Women may have starred in video games prior to 1986, but there
hasn't been one since who can hold a candle to Samus Aran. It wasn't just the way Metroid's manual led you on
into believing she was a man, it was the fact that, at the end of the day, it didn't make much difference either way.
And now, thanks to her eight-year hiatus between appearances in Super Metroid and Metroid Prime, a
whole new generation of gamers has grown up thinking that the orange-clad fighter from Super Smash Bros. was
just another one of the guys.
It's been almost twenty years since Metroid debuted here in the states, and yet there's still a dearth of
strong female leads whose gender is irrelevant to their circumstances, as opposed to being their sole motivation. Lara
Crigger over at Gamers with Jobs laments:
"Indeed, in video games, my entire gender appears to be neatly organized into maidens, mothers, and crones—or worse, virgins and whores. Look, developers—stop this. All of those "characters" are unnecessary. You've already made a perfect female character. Now, please, just make more of her.
Who? Samus Aran, of course."
In an era where sexuality in games is becoming ever more pervasive, Lara commends the developers at Nintendo and Retro Studios who maintain Samus? cool professionalism under fire as well as for retaining her femininity without resorting to oft-abused cliches. Specifically, ?never does she whine in her Space Journal, complain to Mission Control, or angst about Ridley over tea. She trusts herself to get the job done; she believes in herself. In this world, we could use a few more women?and men?who felt the same way.?
Here?s a question to ponder: how would the Metroid series differ nowadays if Samus was a man? Conversely, how would you perceive a game such as Halo differently if Master Chief was a woman? And just how significant should the influence of gender be on a game?s underlying story?
[Via Slashdot]
