So! Auroras, eh?

Spoilers of a trailer within:

The newest trailer for Metroid Prime 3 has some spooky details revealed about an interesting bit of technology within the Metroid Universe. Allow me to paraphrase: 'Developed by Galactic Federation scientists, an Aurora is a biological super computer. Originally intended for scientific use, they are now used by large companies, the military, etc. Thousands of Auroras have been produced and are assigned female, male, or gender neutral personas. All of them can be linked via a network, giving them access to a near limitless database.'

(Aww, isn't that cute, they have the internets too!)

The most interesting thing that can be seen in this trailer is what an Aurora looks like. Although in 3D, it's hard to recognize. Not until I saw one in a water filled, glass tube, surrounded by familiar tubing and automated defences did I realize. It's a freaking Mother Brain!

Now, anyone who's seen the trailer knows this already, of course. Although, in truth, the declaration should be: 'Mother Brain was an Aurora supercomputer!'

Thanks to this new preview, we can be certain we will see an Aurora in Prime 3. Hopefully not an evil one, though.. of course, since we know now they're really just tools used by organizations, it's really up to whoever owns these fancy PCs to dictate their personality. I guess. It may be that Samus will need to interact with one that the Federation owns and utilizes. Or one of each variety.

The unfortunate North America cartoonization of all the Nintendo franchises decades ago lead people to think 'Mother Brain' was a sort of Queen of the Space Pirates, that talked and.. well, mostly talked, I guess. And wore make-up. I never saw those old cartoons. But still, did they have to do that?



Anyway, I always believed old Brainy was simply a hub controlling force, but it seems now that it may have simply been a computer to analyse logistical data and perhaps advise on the Pirate's next move. Why make a big honking PC the end boss in those old games, though? Well, since it was such an integral part of the Pirates operation (maybe it controlled environmental systems on Zebes too, it's destruction triggering a meltdown of the base, self destruct mechanism or not), it makes sense that Samus would target it after the defeat of all her more mobile foes. Take out their information systems, why not? Of course, all those automated defences and lava didn't hurt to make leave that pile of junk for last.

(Who puts lava in a room with a supercomputer?! They need cooling. God forbid there was a Mother 360!)

Of course, one has to mention Mother Brain's sudden locomotion at the end of Super Metroid. I can only surmise the pirates made that body for their (most likely newly bought/stolen Aurora compy) current Brain, in case they ever had another run in with one of those wacky bounty hunters. Prime 1 mentions briefly that they basically made Ridley a new body after the original Metroid, resulting in Meta-Ridley, so why not make a nice last defence for their persona-acquipped hub computer? It would have worked too, if it weren't for those darn kids.. well, just one kid Metroid.

So! Mother Brain: Evil bio-supercomputer with a mind of it's own and a penchant for galatic domination? Or simply an effective, well guarded tool used by the pirates to strategize and organize?



Also, now I can't help but think about comparisons and paralells between these newly detailed Auroras and the human-personality endowed holographic AIs of Halo.

Uh oh, you can't mix Metroid and Halo! Especially not on Dtoid! I'm doomed!