Melee Weapons

[Code Green]

One day I was thinking, and I realized that Other M is going to be combat oriented and as such melee weapons actually have a shot at becoming a part of the game. However, Its not as simple as putting a katana in Samus' left arm. That just wouldn't feel like Metroid to me. Nintendo (as well as Team Ninja) would have to 'Metroidify' it. In my opinion, there are two basic ways of doing this, and they are:

1. give the weapon some additional feature that serves a navigational purpose(e.g. a sword that can cut through force fields in case there isn't a com. to scan)

2. give the weapon some additional feature that serves as an aid in battle (e.g. a mace or hammer that sends shockwaves rippling through the ground should it miss its mark, unless aimed at the ground for that reason)

Also, I think that such an addition would be best if the those powerups would be simply an accent to the game, as in there are only 2 or 3 of them in the game, and they don't play a large role in the story. In addition to that, I beleive that such a class of feature would be coolest if the player were given the ability to use those weapons whenever they felt like in battle.

[Emperor Ing]

2 makes samus into every single Metroid Prime Corruption boss. Ha.


One doesn't quite seem all that efficient, setting logistics aside. I mean, considering the inane system of tubes and human hand-scanners the Pirates have, force fields just seem so inefficient.

[Lazarius]

I have often fantasized about possible melee weapons Samus could wield. I think it might be best if she were just able to pick up weapons with her free hand, rather than actual powerups for it. Although, if some uber powered energy blade was a powerup near the end and only near the end, that would be pretty cool.

[Redwing]

Samus doesn't need melee weapons. She is one.

That said,

Charge beam, then punch someone in the face. Bam. I've always thought that would be something cool to add to her moveset.

[sharonlover]

Samus doesn't need melee weapons. She is one.

That said,

Charge beam, then punch someone in the face. Bam. I've always thought that would be something cool to add to her moveset.

I agree on both sides with this. Mainly, Samus is her own weapon. She was trained by the Galactic Federation and if it's anything like the U.S.M.C. there are many ways Samus could kill you. I'm not at liberty to discuss those ways Seriously though, between the arm cannon giving her range and her suits ability to perform smooth hand to hand combat; I think Samus can still manage on her own.

However; if I did have to give Samus a weapon, it would be a sword of some type. Back in one of my fanfictions, I had her wield a broad sword that extended from a hilt (sorta like those light sabre toys that you flick and they expand). Figured she seems to keep everything compact and that would be the best way to do it with a sword.

Problem with the sword in my story, broadswords require two hands to be efficient in combat, I didn't think about that . I've been growing on the idea of an energy scythe coming out of the end of the arm cannon; but that would a pain to use because you are limited by the movement of your arm.

The other idea I had was to have the cannon morph into a hand held weapon (sword preferably). This would allow for free movement of both hands for her to wield it and could even utilize the cannon's power beam technology to enhance the weapon. Like electrifying the blade with the wave beam energy to shock opponents. Flaming sword for the plasma beam . Ability to freeze parts of a body hit with the blade with the ice beam. Ect ect.

That sounds like it's going to make it into my next story . New Weapon acquired! Thanks for getting me brainstorming ^_^

[Lazarius]

The idea of her cannon morphing into a sword doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Partly it just makes her seem like a Transformer or something, and also her hand does actually have to be physically there, and I don't think he arm would fit in a sword. I would have an energy scythe of sorts extend from the back of her other hand. (Gotta make that glowy light good for something, right.)

[sharonlover]

The idea of her cannon morphing into a sword doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Partly it just makes her seem like a Transformer or something, and also her hand does actually have to be physically there, and I don't think he arm would fit in a sword. I would have an energy scythe of sorts extend from the back of her other hand. (Gotta make that glowy light good for something, right.)

Well she does utilize her suit to transform into a morph ball Seeing that her arm cannon 'reconfigures' itself physically for the other weapons she uses, I don't see it too far fetched to transform it into a melee weapon.

We don't know how exactly the arm cannon connects to the suit; but from x-ray scans and such; we can see that her hand is physically inserted into the cannon. The cannon could simply transform it's self from around her hand, freeing it for use (not her hand actually in the sword, that would limit the arms range of motion). It only really leaves to question what happens to the controls where her hand is; normally when you see art of the cannon, it appears as if she is holding a trigger of some type and that there may even be buttons for her to press in there to switch the beam/trigger type as her free hand doesn't even touch the arm cannon when it changes (at least not that I remember). Maybe the trigger components would retract into the arm portion of the suit.

It's definetly transformer type hokie but I like the idea ; otherwise, to have a physical weapon on her, she would need to have some place to store it. She could store an expandable weapon in her suit, such as a leg or something, but then I start thinking Robocop and his gun in his leg. Or she could simply have it attached to her back in an opening that would keep it hidden and out of the way; but then it would also have to transform whenever she went into morph ball mode.

While the energy scythe is a good and logical choice; my main problem with that is the range of motion. With an energy scythe, or any weapon, that is physically attached to the back of her hand, she is limited as to how she can use it. She can only twist her wrist so far. Let's say a Space Pirate is dropping from above with his scythe, with the back hand approach, Samus can't simply flip her wrist that far back to deflect, she would have to raise her entire arm (at least at the elbow if nothing else) in an attempt to deflect. If she has a free hand melee weapon and both her hands are free, she has the full advantage of both her arms to be able to deflect the attack. Utilizing both arms would provide her more strength; where a one arm deflection may fail because the space pirate is too heavy for her arm to hold.

[Lazarius]

In Prime, by using the X-Ray visor, it is show that she changes her hand shape to change beams. So I don't think there are any buttons.

It's true a blade from the back of the hand would limit usefulness, weapons are supposed to extend out of the top of the hand, not forwards. Perhaps an energy blade that extends from the hilt, stored in a panel in her arm cannon. She'd only have to reach her hand across to her other arm to pull it out then.

[sharonlover]

In Prime, by using the X-Ray visor, it is show that she changes her hand shape to change beams. So I don't think there are any buttons.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that. That explains the different hand symbols when you are changing beams in the game. Forgive me, I just started Trilogy this week

It's true a blade from the back of the hand would limit usefulness, weapons are supposed to extend out of the top of the hand, not forwards. Perhaps an energy blade that extends from the hilt, stored in a panel in her arm cannon. She'd only have to reach her hand across to her other arm to pull it out then.

That would definitely by my second option is a weapon extends from a hilt stored somewhere on the suit. I personally think a sword like weapon would be the best bet; simply for it's easy of handling in a one arm situation like an energy based one would offer. I think a mace (even though possible) would be too much of a hindrance. Nunchuks, now there's an interesting idea

[mental]

You'd think she'd at least have the equivalent of a bayonet.

[Lazarius]

Wow, that would be awesome. Especially since Bayonets are my favourite method of killing in World at War.

[Redwing]

I'm pretty sure the arm cannon is manipulated by a few levers attached to the fingers or something. Making different hand shapes moves those levers. Or at least that's how I imagined it.

[Code Green]

My intention is that the weapons from my original idea were kept in space compression when not in use, but now in hindsight I realize that that was a rather cheesy way of doing it. What'd be cooler, for a sword or a nunchuck anyway, would be a weapon that is jointed and folds all up when stored like the sword in Star Trek that the fencing dude had. Then you could store it somewhere like in a compartment of Samus's arm cannon. Or, you could simply have a Chozo built device that simply draws the weapon from some portable dimensional anomaly that only takes up a very small space from the perspective of an outsider.

[-ChozoChild-]

I really like this discussion, but I'm trying to picture Samus with a sword... and it's not working out very well. /;
I guess because I picture Samus with her gun-arm it's hard to picture her with a sword. It's a clever idea though.

A bayonet seems like a good idea.
I'm not really sure how they could pull this off, Redwing has a good theory.

You might be on to something Gale Beam, I like the fact it can be stored in a compartment... now that makes since to me.

[Redwing]

I know I've seen fanart that shows Samus with a bayonet. It's a fairly straightforward concept. A blade of energy is projected around one half of her arm cannon. She can then proceed to smack people with it.