#metroid federation force

[nerdy-the-artist]

Space Pirate Design Ranking

The Metroid series has a boatload of different designs, completely changing between every game except the 2D iterations. Some think it’s simple design inconsistency, others think that they’re different genetic manipulations of the same species, while others (including myself) are of the opinion that the Space Pirates are a collective made up of various species. Today, I’ll be ranking these designs based on what they convey and, simply, what I think is cool and aesthetically pleasing. For the sake of simplicity, I’ll only be ranking the standard Space Pirate variant of each game, the “core enemy type” if you will. And yes, Metroid Prime 4 Beyond is here, though its place in the ranking is subject to change as we get more closer looks.

7. Metroid Prime 2 Echoes

Some people may consider this a sin to put so low on the list but, to me, this really just doesn’t fit the whole vibe of the Space Pirates, especially in the Prime series. In the Metroid Prime saga, the Space Pirates are an authoritarian empire who recklessly abuse technological advancement for the sake of domination. This just… doesn’t say that. It’s a good design, don’t get me wrong, but this really looks like some weird skeleton knight. I could see this crawling out of some crypt to seek vengeance, not descending from a space ship to plunder. For that reason, I gotta put this guy in last place.

6th place: Metroid Prime Federation Force

For many of the problems Metroid Prime 2’s design has, I think Federation Force remedies… and then makes the opposite mistakes. Federation Force’s Space Pirate design is, canonically, around the same height as Metroid Prime’s Omega Pirate. Why make mechs for your game if you’re just gonna scale the enemies up anyway is anyone’s guess. With that in mind, I kinda like this as a heavy unit for the Space Pirates, but the center of this design just is a bit hard to look at. I love the limbs and the inclusion of the iconic Prime Pirate energy blade. There’s a mix of fleshy joints and tough, metal plating that I enjoy, I actually like the bright red eyes as well, especially for a heavy unit. But the carapace around it just feels… it’s kinda hard to look at. That mouth, as well, is just a bit too buggy and lacks expressiveness. Really, that’s my edict on this thing. Good extremities, but lacks expression and is generally tough to look at. Still, I imagine someone could retool/retexture this thing to be a real banger of a design.

5th place: Metroid Other M

From here on, these designs are ones I truly like as Space Pirates. Metroid Other M’s Space Pirate design was a tough one to find a good image of. This was about the best one I could find in a cursory search. As far as official designs go, I think this is the best translation of the iconic Zebesian Space Pirate to 3D we’ve ever gotten. There was a small effort made in Prime 2 to bring the claws back, but here there are on full display and they look great. The whole design is, honestly, fantastic. You can see the smooth bands around the limbs and torso, downward pointed jaw, and the big, smooth, blank eyes of the old sprite. The spines on the back and head really add some personal flare to these guys as well, and the whole design has a delightfully cheesy color scheme that I simply adore. I think the series has designs that evoke certain feelings and themes better, but this is certainly a fun looking guy.

4th place: Metroid Prime 3 Corruption

Unlike every other type but the Zebesians, the Space Pirates of Corruption have a distinct name based on the Homeworld we explore, Urtraghians. There is a distinctly pseudo organic bend to these guys, with the textures on the armor plating feeling almost Xenomorphic. However, where I think this design stands out is, of course, the head. The long, pointed teeth clearly visible under the rows of eyes really makes this eel-like head intimidating. You can really imagine the Urtraghians descending from their ships in a city, gunning down innocents and plundering whatever they choose. These animalistic terrors will smell where you’re hiding and drag you out kicking and screaming. It really fits the Space Pirates’ role in the story. From day one, they really have just been a bogeyman for the Federation. We rarely actually see them doing… ya know… pirating. The rampant technological obsession was a concept introduced by the Prime trilogy. As a design for the Bogeyman of the Galaxy, I think the Urtraghians work great.

3. Metroid Prime 4 Beyond

Haha, 3 is for 4 and 4 is for 3. This will be subject to change and many people might not rank them until we get clearer images, but uh… I’m doin it. Beyond’s pirates have a very buggy design, but in a way that’s parallel, not identical, to the Zebesian designs from the 2d games. Their mouth is split into mandibles, they have a hard carapace, and their movements can be jittery and unsettling. The large size of them compared to the Federation personnel seen in the trailer really evokes power and control. Their armor has outward pointed edges and defined pectorals. These are conquerors, proud, undefeatable warriors. The sparseness of it also evokes a sense of confidence, as if they don’t need a full covering when their hardened shell is so superior to weak flesh. It’s almost ornamental in a way. (Though someone should remind them they lost in every previous fight against Samus). Their mandibular maws, hunched backs, double thumbed hands, and digitigrade stance (standing on their toes with their heels off the ground) also evokes a certain other core enemy type in a sci fi shooter.

I’m going to leave it here for now as I have some other stuff to get to at the moment and I Forgor the image limit on Tumblr posts. I’ll get the ranking for the final (first?) two designs by the end of today. Then, I might make a post about what roles I’d fit these different species into for my own storytelling purposes.

[lividria]

wait i just realized if prime 4 takes place after federation force because of sylux showing up with mochtroids, what if instead of bringing in other bounty hunters as samus' allies like prime 3 did (as cool as it'd be if spire & noxus pulled up to help deal with the pirates & sylux), they bring back the federation force which have previously successfully combatted the space pirates to help samus clear them out

it could even work as a do-over of samus cooperating with a GF platoon and getting to know each of them like what other M tried, just minus all the adam bullshit and other M's writing as a whole

and since sylux hates the federation and is front-and-center here that's probably setting up another shady fed arc, they could have a whole plot point where samus either has to go against the FF at some point or prime 4 re-uses the deleter plot point (almost definitely not but it'd be cool to see it done in an actually good game) or the FF realizes they're unknowingly forwarding a bad goal so they turn on the federation (and THEN samus fights them before getting caught up on what's going on and why they went rogue?)

[vgmremixtape]

OCR04659: Metroid Prime: Federation Force: Twilight Zone - ZackParrish and Sebastian Mårtensson feat. Pearl Pixel (Alex Parrish) and Tove Petersson

[Blast Ball Menu; Title Theme (Metroid)]

from OverClocked ReMix; originally on the Shinesparkers album Harmony of a Hunter Returns. more by the artists linked below.

song credits:

ZackParrish - arrangement

Sebastian Mårtensson - arrangement, guitar, script, announcer

Alex Parrish - voice of Samus

Sebastian Mårtensson and Tove Petersson - crowd and chants

[funkylittlecrowboy]

THERE HE IS

THE FUCKER

[it-seemo]

DAY 23 - FEDERATION FORCE

Oh yeah, these guys.

<- Day 22 | Day 23 | Day 24 ->

[sepublic]

You know what would be really funny? If we saw one of the Federation Force mechs in Beyond. Apparently they’re around the size of an Omega Pirate, although I can’t find a source on this, plus the way they scale with Federation troopers in the game makes me skeptical. But it’d be fun to see them in a proper non-chibi art style. The fact that you’re piloting a mech is hard to really notice or appreciate because the Space Pirates you fight are also conveniently sized up due to ancient Bion technology, so there isn’t a proper reference to feel that size; The mechs themselves look too similar to Federation troopers too, so one would assume they’re just regular soldiers.

Maybe a Federation Force mech could be a boss fight, or an ally, or something you can find and scan. Getting to appreciate them from the perspective of a regular-sized Samus would be neat. It’d be a bit meta if you find the wreckage of one, given the fandom’s feelings about that game… And the scan could reference the Bermuda incident for Samus, too.

[projectgolemofficial]

Switch 2?

Metroid Prime 4?

More like switch 2 Metroid Prime: Federation 4ce on the 3DS! 🌝

[lordnot]

Love how the opening cinematic to Prime 4 is like

"Federation Force is absolutely canon.

Fuck you."

[zobjilan77]

To me like Guard #1 is trying to start a conversasion with either Guard #2 or Samus but Guard #2's like "cut it out you'll bump into her" while Sams just like "do your thing, I've got nowhere to be" kinda sarcastic

don't sweat it

[vixivulpixel]

Sylux is a weirdly funny character to me. When it was first introduced it was just one in a rogues gallery of other Hunters. The one with the most ambiguous backstory and an implied history with Samus, but still just one of the dudes. But then it turned up in the secret ending for Prime 3 mysteriously, and then again in the ending of Federation Force. Practically doing the gaming equivalent of being teased like a huge impending threat to the Metroid universe through post-credits scenes before finally turning up as the big boss mastermind it was hyped up to be like it's Metroid's Thanos or something except it's some shmuck from a DS spinoff where it looked like this.

[hoshizoralone]

If I were to want to get into metroid where's the best place to start? I have access to the nes/snes/gbc games that are on the Nintendo online thing, but are those the best place to begin?

posting this publicly just for my sweet beloved followers to also get metroidpilled. best bet is to play by order of each sort of section rather than release date since there’s been updates to some.

main series that has a connecting storyline (these get numbers, ie dread is metroid 5):

metroid zero mission (remake of og metroid, you have no reason to play og metroid) -> metroid samus returns (remake of metroid 2, you ESPECIALLY have no reason to play og metroid 2) -> super metroid -> metroid fusion -> metroid dread

everything but samus returns is available on switch

otherm is before fusion on the timeline so you could play it then. you could also choose Not to play this one cuz most people do not fucking like it (i think it’s like a 4/10)

prime series that all takes place between metroid 1 and 2 for reasons you’ll understand when you play them lol:

metroid prime remastered -> metroid prime 2 -> metroid prime hunters (get a friend for this, it’s honestly optional but it’s cute) -> metroid prime 3 (you could play the whole prime trilogy on gc/wii/wii u, but remastered prime1 is pretty good, so up to you) -> metroid prime federation force (yeah this is important for prime 4 lol. i havent played this yet bc i can’t convince any friends to play it with me)

As for non-game stuff I recommend:

Metroid (essentially the samus backstory manga, you could read this after playing zero mission)

Metroid Episode Aether (prime 2 manga)

Samus & Joey 1, 2, 3, 4 (good original story manga, not connected to the games at all)

these games are not very long you could feasibly finish all of them within like a summer break month. good luck

[nerdy-the-artist]

Part 4, the penultimate week and the last full week of these. Not really much else to say at this point, so I don’t have excuses to dilly dally, right? Let’s dive straight in!

Day 22: Stalk

Scan of Space Pirate Logs

“Project Shadow has yielded significant results. The MSC-MK3 cloaking device has proven to be a highly effective cloaking unit, able to conceal a soldier from a vast range of visible light spectrums. While certain frequencies of light can still detect a cloaked soldier, they are not within a spectrum that most sapient species can see without ocular enhancements. There are two main downsides to the tech, however. Projectiles being fired while cloaked can completely disrupt the cloaking field, as it will attempt to envelope the projectile, causing a system overload which requires a lengthy factory reset in order to continue functioning. For this reason, troopers equipped with the MSC-MK3 should be instructed to only use melee weapons. More significantly, the energy expenditure for cloaking is immense, requiring near constant upkeep in order to function. For this reason, the MSC-MK3 should only be used by internal security for installations with proper energy dispensaries. Science Teams aboard the Research Frigate Siriacus claim that models with superior energy efficiency shall be made available soon, but with the caveat of being too expensive for mass production.”

Day 23: Savage

Scan of Crashed Civilian Ship

“While various burn marks across the hull indicate small arms fire scorching the exterior, the attack that brought down the vessel was an explosion near the engines, causing them to short out before the ship could approach the atmospheric limit. Several deep gouges are visible on the roof of the hull, with a large chunk being cut out. The molten metal around the cuts indicate a heated blade piercing the plating. Given the blood staining the inside of the vessel, the fate of the occupants bears no thinking about.”

Day 24: Taunt

Scan of Gandrayda’s Power Suit Mimicry

“Although Gandrayda’s shapeshifting capabilities can mimic the form of an individual, it has a great deal of trouble copying the functions of said form. While she may be able to mimic the outer coating of an animal to near perfection, the internals are rarely mimicked with any amount of finesses. However, certain functionalities can be replicated, albeit imperfectly. Energy blasts can be created, though strength and range are hampered greatly. Movement can be achieved, though only through patterns she is already accustomed to. Thus, while her mimicry of the Power Suit does have certain marked similarities in function, such as the Power Beam, Grapple Beam, and Double Jump Boots, other abilities remain beyond her ability to mimic. Unfortunately, this is enough to fool most beings without a thorough biometric scan. Do not get distracted by the recreational uses for her shapeshifting abilities.”

Day 25: Clone

Suit Maintenance Record Playback

“Eres attached to suit. Countermeasures active. Containment Measures active.

Isolation between Suit and Wearer… successful. Suit Immobilization… successful. Visor hue warning… successful. Self immolation… failed.

Multiple components of wearer compromised by Eres Consumption. Emergency tissue surgery commencing… successful.

-Fast forward seven hours

Removal of armor plating detected, further insulation of wearer required.

-Fast forward 27 hours

Warning, breach of suit through all layers detected. Eres consumption of wearer imminent and unavoidable. Attempting detonation of suit’s power core… failed.

Eres assault fought back by unknown pathogen. No information available on pathogen.

What we cannot gain… we take.

Eres presence not detected. Severe damage of Power Suit present. Will remain in stasis until further notice.”

Day 26: Haze

Scan of Space Pirate Logs

“It has been a whole cycle since the planet identified as Aether was discovered. Our operations on the planet have been slower and far more cautious after the Amelioration Incident on Talon IV. It has become apparent that biological manipulation via Phazon will instead be putting them under control of a force outside of our current ability to control. However, the extremely potent energy signature of Phazon still makes it an extremely potent energy resource with boundless combat applications. However, the strange nature of this world has lead to many disappearances from scouting and security groups. Those who survive report the sky suddenly growing dark as a Phazon based mist rolls into the area. They have even reported seeing teammates fade out of existence before their eyes. When such events occur, encounters with hostile entities become increasingly common. Until we can discover the nature of this phenomenon, patrols outside of our bases of operations will be heavily restricted. We have already lost eight whole teams to such incidents.”

Day 27: Strike

Scan of Space Pirate Logs

“It appears as though the Galactic Federation has created a special fighting force specifically dedicated to replacing some of their reliance on independent contractors in recent decades. What little information our spies have been able to glean on these soldiers calls this advanced combat element ‘Operation Golem’. These soldiers are far more capable than typical ground troops, utilizing advanced combat exoskeletons with modular weapon hardpoints. These soldiers have already eliminated several of our facilities and outposts with great proficiency. Out of 16 engagements, we count only 1 casualty, occurring only when the team was outnumber 7 to 4 by Metroids. The obvious combat proficiency of this team represents a risk if such technology begins to proliferate in our enemies’ forces. Our spies have identified General Alex Miles as being in charge of Operation Golem. Efforts have begun in order to track him down for assassination.”

Day 28: Vendetta

Space Pirate Revenant logs

“With the command of the God of Death, we go forth, seeking the Hunter clad in metal. She trespasses His domain, challenging His rule over life and its end. Death cannot be stopped. It cannot be halted. To cease the end of living things is to tear the fabric of the universe. To challenge His will is to challenge the rules of nature. As sure as the stars will one day burn out, all things shall perish, save for the God of Death and His chosen. The Hunter challenges the very notion of Death itself. We cannot end her, for that is not our place. Our place is be bring her before Him, so that she maybe shown the futility of struggle against a God, a rule of nature, and a thread in the fabric of reality. He is Death. With each destruction, his thread in the fabric of reality becomes frayed. He can repair this fray, but we must ensure she does not flaunt this desecration to the natural order. We must find the Hunter, for The God of Death commands it.”

Maytroid 2024 is here!

I am so excited to get to work on these new prompts. Last year, my entries for each day were fairly sloppy, and I was new to the series, so I was lacking a fair bit of information. Now, I’m armed with more knowledge and am eager to use it.

For those who haven’t seen what I did for Maytroid last year, what I’m going to be doing instead of art is something more writing focused. These little text entries are mostly styled after the scans from the Metroid Prime series. Matter of fact, this new set of prompts actually lends itself much better than last year’s, as I have a lot more leeway to play to my own strengths than last year (I still don’t know what the fuck I’m gonna do with Gorea). These are all canon to my own Metroid AU currently, though as things change in development, these may become out of date. They will give the vibe my stories are going for, but these shouldn’t be held to as the absolute canon for them. I’ll be posting these week by week, around 7 at a time, starting today.

Day 1: Ridley

Transcript of Security Footage

Several individuals in this footage cannot be identified at this time. They shall be identified as Pirate 1, Pirate 2, and Pirate Major.

Ridley: What I want to know… is why he is not in custody.

Pirate Major: I gave them their orders, they knew he was to be brought in alive, and instead they killed him.

Pirate 1: You told us to take care of him! We thought you meant an execution, not milk and cookies!

Pirate Major: Insolent Wretch! You say such things about your orders in front of our Commander?! You know how we handle that sort of insubordination!

Pirate 2: Cool it, we’re already in hot water.

Pirate 1: We’re in hot water because of the life of some winy little nobody that begged for his life with money he didn’t even have.

Ridley: While your insolence is… aggravating… I am willing to forgive this misstep.

Pirate Major: What?

Ridley: He was an insignificant pawn. We can always find another. As I was saying, I am willing to forgive this on one condition. Did he die in pain?

Pirate 2: Yes. He did suffer before he died.

Ridley: What methods or torture did you employ?

Pirate 1: Waterboarding. Works wonders on humans. I always liked how they sound when they cough and gasp for air.

Ridley:Mmmmm… was blood shed before his end?

Pirate 2: Yeah. My partner here has… quite the way with knives.

Ridley: Do tell.

Pirate 1: Slashed his wrists. Those arteries gush lots of blood from humans. And we started pulling teeth when he lied.

Ridley: Delicious. You have escaped capital punishment, but you will still be serving as guards for the Metroid containment units. For further forgiveness, you will need to be more creative with your implements. I find Revine’s death, by your account, to be quite dull. Your are dismissed, unless you wish to enlighten me further.

Day 2: Fiery

Scan of Pipe System in Norfair

“These pipes appear be delivering superheated magma into the Norfair region. Given the proximity to Ridley’s personal quarters, likely explanations include terraforming the area for Ridley’s own comfortability, additional protective measures, or the intentional destruction of Chozo artifacts not deemed useful. The latter is most likely, as the immediate area was once a Chozo burial tomb. It is now completely submerged in magma, disintegrating much of the artifacts within.”

Day 3: Winged

Scan of SA-X Mutations

“This X-Parasite copy has suffered some form of destabilization of its copying abilities. Abnormalities include a malformed, beak like structure around the mouth, several atrophied fingers, several hypertrophied fingers, small patches of feathers, and an extraneous structure protruding from its back resembling a Chozo wing bereft of feathers. These unusual deformities could be the result of DNA infusions during childhood complicating the process of anatomical replication within X-Parasite offspring. This individual seems to suffer great stress from its predicament, but it is unsafe to assume that its combat functionality is greatly hampered. Adaptation is this species’s main trait.”

Day 4: Pirate

Scan of Space Pirate Elite

“Subject is a member of an unknown species known only from individuals working within Ridley’s special operations group, The Revenants. This group acts as Ridley’s personal enforcers and assassins, fanatically worshipping their commander as a literal God of Death. They wield melee weapons personalized to their unique fighting styles. Each weapon is charged with electricity, giving them an additional ranged attack capability. They have operated since before the Galactic Federation, making a name for themselves in fighting Chozo warriors. Their endurance, agility, and strength cannot be overstated, in spite of their gaunt appearance.”

Day 5: Mecha

Scan of automaton codenamed Mecha Ridley

“Subject is a battle ready drone, seemingly created by Ridley’s fanatical special forces, the Revenants. Mecha Ridley is heavily weaponized, as there could be no altar to the God of Death without the ability to take a life. Weapons include flamethrowers, guided munition launchers, and superheated claws. Mecha Ridley’s armor is highly durable, but greatly hampers mobility compared to its inspiration. Additionally, as a cult idol of worship, advanced artificial intelligence was not prioritized during production. Mecha Ridley displays average combat intellect for a war drone. Recommend staying moving and outsmarting the automaton.”

Day 6: Fang

Scan of Rundas’s Necklace

“Rundas appears to have begun collecting Metroid Fangs as trophies since last he was approached. Assuming one fang was taken from each Metroid he has eliminated, he has defeated 15 Metroids in the two months since he was last seen. Unfortunately, his ego has grown with his kill count.”

Day 7: Cunning

Scan of Abandoned Home

“Old Bird and Grey Voice’s abandoned home has been left mostly in tact, minus the usual signs of neglect. However, there appear to be a plethora of traps lain around the home. Various grapple snares have been detected, alongside explosive charges, beam emitters, and microphones. Much of these systems appear to be inert, and once reported directly to Mother Brain. It is clear she anticipated you might return here before confronting her. Given her destruction, several trap systems remain completely dormant. Still, any approach must be made with great caution.”

[were--ralph]

small thing i wanted to point out

metroids generally have three cores, this is a normal metroid

but

in the federation force ending they show a metroid with one core, and in prime 4 they also have one core. As Samus destroyed the last Metroid, i think its super cool that they reused the design from federation force, but it also makes me think they've been doing genetic modifications and experiments, most likely to get rid of their aversion to cold.

These are not the same metroids we've dealt with in the past. Sylux has definitely done some fucking around with them after getting the last one.

[gentle-hero-blog]

Tell me about a Metroid OC?

Omg wait. Checks your username. You’re Kavour’s creator!! Hello!!

Begins ricocheting off the walls. Whell I just LOVE when Metroid games use the Federation as an antagonist. So I created my own little guy to be the face of the deeply corrupt Galactic Federation in my story thing. Meet Commander Markaine Bryant ^.^

sneak peek of a character sheet I've been putting together >>

(pronounced mar-KANE or mar-KEN bc I liked both... :])

He's an extroverted, well-liked person who holds the same position as Adam when Samus joins the GF, so he and Adam often work together closely (and hate each others' guts tbh, though they pretend not to for the sake of. their jobs). The deal with him, though, is that he's allllllways looking for a bigger weapon for the GF's arsenal, which makes him very interested in Samus and highkey pissed that she was assigned to Adam's unit instead of his.

He's also got his hands in some real sticky stuff behind the scenes. A program to make kid Samus the GF's personal nuke? Another to upload people's brains into computers after their deaths and use them to run illegal operations? Yet more programs to propagate Metroids? You betcha.

An important thing also is that he is nice! Genuinely! It's not JUST for show. He just also doesn't, you know, value people's lives. Too preoccupied with Winning and keeping the Federation the dominant force in the galaxy. Imagine Ridley/Space Pirate mentality wrapped up in a friendly exterior.

aahhhhhh ok just for me in case this thing never actually sees the light of day. Little passage from my WIP ^.^ >>

Commanders Bryant and Malkovich made an almost comical picture whenever they stood next to each other. Markaine was all energy, gesturing hands and bright eyes, his auburn locks and beaming smile contrasting sharply with Adam’s black hair and usual scowl. Markaine’s dimples would show as he led briefings in his booming voice, Adam standing beside him like a particularly grumpy shadow. No one ever seemed to have any criticisms of Commander Bryant – except his unit, some of whom would nervously joke in more private settings that they’d trade him for Adam any day. And, of course, Adam himself, whose quiet dislike of his colleague was expressed in the pinch of his brow rather than words. Samus had never really clicked with Bryant, despite her gratitude at his warm welcome. He was nice, certainly, and competent, and well-liked by almost everyone. There was just something in the glint of his reddish-brown eyes that somehow deterred her, something about the way Adam appeared to watch him, almost unnoticeably, whenever Bryant spoke to her.

[is-metroid-prime-4-released-yet]

19.03.2025

No

Tbh. I know Other M and Federation Force are the black sheep of the Metroid series but I can't really hate FF the way I do OM.

In the end, Federation Force was just a harmless little multi-player, a bit of a nothingburger game. It just came out at the worst possible time. At least it didn't ruin characters like Other M did. I'm one of the people who actually kinda like Adam but boy OM really tried it's hardest to fuck him over.