It was recently revealed that the folks behind Axiom Verge wanted to put Samus Aran in the Wii U Port of their game. Given that Axiom Verge is about the closest thing to a new Metroid on a Nintendo platform we’ve seen in quite some time, this sort of cameo would have been really cool. Sure, it doesn’t necessarily fit the narrative of Axiom Verge, but that’s what secrets are for. Heck, you can enter the Justin Bailey code in AV to have the main character run around in a leotard, so really, continuity isn’t all that important. And having Samus run around in AV’s environments, even if it was just a costume, would have been so darn cool! But it seems that Nintendo put the brakes on that one. Granted, it got pretty far up the ladder, but ultimately they felt that it wasn’t the right thing to do with Samus. This is perplexing to me because Samus making cameos in non-Metroid games is nothing new. In fact, she’s made some incredibly bizarre appearances over the years. So, after hearing about this missed opportunity, I decided to take a few minutes to highlight some of the way more weird places the baddest bounty hunter in the galaxy has shown up, in no particular order.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars – Super Mario RPG was a weird little masterpiece back in its day. It was the first time Mario found himself in an RPG setting, and while that may be commonplace today, it was pretty new back then. On your travels, in typical RPG fashion, you would visit towns, and those towns had inns to sleep in, and those inns had beds. Well, the joyously wonderful minds behind this game decided it might be fun to toss a few cameos in those beds from time to time, and yes, Samus was one of them. She’s resting up to defeat Mother Brain. Does it make sense? Absolutely not. Is it awesome? You bet.

Bayonetta – When it came time to bring Bayonetta to the Wii U, Platinum Games wanted to do a little something special. Bayonetta 2 was a Wii U exclusive, and they decided to give Wii U owners a port of the first game in the series. But instead of a straight port, they went ahead and tossed in a few Nintendo themed bits if extra fun. One of these crazy things was a Samus costume for Bayonetta. Yes, I know this isn’t an actual Samus cameo, but it’s so nuts it’s worth a mention. Not only does Bayonetta look weird as heck in this outfit, but when you shoot, it makes the beam sounds from Super Metroid! Now that’s a nice touch!

Kirby’s Dream Land 3 – While Samus does make a sort-of appearance as a rock transformation in Kirby Super Star, her appearance in Kirby’s Dream Land 3 is way more interesting because it involves not only her, but actual metroids too! In every stage of this game, there’s someone or something waiting for you at the end of the level, and something in the course of said level that if you do, will make that person or thing happy. It’s a fun little sub-game, and it makes for some very interesting puzzles. By far the coolest one of these comes in stage 5-2, where Kirby encounters a couple of metroids. They fly around, and you just have to run away from them. But, if you happen to have the ice power at that point and freeze said metroids, Samus will be waiting for you at the end of the stage with her helmet off, and she will give you a star. It’s a particularly well-drawn Samus sprite, too. And set against the snowy backdrop and Dream Land 3’s awesome visual style, it’s one of the sweetest images of Samus you’ll ever see.

F-1 Race – This game has a ton of awesome cameos in it. They’re mostly Mario characters, and they pretty much just stand there cheering you on between races, but if you keep playing you will eventually see Link, Donkey Kong, Pit, and yes, Samus. Plus, it came out a full year before Metroid II: Return of Samus, so it marks her first appearance on the handheld. That’s got to count for something! (image above is from the Metroid Database)

Galactic Pinball – Did you know Samus was on the Virtual Boy? Yes, if you play through Galactic Pinball on the little red machine that couldn’t, you will eventually be able to unlock a minigame where Samus’s spaceship comes out and you have to shoot aliens in a Galaga-style event. Not only is this the first time in any game where you actually get to control Samus’s ship, but there’s a wacky 8-bit rendition of the story sequence music from Super Metroid playing while you do it. Well worth owning a Virtual Boy for, right?

Tetris – In Tetris for NES (not the superior Tengen version), when you get far enough, you’re rewarded with a celebration screen. the better you do, the more characters show up to help congratulate you with a song. Bowser busts out the accordion, Mario & Luigi do a silly dance, Link plays his flute, Pit plays the violin, and Samus busts out a cello! This is without a doubt one of my favorite screens in all of video gaming. It’s the perfect image of Nintendo’s brand synergy in a pre-Smash Bros. world. And can we also acknowledge how impressive it is for Samus to be playing the cello with her freaking space suit on?

Marvel Ultimate Alliance – This may be a bit of a cheat because it never actually happened, but it almost did, and it would have probably helped this game sell infinitely better on Wii than it did. The fine folks at Activision thought that it would be cool to have Link and Samus as playable characters in the Wii version of their game. They were right. It would have been absolutely awesome. But rumor has it that when they approached Nintendo about the idea, they showed them what they came up with on the PS2 version of the game, and Nintendo was none too fond of that. Of course, as far as I know, that’s just a rumor, but either way, they denied the idea, and now the Wii version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance is nothing more than a footnote in the Wii’s massive library of fairly shoddy ports. Can you imagine running around as Samus with Iron Man and Wolverine though? Man, this one hurts every time I think about it.

And that’s all I got. I think there are a few other minor cameos and costumes in some other games like Animal Crossing and Dead or Alive, but these ones here are my favorites. With all these appearances under her belt, it is a bit surprising that they didn’t allow her in Axiom Verge. I mean, it’s not like they have her doing much else these days, right? Either way, let’s all look forward to seeing where Samus pops up next.