Metroid Prime Remastered changes very little from the original other than giving the 20-year-old game a much-deserved HD refresh, but it has changed Samus’ face. This wouldn’t be the first time Samus’ face has been altered. Her face changes from game to game, sometimes slightly, other times dramatically, depending on the art style of the game in question. But the change in Metroid Prime Remastered is significant enough to have been noticeable to fans.
The reveal of Samus’ face is always a highlight of any Metroid game. YouTube is loaded with video compilations guiding viewers through the history of Samus face reveals, dating back to the first in the original Metroid released way back in 1986 when her face was a blurry cluster of pixels. Rather than hold back her face to retain a sense of mystery as the Halo series does with Master Chief, the Metroid series takes a few moments in every game to remind the player that there’s a human beneath that space armor, from the mid-1980s original to the surprise release of a remaster of the 2002 classic.
Metroid Prime Remastered retains a lot from its original version, down to the endgame reveal of Samus' face but makes some slight changes to Samus’ face. The Samus of 2002 had much longer and thinner eyebrows whereas 2023’s Samus’ are thicker toward the nose and thin out as they go. Her nose hooks up slightly in the remaster, and her cheekbones are much more prominent than they used to be. Her lips have a defined Cupid’s Bow, the part of the upper lip beneath the nose that dips in the middle creating two little peaks on either side. In 2002, her upper lip wasn’t nearly as well-defined. Finally, her ears appear to be smaller and rounder than in the original Metroid Prime.
Samus’ new face resembles Battlestar Galactica and The Mandalorian actress Katie Sackoff whereas 2002 Samus looks like Tricia Helfer, also from Battlestar Galactica. Overall, the new look isn’t a huge departure from the original, but a much-deserved one. The original 2002 Metroid Prime face suffers from the same faults as a lot of video game faces of its era. There’s an anonymity to it that makes Samus feel more like a genetic character model than a unique person. It would not be surprising if it were revealed that Samus’ new face was based on a real person.
While Samus undergoes changes from game to game, there are certain elements that remain the same. Samus is always blonde and always seems to have a loose strand of hair or two dangling by an ear. She’s always blue-eyed, and her lips are usually a rosy red. Other than those core elements, every other feature, and even the shapes and hues of the ones already mentioned, are remixed when a new Samus is born. But no matter the details, she’s still always going to be the same Samus that gets called upon to deal with the galaxy’s pesky Metriod infestation.
Metroid Prime Remastered is available on Nintendo Switch.