Title (Return of Samus)

This article is written from the Real Life point of view

"Space Pirate encrypted data decoded."

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The subject of this article is not named in-game.
The current title is from the game's internal data.

Title is a theme from Metroid II: Return of Samus and its remake Metroid: Samus Returns. It was originally composed by Ryoji Yoshitomi and later remixed by Daisuke Matsuoka.

Description

Title Screen

In Return of Samus, Title begins with 53 seconds of a repeating high-pitched dissonant chord. As it continues, static-like sounds and heavy beats are added to the background. Eventually, a melody briefly plays, which starts off similar to Silence but then diverges into a new and unique tune.

Finally, a soft and lulling theme begins to play. This serene melody is comparable to the original Title (Metroid), which similarly starts off tense and then transitions to a more relaxing lullaby-like tune. As it continues, the same heavy beats from before start playing once again.

It then builds up to a big climax: a triumphant fanfare punctuated by the heavy beats. After a few repetitions, the fanfare fades away to silence, while the echoing beats continue.

In Samus Returns, much of the original theme is intact. However, it now opens with a remix of the older six-note leitmotif, and then goes straight to the serene melody, which has been abridged. The original opening is still present in this remix, now moved to the end of the song (much like the theme in Metroid: Zero Mission). Interestingly, the repeating dissonant chords are directly sampled from the original, while the accompanying melody is reproduced with more ambient synth instruments.

The Return of Samus version is heard in Metroid and Me (by Samus Aran) as the game's premise and ending are summarized. The Samus Returns version is prominently featured in many trailers for the game, including the E3 2017 trailer, Overview Trailer, Infiltrating SR388, SR388 Data File, and Launch Trailer.

The original Return of Samus version can be heard here: [1] The remix in Samus Returns can be heard here: [2]

Other uses

In Return of Samus, a more subdued version of Title's triumphant fanfare is heard when first starting the game and Samus Aran appears next to her Gunship in Phase 1. It plays again whenever a saved game is loaded and Samus appears at a Save Point. Essentially, this serves as this game's version of Samus Aran's Appearance Fanfare, which does not appear in the game at all. It can be heard here: [3]

In Samus Returns, a portion of Title's melody is a recurring motif in the game. It is heard in Area Indefinite, the exotic jungle music that plays in the lowest section of Area 5. It is heard again in the Area 8 theme, where it sounds heavily distorted and sinister.

In the Samus Returns remix of Staff Credit, Title can be heard twice. The aforementioned recurring motif is played halfway through the track, just after the original Return of Samus Staff Credit theme ends. The serene melody is then heard later, nestled between Theme of Samus and Surface.

Trivia

• The original Title theme of Return of Samus is one of the only title themes that does not incorporate the series's main theme: the six-note leitmotif first heard at the start of Title (Metroid). This was rectified in Samus Returns.
• While it's actually just an abridged version of the Get Artifact Jingle, the jingle for collecting Alimbic Artifacts in Metroid Prime Hunters is also very reminiscent of part of Title's serene melody: [4]
• The Samus Returns version of the Title theme appears in the trailer for the Nintendo Switch port of Rocket League, as the car based on Samus's color scheme is introduced.