This article's name is an unofficial translation from official Japanese media
and may not represent the canonical English name, if one exists.
An alternate name from an official source may be required.
- This article is about the turrets in Tourian and E.M.M.I. Zones. For other uses, see Cannon (Disambiguation)
Small defense Cannons (砲台)[1][2] are seen within Tourian in Metroid, Metroid: Zero Mission and Super Metroid. The similar Central Unit Cannons[3] appear in Central Unit rooms in Metroid Dread.
Description[]
These stationary Cannons are present within every in-game iteration of the Zebesian Command Center, the room inhabited by Mother Brain. Their design is simple, consisting of either a circular or octagonal metal base with a single gun barrel jutting out from the sides. The base itself has a core which can glow, though what triggers it to do so varies between games. The appearance of a Cannon differs in other sources of media, either resembling a horizontal metal cylinder with a gun barrel at its middle, or featuring a design akin to that of the two turret variants from Metroid Prime.
Affixed to the walls and ceilings, their purpose is to defend Mother Brain by firing small projectiles at Samus. These artillery batteries seem to lack targeting systems, as their gun barrels continuously swivel in three to five different directions. In the original Metroid game, the Cannons located above the door and floating platforms only fired when their gun barrels were pointed directly underneath them, and the Cannons above the Zebetites fired diagonally downward; all of these were intentionally aimed at elevated platforms Samus may potentially stand on, whether or not she was actually there. In later games, the Cannons shoot in seemingly random directions regardless of who or what is nearby. This particular attack pattern and their large numbers quickly fill the room with a constant barrage of bullets, further compounded with the infinitely spawning Rinkas, all of which render attempts at evading the projectiles nearly futile.
The Cannons' projectiles, although not terribly damaging on their own if wearing suit upgrades, are a great nuisance as a direct hit will often push Samus into nearby Rinkas, into the shot of another Cannon or outright knock her into the lava below, making the climb back to her advantageous position a potential struggle due to all the aforementioned hazards and thus accumulate damage. All of this, as well as their ability to destroy her limited number of Missiles, give the Zebetites opportunities to regenerate which further hinder Samus's progress at reaching Mother Brain.
Cannons can only be destroyed by killing Mother Brain, which implies they are directly wired to her network. After her death, the gun barrels of all Cannons explode while their bases remain intact. In Super Metroid, defeating Mother Brain's first form causes the destruction of the entire mechanism, with its base vanishing seconds after the explosion that takes out the gun barrel. In the original NES/Famicom Metroid, the Cannons' cores were flashing red when Tourian's Time Bomb started counting down. In later released games, the cores constantly emanate a red glow, though it is only in Zero Mission where they turn yellow very briefly whenever the Cannons fire.
Central Unit Cannon[]
A Central Unit Cannon on the ceiling
The Central Unit Cannon[3], abbreviated as CUCannon,[4] is a cannon that appears in Metroid Dread. They are only present within rooms featuring a Central Unit and as such there is always at least one Central Unit Cannon mounted on the walls and/or ceiling. Since the Central Units are implicitly of a similar nature to Mother Brain and both also rely on Rinkas for defense, these Central Unit Cannons very closely resemble the Cannons seen in the Zebesian Command Center.
At the start of the battle, the Central Unit Cannons in the room emerge from hatches; for the Ferenia Central Unit, a fourth cannon emerges after the Unit's armor is destroyed. Unlike previous Cannons that only fire in random directions, the Central Unit Cannons actively aim at Samus's current position. The Cannons light up just before firing a bolt that travels in a straight line across the room; both the lights and the bolt are the same color as the associated E.M.M.I.'s armor.[5] Samus must dodge the Central Unit Cannon projectiles, since she cannot destroy them for pickups. When the Central Unit is destroyed, the Central Unit Cannons deactivate and retract back into their hatches.
Similar devices[]
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption[]
Mechanisms nearly identical to Mother Brain's Cannons can be seen in the Galactic Federation blueprints for the Future Aurora Complex, a room that is modelled after the Zebesian Command Center. Their presence further adds to the enigmatic connection between the Aurora Units and Mother Brain. The Federation might have intended to add their own variation of the Cannon to their organic supercomputers, as all the benevolent AUs present in Metroid Prime 3 are seemingly defenseless.
The final boss of the game, a rogue AU known as Aurora Unit 313, can activate six structures that emerge from hatches surrounding its base. They each take turns firing a combined total of eight projectiles with slight homing capabilities before the structures retract into the ground.
Super Metroid[]
Directly beneath Mother Brain's Control Capsule is a red, glowing circular device that spawns Rinkas. Aside from lacking the characteristic gun barrel, it is visually identical to the Cannons present in the same room. While such circular devices are seen throughout Tourian except for the barren wasteland section, some of their cores glow blue rather than the common red and some do not generate Rinkas at all, being merely decorative in role. Every single one of these beyond Mother Brain's chamber rapidly flashes red as the Time Bomb counts down following her death, akin to the Cannons' bases in the first Metroid game. A structure identical to the base of a Cannon was also underneath the Control Capsule in the original Metroid; it did not feature a gun barrel, did not generate Rinkas nor did its core flash red.
Metroid: Other M[]
A defense system resembling the Cannon are the Ring Beam Units encountered in the Galactic Federation's Bioweapon Research Center. These fire Rinkas instead of bullets however; they foreshadow the eventual confrontation with MB, an android who's A.I is copied from Mother Brain's.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force[]
The Grim-Class Turrets serve an identical purpose for Master Brain. While Master Brain is unable to attack by itself, its room features 18 Grim-Class Turrets emerging from hatches to shoot at the Federation Force. Unlike the Cannons for Mother Brain and the Central Units, they can be destroyed with weapons and are not exclusively found in Master Brain's room.
Trivia[]
- In the prequel Metroid manga, no Cannons can be seen in the Zebesian Command Center during the time Mother Brain was an ally of the Chozo. They only make their appearance during the final pages of the manga when Samus enters the fully-remodelled Command Center to destroy Mother Brain. This led to the belief that the Cannons were of Space Pirate origin, seeing as how the changes to her room began following the Pirates' takeover of planet Zebes. With the release of Metroid Dread and the introduction of Central Units with their own similar cannons on ZDR, a planet still inhabited by the Chozo, it's become unclear who designed the original Cannons.
- In the original Metroid for the NES/Famicom, after Mother Brain is defeated but before the body dissipates, the Cannons will swivel without shooting. The gun barrels themselves are only destroyed once the countdown begins.
- Samus can stand on top of a Cannon's base in both the original Metroid and Zero Mission, though the gun barrel in the latter game will eventually shoot upwards at her.
- In Zero Mission, the four Cannons closest to Mother Brain have several red and blue cables plugged into them. The significance or reason behind this is unknown.
- Super Metroid's flashback of the original battle against Mother Brain features two Cannons whose gun barrels neither swivel nor shoot.
- During Super Metroid's final battle, the Cannon closest to Mother Brain appears to float in the air due to its sprite being distant from the nearest wall and ceiling. Due to the screen scrolling left in preparation for Mother Brain's 2nd form, it is the only Cannon whose base can be seen vanishing.
- In Super Metroid, if the Cannon's fire is shot with a Missile or Super Missile, both shots will extinguish each other.
Gallery[]
.png "Zero Mission Cannon (left).png (714 bytes)")
References[]
- ^ Victory Techniques for Metroid pg. 174, as translated by Metroid Database
- ^ Metroid: Zero Mission ミッション・コンプリートブック [1]
- ^ a b As named in the configuration data of Metroid Dread.
- ^ "CUCannon" is the model's title in the internal files.
- ^ Looygi Bros. "11 Cool Details in Metroid Dread (Part 6)". YouTube. January 16, 2022. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
| Indestructible Creatures | |
|---|---|
| Non-hostile | Aurora Unit 217 • Baby • Dachora • Databot • Etecoon • Fleet Admiral Castor Dane • Fleet Mechanic • Pow • Septogg • Tatori • Tatori, Jr. • U-Mos Training Drone • Watchdrone • Work Robot |
| Hostiles | Aazelion • Airthorn • Autom • Big Metroid • Cannon • GMX-04 Halberd-class turret (if provoked) • Polyp • Proboscum Puromi • Ring Beam Unit • Ripper II • Samus Eater (Bud) • Seed platform • Unfreezable Metroid • ZipNMEBomber |
| Misc. | Bloatsac • Blueroot Tree (Dark) • Butterfly • Chomper Fish • Durable plantform • Fish • Fungus • Glow Stem • Great Tree Massive tentacle • Moth • Parasitic fungus • Protozoan • RedGrass • Sandgrass • Sbug • Scarp • Scatterbug • Tallon fern • Mantha |