I'm thinking it will be two different characters for three reasons:

1. As you said, their play styles are so different, why not make two different characters instead of one that can go back and forth?
2. Why would they make such a big deal out of her intro in the E3 trailer?  I suppose this isn't really the best argument though so on to argument #3...
   
3. She could be like Zelda/Shiek, but she really couldn't go back and forth.  It would be kind of a one wya thing and I just don't see that as working.  It just wouldn't make sense to have that one time transformation.  It would make much more sense to just have two characters.
   

That's what I'm thinking.

So now the question is...which Samus is better?

I'd like to stick with Power Suit Samus cause she's got the armor and the weapons...and hopefully still pretty fast...

But Zero Suit Samus is probably extremely fast, and probably still has a fair amount of strength. Plus she has her pistol with the laser whip/sword thing...

Definitely a game I'm looking forward to have being released. Sorry Ben, it's not that I haven't posted due to lack of excitement. Just that I usually don't say something unless I feel I can add something. Nothing really this time, but I like how the retro suit looks. I'm looking forward to hearing more about it, but like some gaming sites have started doing, I may not check in every single day. At least not until closer to launch. Hmm, 200 posts just seems so far away.

Samus looks good. Didn't think there was much to improve in terms of detail and what not, but you can see she looks better here.

Samus looks good, a big improvement I bet Ben went crazy when he saw that. It looks much better than the GC. Do you still like the Melee design for Samus better Ben. This is the best picture to me but something I noticed is the Pillars in the back loof like Zelda: TP.

"Samus looks good, a big improvement I bet Ben went crazy when he saw that. It looks much better than the GC. Do you still like the Melee design for Samus better Ben."

Well they actually had released that first picture of Samus before, along with that short clip of her in the first E3 trailer.

I think I like this Samus better. At first I was mad because it seems like they've downsized her...looks weaker. I was hoping for something like the GC version, only less chunky, more like a Metroid Prime Samus, like in my sig. But I suppose this is good. The retro look is cool.

You know what would be really cool...and not that impossible...is if Nintendo made very different costumes for Samus and other characters for when you change the colors.  Like, a White Samus could just be Light Samus...that would rock.

I can't wait for Smash Bros. Brawl. I enjoy seeing the improvement made to the models from the GC rendition. Its nice to see a game that is obviously made for the Wii from the ground up. After Roy and Marth showed up in Melee, we started getting Fire Emblem games. Maybe we'll get a new Kid Icarus game now that Pitt is in Brawl.

1. Zelda and Sheik have different play styles as well
2. She's new
3. Yes she could. We just don't know how yet

But, nice to finally see Samus in some screens.

And this be the Dark Samus