Game Over

A Game Over is an event which occurs whenever Samus Aran is defeated; this can occur if her Energy Tanks are fully depleted, along with some other, rarer causes of defeat. The Game Overs have varied throughout the series.

Metroid
In Metroid, Samus will explode regardless of whether she is armored or not.

Metroid II: Return of Samus
In Metroid II: Return of Samus, Samus will gradually fade away.

Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid: Other M
In Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid: Other M, Samus' suit will explode (dissipate in the latter two games) and she will be left in her Justin Bailey suit (Zero Suit in the latter two). Other M also depicts Samus lying on the ground, unconscious, with her eyes open, after her suit dissipates. In Other M, Commander Adam Malkovich's voice can be heard over Samus's still-functioning intercom, asking her to respond. This is the first time another character's voice has been heard during a Game Over. The screen shown during Other M, as opposed to the prime series, is a simple green computer-like message with a continue option.

Metroid Prime Hunters
In Metroid Prime Hunters, a warning siren will play, before showing a message stating "Energy depleted", with the option to continue the game.

Metroid Prime Pinball
In Metroid Prime Pinball, a voice will state "Mission Over" with that being stated on screen as well, and the Echoes Game Over theme playing.

Metroid Prime Trilogy
In the Metroid Prime Trilogy, Samus' visor will shut off while she lets out a scream, and then various game over screens will be shown depending on the game. Metroid Prime will depict Samus having a large dent in her visor, saying "Life support system: Critical. Offline. Game Over." Metroid Prime 2: Echoes depicts Samus going into Cardiac arrest, with the message, "Warning. System alert. Failure. Mission failure." Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will show a puddle of blood slowly flowing across the screen, the most mature game over in the series to date. Corruption also has an alternate game over which will play if Samus enters corrupt Hyper Mode, showing her turn into another Dark Samus, followed by the same game over screen as before, but it now says "Terminal Corruption" and the blood is blue.

While using the Morph Ball, there are two more defeat sequences. In Prime, the Morph Ball will exploding using Power Bomb frames before initiating Game Over. In Echoes, the Morph Ball will simply shatter into pieces.

Trivia

 * Originally, in Super Metroid, Samus was briefly nude and she screamed, the voice being recorded by Minako Hamano, but it was scrapped due to American sensitivity to nudity and the voice being too sexual.
 * The second prerelease trailer for Fusion also depicted Samus wearing a blue dress with red shoes.
 * A storyboard for Corruption pictured below shows what appears to be a game over in the style of Super, Fusion and Zero Mission, suggesting that the idea was scrapped.


 * The Game Over in Metroid was ranked #8 on the Top 10 Worst Ways to Die in a video game by ScrewAttack.com.
 * In the Super Metroid Game Over sprites, Samus will become very bright and hard to see. It is possible to see her chest flick up in the sprites. This does not happen in any other Metroid games.
 * Ghor's death sequence in Corruption consists of his armorsuit exploding, with him being held in the air quite similar the classic Metroid game over.