Sex and the Zero Suit: Why Samus was Great Only in Metroid Prime

[Khuutra]

d21lewis said:

But that's no character at all.  I could throw a dart at any game from the SNES era and earlier and hit that character.  The guys from Contra, the guy from Super Turrican, the jet in Firepower 2000, the lady ninja from Shadow of the Ninja.  Being silent and kicking ass is what old video game characters did.  Samus is  just a chick that did the same thing as anybody else from that time.  I could argue that actually showing  a bit of skin is actually what gave Samus her character.  For all we know, Samus is actually a huge slut but she's just really good at killing aliens.  Take that, women's movement!

In the NES era you've got a bit of the point, though at the time she was clsoe to the only female character who could be described that way - I never played Shadow of the Ninja and Guardian Legends never made it over here.

Nowadays, though, that trope is not nearly as common, and what voiceless protagonists remain are still very gendered except for a select few, like Gordon Freeman and Samus.