Metroid needs (and deserves) a reboot. Caution - Lots of gifs!

[Samus Aran]

MTZehvor said:

Samus Aran said:

 The only change Metroid needs is her being lesbian or bi-sexual. They can reveal it in a similar way they revealed she was a woman almost 30 years ago.

It's not about if Metroid needs it, it's about selling more copies. And that's what Metroid truly needs.

Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fates are a good example of what the Metroid franchise could do to become more popular. So what if there would be a kissing scene with a girl near the end of a Metroid game? If it sells 300k extra copies who's going to complain? And yes, people are this shallow.

...with all due respect, that's the most backwards perception I've come across on this thread.

Could Metroid sell more by making her lesbian or bisexual? Possibly. It would certainly get more attention, if nothing else, but I'm not sure an increase in headlines would necessarily translate into sales. Games that have been very controversial in the past (DmC) and sold quite poorly. 

That, however, isn't the issue. There's three much bigger issues I have with this; first and foremost is that the ideal behind it is quite possibly everything that is wrong with video games today. As soon as "this is a good idea because it boosts sales" becomes our main focus point, we might as well turn Metroid into a standard linear military 3rd person shooter and go home. More people buy those, after all. Perhaps it's not as big a leap (especially since it's not a gameplay change), but it's the same sort of thinking that lead to the demise of franchises like Dead Space. Who cares what we have to do to the core mechanics or character in order to sell copies? Just toss it in there to boost sales.

I used Fire Emblem as an example for a reason. The last two games have added a lot of sexual content to the games in order to sell more content, but the core gameplay still remains intact. You need to find a fine balance between the two, but it's certainly not impossible.

Secondly, how would this even make sense with Samus' character? Sure, we don't know a ton about her, but we're very aware that she's independent and probably a recluse as well. I can't imagine that one of the galaxy's most famous (read: most wanted) bounty hunters would be either forming stable relationships or just sleeping around. For someone who's seemed pretty uncomfortable in social settings the few times we've seen her interact with others (Metroid Prime 3, Other M, Fusion), it makes very little sense.

That's why you'd hire good and competent writers...

Finally , though, it serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever. Metroid has never been about sexuality. How would something like this even be implemented in any meaningful way? If it's stuck into the middle of a game, that's terrible for pretty obvious reasons (pacing, immersion, isolation, etc.). If it's a post ending sequence, it might be even worse, because it's the most token, shallow attention grab ever made. And that's not something Metroid should ever be.

You're talking about the franchise that awards you with a picture of Samus in a bikini if you beat it fast enough...

 

Romance has been crowbarred into so many series thus far, from Silent Hill to Prince of Persia, to whatever the heck was happening in the last two Batman games, and I can honestly say I can't think of a single game series with a protagonist that started romanceless and later became involved that benefitted from doing so.

If we are honestly at the point where the only way a game series can continue is by shoehorning in elements (romance or otherwise) that are totally out of place and don't fit with the character at all, then let's just end the series. Seriously. I'd rather have things just end that have game writers continually stretch things out, looking for the next "shocking" thing to stick in there in order to attact more sales.