Gravity Suit

The Gravity Suit (Gravity Feature in Metroid: Other M) is an upgrade for Samus Aran's Power Suit. As its name implies, the Gravity Suit is known for negating gravitational effects that would hinder Samus. The Gravity Suit enhancement is obtained after the Varia Suit; the addition turns sections of Samus’s armor purple, reduces the damage she takes (to a greater extent than the Varia alone), and allows her to move in fluid unhindered by the resistance and pressure it would normally exert. In Metroid Prime, the Gravity Suit also enhances the visor so it can give a better, clearer view while underwater. In most games, the Gravity Suit also prevents Samus from being damaged by Lava, or at least reduces its damage. In Super Metroid, Metroid: Other M and Metroid: Zero Mission, it is the final suit Samus acquires.

In Metroid Prime 2: Echoes the effects of the Gravity Suit are instead granted by the Gravity Boost accessory. As the game is focused strongly on the light/dark conflict, adding the Gravity Suit would likely have interfered with the Dark and Light Suits, lessening the effect the game designers were trying to create.

Super Metroid manual
"This suit reduces the damage from enemy attacks to one fourth and allows you to move freely in water-filled areas."

Official Metroid Prime Website
Weapon effect: N/A

Weapon range: N/A

Weapon potential: Non-lethal

"Power Suit Upgrade

''The Gravity Suit upgrade allows for improved movement in liquid environments. The Gravity Suit does not protect its wearer from exposure to hazardous fluids. Importantly, visor modifications built into the Gravity Suit make it easy for Samus Aran to see underwater."''

Metroid Prime manual
"The Gravity Suit upgrades Samus's suit even more. It negates the effects of water, allowing Samus to move and jump normally even while submerged."

Metroid Fusion manual
"Further reduces damage from enemy attacks. Allows for normal movement in aquatic and other areas. Also protects Samus from lava."

Zero Mission Samus Screen data
"Reduces damage from foes. Enables free movement in water. Stops lava damage."

Metroid: Other M manual
"3. Gravity Feature: Negates the effects of liquids and extreme gravity and further reduces damage from enemy attacks."

Other M Samus Screen data
"Effects: Negates the effects of liquid and super gravity and further reduces enemy attack damage."

Metroid: Other M Strategy Guide
"Gravity Feature: The Gravity Feature upgrade is specifically designed to negate all abnormal gravitational effects. If you enter an area where the gravitational pull is stronger than normal, the Gravity Feature will normalize the effect, making it so you can function at full capacity, rather than be affected by the stronger gravitational pull. The same is true when you're in liquid. In liquid, you will experience a lighter gravitational pull, making you more "floaty." The Gravity Feature weighs you down to normal levels."

Iwata Asks
Morisawa: For the most part, it was left to my responsibility, but there were points on which Sakamoto-san would definitely not budge. An example that made quite an impression on me was Samus's Power Suit, and the way it changes color as its various abilities are unlocked.

Iwata: Ah yes, it changes.

Morisawa: At first it's yellow, then the typical orange, then finally it becomes the Gravity Suit, so that Samus is purple. That is Nintendo's official specification, so naturally we started making the final Power Suit in purple. Towards the end of the game, however, there are some serious dramatic scenes. As Sakamoto-san was watching one of these cinematics, where Samus appeared in purple, he said 'why is Samus wearing purple?'

Iwata: He said that, even though it had been the specification from the very beginning! (laughs)

Morisawa: Yes! (laughs) So I told him 'she's wearing the Gravity Suit, that's why she's purple'. His response, however, was 'but it looks strange to have this purple person popping up during such a serious conversation'. It would then become an exchange along the lines of me saying 'But this is the specification!' and him responding 'No, no, definitely strange'.

Iwata: Ha ha! (laughs)

Morisawa: So we'd consult Kitaura-san as well, but he'd also say 'yes, purple really is strange'. All I could think was 'Huh?! So what should we do now?' These kinds of specifications had been there from the very beginning, from before my time, but they'd just say 'No, we definitely want Samus in orange here'. I just groaned and put my head in my hands.

Iwata: It sounds like you had the ladder pulled out from under you. (laughs) So how did you resolve the situation?

Morisawa: Basically, I brought out various color patterns, trying to push them back towards purple a little bit, but they couldn't agree to that, saying it was orange they wanted. In the end, therefore, we decided to indicate that the gravity features are attached to the suit by making the green lights on Samus's chest glow a purple-like pink when the gravity features are unlocked.

Iwata: So in other words, the suit color stayed orange, but the color of the lights on her chest changed to a purplish pink?

Morisawa: Yes. We explained this clearly in the manual, but as the person entrusted with the visual settings of Metroid: Other M, it just didn't sit right with me. Then later I remembered working on Metroid: Zero Mission for Game Boy Advance in the past. At that time one member of staff came to me and said 'the specifications for the previous game say this, but this time it's a little different, is it ok?' That time I was the one who'd gone against the specifications. That's when I thought the Metroid titles were like the sauce at a long-standing eel restaurant...

Iwata: Sauce...? (laughs)

Morisawa: Yes. When you go to an eel restaurant they say things like 'our sauce is over 100 years old'. But this doesn't mean the sauce has stayed untouched in the pot for 100 years. They're constantly adding new sauce to their pot, matching the tastes of the age, and I think the flavor of the sauce changes quite often.

Iwata: So by using this theory that it's OK to change things little-by-little, much like the '100-year-old sauce', you were able to make yourself agree to changing the game.

Morisawa: Yes, I was able to agree... Or rather, I could put myself in a position to understand it... (laughs). Well, even though I try to protect tradition, I think it's important to be able to create new things without being tied down by it.

Iwata: It's certainly true that as specifications become more detailed, they become more fixed, and you sometimes end up trapped, unable to move. In this sense the development of the Mario titles is two-sided in its character, one side which is really open-minded, and one which is really strict. If we had got rid of the open-minded side of the Mario titles, it would gradually have become stricter and we would never have got the Mario we have now... Though it's still tough to have the ladder pulled out from under you.

Morisawa: It really is! (laughs)

Benefits chart
The following chart details the benefits bestowed by the Gravity Suit in each game: * Note that the Gravity Suit alone'' provides only 25% damage reduction, but when combined with the Varia Suit, the damage reduction is increased to 75%. Other numbers represent total reduction, as in other games, Samus cannot use the Gravity Suit without the Varia Suit.''

In other media
In the Super Smash Bros. series, Samus’s standard outfit is the Varia Suit, and an optional, purple-blue alternate color scheme that Samus can use resembles the Gravity Suit.

Trophy
"A Power Suit that provides even more damage protection than the Varia Suit. This Gravity Suit also allows Samus to move without water resistance when underwater. In most games in the series, this suit also blocks lava damage and friction. In addition, it allows Samus to use item bonuses like the High Jump, Space Jump, and Speed Booster, even when underwater or in lava."


 * SNES Super Metroid
 * GCN Metroid Prime

Sticker

 * Gravity Suit Samus Metroid: Zero Mission [Weapon] Attack +11 (Samus, Zero Suit Samus)

Appearances

 * Super Metroid (SNES, 1994)
 * Super Smash Bros. (N64, 1999)
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN, 2001)
 * Metroid Fusion (GBA, 2002)
 * Metroid Prime (GCN, 2002)
 * Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA, 2004)
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii, 2008)
 * New Play Control! Metroid Prime (Wii, Japan-only 2009)
 * Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii, 2009)
 * Metroid: Other M (Wii, 2010)

Trivia

 * Even though in most games the Gravity Suit protects from lava, in Metroid Prime and Metroid: Other M the suit still takes damage if Samus falls in the lava in the Magmoor Caverns/Pyrosphere. This may be to increase the difficulty of the game, a continuity error, the lava may simply be too hot for the Gravity Suit to handle, or the fact that there isn't anything hidden under the lava, thus the reason to go under the substance would be useless.
 * Despite ending Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid Prime with the Gravity Suit, Samus starts their sequels with the Varia Suit.
 * In Super Smash Bros. Brawl ' s adventure mode, Zero Suit Samus and Pikachu encounter two clones of the Power Suit. Both clones are all purple, similar to the Gravity Suit.
 * Space Pirates seem to have been able to copy the Gravity Suit at an unspecified time as scans in Metroid Prime claim that Aqua Pirates use Gravity Suit technology to survive underwater. Also, in Super Metroid, the Pink Space Pirates in the underwater region of Maridia wear suits of a similar coloration to the Gravity Suit.
 * In Metroid Prime, the circle on the back of Samus' hand, her visor, the lights on her legs, and the grooves of her shoulder pads for the Gravity Suit are blue, but in the other games they are green.
 * In Metroid Prime, with the hint system on, Samus will be alerted to the Gravity Chamber where "gravity pulses" have been located. This, along with the fact that she receives the Gravity Suit from Nightmare in Metroid Fusion, who can manipulate gravity, suggests that the Gravity Suit also stops gravity alteration or manipulation.
 * In Metroid: Other M, the Gravity Feature does not change the color of Samus' suit. Only when its gravity-altering powers are in effect, the suit gains a purple aura and turns her visor and chestplate lights purple as well. It also negates the extreme gravity in certain areas of the Cryosphere near Sector Zero, but it does not protect Samus from lava, instead reducing the damage like its appearance in Metroid Prime. The Gravity Feature also protects Samus from air currents when an area of the ship is decompressing, possibly in the same way it prevents drags underwater.
 * Also, it is noted that the Gravity Feature's damage reduction will always take place, even if the aura is not active.
 * As evidenced in the interview above, another reason why the Gravity Suit in Other M wasn't purple was because of a disagreement between Morisawa and Sakamoto in regards to how Samus's Gravity Suit should be colored. Originally, it was indeed supposed to be colored purple without the aura activated, but Sakamoto persisted in keeping the suit orange.


 * The SA-X was believed to be wearing the Gravity Feature from Other M. However, this appears to be false as the lights on the SA-X's suit are green, and the suit never gains a purple aura, even when it enters the Omega Metroid battle, which takes place in a decompressing area that would have activated the Gravity Feature. But it could be true because Fusion was made before Other M was thought up so the SA-X could of worn the Gravity Suit/Feature
 * In Metroid Prime, several Sequence Breaks can be performed to skip the Gravity Suit. There is also a way to get the Gravity Suit before the Varia Suit by passing Twin Fires Tunnel without the Spider Ball.
 * In Metroid Prime, the Gravity Suit was modeled and skinned by Gene Kohler.
 * If the Gravity Suit is acquired before the Varia Suit in Metroid Prime, Samus will appear to get the Varia Suit in the cutscene, but after the cutscene she will be in the Gravity Suit.
 * The Gravity Feature in Other M works like the Hazard Shield in Corruption, in that the Power Suit is covered with an aura when the upgrade is used on certain environments.