Is it possible to redesign the Varia Suit? (Metroid)

[Rodney McKay]

The only thing I like is for the shoulder balls to not be TOO big. Metroid 2's box art is just insane with how large those are, haha.

I think my favorite different suit design they've done is the Metroid Prime 2 Light suit. That just looks soooo good, but even so I wouldn't want the basic traditional Samus suit to be TOO drastically different. I did like the Fusion suit a lot, but that worked as a replacement to the regular suit rather than a redesign of it, plus it made it all the cooler when the evil Samus clone would show up.

 

[Twig]

not my project but it's one of the best redesigns i ever saw for Samus

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpp0cvBnglP/

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gotta get them ass cheeks pumpin' i guess???

 

[Z-Brownie]

That is gaudy, ugly, and terrible. Please Nintendo never use anything like this.

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i like it

It just looks too destiny-y

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maybe that's why i like it

 

[Bishop89]

Im sure it could work but personally I love the design, so would not really want it changed

 

[test_account]

Its possible, but its iconic, so it might not be easy.

Whats the point with the huge balls on the shoulders by the way? Has the designer given any reasonable explanation to that? Game and all, but such design would limit arm movement from what i can see.

 

[Deleted member 9035]

More important than the suit changing - to me at least - are new power ups. Why does every Metroid have to stick with the same morph ball, grappling hook, ice beam/missile etc? Let the designers go crazy and think up entirely new ones, just like how Zelda games can have different items.

 

[kubev]

I think you could retain the overall style of the suit while making it much more practical-looking. I think the shoulders in particular always look dumb and unnecessarily large on the Varia Suit, even in older variations of the suit.

 

[ShinJohnpv]

Its possible, but its iconic, so it might not be easy.

Whats the point with the huge balls on the shoulders by the way? Has the designer given any reasonable explanation to that? Game and all, but such design would limit arm movement from what i can see.

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If I remember right, during the development of Metroid II on the gameboy, they wanted to make the different suits stand out more on the gameboys small monochrome screen. So they added bigger, rounded shoulder pads to the Varia suit to do so.

 

[Glio]

I've always thought that the shoulder pads were where Samus went to do the morph ball.

 

[Frankish]

I don't mind large shoulder pads. I do mind when the design places Samus's shoulder joint in the middle of the giant shoulder pads, like in Prime 1. It looks extremely silly and is an anatomical disaster.

The giant pads should be a little less giant, and should rest on top of her shoulders. Keep everything else the same imo.

 

[Breqesk]

thesis: samus is a pokemon

 

[Rand a. Thor]

More important than the suit changing - to me at least - are new power ups. Why does every Metroid have to stick with the same morph ball, grappling hook, ice beam/missile etc? Let the designers go crazy and think up entirely new ones, just like how Zelda games can have different items.

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Ice Beam is essential because it freezes enemies for makeshift platforms, and its the main weakness of Metroids. Missles with ammo make for a balanced risk/reward system of blasting through enemies but potentially not having enough for the bosses. Fusion was good in this department however, with the missle upgrades as well as beam upgrades. Metroid needs new things beyond the established base, not removing the basics. It would be like removing bombs, arrows, and boomerangs in Zelda. If they had to something, I would say elemental missles, as an expansion on fusions ice difussion missles.

 

[Nephtes]

not my project but it's one of the best redesigns i ever saw for Samus

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpp0cvBnglP/

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Wow!
I keep coming back to this thread hoping for an actual example of a redesign as opposed to examples of what Nintendo has already delivered...

And this is the first post that I feel delivers on the OP.

I'd play this Metroid...

 

[Ceadeus]

It at the very least has to keep the helmet.

Personally I'd like to see a survivalist Samus look for that kind of time and space.

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A little bit like Cayde 6 maybe?

 

[Deleted member 9035]

Ice Beam is essential because it freezes enemies for makeshift platforms, and its the main weakness of Metroids. Missles with ammo make for a balanced risk/reward system of blasting through enemies but potentially not having enough for the bosses. Fusion was good in this department however, with the missle upgrades as well as beam upgrades. Metroid needs new things beyond the established base, not removing the basics. It would be like removing bombs, arrows, and boomerangs in Zelda. If they had to something, I would say elemental missles, as an expansion on fusions ice difussion missles.

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I'd be fine with getting completely new crazy items and weapons in addition to the base toolset of beam, missile, morph ball, grappling hook.

But I'd want them to be really unique and change things up in the same way some of the new items in Skyward Sword did, for example. Not just palette swaps of existing items/weapons.

In my opinion this is something the Metroid formula should borrow from the Zelda and Mario formulas: change things up much more between games.

 

[Z-Brownie]

Wow!
I keep coming back to this thread hoping for an actual example of a redesign as opposed to examples of what Nintendo has already delivered...

And this is the first post that I feel delivers on the OP.

I'd play this Metroid...

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Some people complained about the look not being "too alien" but i think the upgrades could add that alien feel gradually, i like this "raw" and more "human" feel.

 

[Deleted member 5621]

More important than the suit changing - to me at least - are new power ups. Why does every Metroid have to stick with the same morph ball, grappling hook, ice beam/missile etc? Let the designers go crazy and think up entirely new ones, just like how Zelda games can have different items.

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As long we don't get Aeon stuff again.

One "problem" that Metroid has though is that morph ball/bombs, ice beam and space jump/screw attack feel super good to use and pretty much give you all the options you need in a 2D space, without going into more generic dashing territory. Missiles/wave beam/etc are standard better weapons, not a lot of variation for that, even you start calling it piercing shotgun, cannon or whatever.

Spiderball is super cool on paper but in practice is just something super slow that requires the level design to throw unstickable walls so you don't go everywhere before getting space jump/screw attack (and then spiderball becomes almost obsolete). At least spidersparks are fun to use!

I would be OK with Samus getting other alt modes, special jumps (like, a slow starting jump with lower distance that resists getting dragged by wind) or weapons with unorthodox trajectories to use on puzzles. Maybe take a page from Megaman ZX or the Order of Ecclesia spells, dunno?

 

[test_account]

If I remember right, during the development of Metroid II on the gameboy, they wanted to make the different suits stand out more on the gameboys small monochrome screen. So they added bigger, rounded shoulder pads to the Varia suit to do so.

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Thanks. I guess they liked that design better and stuck with it from that on.

 

[Incubuster]

I love the varia suit, but I would not be opposed to a new design. It has to have the same design language I think though and look like it fits in with the rest of the game/world.