Metroid (c) 1986 Nintendo.
You play as Samus Aran, a space-traveling bounty hunter who has been assigned by the Galactic Federation to investigate a band of Space Pirates on the planet Zebes. The Space Pirates invaded a deep-space research ship and stole an unknown, yet destructive life-form that can absorb life energy and rapidly multiply. The life-form is codenamed 'Metroid'.
As Samus you must infiltrate the planet and destroy the Mother Brain controlling the pirates before the Metroid can be used as a weapon. Along the way, Samus can acquire weapons to help her through the cavernous maze, and to defeat all hostile creatures (both pirates, and indigenous) along the way. Much of the game is based on discovery - such as secret passageways, and retracting your path to find areas using new abilities.

>>> TECHNICAL DETAILS
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Nintendo PlayChoice-10 hardware
Game ID : MT
Main CPU : Z80 (@ 4 Mhz), N2A03 (@ 1.789772 Mhz)
Sound Chips : N2A03 (@ 1.789772 Mhz), DAC
Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 320
Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

>>> TRIVIA
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Mistranslation : In the opening story, the planet Zebes is referred to as 'Zebeth'. This is due to a mistranslation from Japanese to English. In Japan, the 'S' sound and the 'TH' sound are interchangeable.
The Morph Ball was partly invented out of convenience. At the time, it was much easier to animate a ball rolling through narrow passages than a computer figure crawling on all fours.
The second boss of the game, Ridley, was named in honor of Ridley Scott, the director of Alien (1979).
When it was first released, Metroid held a secret about its armor-clad protagonist, Samus Aran. When the game was beaten in under 2 hours, the player was presented with an image of Samus, whose armor then disappeared, revealing that the character is actually a woman. Samus Aran has since gone on to be recognized as one of the earliest and most famous female video game protagonists ever. The decision to make the mysterious bounty hunter Samus Aran a woman was made halfway through the development process. Samus was initially going to be a male, but it was changed because it would be a cool surprise for the gamers.
Some gamers stumbled upon a glitch in the game, where it was possible to jump through a door and get stuck in a wall. From there, it would be possible to jump through walls into normally inaccessible areas with strange layouts. This gave rise to a popular video legend of the 'Secret Worlds' in Metroid, which were only accessible to clever players. Years later, it was revealed that these secret levels were actually unused map data that were supposed to be outside the playable area. There was never any intention to make these areas accessible in any way.
Cameos in other Samus Aran Nintendo titles :
1. Famicom Wars (1988, Famicom) (Unreleased outside Japan; The Orange Star commander on Donut Island is called Samasuun, and her face on the result screen is Samus's mask).
2. Nintendo's Tetris (1989, NES) (Cameo, appears playing the upright bass after the player wins a B-type game of level at least 9 and height at least 2).
3. F-1 Race (1990, Game Boy) (Cameo, appears cheering before Course 7)
4. Galactic Pinball (Virtual Boy) (Cameo, her ship appears in a minigame).
5. Super Mario RPG - Legend of the Seven Stars (1996, SNES) (Cameo, after Mario's party defeats Yaridovich, he may her find sleeping, until Mario travels to Land's End, and a Samus figurine appears in the toy box of Booster's Room).
6. Kirby Super Star (1996, SNES) (Cameo, when Kirby uses his rock defense he can become a Samus statue. Also, the Screw Attack icon (called the Screwball) is a treasure in the Great Cave Offensive segment of the game).
7. Kirby's Dream Land 3 (1997, SNES) (Cameo, appears after level 5-2, which also contains six Metroids).
8. Super Smash Bros. (1999, N64) (Playable character).
9. Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001, GameCube) (Playable character).
10. WarioWare, Inc. - Mega Microgames (2003, Game Boy Advance) (Contains a microgame based on NES Metroid).
11. WarioWare, Inc. - Mega Party Games (2004, Nintendo GameCube) (Contains the same Metroid microgame from Mega Microgames).
12. WarioWare - Touched! (2005, Nintendo DS) (Contains a microgame based on NES Metroid).
13. WarioWare - Twisted! (2005, Game Boy Advance) (Contains two microgames based on NES Metroid).
14. Animal Crossing - Wild World (2006, Nintendo DS) (Gulliver, the seagull, references Samus saying 'Tell me, have you ever heard of the bounty hunter that can turn into a ball?'. Also you can get a 1x1 item that is a Metroid in a case, when you touch it it glows and plays a small clip of Metroid music).
15. Geist (2005) (Samus' helmet is seen in a women�s locker room).
16. Tetris DS (2006, Nintendo DS) (Metroid-based course, Catch; in the title screen, Samus shoots some tetrominoes; A difficulty level on Standard mode is Metroid Themed, with Samus to the right, and clips of the original Metroid playing on the top screen).
17. WarioWare - Smooth Moves (2007, Wii) (Contains a microgame based on Metroid Prime 2).
18. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2007, Wii) (Playable character, Zero Suit Samus is also a playable character).

>>> TRICKS AND TIPS
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* Super jump : Hold Right on controller two and press A on controller one.
* Quit game play : Press Start to pause game play. Hold Up+A on controller two to display the current password.
* Different endings : completing the game within a set amount of time will net you one of four different endings :
Over 5 hours : Samus will raise her hand in victory.
3-5 hours : Samus will remove her helmet.
Under 3 hours : Samus will remove all of her armour, and be dressed in a purple leotard.
Under 1 hour : Samus will remove all of her armour, and be dressed in a purple bikini.
* Play as leotard Samus (+ Extra Ending) : After completing the game in under 3 hours and getting the leotard Samus ending, start a new game. Samus will just be wearing her leotard. If you take more than five hours to complete the game as armourless Samus then you get another ending where Samus puts her armour back on and turns her back on you in shame.
* Passwords :
M7---- --zOA0 2T-tfm a000d5 (Tourian)
00U--- -u0000 0AFw9Y 1800sb (Hideout 2)
022400 A00000 05?00m 0000aS (Brinstar with Screw Ball and Ice Beam)
0WX002 W00004 1VW0C0 0000MO (Q2 Brinstar with Screw Attack, Ice Beam and Leotard Samus)
Daniel Daniel Daniel Daniel (Norfair with no bombs)
XXXXXX XXXXXX KKKKKK KKKKKK (Tourian with weak weapons and Leotard Samus - impossible)
JUSTIN BAILEY ------ ------ (Norfair with Wave Beam, Long Beam, Bomb, Jump Boots, Varia, Screw Attack 5 Tanks, 205 Missiles and Leotard Samus)
JUSTIN BAILEY ------ 000000 (Hideout 2 with Ice Beam, Long Beam, Bomb, Jump Boots, Varia, Screw Attack, 5 Tanks, 255 Missiles and Leotard Samus)
justin bailey ------ ------ (Reset to title screen)
BOMBS- Missile SCREW- ATACK- (111 missiles, Ice Beam, Bombs and 4 energy tanks)
KIDICA RUSc19 86NINT ENDO-- (Hideout 1, Ice Beam, Screw Attack, 4 Tanks and 42 Missiles)
999999 999999 KKKKKK KKKKKK (Hideout 2, no Kraid, no Varia, no Mother Brain, no final time limit)
X-z-uJ lls0W0 fVvweG 000WNr (215 missiles, 5 energy tanks, all powerups, both mini-bosses dead)
000000 000000 03-200 000089 (255 missiles, but no missile tanks)
000000 000000 080h00 0000gu (Begin with missiles but no missiles in Kraid's lair)
000000 000001 00F300 00008X (Begin with missiles, but no missile tanks in Ridley's lair)
X----- --N?WO dV-Gm9 W01GMI (see Metroid's best ending)
F2-yum akMKa0 O2-oKm 0000fr (Get Ice Beam)
000800 000000 02080H e000?q (Get Long Beam)
mMuiS1 II6-GE Jls?h0 m00WRM (No suit and All Weapons)
00WX00 2W0000 41TW1o 0000LD (Play with Samus with her suit off!)
00U--- -u0000 0AFw9Y 1800sb (Go to Rifley)
C00000 000000 080h00 00006u (Begin with bombs)
NARPAS SWORD0 000000 000000 (infinite health, missiles, Ice Beam, all power-up with the exception of Energy Tanks, Missile Expansions and the Wave Beam.

>>> GAME SERIES
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1. Metroid (1986, Nintendo Famicom)
2. Metroid II - Return of Samus (1991, Nintendo Game Boy)
3. Super Metroid (1994, Nintendo Super Famicom)
4. Metroid Fusion (2002, Nintendo Game Boy Advance)
5. Metroid Prime (2003, Nintendo GameCube)
6. Metroid - Zero Mission (2004, Nintendo Game Boy Advance)
7. Metroid Prime 2 - Echoes (2004, Nintendo GameCube)
8. Metroid Prime - Hunters (2005, Nintendo DS)
9. Metroid Prime 3 - Corruption (2007, Nintendo Wii)

>>> DESIGNERS / PROGRAMMERS / STAFF
-------------------------------------
Scenario written by : Kanoh
Character designed by : Kiyotake, New Matsuoka Shikamoto
Main programmers : Hai Yukami, Zaru Sobajima, Gpz Sengoku, N. Shiotani, M. Houdai
Converted by : T. Narihiro
Assisted by : Makoto Kanoh
Directed by : Yamamoto
Chief director : Satoru Okada
Music by : Hirokazu Tanaka (Hip)
Produced by : Gunpei Yokoi
Special thanks to : Ken Zuri, Sumi, Inusawa, Kacho, Hyakkan, Goyake, Harada, Penpen

>>> GAME PORTS TO OTHER SYSTEMS
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* Consoles :
Nintendo Famicom (1986)
Nintendo Game Boy Advance (2004, 'Metroid - Zero Mission') : with Remade Graphics & Sound in addition to a bonus mission, the original game is an unlockable extra.
Nintendo GameCube (2003,'Metroid Prime' - unlockable Bonus connection) : The process is : you end the Metroid Fusion, connect your Game Boy Advance to Metroid Prime via GBA/GCN link cable, and you will unlock the original Metroid in the Nintendo GameCube. As an added bonus, the former password system has been removed and replaced with the benefit of saving the Progress to memory card.
Nintendo Game Boy Advance (2004, 'Famicom Mini Series')
Nintendo Wii (2007, 'Virtual Console')

>>> OTHER GAME RESOURCES
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Game's rom.