Ice Beam

The Ice Beam is one of Samus's most powerful signature beam weapons that appears in all Metroid games except for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime Hunters, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (though she collects the Dark Beam in Echoes, the Judicator in Hunters and the Ice Missile in Corruption, which have similar properties). It fires a potent beam that has the power to freeze most enemies.

When frozen, certain enemies can be shattered with Missiles (or charged shots in the Prime series). It is commonly used to combat Metroids as it exploits their weakness to low temperatures. The official website for Metroid Prime states this as being one of "Samus Aran's favorite tactics".

In Metroid Prime
The Ice Beam is a slow-firing interchangeable Beam upgrade to Samus' arsenal. Upon impact with a solid surface, the shot will freeze into a small fragment of ice and then shatter. When the Ice Beam is charged up, the Ice Beam will not only create a larger fragment of ice upon impact, but it will also freeze various enemies in their place. The Ice Beam is able to open White Doors. The 10 Missile Beam Combo for the Ice Beam is the Ice Spreader, which is a missile that releases a rapidly spreading sheet of ice upon the impacted surface. Such a weapon is highly effective against flying enemies, or those that attack or move in swarms. A glitch in the game allows the upgrade before fighting the Flaahgra, which can then lead to more opportunities for Sequence Breaking. This does not aid in the fight against Flaahgra, however, as the Ice Beam has no effect on either Flaahgra or the panels that are to be flipped over to defeat Flaahgra.

In other games
Samus has the power to stand on frozen enemies in all of the 2D games. This is usually crucial at some point in the games, as it gives extra height for jumping.

In Metroid Fusion, the Ice Beam was thought to be incompatible with the Fusion Suit by the federation, because the Metroid Vaccine gave Samus a vulnerability to ice, so she did not recover it until near the end of the game from the SA-X. However it appears that not all of its power was absorbed as the SA-X's could damage, drive back, and stun the Omega Metroid and Samus's could only do the former two. Before that point, freezing was done with the Ice and Diffusion Missiles. The Ice Missiles replaced the Ice Beam in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption as well, because the game used a beam-stacking system instead of a beam-switching system, so it would not be possible to combine the Ice and Plasma Beams, the latter of which represents fire in the Prime trilogy.

The Ice Beam has been confirmed for Metroid: Other M and can be seen briefly in the trailer, albeit not used by Samus, rather by the Federation Troopers assisting her. In the second trailer, there is a scene when Samus can be seen freezing a purple enemy supported by two disproportiante legs on the side of its body with the Ice Beam, indicatng that Samus will find it again in the game.

1986 manga
"Freezes enemies for a short period of time and can also destroy them. Can't be combined with the Wave Beam."

Official Nintendo Player's Guide
"This allows you to freeze the enemy temporarily. You can escape from strong enemies by freezing them. You can climb up to high places by stepping on frozen enemies like stairs."

Metroid II Manual
"This beam will freeze an enemy for a short period of the time, making them unable to move. Samus can jump on a frozen enemy without receiving damage."

Super Metroid Manual
"The Ice Beam freezes enemies for a short time. You can use frozen enemies as platforms."

Official Metroid Prime Website


Weapon effect: Freezing or slowing opponents

Weapon range: 3 m

Weapon potential: High

"Chozo Technology. The Ice Beam upgrade for Samus Aran's arm cannon emits a sub-zero attack capable of freezing certain enemies. If the Ice Beam does not freeze a target solid, it will at least slow it down. Charging the Ice Beam increases the amount of time enemies are frozen. One of Samus Aran's favorite tactics is to freeze an enemy and then shatter its body with a Missile attack. The Ice Beam is also quite effective against fire-based enemies."

Metroid Zero Mission Manual
"This weapon allows Samus to freeze enemies temporarily. Samus can stand on frozen enemies."

Trivia

 * The gaming website Game Trailers ranked the Ice Beam as number 5 in the countdown of top 10 best weapons due to its use as a weapon and its aid in exploration by turning enemies into platforms in the 2-D games.


 * Curiously, in the New Play Control! and Metroid Prime Trilogy versions of the game, the Arm Cannon does not freeze over when charged. Theories suggest that this may be due to the way this and other visual effects were programmed in the original versions of the game, making it too difficult to reproduce the effects on the Wii alongside the new aiming system.


 * The Ice Beam, along with Samus herself and some of her other abilities, were slated to appear in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, but she was removed due to Nintendo not giving consent for her inclusion. The Ice Beam appeared to be based off of Prime's iteriation.