I hear this statement all over in various Metroid reviews, from Metroid Prime 3 to Metroid: Other M, that Samus has "always been a silent protagonist." This is mentioned over and over again constantly, and it's really getting annoying.
Because Samus is NOT AT ALL A SILENT PROTAGONIST.
- The beginning text scroll in Super Metroid was an active narration by Samus describing what was going on in the story.
- In Metroid Fusion, Samus not only narrates the story periodically but has full-on conversations with the computer system that's monitoring her progress.
- Metroid Zero Mission also has Super Metroid-esque story exposition by Samus.
Now you may mention the Metroid Prime games, but those are part of a spinoff franchise and tell their story in a unique way through environmental scans. Also, there's nobody to talk to really until that Wii game which had a lousy story and felt really wrong for not having Samus speak.
Then there's that monstrosity of a game called Other M. Where Samus speaks. Badly, yes, but she speaks.
So...4 games where she speaks, 2 early, primitive games where nobody speaks (nobody to talk to), and a spinoff trilogy where she doesn't speak. Hardly seems like a silent protagonist to me. If they were only, say, Wand of Gamelon-esque non-Nintendo releases that had her talking, I'd understand the statement. But as it currently stands it smacks of journalists that have never played Metroid before.
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