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For other uses, see Elevator (Disambiguation).
Hive Transport Area Lift

Samus observes an elevator of Galactic Federation design on Aether.

Elevators (or lifts) are a common transportation method built into developed areas or spacecraft. Very few inhabited locations do not feature them heavily as an access between areas or within levels of a single location.

Description[]

Elevators vary in design and method of propulsion. The classic 2D Metroid games featured slow floating panels that lowered and raised Samus along narrow tunnels. The elevators on planet Tallon IV use a traditional rail/pulley system. The elevators of Aether are much faster, utilizing a jet booster to launch the pads down and upwards at high speeds. The simple lifts in the Alimbic Cluster (in rooms such as Ascension and Subterranean) use anti-gravity[1] to stay afloat. In Metroid: Other M, the elevators are more like modern ones.

Another varying aspect of elevators is the method of activation. Some require the user to simply step on them then use the Up or Down key commands, such as the elevators of Zebes or the ones on the Biologic Space Laboratories research station. In the first two games in the Prime series, Samus must scan a nearby terminal to project a hologram. Upon entering this hologram, the elevator will activate. In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, there are several different ways to activate elevators. These include the use of Hand Scanners, touch-screen terminals, the Grapple Lasso and the old scanning method. In Other M, elevators activate immediately when Samus steps into them. To use elevators in Metroid: Samus Returns and Metroid Dread, Samus must stand on a pressure plate in front of them until it lowers.

The elevators on ZDR in Dread resemble torpedoes. When entering one, Samus will run up a short flight of stairs and enter the elevator, which will close her in and then transport her. There are also Shuttles that transport her laterally between areas, and a Transport Capsule that connects Hanubia to Itorash. Finally, elevators on ZDR are etched with Chozo characters that spell "OROMEL"; the meaning of this is unknown.[2]

Broken elevators[]

Samus occasionally encounters elevators that, for various reasons, are not functioning properly.

In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, the Broken Lift is split into two floors that do not connect because the titular elevator between them is broken. The reason for this is that the circuit board on the upper floor has been destroyed. This elevator can never be repaired.

At one point in Metroid: Other M, Samus has to cause a broken elevator to fall and crush a Ghalmanian, simultaneously clearing her path. It's also possible for the elevator to crush Samus and kill her if she doesn't get into one of the alcoves built in the sides of the room within a certain time limit. Later, Samus also has to use a Morph Ball launcher to bust through the floor of another broken elevator and progress.

At a chronologically later point in Metroid Fusion, the Main Elevator suddenly stops in its tracks, forcing Samus to break her way out of the elevator shaft in order to proceed to the Main Deck. This turns out to be because Nettori has used its vegetation to disable the Reactor Silo, causing the entire B.S.L. station to lose power. Elevators resume function on the station after Samus has defeated Nettori, which also clears out its vegetation.

Upon acquring the Gravity Suit in Burenia and returning to Artaria from there in Metroid Dread, Samus discovers that the deeper regions of ZDR, including Artaria, have become extremely cold due to an unknown force – later revealed to be Experiment No. Z-57 – blocking the planet's thermal routing system. This makes many devices such as doors and the very elevator she took to reach Artaria unusable, though fortunately for Samus, the one from Artaria to Cataris remains functional. After Samus defeats Z-57, the routing system resumes operation and so do all devices and elevators that had ceased to function in the cold.

Music[]

Main article: Silence
Envir sketches2

Concept art

Trivia[]

  • Somehow, elevators will automatically "follow" Samus to whatever floor she is on, regardless if she used them or not. Elevators that only lead between floors of a single room can be observed doing this in the Metroid Prime series.
  • When Samus takes an elevator in the 2D games, all other sprites on-screen may freeze until she steps away. This can't be seen under normal circumstances.
  • In Metroid: Zero Mission, there is seemingly an elevator shaft connecting between the Starting Point in Brinstar and Crateria, but there is no actual elevator. Instead, Samus gains access between the two areas by launching upwards using a Morph Ball launcher, or simply dropping down.
    • Even more curiously, an elevator is somehow present here in Super Metroid.
  • Also in Zero Mission, if Zero Suit Samus rides an elevator (via hacking the Zero Suit outside of normal gameplay), her sprite will temporarily turn into a glitched variation of the Fully Powered Suit, displaying said suit with an improper palette set used originally for Zero Suit Samus. This is likely due to Zero Suit Samus not being fully programmed to ride elevators, though her front facing sprite still displays correctly after every end of an elevator ride.
  • In the Sanctuary Fortress of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, during the second battle with Dark Samus, she manually activates an elevator that would normally require scanning by pounding on an Interface Module with the back of her fist, which suggests that Samus merely prefers to activate them through scanning.
    • On a related note, the fight with Dark Samus in that event is the only time where the player actually moves around an elevator during gameplay (not counting when the elevator is prematurely shut down in Metroid Fusion), as they are generally cutscene-based.
  • Currently, Metroid II: Return of Samus is the only linear game that does not feature any elevators. The remake, Metroid: Samus Returns includes elevators connecting each area, as well as other elevators that connect different parts of an individual area.
    • The elevator platform in Samus Returns features a pattern that rather resembles Mother Brain.
  • Captain N: The Game Master features an elevator in The Locker called the Gravulator.

Official Data[]

Metroid Fusion manual[]

ELEVATORS
"Stand on elevators and activate them by pressing [Down]/[Up] on the +Control Pad."

Metroid Prime Official Strategy Guide[]

ELEVATORS
"Throughout the worlds there are many Elevators that allow Samus to travel between the worlds. To activate an Elevator use the Scan Visor to activate it. Once activated, the Elevator works for the rest of the game."

Metroid: Zero Mission manual[]

Elevators
"Stand on elevator platforms and press [Up]/[Down] to operate elevators."

Metroid: Samus Returns manual[]

Elevator
"Transports you to different areas or levels."

Development notes[]

In Metroid Prime and Echoes, sound banks for each area are loaded in while Samus is riding elevators, with the cutscene acting as a hidden loading screen. Jack Mathews added a crossfade effect when Samus arrives at her destination, which he was particularly proud of.[3] He also hard-coded the cutscenes, meaning that the shafts in between elevator rooms are not rooms themselves.[4]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. ^ Lift Controls scan
  2. ^ Looygi Bros. "10 Cool Details in Metroid Dread (Part 2)" YouTube. December 11, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  3. ^ Kiwi Talkz. "#121 - Zoid Interview (Metroid Prime, Cameras, Scripting, Sequence Breaking , Programming etc.)" YouTube. January 22, 2022. Retrieved July 24, 2022. (starts at 14:48)
  4. ^ Zoid Kirsch (ZoidCTF). "Metroid Prime Dev Stories #8: Why are there elevators between worlds in Metroid Prime? As a mainstay of the Metroid games there were also three primary technical reasons: world maps could only be up to a certain size, sound banks needed changed and memory fragmentation. 1/5
    The world size limit was due to floating point precision. If Samus got too far from the origin her movement would start stuttering since the values would get too large. 2/5
    For the sound banks, the MusyX sound system can stream music but it couldn’t for sound effects. Each world had a different set of sounds that were loaded while the elevator cut scene is running. 3/5
    The GameCube doesn’t have any virtual memory and everything is allocated from the physical RAM. The elevator loads caused all memory to be freed between the worlds, cleaning up any fragmentation. 4/5
    @jack_mathews hardcoded the different elevator cut scenes into the game--its not a “room” at all. They also feature crossfades since it had fixed rendering, one of the only places we could afford to render overlapped scenes! 5/5" 10 November 2022 7:41 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/ZoidCTF/status/1590867390661013505
  5. ^ Nintendo UK (NintendoUK). "🎶 *elevator music* 🎶" 6 September 2021 2:00 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/NintendoUK/status/1434939575311474696
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