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A Game Over is an event which occurs whenever Samus Aran is defeated; this can occur if her Energy Tanks are fully depleted, along with some other, rarer causes of defeat. The Game Overs have varied throughout the series.

MetroidEdit

In Metroid, Samus will completely explode on the spot regardless of whether she is armored or not.

Metroid II: Return of SamusEdit

In Metroid II: Return of Samus, Samus will freeze and gradually fade away.

Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Zero MissionEdit

In Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid: Zero Mission, Samus' suit will explode (dissipate in the latter two games) and her vulnerable body will be left behind in the Justin Bailey or Zero Suit. In Super Metroid, Samus' clothing seems to shrink or disappear along with the suit's pieces through the animation frames, but everything flashes white at the pivotal moment. This could either be a sprite mistake or a remnant of an earlier idea in which Samus would have been nude under the suit. It is also possible to see her chest flick up, which does not happen in the other games. In Zero Mission, Samus' hair also comes out of its ponytail in the last frame. Zero Mission has the shortest version of Samus' death, Super Metroid second shortest, and Fusion longest.

Metroid Prime HuntersEdit

In Metroid Prime Hunters, a warning siren will play, with the message, "EMERGENCY - POWER SUIT energy is depleted." As this happens, Samus' visor will shut off as she lets out a scream before showing a message stating "Energy depleted", with the option to continue the game. If Samus dies when using the Morph Ball, it will explode.

If another hunter defeats Samus, they will take an Octolith as the message "HUNTER HAS TAKEN AN OCTOLITH" appears. Samus will scream, but her scream in Hunters sounds differently than the one in the core Prime trilogy.

Metroid Prime PinballEdit

In Metroid Prime Pinball, a voice will read "Mission Over" on the screen, while the Echoes Game Over theme plays.

Metroid Prime TrilogyEdit

In the Metroid Prime Trilogy, Samus' visor will shut off while she lets out a scream, and then various game over screens will be shown depending on the game:

Metroid Prime will depict Samus having a large crack in her visor, with the screen saying "Life support system: Critical." Seconds later, the screen goes red as the word "Offline" appears. "Game Over" appears before the screen cuts out.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes depicts Samus going into cardiac arrest, with the message, "Warning. System alert". As this happens, a heart monitor is heard rapidly beeping, before eventually flatlining as the message "Failure. Mission failure/Game Over" appears.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will show a puddle of blood slowly oozing across the screen. Corruption also has an alternate game over which will play if Samus enters corrupt Hyper Mode, showing her turn into another Dark Samus, followed by the same game over screen as before, but it now says "Terminal Corruption" and the blood is blue.

While using the Morph Ball, there are two more defeat sequences. In Prime, the Morph Ball will explode using Power Bomb frames before initiating Game Over. In Echoes, the Morph Ball will explode with pieces flying. Strangely enough, it will also show Samus's visor shutting off. This is the same in Corruption (the screen goes white after the Morph Ball explodes). If Samus receives a game over due to Terminal Corruption while in Morph Ball mode, it is unknown if it shatters into pieces or not, because there is a white, as opposed to blue, flash.

When leaving the Morph Ball mode in Prime, Samus is immobilized and the camera zooms before she falls and the visor shutting off but she doesn't scream. In Echoes, she falls and the visor shuts off with the scream. When she dies by a bright light, the screen turns white and it shuts off but it is unknown whether she falls due to the white screen. When she dies by an Octopede, Samus flies away and falls with the visor shut off. In Corruption, Samus is completely immobilized similar to Prime but she screams and the camera does not zoom. When she moves, she runs in place.

Metroid: Other MEdit

In Metroid: Other M, the Game Over combines elements from that of the classic games and the Prime series. Samus screams and falls to the ground, with her Power Suit disappearing and leaving her in her Zero Suit as she loses consciousness. The screen then fades to a light-green tinted flickering background and the words 'GAME OVER' and "CONTINUE? YES/NO" appear, with the option to continue the game from the last checkpoint reached.

When dying, Adam will frantically contact Samus, saying, "Samus! What's going on? Respond! Respond!". He will not say this if Samus dies after the cutscene preceding the Ridley battle, due to the fact that contact had been lost with her. It is interesting to note that nothing is said by Adam if Samus dies during the Brug Mass battle. If Samus dies in lava, she falls in and sticks her hand out in a futile attempt to pull herself out. If dying in the arms of a Kihunter, Samus will simply become limp in its arms with her suit staying intact.

There are conditions where Samus is killed instantly. In the Biosphere, it is possible for a moving elevator to crush Samus and kill her if she fails to enter an alcove built in the sides of the room within a certain time limit. If Samus fails to avoid the Vorash's jaws in the main tunnel of the Pyrosphere, the creature will ingest her. While Samus races up the Crater Interior, if she falls into the lava, the Goyagma will immediately grab her and pull her into the lava, though it will not do so after Samus reaches the top. In the Cryosphere, failure to escape from an avalanche will have Samus being buried under a large mass of snow, filling the screen to white. As Samus is escaping Sector Zero, any attempts made by her to Space Jump out towards an intact segment of the sector results in her falling into the abyss of space.

The only other condition where a Game Over is received if another character dies is when returning to the Pyrosphere; if Samus fails to save Anthony Higgs from being dropped into the lava by the Rhedogian, this results in a Game Over.

TriviaEdit

Originally, in Super Metroid, Samus was briefly nude and she screamed, the voice being recorded by Minako Hamano, but it was scrapped due to American sensitivity to nudity and the voice sounding too sexual.^[1]
The second pre-release trailer for Fusion depicted Samus wearing a blue dress with red shoes in her Game Over.
- A storyboard for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (pictured above) shows what appears to be a game over in the style of Super, Fusion and Zero Mission, suggesting that the idea was scrapped.
In Echoes, Samus will die if the "Vigilance" Class Turret that she currently operates is sufficiently damaged.
The Game Over in Metroid was ranked #8 on the "Top 10 Worst Ways to Die in a Video Game" by ScrewAttack.com.^[2]
Ghor's death sequence in Corruption consists of his armorsuit exploding, with him floating in the air quite similar the classic Metroid game over.
The message by Adam during the Game Over in Other M is a reference to that of the Metal Gear series — starting from the first Metal Gear Solid onward — where Solid Snake's, Naked Snake's, or Raiden's name is shouted in a similar manner on his game over scenes.
In Other M, if Samus dies in lava, Adam's messages are still heard despite her communication systems being incinerated, although it is more likely the player is hearing the message being sent rather than Samus receiving it.
Samus will always wear the Varia Suit in Prime and Echoes when she dies, regardless of upgrades.
Although she lacked it in the cutscene preceding the Ridley battle and throughout the whole Sector Zero cutscene, Samus wears the Paralyzer on her leg if she dies after either cutscene. However, she is seen wearing it in the cutscene where she collects Adam's helmet.