It is possible that Zelda's creators were aware of Ultimate's work, but Falcom's Dragon Slayer series, Hydlide, and Tower of Druaga were all massive in Japan in the mid-'80s, too.
This video is the epitome of going down the rabbit hole, practically in real-time -- and it is STUNNING. I love the sudden shift when you introduce Cobra. Heck, I love every minute of it. I learned a lot, and now I have a bunch more video games and anime I'd like to check out. Fantastic work!
holy moly this is a level above 90% of gaming video essays on RU-vid. I think of myself as a big Metroid dweeb but there’s a lot I didn’t know here. subscribeddd
And now I have watched the video all the way and holy -hell- that was a deep dive. The prototype Cobra manga featuring Jane, the ties all back to Barbarella, how it all ties back to Metroid.... absolutely incredible stuff.
If you REALLY want to get into the origins of the arm cannon, I think it's largely rooted in 1967's Dororo manga. In that, Hyakkimaru has prosthetic arms with swords hidden in them. Likewise, his legs are also fake, but he can remove it to expose a cannon/tube that shoots boiling water. Though, it wouldn't surprise me if there are earlier examples.
This video dug deeper than I've seen any other do beforehand. You've changed my mind, and made me realize that Metroid is a lot more than just basing itself off of Alien.I will be checking out a lot of movies, books and games mentioned here.
9:48 “This is Miyamoto’s rip off of saberwulf” Cackling at this. Not too many people over the decades can say something like that with a straight face. It's the most veteran of industry veterans razzing each other across the decades.
Another Metroid similarity with Space Cobra: Super Metroid and Zero Mission’s work robots look similar to Ben, the robot assistant (21:16). This video is mind-blowing! 🤯🤯🤯
Phenomenal video! Definitely the absolute best source of information regarding the inspirations used to create Samus. Literally a Metroid Bible of sorts! Well done!
The Chozo rejuvenation bubble also shows up as the incredibly esoteric Crystal Flash trick in Super Metroid itself, appearing silhouetted but otherwise pretty Cobra-esque: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-y5j7ddcBlQI.html
Been a while since I've seen a video this densely packed with wild media analysis I never knew before! It's super cool to see the way creators influence each other back and forth, especially. It's a great way to fight the feeling of worrying that your own work is unoriginal, since everything is built, even subconsciously, on the stuff that got you into a genre in the first place, and that's awesome to break down! Definitely had to subscribe after this one!
Wonderful work as always Kate! Even as I don't always buy into the idea that everything has a specific influence, you did a good job stating your case with this meandering, but fun build up. I really enjoyed it!
This was a really fun ride. I’ve known about Cobra since I was a kid but I never actually watched it, so the rapid fire potential inspirations were a real treat to see unfold. Baraduke deserves all the new attention it can get, but I wonder if Nintendo’s Mach Rider might be an influence as well as far as the “armored protagonist is revealed to be a woman” bit. IIRC, I think they came from the same dev team but I could be wrong. Everything I know about that particular game I learned from Jeremy Parish. Regardless, Baraduke is definitely Metroid’s ancestor aesthetically. Also, I wish more modern games would draw from that shared Miyazaki/Möbius well.
I cut a bunch of smaller references that slowed down the pacing, and Mach Rider was among them. But one day Video Dames is going to have an episode about the Black Box era women, and Mach Rider will show up there. :-)
22:30 Babies in bubbles. Reminds me of 2001: Space Odyssey. The super computer "brain" of the ship tries to kill the whole crew. A guy in a red space suit shuts it down.
i love stuff like this. it's easy to believe that video game characters sprung forth from their creators' minds fully formed, especially when reading what developers and designers say about the process, but seeing what actually inspired them, consciously or otherwise, is so fun. also, after rewatching your video about Streaker and similar gross games i realized that Samus was likely inspired by this early gaming trend, so it's very fitting that the so-called First Lady of Video Games would be the subject of your next documentary. keep it up, you're my favorite new channel! 💖
Man I absolutely love videos like this. I’m always fascinated by the concept of finding the lines of inspiration around stuff I love and this exactly goes as in depth as I like. I can barely count how many times this video genuinely made me go “WAIT A MINUTE HUH”
Not only did your video blow my mind with a rollercoaster of interesting correlations and discoveries, you also made me feel better about borrowing inspiration for my own works. This was like seeing a lifetimes worth of creative process distilled. Its all about putting a personal spin on something to make it unique. This is just what I needed!
The that’s a morph ball moment, not just a morph ball, but she was glowing and likely moving very fast before entering that ship in the ball state. Add shinespark to that list.
Ah, but the shinespark is an OVERT homage to 1975's Getter Robo G(sequel to Getter Robo, the first "combiner" robot in anime and manga). The titular Getter Robo has a finishing move where it wraps itself in an aura of energy as the pilots shout "Getter shine!", then flies through the target while the pilots shout "SHINE SPAAAAAAAAAAARK!" The name kinda gives it away.
This just popped up in my recs and I haven't seen it yet but I see Space Adventure Cobra in the thumbnail and my brain goes YES, YES! Someone else feels the connection!
The explanation of adventure has given me the biggest mind blowing realization about what adventure even means LOL I almost lost my mind for a moment haha
I have to comment: This video is AMAZING. The rabbit hole of influences and who influenced who is so winding and deep that I love how you laid it all out very clearly. Great job!
Fun Fact: Kissy from Baraduke (AKA Alien Sector) is the mother of the character from Mr. Driller, and the ex-wife of character from Dig Dug (who is Mr. Driller's father).
I can’t believe how well researched this is! Most Metroid fact videos start with did you know Samus wasn’t revealed to be a woman until the end of the game YES, YES I DID
You could probably add Getter Robo G to the influence list though. Getter Dragon has a move that works very similarly to the Shine Spark that is called... the Shine Spark. Once charged with energy they both use that to ram through things, except Samus keeps charging it, and Getter Dragon the energy keeps going forward until it explodes while Dragon hangs back.
To be fair, I was mostly sticking to movie/shows/games that inspired more than one thing in the series, otherwise there'd be an entire chapter of miscellaneous. Maybe one day there'll be a short "tangent" video with all that.
Casi todo lo mencionado en el vídeo lo conocía, pero... Nunca había pensado en que combinando los tres personajes principales de COBRA darían como resultado a SAMUS. Que buen trabajo.
GREAT video. the relaxing way you unravel so much history, it was such a trip visiting all these wonderful sources of inspiration. Makes me "want what they're smoking", even if it is some vague unconscious idea of women with arm guns fighting aliens.
Excellent work! I knew most of the western influences already, but it's interesting hearing the rest of it, especially the stuff about Lensman and Cobra. Interesting and weird, because I saw them all long after I'd played Metroid so the idea of them influencing it never even occurred to me. Brain is soup.
Also holy cow, I never saw Astro Boy but all this time I was led to believe he had an arm cannon. I am disappointed and amused at what his actual weapon was.
Fantastic video! A possible influence on Samus's fully powered suit with large shoulders, which first appeared in 1992's Metroid II, is Makoto Kobayashi's 1988 anime OVA Dragon's Heaven, which was itself inspired by the art of Möbius.
0:09 Castle Wolfenstein (1981), Aztec (1982), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982) and Spelunker (1983) had destructible walls/floors (or boulders in Spelunker) and bombs. AD&D Cloud Mountain (1982) had you destroy trees with an axe though that was on the overworld only and it's used like a key only IIRC, but it's similar to Zelda 1 in other ways. Below the Root (1984) had you use a sword or scissors for removing thorny vine obstacles and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1984) again let you destroy floors with bombs. I would say those can be considered the first Metroid-like or MV games as there are other tools as well and they have persistent worlds. These are followed by Brain Breaker (Sharp X1, 1985) in Japan and a few other pre-Metroid games in the west. Zelda 1 did ability gating before Metroid 1 and was probably the biggest influence on that part of its design, and I believe Hydlide and Dragon Slayer also had an influence on Zelda 1 but who knows for sure. Cool video, I didn't know about Lensman or prototype Cobra!
I've already been planning a series of videos to look at all those other early examples, hopefully you'll stick around! (I'm especially excited about Brain Breaker, but have a few others to get to first!)
@@ACriticalHit Feel free to use my platform adventure/mv site as a resource (I think YT removed my last comment despite not linking to them but they're on my about page)
As much as people put Zelda and Metroid on a pedestal, these games are mostly made by "a bunch of 20 something dudes in an office". When you're that young and you're tasked with coming up with an original world for the first time you tend to lean other influences. So, Id software and Doom pulls heavily from the Dungeons and Dragons monster manual, heavy metal music, and Aliens. Ultima is D&D and Tolkien through and through. Original Final Fantasy has a lot of bits that are pulled from Miyazaki films like Laputa or Nausicaa. Coming up with dramatically new ideas would require a much more seasoned Manga or novel author on staff to start cooking ideas up, something that early 80's nintendo would never have. So, given how Nintendo (and the Japanese gaming industry as a whole) is very tightlipped about their influences - it's very awesome of you to go digging for what manga are on people's desks at the Metroid development office. Edit: I feel I should have been looking at the Ultimate Play the Game releases long ago. I was a C64 kid and ZX is a real step back.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing them of ripping things off. Nothing exists in a vacuum; everything is influenced by something. All of the things that influenced Metroid had their own influences as well. The problem is when a work only has a single influence, which is when it's simply a Xerox copy. The more influences that are mixed together in a blender, the more fresh the new concept is.
Wow. Thank you for all your hard work. This is how my brain works and everyone thinks im crazy when i talk about characters and origins. There is no way i could have tracked this much research. There is a character in my mind that is a redheaded warrior woman with a sword that is a wavey blade. I found a character "red sonya" that is similar to this and in one photo i have seen a wavey blade and she is typically wearing a scale mail bikini. In my mind though the girl im thinking of is wearing a brown leather vest like a cheesy cowgirl vest. Another character that i am constantly looking for origins of is leon s Kennedy fron resident evil 4. Many influences are known but there is more to it than Leonardo dicaprio. His entire look has something very antique and german or russian about it. The bomber jacket (long before it gained such popularity). The haircut the guns he uses. And there is something very gothic about it all. I know the series split into the devil may cry series. Which is another good character idea. The white haired, red dressed demon or demon killer. Inuyasha and dante and many other characters. To me lady in devil may cry is a big reference to kagome. I cant turn my brain off its like i see something and i immediately see the influence but cant track it back all the way. I would absolutely adore it if you made more of these videos. So many people dont value really thinking critically of why things are interesting beyond "thats how it is". Samus also has this Amazonian wonderwoman quality about her. Without samus having to speak i feel like she has this straight forward honest truthful nature about her. I feel like she would be deeply lonely but never does things out of desperation. The hardest part of samus for me to believe is that she is a bounty hunter which i guess could just be the title to be given if youre going after revenge that happens to be a space pirate. Another thought i struggle with is where red heads and blondes divide. In history thor was a red head and his brother was blonde. Thor originally lost his hand like a cobra character but the blonde thor and redhead came together. I cant decide what feels more like a cowboy woman a red head or a blonde. And what does wavy hair or straight hair really say about a character? Those details matter to me more than the few obvious and known heroes journeys a plot can happen on. Is wavy more wild and straight controlled? Short hair and long hair can say a lot about a character but thats a characters choice to cut or grow, or to show passage of time. Barbarella had the wavy hair and im glad samus mostly has the straight flatter hair it seems more controlled and professional, quiet and thinking more than being loud and wild and shouting. Not saying thats necessarily what other hair types look for. I can really picture samus being an athlete and i could never picture her being a bond girl unless she was purposely being a parody in some sarcastic way. Samus isnt trying to impress anyone but shes not evil or anything. She isnt trying to be professional her personality is already quiet and focused. She doesn't have big physical movements like a power ranger she moves subtly until action happens. Sure footed. She isnt a diva but she isnt a cold careless person. I wonder when she goes deep into these dark places and gets trapped inside or cant figure out the next step if she regrets going or has thoughts of doubt? Is it her curiosity or her sense of duty that drives her? She is not doing anything for attention or praise. Yet this is also someone who has blown up like 3 planets right? 🤣
This is fantastic, I really like how all these sci-fi games and manga series borrowed pieces from other works. (Although I could do without quite so much sexualization of every female character, I have more respect for Dread not even removing Samus's helmet now.) Thanks for this deep dive!
That's true. Although nudity itself is not bad, especially in science fiction, it depends on how it is used. In Dread ,although we do not see samus "naked" (zero suit) at the end of the credits, we do see her like that in the flashback of Raven Beak in that tube when she is implanted DNA chozo.
I learned a lot; Subscribed. Looking forward to the Metroid/Metroidvania analysis. I've often thought that you could make a Metroid game that is not a Metroidvania, by isolating what the genre left behind from the serie (namely the unmarked secrets design that has been making the headlines recently, and the techniques that were implemented since the original to try lessen the mental burden of the search on the player).
Wow. No one truly owns one idea it seems. Or at least from those that become known for their ideas. Seems like these famous people and their projects are symptomatic of ripping of others ideas and passing them off as your own without credit or compensation to the originators. Wonderful video!!! Luvd. It.
talk about obscure games , very interesting video Kate, subbed! Edit: Moebius... i remember seeing huge hard cover comics in our local library as a child. This artist likes phallic art or so i discovered...
This was a neat video. A lot of this I didn't know about. There inner Getter Robo (mecha manga series) nut in me wanted to know if her Shinespark power was inspired by the Shinespark in Getter Robo G considering the look pretty much the same and have the same name. Great video none the less. :)
