Physical amnesia

Physical amnesia, also called ability amnesia,^[1] is a phenomenon where Samus Aran loses her power-ups. Although the term was coined by ADAM in Metroid Dread, this has been a constant throughout the Metroid series. Samus ends each mission with most of her power-ups and any expansions collected, but they are often missing at the beginning of her next mission. In some games, Samus begins with some abilities, but they are stripped from her near the start. Occasionally, Samus may also deliberately give up abilities when she no longer has a use for them.

No explanation[]

Metroid Prime Hunters, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Metroid: Samus Returns and Super Metroid all begin with Samus lacking the abilities she had from the previous games, and do not explain why they have been lost. In Hunters Samus retains some abilities, but the only ones she gains are the new Affinity Weapons, which are somehow lost at the end of the game along with the final weapon.

In the case of Return of Samus, Samus has the Morph Ball and Missiles, but ironically no Ice Beam for her Metroid extermination mission. In the remake Samus Returns, Samus only brings her Missiles and acquires the Morph Ball soon after arrival.

Super Metroid is currently the only game where Samus starts off with not a single upgrade in her possession except for her Power Suit and Beam, despite taking place immediately after Return of Samus/Samus Returns. No explanation is given for this at all.

Physical amnesia does not occur in Metroid Prime Pinball, a pinball spinoff, or Metroid Prime: Federation Force, in which Samus is a non-playable character and retains many abilities from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Metroid: Zero Mission[]

After defeating Mother Brain and escaping Zebes, Samus's Starship is shot down by Space Pirate vessels and she crashes back onto Zebes. Her Power Suit is destroyed in the crash, rendering her suitless and therefore unable to use her abilities, although she can still use the Power Grip despite losing the actual power-up (Samus can naturally Hi-Jump without her Power Suit, though not as high as the Power Suit with the High Jump Boots active). Samus also retains any Energy Tank Expansions acquired, though they are initially drained, leaving her with only 99 units of Energy remaining. She is then required to make her way through the Space Pirate Mother Ship to the top of the ruins in Chozodia, where she completes a Ruins Test. Doing so earns her the Legendary Power Suit, which restores her abilities and even enhances them.

Metroid Prime[]

Samus begins the game with her Varia Suit, Charge Beam, Long Beam (built into her Power Beam), Missiles (with two Expansions), Morph Ball, Morph Ball Bomb, Spring Ball (built into the Morph Ball in Wii and Remastered versions only but usable alongside Bombs) and Grapple Beam, the latter of which was not present in Zero Mission or the original Metroid. She no longer has the Ice, Wave or Plasma Beams, Power Grip, Gravity Suit, Speed Booster, High Jump Boots, Space Jump, Screw Attack or Power Bombs. It should be noted that the Wave Beam, Speed Booster, High Jump Boots, Screw Attack, and the Power Bombs are all optional to clear in Zero Mission, rendering their acquisition status ambiguous (in Metroid, the Wave Beam is lost or never obtained in favor of the Ice Beam).

Her retained abilities are lost after Samus is knocked into a wall by an explosion while escaping the Frigate Orpheon. After scanning an Interface Module in Connection Elevator to Deck Alpha, she is flung against the wall by a series of explosions and kneels as her Varia Suit reverts to the basic Power Suit. When gameplay resumes, her HUD displays a list of malfunctioned abilities (see above). In the Japanese, European and European Trilogy versions, this is voiced. Samus recovers these abilities later on Tallon IV, including some that did not carry over from Zero Mission.

At the end of the game, Samus's Phazon Suit is stolen by the Metroid Prime, who uses it to become Dark Samus. The removal of the Phazon Suit also leaves her unable to fire the Phazon Beam.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes[]

Samus begins with her Missiles, Bombs, Space Jump Boots, Boost Ball, Spider Ball, Grapple Beam and Power Bombs, although she is unable to use the latter three. She no longer has the Ice, Wave and Plasma Beams, Thermal or X-Ray Visors, Gravity Suit, Super Missiles or any other Charge Combos.

During her first venture into Dark Aether, Samus is ambushed by a group of Ing, who steal much of Samus's abilities, though she retains her Varia Suit, Morph Ball and Charge Beam. Samus regains consciousness in Hive Chamber B, groggy and bewildered, while her HUD tells her what systems are offline. The stolen abilities are utilized by Ing Guardians, who Samus fights and defeats, and she acquires another Missile Launcher in the GFMC Compound. It is implied that the Ing who possessed the Dark Missile Trooper is the one that stole Samus's Missile Launcher, since the expansion it leaves behind after death resembles the original Launcher.

At the end of the game, Samus returns the Dark Suit and Light Suit to the Luminoth, and presumably their other technology: the Energy Transfer Module, the Dark, Light and Annihilator Beams, Dark and Echo Visors, and Gravity Boost.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption[]

Samus begins with most of her latent abilities and does not lose any of them during the game. However, she does not retain the Missile Launcher, Spider Ball, Super Missiles, Power Bombs, Boost Ball, Seeker Missiles, Grapple Beam or Screw Attack; she later regains all but the Super Missiles and Power Bombs. At the end of the game, Samus is seen without the PED Suit and Hazard Shield, suggesting she removed them before escaping Phaaze.

Metroid: Other M[]

Metroid: Other M is the first game to defy the trend of physical amnesia by establishing that Samus has retained most of her power-ups from the end of Super Metroid. She uses some of them during the opening training sequence. However, during her mission on the BOTTLE SHIP, Samus does not use her abilities until she is authorized to do so by Adam Malkovich. The only abilities from Super Metroid that do not carry over are the Spazer Beam, High Jump Boots, X-Ray Scope and Hyper Beam.

Metroid Fusion[]

In the game's introduction, Samus has her Varia Suit and uses Missiles, but her near-death experience with the X Parasites results in large parts of her Power Suit being surgically removed. After the infected parts were moved to the Biologic Space Laboratories research station, the X used them to create the SA-X, mimicking Samus at her full power. The SA-X is shown to utilize Super Missiles, the Screw Attack, Morph Ball, Power Bombs, Space Jump and the Ice Beam (supposedly stacked with the Wave, Plasma, and Spazer Beams, the last of which Samus did not use in Other M). During Samus's mission onboard the B.S.L research station, she manages to recover much of her abilities (except for Other M's Diffusion Beam and the Grapple Beam), along with the new Wide Beam. When Samus absorbs an SA-X, she recovers only the Ice Beam from it.

Metroid Dread[]

As Samus flies toward planet ZDR and later descends into Artaria, she is shown wearing her Varia Suit. In her first encounter with Raven Beak, she uses her Plasma Beam and Super Missiles on him before he strangles her and steals her power-ups, while also causing physical changes in her. Samus recovers these and her other stolen abilities during her mission, although she does not regain the Diffusion Missiles she had in Fusion.

At the end of the game, Samus's Metroid Suit, and presumably the Hyper Beam, are neutralized by Quiet Robe's X Parasite stabilizing her Metroid DNA.

Other instances[]

"What's the matter? All I said was that Komaytos look like little Metr-"

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Non-canon warning: This article or section contains information that may not be considered an official part of the Metroid series in the overall storyline by Nintendo.

In the Dark Horse comic adaptation for Metroid Prime, while not directly seen to occur in the first chapter, it is implied that her suit malfunctioned just as she got to her ship at the last second and lost her Varia Suit in the process, forcing her to use her power suit. In the ending to the final chapter of the comic, Samus mentioned that the overload caused by her exposure to pure phazon resulted in her losing her Phazon Suit seconds after eliminating Metroid Prime's core form with the Hyper Beam.

In the final chapter of Samus and Joey, the Body Snatcher traps Samus and steals six of her abilities using the Ability Disassembly and Conversion Device, which is capable of extracting and converting the abilities into data. In Metroid EX, Greed disseminates them among six henchmen, forcing Samus to kill each of them to restore her abilities. Her Varia Suit and Plasma Beam are later thought to be lost, but they were recovered by Bishop, and are restored to Samus upon his defeat.

Trivia[]

• In both Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, item loss can be averted using glitches or hacks.
  • In Prime's case, should Samus somehow escape the Frigate without activating the item loss cutscene, Samus still begins Tallon IV's exploration without the aforementioned Power-ups.
  • In Echoes's case, item loss can be averted using out of bounds techniques. Despite this, the Sub-guardians will still posses stolen gear. Also should Samus access the item loss cutscene after obtaining any power-up or Expansion, they will be permanently lost, possibly forcing a game ending scenario (without hacking).
    • Going out of bounds to escape the item loss sequence in Echoes reveals that the Spider Ball is usable, unlike the Grapple Beam and the Power Bomb (Generator). This is normally unseen due to the lack of Spider Ball Tracks within the Temple Grounds.
• Despite obtaining the Wide Beam for the first time in Metroid Fusion, the acquisition text still reads "ability recovered". There is a possibility Samus may have obtained the beam in an earlier, currently unseen mission.

References[]