do have a frog throwing water ninja stars, but I would be willing to bet that plenty of people would complain if Greninja appeared in the newest SSB as a fire type that used fire based moves instead.

It's a matter of perspective, people expect Samus to fight in her powersuit, pulling her out of it just to show off her skin tight catsuit annoys people that see it as pointless pandering. If Bayonetta was in the next SSB game, people probably wouldn't complain much about her heels, because that's how she normally fights.

 

[KazeAizen]

. Bayonetta. I saw no one complaining about her fighting impractical high heels. Why? Because the game was fun, she shopped at the same story as Catwoman and Black Cat, and she watched the movie Equilibrium one too many times. So the final questions for discussion will be. Why is it that Metroid is taken so much more seriously than most other Nintendo franchises and why is it such a big deal that she has ROCKET POWERED high heels for a fighting game that features a ninja frog that makes shuriken from water? When did this kind of out there awesomeness become a bad thing?

Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't exist, I saw plenty of people complaining about Bayonetta, her heels probably didn't get much focus because there was the whole stripper dancing for the camera and taking her clothes off to use her moves that were much more blatant things that people focused on.

If Samus's new moveset involved her doing pole dances and using sexual teasing to beat her enemies, then yeah, people would likely not be complaining much about the heels, the comparison to Bayonetta is completely silly.

Now, the reason that Bayonetta tends to be viewed as more acceptable, and I personally can mostly enjoy Bayonetta as a character, while still looking at Samus's heels and think it's a stupid addition, is that Bayonetta's character is worked around how she moves and fights. Her heels are a part of an entire package that focuses on Bayonetta being sexy, and showing that sexiness off to other characters in the game and the people playing it.

Samus's character has involved her fighting in her suit, that's her entire powerset, the one time she was caught without her powersuit, she had to stealth her way past invincible enemies that she could only stun, and she did that for the entire purpose of just getting another powersuit. Now, there's no harm in changing a character's powerset, and indeed, the SSB games are a departure from the norm to begin with, so some leeway with canonical abilities is accepted.

But it comes down to exasperation at the changes pretty much always being to make a character sexier when it comes to Samus. It's never, "let's give her shoulder mounted rocket pods, or maybe make her suit buikier or sleeker to fit different weapon loadouts". People get annoyed that Samus's design changes in the last half decade seem to be running along the lines of "What excuse can we use to get her in the zero suit outside of just an ending bonus? and what can we add to the zero suit to make Samus Sexier?"

Even in a game like SSB you do have a frog throwing water ninja stars, but I would be willing to bet that plenty of people would complain if Greninja appeared in the newest SSB as a fire type that used fire based moves instead.

It's a matter of perspective, people expect Samus to fight in her powersuit, pulling her out of it just to show off her skin tight catsuit annoys people that see it as pointless pandering. If Bayonetta was in the next SSB game, people probably wouldn't complain much about her heels, because that's how she normally fights.

Except Samus's new move set isn't going to involve being on a stripper pole and we both know that. Still I think the comparison to Bayonetta is somewhat relevant as Samus really has been a source of cheese cake material from her inception. That was the reward for beating the game or the punishment for dying in Super Metroid. When she made her debut Super Smash Bros. appearance I actually really enjoyed Zero Suit Samus. I actually don't think I've played the Metroid Game where she is in the zero suit during gameplay. However her move set was fun and different enough that yeah I do think she deserved her own character slot. I've never seen those design choices you are talking about. The only addition to that suit I've seen really has just been the heels. It seems to be the same everywhere else I see it.

I've never seen the zero suit as pointless pandering. Heck I was introduced to it in Brawl. I just thought it was cool that I could fight as Samus and see her dang face for once. I was even at the age where that zero suit should've been pointless pandering to me. Which I'm willing to bet is Nintendo's mind set. They see it as an opportunity to show off a new skill set or different side of their famous heroine and not to just give us a big slice of cheese cake.

 

[josemlopes]

That's what I thought...seems like of...weird to me.

snip

You sir should post this in the more popular threads complaining about her heels.

It has been already posted, we just dont get how out of character it is and how its the same as adding an Hitler mustache, apparently. For any other character it makes incredible sense to have heels though (Raiden uses them with his sword. But wouldnt that part of the character design come after they thought about adding heels? Its not like he cant fight with his hands, they added the heels and then made them part of his combat, even in MGS2 he was already a very feminine guy, but no, his heels are totally a need for story reasons).

 

[KazeAizen]

That's what I thought...seems like of...weird to me.

snip

You sir should post this in the more popular threads complaining about her heels.

It has been already posted, we just dont get how out of character it is and how its the same as adding an Hitler mustache, apparently. For any other character it makes incredible sense to have heels though (Raiden uses them with his sword. But wouldnt that part of the character design come after they thought about adding heels? Its not like he cant fight with his hands, they added the heels and then made them part of his combat, even in MGS2 he was already a very feminine guy, but no, his heels are totally a need for story reasons).

Its not like her zero suit doesn't have heels. Sure they aren't as pronounced but they are there. Seems plenty in character to me if she is going to be out of her normal power suit. Having some kind of weapon, a stylish one at that, on her feet seems logical.

 

[EternallyBored]

. Bayonetta. I saw no one complaining about her fighting impractical high heels. Why? Because the game was fun, she shopped at the same story as Catwoman and Black Cat, and she watched the movie Equilibrium one too many times. So the final questions for discussion will be. Why is it that Metroid is taken so much more seriously than most other Nintendo franchises and why is it such a big deal that she has ROCKET POWERED high heels for a fighting game that features a ninja frog that makes shuriken from water? When did this kind of out there awesomeness become a bad thing?

Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't exist, I saw plenty of people complaining about Bayonetta, her heels probably didn't get much focus because there was the whole stripper dancing for the camera and taking her clothes off to use her moves that were much more blatant things that people focused on.

If Samus's new moveset involved her doing pole dances and using sexual teasing to beat her enemies, then yeah, people would likely not be complaining much about the heels, the comparison to Bayonetta is completely silly.

Now, the reason that Bayonetta tends to be viewed as more acceptable, and I personally can mostly enjoy Bayonetta as a character, while still looking at Samus's heels and think it's a stupid addition, is that Bayonetta's character is worked around how she moves and fights. Her heels are a part of an entire package that focuses on Bayonetta being sexy, and showing that sexiness off to other characters in the game and the people playing it.

Samus's character has involved her fighting in her suit, that's her entire powerset, the one time she was caught without her powersuit, she had to stealth her way past invincible enemies that she could only stun, and she did that for the entire purpose of just getting another powersuit. Now, there's no harm in changing a character's powerset, and indeed, the SSB games are a departure from the norm to begin with, so some leeway with canonical abilities is accepted.

But it comes down to exasperation at the changes pretty much always being to make a character sexier when it comes to Samus. It's never, "let's give her shoulder mounted rocket pods, or maybe make her suit buikier or sleeker to fit different weapon loadouts". People get annoyed that Samus's design changes in the last half decade seem to be running along the lines of "What excuse can we use to get her in the zero suit outside of just an ending bonus? and what can we add to the zero suit to make Samus Sexier?"

Even in a game like SSB you do have a frog throwing water ninja stars, but I would be willing to bet that plenty of people would complain if Greninja appeared in the newest SSB as a fire type that used fire based moves instead.

It's a matter of perspective, people expect Samus to fight in her powersuit, pulling her out of it just to show off her skin tight catsuit annoys people that see it as pointless pandering. If Bayonetta was in the next SSB game, people probably wouldn't complain much about her heels, because that's how she normally fights.

Except Samus's new move set isn't going to involve being on a stripper pole and we both know that. Still I think the comparison to Bayonetta is somewhat relevant as Samus really has been a source of cheese cake material from her inception. That was the reward for beating the game or the punishment for dying in Super Metroid. When she made her debut Super Smash Bros. appearance I actually really enjoyed Zero Suit Samus. I actually don't think I've played the Metroid Game where she is in the zero suit during gameplay. However her move set was fun and different enough that yeah I do think she deserved her own character slot. I've never seen those design choices you are talking about. The only addition to that suit I've seen really has just been the heels. It seems to be the same everywhere else I see it.

I've never seen the zero suit as pointless pandering. Heck I was introduced to it in Brawl. I just thought it was cool that I could fight as Samus and see her dang face for once. I was even at the age where that zero suit should've been pointless pandering to me. Which I'm willing to bet is Nintendo's mind set. They see it as an opportunity to show off a new skill set or different side of their famous heroine and not to just give us a big slice of cheese cake.

Really? Nintendo just wanted to show off a new moveset? A new moveset that just so happens to involve taking the iconic armor off of one of their characters and sticking her in high heels. While I'm sure it wasn't just for cheesecake purposes, and this being Nintendo, they likely won't go off the walls with it, it seems a little optimistic to think Nintendo is taking the armor off of Samus because they simply had to have a character with high heel jet boots, and wanted to show us that.

I don't see them taking Zelda's Sheik form away to give it its own dedicated slot, they are just doing it to the skimpy catsuit character because they want to show us a new moveset. There's a lot of options for that, zero suit Samus seems like a questionable justification for a lot of people, which is where some of the complaints likely come from. Not that I'm saying you shouldn't enjoy playing as her, but lets not sit around and pretend that Nintendo just so happened to create zero suit Samus in high heels purely because they thought she deserved to be a separate character from power suit samus.

As for Metroid always being cheesecake, that is really flimsy justification. There's an ocean of difference between a single animated frame as reward for beating the game fast enough, to the developers seeming to try and look for every opportunity to get Samus out of her suit, up to and including having the suit just suddenly teleport off her in cutscenes because she got hit by a stunner. Admittedly, Other M, is probably poisoning people's expectations, and until Nintendo commits to another main Metroid game, it's likely our views on Nintendo's intentions will continue to be poisoned by the Samus that game gave to us, it's hard to look at Team Ninja and Sakamoto's version of Samus and just assume that Nintendo is just innocently giving us Zero Suit Samus for no reason other than to show us a new moveset.

 

[KazeAizen]

Really? Nintendo just wanted to show off a new moveset? A new moveset that just so happens to involve taking the iconic armor off of one of their characters and sticking her in high heels. While I'm sure it wasn't just for cheesecake purposes, and this being Nintendo, they likely won't go off the walls with it, it seems a little optimistic to think Nintendo is taking the armor off of Samus because they simply had to have a character with high heel jet boots, and wanted to show us that.

I don't see them taking Zelda's Sheik form away to give it its own dedicated slot, they are just doing it to the skimpy catsuit character because they want to show us a new moveset. There's a lot of options for that, zero suit Samus seems like a questionable justification for a lot of people, which is where some of the complaints likely come from. Not that I'm saying you shouldn't enjoy playing as her, but lets not sit around and pretend that Nintendo just so happened to create zero suit Samus in high heels purely because they thought she deserved to be a separate character from power suit samus.

As for Metroid always being cheesecake, that is really flimsy justification. There's an ocean of difference between a single animated frame as reward for beating the game fast enough, to the developers seeming to try and look for every opportunity to get Samus out of her suit, up to and including having the suit just suddenly teleport off her in cutscenes because she got hit by a stunner. Admittedly, Other M, is probably poisoning people's expectations, and until Nintendo commits to another main Metroid game, it's likely our views on Nintendo's intentions will continue to be poisoned by the Samus that game gave to us, it's hard to look at Team Ninja and Sakamoto's version of Samus and just assume that Nintendo is just innocently giving us Zero Suit Samus for no reason other than to show us a new moveset.

Well I'm not near as cynical, pessimistic, or as pissed off as some people are at Other M. I have yet to fully play through the game and what gameplay I have experiences is actually quite enjoyable. For the record they are doing that with Sheik. Zelda and Sheik are going to be completely separate characters in this game. Even Charizard isn't being weighed down by anyone this time as he will be his own completely separate character now. I'm pretty sure Nintendo's justification is that Zero Suit Samus has kind of become her own form apart from the power suit so why the hell not? I mean they have the Wii Fit Trainer ok. I'm sure a lot of the roster, this included, was "why the hell not?"

That might be flimsy justification but also you can't quite deny it entirely. I do believe Other M has poisoned everyone's expectations but I also do believe it suffers from the Star Wars prequel trilogy syndrome. In that it is not as bad as people actually think it is but it does certain things to such an extent that all the bad got amplified ten fold. Still the reaction her high heels is totally and completely stupid and petty. Almost if not more so than DoTA 2 Diretide incident from this past year. When we rage and rant and go off on stuff like this it makes me think that sometimes gamers are no better then those hacks at TMZ or Extra who flip out over celebrity fashion choices.

 

[Riverwolf]

The high heels are dumb, but I'll take questionable wardrobe over the Other M characterization any day, honestly.

I don't find high heels in any way awesome or sexy; I find them eye-rollingly stupid in ALL their applications, from real life to art, and honestly would find reason for a small celebration if they suddenly stopped existing. (And yes, I find them stupid in Bayonetta, too... though admittedly I haven't played it.)

I think people take Metroid so seriously because, well, it's Nintendo's only franchise that takes itself seriously. I love the franchise, and I love Samus as a character. I think the first three games have a lot more story and character depth than some people realize. I want Nintendo to take the franchise as seriously as the franchise takes itself, and so the idea of the zero suit bugged me in Brawl as well since her proportions were exaggerated, and it's not a practical fighting outfit at all. (And no, the idea of the zero suit during the segment from Zero Mission that introduced us to it doesn't bug me, because she was basically caught in her PJs, and the goal of that entire segment was to get the power suit back.) But that didn't stop me from absolutely loving Brawl and playing as Samus from time to time (she's not one of my main choices, anyway), including Zero Suit Samus.

At the same time, I don't have a problem with Samus being sexy, much for the same reason that the OT mentioned: it's been there from day 1. To me, that just means her character isn't a brooding, cold, "strongindependentwoman" stereotype, but a person who can be a one-woman army while not being above some flirting and self-exposure while not on a mission. It's something that shows a bit of her character that the games don't otherwise have reason to show us (which also shows that she's pragmatic.)

Just my 2 cents on the issue. I'd like them to change it, but won't boycott the game or enjoy it less if they don't.

 

[Worgen]

They look like this, not only is it stupid to give her these huge high heels, but they also make her legs look deformed, she looks as tall as she would be without high heels but is wearing high heels. In other words, they make her legs look really short.

 

[Zhukov]

Okay, coming from someone who doesn't give the slightest of shits about Metroid or Samus...

- Because Samus, regardless of her early game credits stripteasing, has a reputation, deserved or otherwise, for being a capable chick instead of a barbie doll.

- Because the fact she seems to get depicted in her "zero suit" at every opportunity already rolls some eyes and raises some brows. Sticking high heels on it is just driving it home.

- Because Bayonetta was already waaaay over the top in its presentation. Metroid generally isn't. It would be like having Master Chief whip his helmet off and start fighting with his hair, then when people say "WTF is this?", you reply with, "Hey, it was fine in Bayonetta, what's your problem!?"

- Because, really, that yellow with that blue? Puh-lease.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

That's what I thought...seems like of...weird to me.

Spoiler: Mod edit: Please use spoilers when posting large images

If I'm not mistaken Chell's boots aren't exactly High Heels's and nobody likes Raiden anyway. And neither of those look as ridiculous as Samus' new footwear.

 

[loa]

So you're saying that bayonetta wearing gunheels as part of her initial character design and samus now suddenly wearing rocketheels on that skintight suit she now has to wear at every opportunity are the same thing because bayonetta and her universe is so similar to samus and her universe.
That's what you're saying.

Then again you equating her armor exploding off of her and her dying as sexualizing to the point of making her a barbie doll so that speaks volumes about your sense of subtlety there.

 

[Zeraki]

I just don't like them because they look idiotically tacky. They're overly bulky and the color clashes horribly with the suit.

Hopefully with the complaints they have been getting, they'll tone it down a bit before release. I like the idea of her having exo-rocket attachments on her boots... just not those.

 

[EternallyBored]

That might be flimsy justification but also you can't quite deny it entirely. I do believe Other M has poisoned everyone's expectations but I also do believe it suffers from the Star Wars prequel trilogy syndrome. In that it is not as bad as people actually think it is but it does certain things to such an extent that all the bad got amplified ten fold. Still the reaction her high heels is totally and completely stupid and petty. Almost if not more so than DoTA 2 Diretide incident from this past year. When we rage and rant and go off on stuff like this it makes me think that sometimes gamers are no better then those hacks at TMZ or Extra who flip out over celebrity fashion choices.

I think you're massively exaggerating on the reaction to her heels, the diretide clusterfuck got death threats and multihundred page threads of people talking about being lied to and how heinous it was. The most I've seen of the heels is a couple threads talking about how stupid it looks, and the most heinous reaction I've seen so far is some people calling it sexist.

There isn't really much raging or ranting, I've seen a grand total of one rant so far and a bunch of people agreeing that it looks stupid and talking about not liking how much focus Nintendo puts on zero suit samus.

To flip it around, I've seen just as many people creating hissy fit threads like this to complain about the complainers. There was already an active thread on this and for some reason, it had to be someone defending the change who saw fit to create a second thread on the matter. As it stands it looks like one or two people blowing the issue out of proportion, with about 99% of gamers mostly standing on the sides saying that the heels look stupid or they're fine with them. You're trying to create a massive backlash where there is none, I have yet to see any calls for boycotts or threats of not buying the game, just people saying "this looks stupid" and Metroid fans getting irked about callbacks to the clusterfuck that was Other M

So my advice is to slow your roll a bit there, no one on this forum is really ranting or raving, the most I've seen is exasperated annoyance at what some people see as a negative change to an iconic character.

As a final note, I must have missed the announcement for Sheik, I'm not seeing her listed as separate from Zelda on the character roster though, it would certainly be cool to see, it looks like they are dropping some of the retro and repeat characters in favor of more modern mascots, but Sheik as a separate character would be an interesting change.

 

[spartandude]

This isn't a major issue of epic proportions and on the thread already dedicated to this subject very few people are throwing huge hissy fits over it but its still worth complaining about.

Now yes Samus is sexy, and in the past she was rather sexified as you have demonstrated in the OP, and i wont deny there is and argument that the Zero Suit itself is sexualising her, even if i disagree because i think the suit fits (as a sort of second skin which interfaces with the armour). But after the ZS was revealed in Zero Mission it has been treated fairly well. It didnt come off every 5 seconds to show her well sculpted buttocks, ok there was some artwork at the end of zero mission but other than that. In the Metroid Prime series we rarely see her in the ZS and when we do it isnt to see a gigantic rack with a tiny waist and large hips. The prime series did such an amazing job of making Samus really powerful and not being merely a pretty face. So even when sexism became a big issue in the industry, or atleast when light was being shined on it, we could hold up the more recent Samus (prime and fusion) as an example of doing it right and leaning from earlier attempts.

Then Other M happened....

I do think if Other M hadn't of happened this wouldn't have gotten so much attention, but as it did this has become an issue especially with sexism and objectification of women being discussed. Yes high heels arent a big deal but its being compounded by the recent treatment of Samus.

At least that's my 2 pennies on the matter.