I have a (baseless) hunch as to why that may be. MercurySteam, the studio behind it, and subsequently Dread, first pitched Sakamoto on a remake of Metroid Fusion. Sakamoto turned the concept down, as he thought that Fusion needed no improvements at that age. Instead, he proposed that a remake of Metroid 2: Return of Samus would be more needed. Thus Metroid: Samus Returns was made. I am not too knowledgeable in game design so this may be fairly baseless, but I suspect that part of the initial pitch involved concepts and ideas for a Neo Ridley boss fight. If that were the case, it stands to reason that they may have attempted to utilize the work that they were proud of and Sakamoto liked in the game they ended up actually making. So they gave him a couple of cybernetics, sent him after the last Metroid, and called it a day. It would make the third phase of his boss theme, which has the tempo of Neo Ridley’s theme, a fun callback. Once again, I could be just way out there and overstepping.
what a weird way to end an otherwise great game. that ridley fight was there for no reason and makes super really weird, the metroid baby gets kidnapped by the guy samus killed like 20 minutes ago. samus returns is a really good game apart from that.
In the original Metroid 2, all stages of Metroid could fly, except the Queen, and even that example might’ve just been limited by a cramped room. The same could’ve applied to Fusion’s depiction of the Omega; But by Samus Returns (and I guess Other M), the Metroids have been retconned as losing flight capabilities past the Gamma stage. And even the Gamma’s flight has become limited; Presumably because its weight has become too cumbersome for its propulsive force, which hasn’t increased with each stage, to support.
In other words, gravity. But this makes me wonder; Could the Metroid’s method of propelling itself still exist, and it just isn’t strong enough anymore? Could the Queen still have that trait, vestigial as it is? And what if gravity was not there to tether a Metroid down to a surface?
We know Metroids can survive in the vacuum of space, so imagine seeing a Zeta, Omega, and even Queen Metroid flying there. They’d still be much slower than the preceding stages, but they’d still be able to move and navigate at all, just like in the original game. and that terrifies me. Imagine the Omega Metroid in Fusion escaping the BSL through the open hangar; Though it’d probably be stranded in space and if SR388’s explosion didn’t reach it, it’d have starved before finding a food source because space is vast. But man imagine the Federation employing a Metroid space fleet…!