Plus XP

Welcome to Clash Of The Titans! (original name I know, but you can’t give up on the classics) This a new series for Plus XP where we, Leon and Garvaos, pit two gaming heroes against each other, and then have you decide the outcome by e-mailing us at theteam@plusxp.com. So without further ado, let’s get on with the first battle!

Samus Aran Vs Master Chief

We have all seen Haliod, but it didn’t really give us a true outcome, that and they made Master Chief female. The film made the guy gamers out there smile after the inital WTF. So we have decided to pit these two gaming heroes together. Lets see how it pans out.

Samus’ Personal History:

The lead of the Metroid series, Samus Aran is a Bounty Hunter who was orphaned by Space Pirates that attacked her home and killed her parents. Brought up by an ancient race of intelligent aliens known as the Chozo, she was given a Power Suit that entwined with her body as an exoskeleton that grants her power. After this, she became the warrior that we know, working for the Galactic Federation who send her on various missions to protect the galaxy.

Being one of the earliest videogame heroines of all time, Samus has kept the same image throughout the series, maintaining a ’silent hero’ image, while still managing to have a strong personality. She has currently had eight missions in the Metroid saga, with another on the way. Samus is perhaps one of Nintendo’s best characters, and one of the few videogame space-travellers to avoid the generic “American Marine” personality and style, which is seen all too often lately.

Master Chief’s Personal History.

Master Chief AKA John 117 is one of a whole league of Spartan Super Soldiers. His race got wiped out during the war with an alien league known as the Covenant. He was in cryogenic suspension up untill the first Halo game started. He was brought back as Earths’ answer to stopping the Covenant war.

Even though Master Chief was a little late to the gaming party, He is still the most recognised character that came out of the Xbox system. Although he is only featured in 3 of the 5 current Halo games, he still remains the reputation of being THE character from the Halo series. That, and he has an AI companion who, throughout the original trilogy, got surprisingly hotter. And yes, maybe he has that American Marine aura about him but at least it’s not as bad as, say, Marcus Fenix.

Samus’ Arsenal

Samus’ weaponry is all built into her suit – her Power Beam Cannon and Missile Launcher being staple weapons within the series, with the ability to charge her shots for heavy attacks. She also has access to quite a range of other weaponry – the Ice Beam that can freeze enemies, wide beams like the Spazer or the Wave Beam, and the powerful Plasma Beam. She has also had access to elemental weapons including Fire, Electricity, Dark and Light, specialised weapons like the Imperialist Sniper Rifle and guns that are able to penetrate walls. Lasty, she has access to powerful attacks such as the Super Missile, Power Bombs and the Omega Cannon. She often has access to the famed Screw Attack as well – which allows her to destory enemies by jumping into a powerful energy attack which cuts through her enemies.

Aside from her range of weaponry, Samus shines as an adventurer and a skilled scout. Developed by the Chozo, her suit is able to download upgrades and data into itself, enhancing her greatly. The Morph Ball form allows her to access small areas and move at high speeds. Her suit allows her to jump much higher than a regular human, and even move freely in water and lava effortlessly. A grapple beam allows her to swing across chasms, and her suit allows her to see with various visors such as thermal and x-ray vision. Her scan visor allows her to store information about her environment, and hack, decode, and translate almost any information from computer terminals or ancient writings, and install map information for navigation.

Master Chief’s Arsenal

Now with Master Chief, he doesn’t have suit that will more or less mindboggle him with the amount of shiny buttons it has. He doesn’t need weapons built into his suit because he knows full well if the suit were to break or malfunction, he can still shoot enemies in the face. Master Chief is trained in all Human and Alien weaponry, ranging from Human sniper rifles, assault rifles and rocket launchers, to Covenant plasma rifles, brute shots and plasma turrets. Any weapon you find throughout the Halo games, Master Chief can use. This also includes the famous Energy Sword. Master Chief can lunge up to ten meters with this weapon and still take an enemy down in one hit.

But that’s not all, Master Chief also has access to four types of grenade, frag, plasma, spiker and fire bomb. He also has access to flash bang, trip mine, health regeneration, EMP, bubble shield, radar jammer, over shield and active camouflage (invisibility). So we can safely say that Master Chief is pretty kitted out with weaponry, and who can forget the Spartan Laser. One shot kill loveliness.

Samus’ Vehicles

Samus isn’t exactly big on using different vehicles – but with the Hunter Gunship, who would? Her trusty spaceship is sleek and fast, even self-repairing. Getting her from mission to mission, the ship is almost as well-equipped as Samus, with general travelling capabilities, but also has the ability to be remotely controlled, allowing Samus to call it to her aid, even order a bombing run, or use it to transport large objects via grapple. It really does everything Samus could need, filling in the few things her incredible power suit can’t do – including healing her and restocking her ammunition.

Master Chiefs’ Vehicles

Yet Master Chief has access to ten different types of vehicle. We have the Warthog (which comes in three varieties), The Mongoose, The Scorpion Tank, the Elephant and the Hornet. But thats just on the Human side - he can also drive: A Ghost, Wraith, Banshee, Prowler and Brute Chopper. He also then has access to their weaponry from miniguns and rocket launchers, to alien mortar bombs and fuel rod projectiles. So what if they don’t heal him, Master Chief has a regeneration shield. Who needs healing?

Samus’ Enemies

Samus has a few enemies – namely the Metroids and the Space Pirates. The Metroids are a simple race, although perhaps one of the most dangerous. A jellyfish-like creature with large madibles, the Metroid’s only objective is to multiply and devour the life-force of anyone they meet. The Metroids are also capable of various mutations, each one more potent than the last -eventually becoming huge beasts with savage powers. Perhaps their unwitting partners-in-crime, the Space Pirates are a greedy race who choose to grow the Metroids for their own reasons. The Space Pirates desire no less than ultimate power and domination, and will stop at nothing to attain it. After being defeated by Samus at Planet Zebes, they have developed a deep hatred for Samus, defeating her being one of their main objectives. They also have developed an interest in the Chozo technology of her suit and other Chozo mechanics, and wish to use their secrets to further their wishes. They are Commanded by the powerful Ridley, perhaps Samus’ biggest enemy – a giant draconic Space Pirate, who was also responsible for the deaths of her parents. They regularly face off in various battles in the series, and Ridley even undergoes some cybernetic enhancements, redubbed “Meta Ridley.”

Samus has other oppenents she must face as well. All of the planets she visits have inhabitants – strange creatures that are often hostile, some who wish to protect themselves, others who hunt her. There are often much larger enemies such as huge Sheegoths, rogue Security Drones and other nasty creatures. Lastly, Samus has had a couple of evil doppelgangers – Dark Samus, a strange being in her own image, and the SA-X, a formidable foe formed of a parasite that re-animates her discarded suit, hunting her with Samus’ own power, while the real Samus is drastically weakened and outmatched.

Master Chiefs’ Enemies

The war against the Human race and Covenant has been going on for a while, hence why they needed to call back John 117 to ‘Finish The Fight’. The Covenant are a huge force to be reckoned with. Consisting of seven races of alien - the grunts, which are your standard cannon fodder, Jackals which are sniper trained and carry shields and Drones which are flying bug type creatures that attack in swarms. Then we have Elites, which up until recently were the driving force of the Covenants battle unit, Brutes, which are tougher than Elites and have an extreme melee ability which you just dont want to get in the way of and lastly Hunters. These beasts are heavily armoured tanks which carry Fuel Rod cannons mounted on their arms. All these races are controlled by the Prophets, the religious force of the Covenant who want to activate the Halo rings which will cleanse (aka destroy) the universe and wipe out the humans and the Flood.

The Flood are a zombie like race that only exist to consume and multiply, indeed they are a bit like Metroids in that respect, but these things come in their thousands, and won’t stop untill the universe is Flood infested. They are controled by a Hive mind which will stop at nothing to gain control of all living races. But thats not all, you also have the Forerunner drones, machines that have created the Halo Planets and will stop at nothing to protect their creations. You have normal robotic drones and 343 ‘Guilty spark’ who is the voice of the forerunners and does a mixture of helping the humans then turning on them.

Samus’ Worlds

Throughout her travels, Samus has been to many planets, such as SR3XX, Zebes, Arcterra and Tallon IV, as well as several space stations and research centers. These wide environments provide many different settings, from lush areas with plants and other greenery, to icy caverns, burning hot caves filled with magma, cold dark corridors of research facilities and ancient ruins. These areas are often vast, and Samus traverses them alone – no allies, just her and the forces that wish her dead, or worse…

Master Chiefs’ Worlds

Master Chief has only two types of planet he battles on. Earth, which is the human home world and Halo… scratch that, make that seven different Halo planets, each being a super weapon to eleminate all living life within the universe. Each ring is a planet that houses living beings and rich landscapes. Earth however, is home to New Mombasa, Earths megacity tha was built in Africa and is now Earth’s central. So Master Chief doen’t have many world’s granted, but who needs worlds when you have massive space stations and space ships?

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So there you have it. Samus Vs Master Chief. Now here is where the fun bit begins, Plus XP is now leaving it into the readers hands to cast their votes to see who wins this space age battle.

All votes should be emailed to theteam@plusxp.com with Space Pirate as the subject if you want Samus or Covenant as the subject if you want Master Chief. Voting will close on Tuesday the 13th with results being posted on the Wednesday.

Let the Battle Commence!