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Samus was one of the first active heroines in a video game, appearing at a time when other popular heroes, such as Mario and Link, were predominantly male and striving to rescue helpless princesses. Some games, such as Super Mario Bros. 2, added female playable characters, but these continued to exhibit exaggerated feminine characteristics. One female lead character contemporary to Samus, albeit less widely known, was Alis Landale of the first Phantasy Star role-playing game. For a time, there were few other active heroines, although the 1990s introduced the first fighting-game female, Chun-Li. Then, in the late '90s, Lara Croft of Tomb Raider and Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy 7 made a huge impression on the video game industry. Many feminists, however, found Croft’s extreme sexualization and unrealistic attire in a harsh environment appalling. While there are many female heroines today, a large majority of them have emulated Lara Croft’s exaggerated sexuality to appeal to a predominantly male gaming community.

Samus' defiance of this stereotype is part of what makes her such a highly regarded character. Although Samus is definitely depicted as an attractive female, and several of the Metroid games portray her in somewhat revealing attire if one completes the game under certain time restrictions, her "normal" appearance, that most gamers associate with her is her armored power suit (though in recent years her power suit and her posturing therein have been accused of being redesigned as more femininely appealing to male gamers)[citation needed], with the depictions of her without it seen as a form of fanservice.

The following Metroid games have featured Samus Aran as the main character (Not including re-releases or demos, and also presented in apparent chronological order where applicable):

1. Metroid (1986, NES, FDS)
2. Metroid: Zero Mission (2004, Game Boy Advance) (Expanded remake of Metroid, counted canon while retconning the original version)
3. Metroid Prime (2002, GameCube)
4. Metroid Prime Pinball (2005, Nintendo DS) (Metroid Prime in pinball form)
5. Metroid Prime: Hunters (2006, Nintendo DS) (Interquel of Prime 1 and 2.)
6. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004, GameCube)
7. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2006, Wii)
8. Metroid II: Return of Samus ( 1991, Game Boy)
9. Super Metroid (1994, SNES)
10. Metroid Fusion (2002, Game Boy Advance) (released simultaneously with Prime)

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, the third and final installment in the Metroid Prime series, will be released as a launch title for the Wii.

Are you talking about Thardus, the rock monster?

Well, you have the thermal visor on, and you keep hitting his weak rock until it cracks and exposes a blob of phazon, which will get really bright and make your thermal visor go yellow from the heat.
At this point, you gotta turn the thermal visor OFF, and continue hitting the phazon-rock until it blows. After this, he'll curl up into a ball, and roll around, trying to run into you. When he does this, just hit morph ball and move away from him.