Metroid Footware

[Riverwolf]

It reminds me of that one Critical Miss strip where they said that people project good parts of things they like to other parts, which is why Mario, Master Chief, and Gordon Freeman turn up on alot of "Best Characters" lists without actually having any real character. People like Metroid games, some of which have good writing, and they project that 'goodness' onto Samus. I haven't played many Metroid games, but Samus definately has no character. She's a blank slate. And in her medium, that's fine. They've just never really made anything out of the fact she's a woman (with the obvious exception of Other M) except as a reference to Aliens.

She's got plenty of character. That character is expressed primarily through the gameplay itself, and the small bits of story we do get. It's subtle, yes, but it's there. The same is true of Mario and Gorden Freeman.

Words aren't necessary for characterization; actions are what primarily define a character.

We know that Samus is a bounty hunter, which means she's very likely to have good self-confidence.
Most of her assignments involve stopping the Space Pirates (as a bounty hunter, she typically gets to choose her assignments), which means she's got some history with them.
Heck, that ability to choose her own assignments indicates a free spirit.
She took an assignment to eradicate the metroids after dealing with them four times. At that point at least, she was perfectly willing to cause a species' extinction.
But seeing a baby metroid hatch in front of her and follow her "like a confused child" stayed her hand from killing it, indicating a strong (probably just awakened) motherly instinct. This is further supported by the fact that when Ceres station came under attack, she immediately went to look for the baby, and when Ridly took it, she followed him back to Zebes with the sole goal of getting it back.
She often gets her gear from Chozo statues, indicating some affiliation with them.
She's highly trained and right at the beginning demonstrates high levels of acrobatic and combat skills.
And as I said earlier, the bikini shots at the ends to me indicate an extroverted, somewhat flirty disposition, and despite the NES manual referring to Samus as a "he", that extroversion likely means she's not interested in hiding her gender. That means her Varia Suit is practical, indicating that she is very pragmatic, herself.
She also doesn't talk much on her solo missions, indicating a strong ability to focus on the task at hand.

This is hardly a blank slate. I'm sure I could come up with more if I thought long enough about it or replayed the games for more specifics.

In addition, the interactive nature of games makes player actions a part of that characterization, which is a big part of why there's so many different interpretations of these characters. That's quite distinct from simple projection of characterizations on, say, a static portrait of a random person with few or no characterizing elements.

 

[Fsyco]

As a side note: I really hate how they look, but function over form I suppose.

Actual heels are entirely form over function. They're unwieldy, difficult to walk in, and can lead to health problems. I once heard that airplanes could be notably lighter and cheaper if nobody wore high heels, because they wouldn't have to design the floors to support the intense pressure.

It reminds me of that one Critical Miss strip where they said that people project good parts of things they like to other parts, which is why Mario, Master Chief, and Gordon Freeman turn up on alot of "Best Characters" lists without actually having any real character. People like Metroid games, some of which have good writing, and they project that 'goodness' onto Samus. I haven't played many Metroid games, but Samus definately has no character. She's a blank slate. And in her medium, that's fine. They've just never really made anything out of the fact she's a woman (with the obvious exception of Other M) except as a reference to Aliens.

She's got plenty of character. That character is expressed primarily through the gameplay itself, and the small bits of story we do get. It's subtle, yes, but it's there. The same is true of Mario and Gorden Freeman.

Words aren't necessary for characterization; actions are what primarily define a character.

We know that Samus is a bounty hunter, which means she's very likely to have good self-confidence.
Most of her assignments involve stopping the Space Pirates (as a bounty hunter, she typically gets to choose her assignments), which means she's got some history with them.
Heck, that ability to choose her own assignments indicates a free spirit.
She took an assignment to eradicate the metroids after dealing with them four times. At that point at least, she was perfectly willing to cause a species' extinction.
But seeing a baby metroid hatch in front of her and follow her "like a confused child" stayed her hand from killing it, indicating a strong (probably just awakened) motherly instinct. This is further supported by the fact that when Ceres station came under attack, she immediately went to look for the baby, and when Ridly took it, she followed him back to Zebes with the sole goal of getting it back.
She often gets her gear from Chozo statues, indicating some affiliation with them.
She's highly trained and right at the beginning demonstrates high levels of acrobatic and combat skills.
And as I said earlier, the bikini shots at the ends to me indicate an extroverted, somewhat flirty disposition, and despite the NES manual referring to Samus as a "he", that extroversion likely means she's not interested in hiding her gender. That means her Varia Suit is practical, indicating that she is very pragmatic, herself.
She also doesn't talk much on her solo missions, indicating a strong ability to focus on the task at hand.

This is hardly a blank slate. I'm sure I could come up with more if I thought long enough about it or replayed the games for more specifics.

In addition, the interactive nature of games makes player actions a part of that characterization, which is a big part of why there's so many different interpretations of these characters. That's quite distinct from simple projection of characterizations on, say, a static portrait of a random person with few or no characterizing elements.

Alot of that sounds....graspy. Granted, I've only actually played Metroid Prime 3 to completion, and saw the Game Grumps playthrough of Super Metroid, but alot of this seems like you're grasping at straws or overanalyzing this. And besides, the 'extroverted flirty' thing and the free spirit goes completely in the face of the character she has in Other M or the comics. From what I understand from those, Ridley killed her parents in front of her and she was raised by the Chozo, and she's subserviant to her male commanding officer because that's what she's supposed to do according to traditional Japanese values. That's why she A) Hates Ridley and the space pirates B) is cool with the Chozo and C) has daddy issues with ADAM. But that's in supplementary materials so I wouldn't really count it. In the (good) games, she's silent and never speaks. I'm not complaining about it, since silent blank-slate protagonists work fine in video games, but I don't see how she's one of the all-time great characters. Same for Mario or Freeman; they never really say anything, we're just told they're amazing heroic people. How do we know Samus isn't just a sadist who likes to kill the underprivileged Space Pirates to get her rocks off?

 

[Riverwolf]

Alot of that sounds....graspy. Granted, I've only actually played Metroid Prime 3 to completion, and saw the Game Grumps playthrough of Super Metroid, but alot of this seems like you're grasping at straws or overanalyzing this. And besides, the 'extroverted flirty' thing and the free spirit goes completely in the face of the character she has in Other M or the comics.

Neither of which count. The comics are non-canonical, and Other M completely fails at characterization in general, let alone hers. The freakout scene alone ignores the fact that she fully faced down Ridly at least three times without losing her cool. Inner-monologues are also a bad way to characterize someone in a visual medium in general, let alone one that's also supposed to be interactive. Show, don't tell; do, don't show.

From what I understand from those, Ridley killed her parents in front of her and she was raised by the Chozo, and she's subserviant to her male commanding officer because that's what she's supposed to do according to traditional Japanese values. That's why she A) Hates Ridley and the space pirates B) is cool with the Chozo and C) has daddy issues with ADAM. But that's in supplementary materials so I wouldn't really count it. In the (good) games, she's silent and never speaks. I'm not complaining about it, since silent blank-slate protagonists work fine in video games, but I don't see how she's one of the all-time great characters. Same for Mario or Freeman; they never really say anything, we're just told they're amazing heroic people. How do we know Samus isn't just a sadist who likes to kill the underprivileged Space Pirates to get her rocks off?

Because we know the Space Pirates aren't underprivileged (I don't think underprivileged people would be able to set up such elaborate bases and perform extremely methodical scientific experimentation), and we know she's not sociopath/psychopath because she saved the baby metroid against her assignment's orders. That's not to say she's not a sadist, but it's possible to be a sadist without being a sociopath/psychopath. But if she is a sadist, that just adds another thing to her character. Great characters aren't necessarily good people.

Heck, the fact that Samus is a bounty hunter tells me she's not really the "heroic" type. After all, she could just storm the Space Pirates' installations herself, but since she constantly takes assignments to do so instead tells me that she still wants to be paid for her trouble.

This is how character analysis works. You observe how someone in a story acts, and formulate their personality based on that. A character doesn't need to say anything.

...you know, the funny thing is that Metroid Prime 3 is the only (good) Metroid game I haven't played except for the very beginning. ^_^

 

[Fsyco]

This is how character analysis works. You observe how someone in a story acts, and formulate their personality based on that. A character doesn't need to say anything.

...you know, the funny thing is that Metroid Prime 3 is the only (good) Metroid game I haven't played except for the very beginning. ^_^

I'm usually too busy playing the game to analyze the characters. But I don't think I've ever done a character analysis like that after I finished on someone like Samus or Mario. Different folks, different strokes I guess.
I'd like to play the other Metroid games, but alas, I am no longer in possession of a Wii and the only one on 3DS Virtual Console is the original NES one.

 

[HolyJunkie]

I've noticed a lot of people are getting uppity about ZSS' jet boots, and not once did I hear anything about the three princesses that are partaking in the very same fighting game. Said princesses are all wearing ball gowns.

 

[Grimh]

Yeah, except those braces looked nothing like high heels in the first game. She was barefoot. It's still a serious stretch to call them high heels seeing as how the strut is almost knee-high. I get why people keep pointing to them, because they were well accepted as semi-plausible sensible sci-fi gear... but when you cut the bullcrap, they're nothing like Samus' high heels, which were definitely, undeniably, cut-the-crap put in to sexify her.

Yeah that was my point, I didn't find Chell having those braces as a comparison to why people should be okay with Samus' new rocket-heels a valid argument because it's not really the same thing.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you because otherwise I don't know why you're arguing with me when we seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion.

She has them so she actually has some viable way of fighting without her power suit? That a good enough answer for you?

And do you REALLY want to get into the technology shown in a METROID game? Really? Are you POSITIVE? Okay then... I'll answer your question if you tell me how Samus turns into a Morph Ball and dispenses bombs which are about the same size as her entire body.

Calm down guy I think we can discuss this without it devolving into a shouting match.
...in text which doesn't really involve shouting, but you get my point I hope.

Your first sentence answered why she could find a use for rocket-boots, not why they needed to be rocket-heels.
I never asked why she would need rocket-heels/boots, I did sort of ask in a roundabout way just why they needed to be heels when arguing the Chell/Raiden-points.
And then, as stated above, I was specifically just arguing why I found drawing the comparison between people being okay with those two and then conversely not okay with Samus' new kicks, as a poor argument. Because they have reasons to be/look like that, the only reason I can come up with for Samus' new rocket-powered gear to have heels is that she's a girl.
I found it to be a poor argument and argued against it, not because of moral outrage, but because I found it to be a poor argument, and I can understand where people that are against them are coming from.

But to clarify I don't take a huge issue with them being heels per say.
I actually did take issue with her heels in Other M because those were actually truly pointless.
My main point was that I didn't like their design, not specifically that they were heels. I did say they could design way cooler/better looking rocket-heels after all.
This was all also an observation based on the image of them that can be found in this thread, I haven't seen them in action (if there is any footage of that yet) as I haven't really followed the development of the game very closely.

I can argue the semi-logic behind them because we know at least basically how rockets work. The Morph Ball you brought up is made up science which works within it's own logic, rockets are real and while rocket-boots may be largely made up science as well we can at least draw a decent extrapolation of how it might work based on our understanding of the technology. The point of design is to make me believe those things could be real and function well, I just didn't. But hey I'm open to having my opinion on them (as far as being logically designed rocket-boots) change if/when I see more of them. Again I was just making observations on the inital impression I got based on that image of them.
However I just didn't find the them to mesh well with the overall design of Samus, in and out of her power suit, so I probably won't ever like them from an aestethic point of view.

Sorry, I don't know if I'm making my point very clear here, it's starting to feel like I'm rambling.
I hope I made some sense at least.

 

[144_v1legacy]

I am totally okay with rocket heels being implemented like this. I think people are reading this wrong. They wanted to make Zero-Suit Samus sexier, but giving her heels would be too impractical, just like everyone says here. So by claiming that they're serving a combat function to justify that shape, the designers can have their cake and eat it too, i.e., make a sexier character and keep her tough.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Give her the boots from the suit. How fucking hard is it. Then she looks cool at the same time.

But then she wouldn't be zero suit samus, It'd be more like 30 percent suit samus. She probably cant use sections of the suit all by themselves and even if she could she'd only have access to the space jump wich wouldn't help her much.

That's true, but really, Samus's character comes from the suit. If there are lore reasons for the boots being useless, fair enough, but perhaps just something strong and mechanical and with character, in the same aesthetic as the suit.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

God damn it. Double post.

 

[xaszatm]

The worst part? It's that because these rockets were in high heel form, almost nobody is talking about the fact that Nintendo's doing a disservice to Samus by giving her rocket boots period. It'd previously been established that Samus had been infused with the Chozo aliens' DNA, turning her into a superhuman. In Zero Mission, with no suit, her jumping was so insane she would've had no problem scaling up the sheer side of a skyscraper by jumping a story high then immediately jumping that high again, over and over. Not only are the high heels stupid, but the idea that Samus Aran needs any help with JUMPING is absolutely ludicrous. They're damaging her on multiple levels at once at this point.

Except they aren't used for jumping. They are used for SPEED. Her moveset his almost similar to Brawl's. The biggest difference between the two seems to be switching her Up+B from using a whip to a rocket boost. If you watched the direct closely you can see that her first two jumps don't use the rocket boots. Then, when she used them, her speed while jumping increased dramatically. Also, from what we can tell from the pictures, when she uses her down+b special, she is using her boots to go fast enough to leave afterimages. Also from the pictures, you can see that the heel part of the uniform both widens and lowers (to the point of being flat) depending on what move she's using. At the very least, more thought went into those heels and their functionality than Peach's. So no, they aren't damaging her image. Please don't add additional nonsense to this argument.

She's got plenty of character. That character is expressed primarily through the gameplay itself, and the small bits of story we do get. It's subtle, yes, but it's there. The same is true of Mario and Gorden Freeman.

Words aren't necessary for characterization; actions are what primarily define a character.

Here's the thing: that's not a character. She still isn't a character. She certainly displays character traits, especially during Metroid II and Super Metroid. She finally started showing a hint of her personality in Metroid Fusion, but it still isn't enough to say that she is a fully developed character. The biggest problem we have is that all characterization on her revolves around her work as a bounty hunter. While it is true that our personality bleeds over into our work, we still display a different attitude while working, even if we are working alone.

We know that Samus is a bounty hunter, which means she's very likely to have good self-confidence.
Most of her assignments involve stopping the Space Pirates (as a bounty hunter, she typically gets to choose her assignments), which means she's got some history with them.
Heck, that ability to choose her own assignments indicates a free spirit.

You are reaching when you are trying to explain her personality. The constant use of inferences and 'like' gives it away. And while action DOES define certain characteristics, you still need EMOTION to truly define a character.

Yes, Samus is a bounty hunter. That doesn't automatically mean that she is self confident. Boba Fett and his father showed his self-confidence as a bounty hunter not because of the profession but because of their posture, the pauses, the facial expressions. THAT showed used that they were self-confident to the point of cocky-ness. Just the job by itself does give a character trait.

Furthermore, what free spirit? In almost all games, she is ordered by the Galactic Federation to go on an assignment. If she doesn't, not only is the galaxy doomed (it's usually implied in manuals that there are mere hours before destruction) she probably isn't looking to well in the eyes of the government. That doesn't relay a free spirit. If anything (inasmuch as you infer things), it shows that she is quite the obedient solider.

She took an assignment to eradicate the metroids after dealing with them four times. At that point at least, she was perfectly willing to cause a species' extinction.
But seeing a baby metroid hatch in front of her and follow her "like a confused child" stayed her hand from killing it, indicating a strong (probably just awakened) motherly instinct. This is further supported by the fact that when Ceres station came under attack, she immediately went to look for the baby, and when Ridly took it, she followed him back to Zebes with the sole goal of getting it back.
She often gets her gear from Chozo statues, indicating some affiliation with them.
She's highly trained and right at the beginning demonstrates high levels of acrobatic and combat skills.
And as I said earlier, the bikini shots at the ends to me indicate an extroverted, somewhat flirty disposition, and despite the NES manual referring to Samus as a "he", that extroversion likely means she's not interested in hiding her gender. That means her Varia Suit is practical, indicating that she is very pragmatic, herself.
She also doesn't talk much on her solo missions, indicating a strong ability to focus on the task at hand.

This is hardly a blank slate. I'm sure I could come up with more if I thought long enough about it or replayed the games for more specifics.

In addition, the interactive nature of games makes player actions a part of that characterization, which is a big part of why there's so many different interpretations of these characters. That's quite distinct from simple projection of characterizations on, say, a static portrait of a random person with few or no characterizing elements.

...I'm starting to get the idea you have only played a few Metroid games. Just let me get this megaphone and OF COURSE SHE IS AFFILIATED WITH THE CHOZO STATUES! SHE WAS RAISED BY THE CHOZO! THERE IS A SCENE IS METROID ZERO MISSION WHICH SHOWS THIS! IT'S BEEN STATED IN EVERY OTHER GAME! In fact, most of your other points seems to come from the fact that you don't know this. She is after the Metroids (and later the SA-X) because she was assigned to the job. It's stated that no one else can deal with the threat as she has faced them before and is the most familiar with Chozo technology. She has been showed training in both athletics and speed but it was her Power Suit that enhanced her abilities. She's pretty much is as strong as Captain America in a world where the average Space Pirate mook is about twice as strong. Her suit wasn't created by her, but by the Chozo, one of the last gifts to Samus before the entire race vanished.

So yeah, I can still say that she is a blank slate and that you are reaching to find basic traits. If she had a personality, you could answer these questions. What is Samus's greatest fear? Greatest joy? What's her idea of a joke? What is she offended by? What does she do when not working? What type of house those she live in? Is she messy or neat? Does she prefer cooking or ordering take-out? You can't answer these questions because she doesn't have a personality. All we know is that she is a bad-ass bounty hunter, but that isn't a personality. She still, for the most part, is a blank slate.

Look, I get some of the complaints about the jet boots. For one they are as ugly as all heck. Even with the functionality movements the heels do, it still is impractical for a woman to be wearing heels while fighting. But this isn't a betrayal of a character nor is it a sexing up of one. Ivy Valentine's costumes are a sexing up. This is merely a poor decision.

 

[Riverwolf]

I've noticed a lot of people are getting uppity about ZSS' jet boots, and not once did I hear anything about the three princesses that are partaking in the very same fighting game. Said princesses are all wearing ball gowns.

I brought it up.

I'm usually too busy playing the game to analyze the characters. But I don't think I've ever done a character analysis like that after I finished on someone like Samus or Mario. Different folks, different strokes I guess.
I'd like to play the other Metroid games, but alas, I am no longer in possession of a Wii and the only one on 3DS Virtual Console is the original NES one.

Double alas, I find that gameplay-wise, the first two Metroids don't really pass the nostalgia test for me, and by Ing have I tried (I didn't play any Metroid games until my late teens.) Since then, I've never been able to fully get into the first or second games. Super Metroid, however, absolutely passes the test.

Here's the thing: that's not a character. She still isn't a character. She certainly displays character traits, especially during Metroid II and Super Metroid. She finally started showing a hint of her personality in Metroid Fusion, but it still isn't enough to say that she is a fully developed character. The biggest problem we have is that all characterization on her revolves around her work as a bounty hunter. While it is true that our personality bleeds over into our work, we still display a different attitude while working, even if we are working alone.

Oh, you're asking for EVERYTHING. Obviously we don't have everything, but we do have enough to say we have a character, even one we don't know much about.

Sure, she's not a "fully developed character" based on your standards(listed here and later), but nothing is binary except binary itself.

You are reaching when you are trying to explain her personality. The constant use of inferences and 'like' gives it away. And while action DOES define certain characteristics, you still need EMOTION to truly define a character.

Actions imply emotions. It's enough. And if you truly insist that this is "reaching", I fail to see how that somehow nullifies my argument; all it means is that her character is fully expressed in actions.

Yes, Samus is a bounty hunter. That doesn't automatically mean that she is self confident. Boba Fett and his father showed his self-confidence as a bounty hunter not because of the profession but because of their posture, the pauses, the facial expressions. THAT showed used that they were self-confident to the point of cocky-ness. Just the job by itself does give a character trait.

Can you imagine a bounty hunter who lacks confidence in their skills? It's dangerous work. Furthermore, they're always competing with each other to get that bounty, so those who lack that confidence would not get paid very much without being incredibly lucky.

Furthermore, what free spirit? In almost all games, she is ordered by the Galactic Federation to go on an assignment. If she doesn't, not only is the galaxy doomed (it's usually implied in manuals that there are mere hours before destruction) she probably isn't looking to well in the eyes of the government. That doesn't relay a free spirit. If anything (inasmuch as you infer things), it shows that she is quite the obedient solider.

Then again, bounty hunters can choose to reject assignments if they want, and can negotiate the prices. Obedient soldiers wouldn't dream of those.

...I'm starting to get the idea you have only played a few Metroid games.

Nope. I've played all of them except Prime 3 (... and Other M, Prime Hunters, and Pinball, but I don't count those).

Just let me get this megaphone and OF COURSE SHE IS AFFILIATED WITH THE CHOZO STATUES! SHE WAS RAISED BY THE CHOZO! THERE IS A SCENE IS METROID ZERO MISSION WHICH SHOWS THIS! IT'S BEEN STATED IN EVERY OTHER GAME! In fact, most of your other points seems to come from the fact that you don't know this. She is after the Metroids (and later the SA-X) because she was assigned to the job. It's stated that no one else can deal with the threat as she has faced them before and is the most familiar with Chozo technology. She has been showed training in both athletics and speed but it was her Power Suit that enhanced her abilities. She's pretty much is as strong as Captain America in a world where the average Space Pirate mook is about twice as strong. Her suit wasn't created by her, but by the Chozo, one of the last gifts to Samus before the entire race vanished.

I was going based solely on in-game material from the first three games to prove a point. I know all of that because I did play Metroid Prime (which is, IMO, the finest game in the series... and I'm not going to lie: because I already knew that, I barely just skimmed this paragraph; rest assured I did read the entireties of your others). I don't generally include manuals, since they can present a contradictory story to what's in-game. In any case, I never had the manuals, so I'm not as familiar with their contents.

So yeah, I can still say that she is a blank slate and that you are reaching to find basic traits. If she had a personality, you could answer these questions. What is Samus's greatest fear? Greatest joy? What's her idea of a joke? What is she offended by? What does she do when not working? What type of house those she live in? Is she messy or neat? Does she prefer cooking or ordering take-out? You can't answer these questions because she doesn't have a personality. All we know is that she is a bad-ass bounty hunter, but that isn't a personality. She still, for the most part, is a blank slate.

There's no "for the most part a blank slate"; if you're a blank slate, you're a blank slate, and if you're not, you're not. Samus is not, because of the stuff I've listed. I don't have to reach so much as just observe. Those questions of yours aren't necessary to have a character, especially in this medium (though most of them could easily be filled in by the player: perhaps she's terribly scared of bugs and so kills all the bugs she sees while on missions, or maybe she loves bugs and so goes out of her way not to; that's where character analysis in an interactive medium differs from character analysis in non-interactive medium).

And that's why people call "betrayal" on her character as of late; because we have been able to detect that character, even if it's only been subconscious.

My final conclusion is this: don't let my argumentation fool you, as you bring up EXCELLENT points that I have had to think about, which helps me further define what kind of character we're dealing with in Samus: neither a blank slate nor a completely flushed out, well-rounded character, but a 2-dimensional character. Before the baby metroid entered the picture, she would have been a 1-dimensional character at best. In the first game alone is she absolutely a blank slate without even a name (unless you had the manual) and who very well could have been a robot. (I wasn't there, but the GameTrailers Metroid retrospective said that "we all called her Metroid at some point").

Once answers to your questions can be provided that are consistent with what's already there, then we can have a 3-dimensional character who'd be a great character in a movie, book, etc. IMO, that's where the player comes in; it's not necessary for the writers to fill in those blanks for us, and I'd argue they shouldn't.

...her greatest fear is boredom, her greatest joy is any high-energy situation (she's an adrenaline junkie), she likes sexual innuendos, she's offended by the experimentation the Space Pirates do, when not working she frequents bars, her ship is her house, she's generally quite neat, and she prefers take-out. None of these are from in-game stuff, they're just based on how I play the games and so are unique to me (and no, they're not my personality; it's kind of an antithesis of me... then again, when I play Metroid, I am Samus).

 

[BarkBarker]

She IS a sexy character in her own right, she doesn't need any additions to her moveset, she was a top 10 character in Brawl. What confuses me the most, is you have the infinite wealth of the Metroid technological background, a universe where you can get bombs so powerful they can annihilate all lifeforms within a certain space, and they come up with.....rocket high heels.....really? REALLY?! She was already tall so it has no functions there, the original Zero Suit as stated before had clearly stated DON'T PUT LONG ASS FUCKING HIGH HEELS ON IT, yet they ignore it, and she only had crap smash power in her smash attacks cos they thought to use the whip, her weakest asset short of tethers and the side-B. Give her these moves without rocket boosters, and she would break peoples bones, she is a superhuman so of course her strength will be grand. All of samus is clearly toned down for SSBB, as she is clearly by canon one of the most dangerous beings and absurdly powerful, but you don't counter your own decisions, which didn't keep her from winning a few tourneys, by making stupid and lazy ones. I think this goes back to the Dragons Crown fiasco, and my stance on that was simple: you have anything in the world to change or alter, yet you go for the weakest move and go for something sexual or overly feminine. MAKE MORE APPROPRIATE DECISIONS YOU CHILD.

 

[Vault101]

snip?

because the metroid games always had a more or less serious tone...and its what Samus Respresents

before she was a stoic space hero, a woman but where it didn't matter..where (barring the bonus endings o the original game) she wasn't seen for her sexyness she was seen for her ability..something people hold very dear

then comes other M and fucks it all up and now putting her in heels...people are more aware of thease things now and they generally dont like it

 

[Luminous_Umbra]

As a side note: I really hate how they look, but function over form I suppose.

Actual heels are entirely form over function. They're unwieldy, difficult to walk in, and can lead to health problems. I once heard that airplanes could be notably lighter and cheaper if nobody wore high heels, because they wouldn't have to design the floors to support the intense pressure.

Yes, actual heels. However, considering that the heel part is what provides the rocket power, it would need to be somewhere on her foot.
Alternatives don't look too good either: On the ankle would provide problems with movement and a larger pair of boots around her legs and feet would impede her a lot too. Honestly, there really isn't a good solution.

 

[Fsyco]

As a side note: I really hate how they look, but function over form I suppose.

Actual heels are entirely form over function. They're unwieldy, difficult to walk in, and can lead to health problems. I once heard that airplanes could be notably lighter and cheaper if nobody wore high heels, because they wouldn't have to design the floors to support the intense pressure.

Yes, actual heels. However, considering that the heel part is what provides the rocket power, it would need to be somewhere on her foot.
Alternatives don't look too good either: On the ankle would provide problems with movement and a larger pair of boots around her legs and feet would impede her a lot too. Honestly, there really isn't a good solution.

This is why an actual propulsion system would go on her back, closer to her center of mass. Her legs and feet are pretty unstable places for rockets to be, really. It would require an unrealistic amount of precision on the part of the user for rocket-shoes of any kind to work, because any minor variations in the angles between the thrusters could cause some torque that could seriously injure her (IE, her legs go flying in different directions or she spins out of control).
Then again, she seemed to do just fine in the last game without a propulsion system. So who knows.

 

[Fsyco]

Yeah.... I hate those high heels on zero suit samus, but then I loathe high heels with a passion in general and would happily erase them from existance if given the offer so I'm naturally pretty darn biased against them. Nor will I ever understand the insane obsession with the stupid looking aesthetic of high heels.

The aesthetic reasons are pretty simple to explain. It's twofold fanservice:
The first major part is that it makes the butt look better, and the second is that it puts emphasis on the legs/feet. So you're getting the ass crowd, the leg crowd, and the foot fetishists, all with one item of clothing. It's extremely efficient as far as fan service goes. There's other various reasons, such as the extra height and feeling/image of power that comes with it (this is why dominatrices wear high heeled boots), but legs and butts are the major reason.