Is her gender the reward, or her identity? That's assuming i'm buying into the terms of argument where the reward has more than superficial meaning or should be interpreted as such. For we could take the notion of her identity as being something deeper than mere gender, one that her gender happens to be incidental to. But then of course we risk falling into the sticky argument of how thoroughly gender and identity are entangled.
As an aside, Kotor does NOT autosave as often as it should :S
Samus's identity is the suit, and in how the player identifies with her. When Nintendo tries to go beyond that, they have made a mistake.
I wouldn't go that far. If Samus is only the suit, Samus becomes the generic space marine. The very fact that she is a woman sets her apart. That she is a total badass only makes it better.
@general topic
I think I have come to agree that Nintendo went to far with the first Metroid. I have no problem with the leotard for one ending. I think it leaves no mistaking that she is a woman under the powersuit. Only removing the helmet for one of the endings I think can leave thinks a little ambiguous given the technology. That there is another ending where she ends up in a bikini does go to far. It turns Samus into the award.
Remember, it was the 80s, the only time or place in history outside of porno films where mullets were acceptable, and where long male hair in epic fantasy was an in-thing. Especially with the whole "JUSTIN BAILEY" thing, Samus would have been more androgynous than SSBM Marth under NES technology without that bikini.
I don't believe that this is ambiguous.
I thought that was the bikini, or does it get worse than that?
