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Samus Aran's Appearance Fanfare plays every time Samus Aran starts the game or respawns from her gunship or a Save Station. It appears in all Metroid games virtually unchanged, apart from Metroid II: Return of Samus which uses a different tune. It is first heard just seconds before gameplay starts in the original Metroid. The Nintendo Entertainment System version of the game had a different sounding version of the score than the Famicom Disk System version, which is closer to the fanfare heard in subsequent games. The version that appeared in Metroid Prime has since been used in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Metroid Prime Hunters and Metroid: Samus Returns. In AR Games, the Prime variation of the theme plays when Samus's AR Card is scanned despite the fact that the model used is from from Metroid: Other M.
Metroid version (Famicom): [2]
- This is included as the last track on the Samus Archives Sound Selection CD, included with the Special Edition of Metroid: Samus Returns.
Metroid II: Return of Samus version: [3]
Super Metroid version: [4]
Metroid Fusion version: [5]
Metroid: Zero Mission version: [6]
Metroid Prime, Echoes, Corruption, Hunters and Samus Returns version: [7]
Metroid Prime and Samus Returns alternate version: [8]
- This version plays when the save file is resumed, as Samus is stepping out of the Save Station. The above version is heard only when Samus first lands on the Frigate Orpheon/SR388.
Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt version: [9] can be heard at about 37 seconds in (video with separate theme is currently unavailable)
Metroid Prime Pinball version: [10]
Metroid: Other M version: [11]
The theme is also heard in Brinstar (Melee) and Title (Metroid) in the Super Smash Bros. series. A short, depressing version of the theme is used after Samus's defeat during the battle against her in Metroid Prime: Federation Force.
Trivia
- In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, the theme only plays when Samus lands her gunship at a Landing Site, and does not play when starting a game or respawning unlike in Prime or Echoes.