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Sometimes it's good to have a little alien in you.

As more comes out about this year's Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, I'm reminded of the big reason I (and I think most of you) have enjoyed this franchise over the years: it's like playing a bizarrely twisted (in all the right ways) version of the Alien horror movie franchise. Nintendo's original Metroid series was developed in the wake of the success of Ridley Scott's original 1979 Alien film, and simultaneous to the shooting of the soon-to-be-hit sequel Aliens. But Alien's effect on Metroid can't be understated - in fact, one of the game franchise's principal creators has talked about it.

Yoshio Sakamoto was an artist on the original Metroid game, and went on to direct four Metroid games after that, and then as a producer and consultant on two more including the most recent, 2021's Metroid Dread. Years ago, Sakamoto-san was asked why Metroid is so different from other fare such as Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, and Kid Icarus his co-workers were developing at the same time: and he says they owe it all to Alien, and specifically HR Giger.

"I think the film Alien had a huge influence on the production of the first Metroid game," Sakamoto-san said in an interview published in 2009's Retro Gamer #65 magazine. "All of the team members were affected by HR GIger's design work, and I think they were aware that such designs would be a good match for the Metroid world we had already put in place."

That being said, the idea for the star of Metroid to be a woman akin to Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in the 1979 Alien film didn't come to the developers immediately as they designed this Alien-inspired game, but in the middle of things.

"It is true that in developing the original Metroid, we were partway through the development processes when one of the staff members said, 'Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?' So that's how we decided on that," Sakamoto told IGN in 2012. "We've tried to express her femininity a little more without trying to turn her into a sex object."

Ripley walked so Samus Arun could run (and jump).

Join me in looking forward to the new Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, coming out in 2025.

Here's a list of all the upcoming video game release dates.