How much do you know about Metroid?

So usually I post a quick summary of each game for anyone not familiar about Metroid.  But really, you can get a basic idea of that in a lot of other places (most gaming sites or even Wikipedia being the  most obvious examples).  So instead, I’m going to post a list of things you might or might not know about the series.  So enjoy this bit of Metroid trivia!

Did you know that…

* Samus makes a cameo appearance in Super Mario RPG and Kirby’s Dream Land 3, and was slated to be a console exclusive character in Marvel Ultimate Alliance before licensing issues caused her to be dummied out?
* The decision to make Samus a woman was a last minute addition to the original Metroid?
* Samus has been directly responsible for the total annihilation of three planets (possibly four depending on interpretation) and a space station?
* Ridley appears in all three games in the Super Smash Bros. series, but has yet to be a playable character in them?
* In-universe, the origin of the name “Metroid” was a Chozo word meaning “ultimate warrior”?
* The Japanese version of Metroid allows you to save without a password, and the functionality to do that in other versions was attempted but abandoned?
* The “JUSTIN BAILEY” password in Metroid wasn’t intended to be a meaningful password and only caught on because it was the first password found to unlock everything that says something coherent?
* Metroid II is the only game in the series not to have any timed missions and the only game not to feature any Space Pirates?
* A DX version of Metroid II was planned (but cancelled) that would give it a full color palette?
* At the time of its release, Super Metroid was the largest SNES game, at 24 megabits?
* Metroid Fusion and Metroid Prime were released on the same day, which itself was more than eight years after Super Metroid, the game before it?
* Since its percentage doesn’t count any permanent upgrades, it’s theoretically possible to finish Metroid Fusion with a 0% collection rate?
* Metroid Fusion runs on a heavily modified version of the Wario Land 4 engine?
* Kraid was going to be a boss in Metroid Prime before being dummied out?
* As of May 2011, GameRankings.com lists Metroid Prime as the seventh greatest game of all time, and the best of its console generation?
* Metroid Prime was the first game to have a speedrun listed on the Speed Demos Archive?
* Samus’s appearance outside the Power Suit didn’t become standardized until Metroid: Zero Mission?
* The three items unusable until the end of Metroid: Zero Mission are conceptually similar to Kid Icarus (which was considered a sister series to Metroid), which also had three treasures that couldn’t be used until the end of the game?
* According to the game’s creators, the Pirate Mothership featured at the end of Metroid: Zero Mission is NOT the Wrecked Ship from Super Metroid, in spite of them having similar features and being in roughly the same position on the map?
* One of the items supposedly lost by Samus in the beginning of Metroid Prime 2, the Power Bombs, she didn’t actually have (or at least couldn’t use at the time)?
* Due to a glitch that allows you to collect one item twice, it’s possible to finish Metroid Prime 2 with a 101% collection rate?
* A version of Metroid Prime 2 with motion controls was first shown as a playable Wii tech demo well before it appeared as part of the Metroid Prime Trilogy?
* In Metroid Prime 3, the four light bars at the top the visor are equivalent to the Wiimote’s battery life?
* Metroid Dread, a rumored (but thought to be cancelled) game in the series, is subtly referenced as part of a scan in Metroid Prime 3?
* Metroid: Other M features one boss from all of the other 2D Metroid games?
* In spite of Samus supposedly having all of her previous abilities from Super Metroid for Metroid: Other M, the Spazer Beam, Hi-Jump Boots, and X-Ray Scope are never mentioned?
* Characters/items from the Metroid series appear as part of the orange color group in Nintendo Monopoly?
* At TVTropes.com, the Metroid series has named two trope articles: Samus Is A Girl (a character wearing something covering their entire body is assumed to be male but later revealed to be female) and Metroidvania (an action game subgenre, usually containing a large world that could theoretically be explored freely if it weren’t for needing specific abilities), as well as formerly naming a third, Metroid Bomb (later renamed to Catastrophic Countdown)?
* In general, the Metroid series is more popular in the United States than anywhere else, in spite of it being developed primarily in Japan?
* The Metroid series has an unusually large number of similarities and references to the Alien movie series?

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