The Metroid series has delighted fans for over 30 years and currently spans 15 different games, with Metroid Prime 4 in development. Samus is the main protagonist of the games, and shocked fans when the fact she was female was first revealed back in Metroid on the NES, but her classic suit and the 'Zero' suit aren’t the only costumes Samus has worn.
- Best Metroid Games Of All Time
The bounty hunter has donned many different suits over the years in games and other media that cosplayers have embraced — there’s an entire Facebook group known as The Samus Squad dedicated to the Metroid franchise. She isn’t the only character from the franchise that cosplayers love, either.
Below you'll find ten of our favourite examples from some of the top Metroid cosplayers around the world — in no particular order — plus some comments on how and why they created these incredible cosplays. While they're mostly Samus, you'll find some non-bounty hunter entries mixed in, too. We simply couldn't resist!
Justin Bailey Suit – Baegedcosplays
In the first Metroid, players had the ability to have Samus start the game without her iconic Power Suit and instead wear a bright pink leotard, with the now well-known Justin Bailey code.
As a huge fan of the Metroid series and an avid seamstress, Baegedcosplays took elements of Samus's better-known Zero Suit to incorporate into her Justin Bailey leotard. The unique colouring of the green in Samus’s hair only occurs when the players have unlocked the Varia suit in-game, but Beagedcosplays chose it for the love of the Varia suit and colours. Due to the bright colours, it was a challenge to make the cosplayer as close to the costume in the games as possible, with Baegedcosplays even having to dye a wig using fabric dye.
Beagedcosplays loves to cosplay Samus because the strength, intelligence and caring nature of the character reminds her of her own passions, and helps to inspire her to do and be better.
Captain N Samus – Spacebabecosplay
Captain N Samus is a variant of Samus from the comic book Captain N: The Game Master. There was also a TV show, of course, but Samus is absent from that. The character is very similar to her game counterpart, being a space-based bounty hunter with a starship and enemy known as Mother Brain. She is from Videoland and travels between worlds competing with Princess Lana for Kevin's affections. It is thought the character was created in the comics to fill the gap left by the various third-party characters who didn't appear in the comic series.
Spacebabecosplay liked cosplaying this version of Samus as it is one of her lesser-known outfits. It’s not only her love of the series that made her want to cosplay Samus, she’s also a graphic designer by day, acrylic painter by night. Spacebabecosplay has made many other Samus cosplays, including a full Varia Suit, with more planned in the future.
Pixelated Space Pirate – Dan Cattell Art
Dan Cattell Art has taken a different perspective to cosplaying from the Metroid series, and instead of cosplaying 3D real versions of the characters from the games, he has cosplayed numerous pixel Metroid characters for over a decade.
His favourite is his Space Pirate cosplay. Dan has been part of many cosplay groups over the years, and is a frequent adversary to Samus cosplayers with not only his Space Pirate variant but also Ridley in with a Varia Suit.
That's Dan in the Varia Suit, not Ridley. Although that's something we'd love to see, too.
Zero Suit - Zero May Cosplay
One of the most popular and well-known Samus suits is her Zero Suit costume. The Zero Suit first appeared in Metroid: Zero Mission and the comfortable design of the suit had proved to be popular with cosplayers at conventions, including the talented Zero May Cosplay from the UK.
Zero May Cosplay made the Zero Suit herself from scratch. Loving the design in Other M, she wanted to replicate the suit using scuba and metallic blue spandex fabric. As is usual with cosplay, it can be a case of trial and error until you achieve what you are looking for, so it took a few attempts for Zero May to perfect this look, but the results speak for themselves.
Zero May Cosplay is a huge Metroid fan, and has also made multiple other suits from the Metroid series, including the classic Power suit and is currently working on the new Dread suit.
Dread Suit - Clappersnappermaster
Although Metroid Dread has only been out since the end of last year, the new suit from the game is proving to be a popular new choice for cosplayers. One such cosplayer that has already finished the job with awesome results is Clappersnappermaster.
The Metroid Dread suit took Clappersnappermaster roughly six months to make, and that hard work shows. As well as the Dread suit, she has also made the Varia suit from Metroid Prime, the classic NES Power suit from the original game, and the Fusion suit from Metroid Fusion.
Clappersnappermaster is such a huge fan of the series, she not only makes cosplays of the various costumes, but also has her own YouTube channel under the same name dedicated to all things Metroid.
