COLUMN: 'The Aberrant Gamer': Childhood Sweetheart
[The Aberrant Gamer is a weekly, somewhat NSFW column by Leigh Alexander, dedicated to the kinks and quirks we gamers tend to keep under our hats-- those predilections and peccadilloes less commonly discussed in conventional media.]
It was the eighties, and our eight-bit protagonists didn't give us too much to chew on. Who they were, why they were, wasn't deeply explained, and didn't really need to be. The elaborate discussions of character and story we're fond of (or sick of) today would've been ludicrous, infeasible. And yet, somehow, there was room for one of the most arresting character revelations of all time, one that goes down in generally accepted history as one of gaming's most singular moments.
Samus Aran undressed, and a generation fell to its knees.
This 1UP article documents our twenty-year relationship with the silent hunter in far more detail than this column has space to address, but it doesn't answer the question of why. Metroid is a space action game with aliens and pirates, not a psychological essay in character development; the drama revolves around the alien threat, the treacherous terrain, the ubiquitous destruction countdowns - less on the story of the girl at its center. You get more personal information from a generic townsperson NPC in any RPG than silent Samus has offered us in two decades. And yet, perhaps to spite the relative lack of information, fans prize her more dearly than all of the other more gratuitously rendered, more vocal, more revealing (in every sense) game females we've been offered since - Samus is more beloved than most male heroes, too.
Miracle of miracles - could a woman in full-body armor and a helmet be sexier than all the rest? Could it be we don't need breast physics to fall in love?
Perhaps the idea of "falling in love" is a little too rich for the blood of some when we're talking about video game characters. But surely it's a very real idea to others; countless fansites still exist, after all, for characters from games that have been out for so long that those who were in middle school when they played them are working adults now. Zelda, Aeris, Lara. Ghaleon.
With love, of course, comes sexual fascination; you'll get an entirely different set of image results from Google if you turn off the default "safe search" when entering these names. Video game porn is as common as video games, from the sophisticated doujinshi drawn by Japanese professionals to the obscenely deformed, pencil-on-lined-paper atrocities drawn by artists who (hopefully) can't be older than young teens. That it's possible to find porn of anything and everything is one of the "rules of the internet," after all, and so erotic designs of Samus Aran certainly exist in plentitude. But there's a certain reverence reserved for the Chozo daughter, an uncommon hesitance to portray her with all manner of unimaginable objects in her orifices - more hesitance, at least, than that with which the girls of Soul Calibur are treated.
Could it be because the almost ever-present Varia suit leaves so much to the imagination that a single portrayal of Samus in flagrante is difficult to pin down? Maybe it's that, without some element of the suit (and it must be tough to draw) she's somewhat more difficult to recognize - after all, despite her imposing height, she looks pretty much like an unremarkably-featured woman -- thereby defeating the purpose of portraying her that way? Any explanation is possible, but the one I'd prefer is that it's respect, after all these years, for the solidly reliable, fearless hunter who couldn't resist rescuing a baby Metroid in one of the most significant glimpses we've gotten into her nature - maternal.
There are any number of reasons why porn of video game characters is such a boom on the internet. Simple brain chemistry dictates that if we see a human being - or even something we feel is one, like a game character - in front of our eyes often enough, our brains will start to recognize it as a friend, which means we personalize it and develop affection for it. Sexualization is a rational next step. Games also let us step outside ourselves; one of the many reasons they're appealing is that we can live in a do-anything universe (it's safe to disagree with most politicians and say those of us who enjoy GTA are not at all likely to commit auto theft and robbery anytime in our lives); therefore, undressing the characters is a logical extension that, not given the opportunity to do so within the game, we take into our own hands.
Once in a while I check the recent keywords that have led people to my blog, Sexy Videogameland, in my stat counter. Samus is a popular search- but her name is rarely paired with baser words; instead, her fans appear to be looking for those classic Samus glimpses, as if they were altars to her significance. People are crazy about Samus' relatively revealing Smash Bros. pictures - even the usually-jaded games media isn't immune, as Kotaku's Michael McWhertor admits to being so preoccupied with Miss Aran's hind end he missed the E3 revelation of Solid Snake in that game last year. Lately, though, the clear favorite search has been for Persona 3 hentai. The older, sexier upperclassman Mitsuru Kirijo isn't nearly as popular as the vaguely obnoxious, stubborn Yukari Takeba; in other words, it's safe to make the assertion that people are more interested in pornography of less likeable characters, rather than those they love.
And love Samus, we do in spades. In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, the latest installment of Samus' adventures, we still don't hear her speak - decisively, that's for the best, since after so many years of creating her identity individually in our minds, nearly every Metroid fan would be let down somehow. In fact, the 1UP article quotes fans who suggest we've already seen too much as it is, like Victorian prudes protecting a noblewoman.
She's not gonna get naked - you can quit holding your breath. But Prime 3 is played from her first-person perspective; looking at her eyes reflected on the inside of the helmet's visor almost feels intimate. It's about as close as you can be to getting inside Samus Aran's Varia suit - after twenty years, that's good enough.
[Leigh Alexander is the editor of Worlds in Motion and writes for Destructoid, Paste, Gamasutra and her blog, Sexy Videogameland. She can be reached at leigh_alexander1 AT yahoo DOT com.]
Comments
I, for one, find it entirely disappointing that Samus' appearance in the new Smash Bros. game is so flagrantly sexualized. For one of the few, and certainly the most well-known, female game character(s) whose popularity had nothing to do with her measurements to appear in a full-body, form-fitting spacesuit is the worst kind of insult to the character, the audience and the memory of her creator, Gunpei Yokoi. The people responsible deserve to burn in the same circle of hell that was previously reserved exclusively for Tomonobu Itagaki.
Rant over.
I think that we, as a global society, have reached the point where a woman, fictional or otherwise, will stand out more by keeping her clothes on in opposition to the current trend of bimbo-ization on all fronts. I can't wait for the day that the entertainment industries of the world start sharing that conviction.
Posted by: farren79 | September 13, 2007 4:36 AM
Neat article.
Fighting games in general are made in japan and have a lot of fan service. You should just be glad Nintendo isn't like SNK. You'd have cellphone dating games with Samus and Princess Peach.
Posted by: Corey Holcomb-Hockin | September 13, 2007 1:14 PM
farren79: Zero-Suit Samus' first appearance was, indeed, in the games. Metroid: Zero Mission contains a lengthy section where Samus has to go without armor.
At least give them this: without the suit, she has a MUCH lower life expectancy, and basically has to sneak around everywhere.
Posted by: John H. | September 13, 2007 6:29 PM
Reminds me of when I was a kid, I had this weird reticence about imagining myself having sex with anyone I really liked. It wasn't a madonna/whore complex so much as a feeling that if I brought my crazy adolescent hormones anywhere near a girl I liked, it would be disrespectful, or insulting.
(See also the scene in Rushmore where Olivia Williams dares Jason Schwartzmann to ask her for a handjob.)
Posted by: Chris Dahlen | September 13, 2007 7:48 PM
It's essentially the same thing as back in the old days, where the sex symbols considered are women like Tina Turner. Nowadays, it seems like things are moving back in that direction after many years of sexualization.
Anyway, it would seem like Zero Suit would be as far as Samus goes, from Nintendo.
Posted by: Kenny | September 13, 2007 10:38 PM
Interestingly enough the female section of the original Metroid (or the reveal if you wish) was not in the Famicom version. It was added for the NES version of the game.
Posted by: Matthew Williamson | September 14, 2007 4:07 PM
Samus has been sexualized in the games for years. Metroid 1 started things with her bikini-clad reveal. Super Metroid turned her death animation into a chance to see her in a higher-resolution bikini. The better completion rewards for the GBA games went from being seeing Samus in a bikini to seeing artwork of her in sexy outfits. The Japanese version of Fusion adds childhood images to the mix, in case you wanted to see a busty teen Samus in a skin-tight suit, or when she was just starting to develop.
The Japanese commercial for Zero Mission used an actress in the skin-tight blue suit, with the camera behind her as she crawled through a tunnel.
Until the Zero Suit, Samus porn artwork had the issue of her being recognizable. Short of leaving the arm cannon on, or putting the armor in the background, you'd just have a picture of a generic blond woman.
And as for the Persona 3 comment, my impression from the game is that you are supposed to like Yukari. Mitsuru is the standard "out of your league" design
Posted by: Baines | September 19, 2007 8:35 PM
That is true, but Samus' sexuality has always been a reward, rather than an incentive. Maybe that's the thing. Rather than being all upfront about it, you have to actually work with Samus and bring out the best of her abilities before she'll take off her clothes for you (so to speak). Kind of like a "normal" relationship.
Posted by: SAMAS | February 29, 2008 12:19 PM
@ farren79
LMFAO. Did you even play the original Metroid? It had the option to play Samus in a freaking bathing suit. Play Any of the other Metroid games? See the Bikini endings? See the hot pics from Zero Mission? Samus has always been sexualized- and there is nothing wrong with it. Grow up.
Posted by: 8bitcity | March 16, 2008 9:12 PM
Samus has been sexualized in games but it has always been done tastefully. Compare her to other female protagonists and you can see she is FAR more conservative then her peers. Not to mention she doesn't have an unrealistic bust size compared to her peers.
That is because of how she is portrayed, she was shown as a bad ass bounty hunter first, then shown she happens to be a sexy chick later.
Other female "bad asses" are shown as sexy first then bad asses later.
Posted by: Malik Ishtal | April 21, 2008 12:41 PM
...i guess its the movement, the shift of set of a formal rule abiding generation to a more informal, out-there and "who cares" generation...i mean check outside your house...does anyone go outside to run around and ride bikes up and down the block without any other motive other than to have fun?...alas the world is changing...rules are being bent and thrown away...our parents were people of class, status...we are the people born into the age of abundant opportunities and laws designed to protect us from harm...people are changing from a formal narrow minded high class people to a free, working, swearing, open minded people...
...laws and regulations are changing...have you checked out the latest ads on television...count how many use sex appeal to support the selling of their product...yesterday was the day of when words like sex and dick were considered rude, bad words, today is a day when sex is considered part of a normal life, tomorrow will be the day when pornography will be used to advertise products during childrens television shows (that is, if they still exist in todays ever changing society)...
...we cant help but be bullied and follow the current trend set out by the media...for if we fight against the media...the media will crush our lives and expose the people around us...alas the world is slowly being corrupted and we cant do a dammed thing about it...
...first it was fighting characters, then tomb raider, and now samus...whats next "halo: master chief suitless edition" or "super princess peach: the return of the "horny" bowser"...what has the world come to...
Posted by: ....no one really... | January 28, 2009 11:36 PM