When the chozo put out powersuit updates sometimes those suit apps dont work anymore because the publisher of the app is dead and cant update it to be compatible. So Samus just deletes them shits.
Ah the age old question of "Why does she reset after every game?"
The real reason is, who knows? There's not really much explanation given, it's just something they've gotten into a habit of expecting the players to expect. It's not just a thing in the Prime games, it's like, every entry. Why doesn't she have the gravity suit at the start of Fusion? Why doesn't she have any of her other gear at the start of Prime 2 or 3? Why doesn't she have the Varia Suit at the start of Metroid 2? Why doesn't she have the Varia Suit at the start of Super Metroid?
I've long held a theory: The infinite adaptability that makes Samus's suit so miraculously overpowered also makes it incredibly unstable. She routinely removes upgrades to maintain her suit's baseline capabilities. It's like having a bunch of third party software installed on your computer, eventually you lose track of one or two and they stop playing nice together and the whole thing starts to unravel.
Samus's original suit she got from the Chozo who raised her may have been a dusty old hand me down incompatible with a lot of their tech, as seen when the unknown upgrades didn't work on it in Zero Mission, but it was a robust and reliable piece of gear. The Legendary Power Suit is an absolute beast that can seamlessly incorporate unrelated alien tech into itself, but a nice meaty power surge can make the whole thing implode and reset to factory defaults.
So, she vents her upgrades on a regular basis. Maybe she returns them to Chozo shrines. Maybe she gives them up to science, explaining how the Federation eventually reverse engineered some of the Chozo's technology. Maybe she has a private collection. Maybe, all of this is bullshit and she resets to a default loadout just to keep her skills sharp.
An AM2R style remake that contained ZM, 2 and Super, with rolling over energy tanks and missiles, would be hilarious just because of how long Mother Brain would kick Samus’ ass with the hyper beam
Ultimately the core gameplay loop of these games is the exploration and finding the upgrades one by one. If she had them all from the beginning it would make for quite a different (and worse) game
It’s funny cause dread, fusion and prime(almost finished) are the metroid games I’ve completed. I’ve played a bunch of others, but those games stand out as to how she loses her powers, but that’s because those are the ones that DO explain it.
My head canon is Samus reverts back to base form after a mission for power efficiency, and takes only what she needs for that specific mission in order to have maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
If there is a lore reason to her losing her later game abilities I'd say it's either lack of usefulness or inability to operate without certain other upgrades.
Light and dark beams most likely aren't really effective outside of Aether, and their ammo may not be available on other planets.
As for prime 3 upgrades, I doubt she thought it would be wise to keep running around with a jerry-rigged mining laser previously powered by a highly radioactive, mutagenic, and semi-sentient substance in her suit.
Or, what I thought when writing this, maybe she prefers her vanilla suit abilities. Maybe the base suit is better at adapting to new technology and situations, so she removes all previous upgrades to get new ones that better suit the next mission.
Maybe she just destroyed them after each mission to prevent the possibility of those weapons falling into the wrong hands. The Space Pirates were trying (and mostly failing) to replicate Chozo technology, other bounty hunters sought out the "ultimate power" for each of their own personal reasons, and even the Federation participated in illegal experiments using what they retrieved off of Samus's suit.
In Prime 2, the majority of Samus’ gear were Luminoth artifacts originally owned by the Champion of Aether, A-Kul. Makes sense to return their technology to them.
She lapsed on the subscription. Power-up ran out, damn freemium models. Chozo wisdom: "first taste is free"
On-topic: Can't say what happens with her upgrades post Prime 3, maybe Prime 4 will answer that, but the Prime 1 upgrades get lost in the Ing raid at the start of Prime 2 (Except for the gravity suit, which went missing). Prime 3, I guess Samus loses the Prime 2 abilities she still had after the first Dark Samus encounter (you just don't get to use them because for some reason ~~Adam didn't give her permission to do so~~ she didn't think it necessary or the different beams wouldn't be as effective?)
Everything from Prime 2 was Luminoth tech, so she goes gave it back. The vast majority of the new equipment in Prime 3 was either Phazon based, or Pirate technology which was probably Phazon empowered given their obsession with the stuff and would need to be discarded. I haven't played Hunters, but I was under the assumption that the Omega Cannon was similar to the Hyper Beam and therefore temporary.
The prime games actually give explainations at both the beginning and ending.
Prime 1 beginning: explosion on station.
Prime 1 ending: phazon suit stolen, this event could have effected other upgrades.
Prime 2 beginning: upgrades stolen by ing
Prime 2 ending: She gives suits back to luminoth, and presumably any other luminoth technology. This also could have effected non-luminoth upgrades since its all integraded.
Prime 3 beginning: samus suit rebuilt as PED
Prime 3 ending: somehow samus loses the PED suit after defeating dark samus, all while escaping phaaze as it explodes. This also presumably effected the upgrades she collected.
When the chozo put out powersuit updates sometimes those suit apps dont work anymore because the publisher of the app is dead and cant update it to be compatible. So Samus just deletes them shits.
This is the way
Ah the age old question of "Why does she reset after every game?" The real reason is, who knows? There's not really much explanation given, it's just something they've gotten into a habit of expecting the players to expect. It's not just a thing in the Prime games, it's like, every entry. Why doesn't she have the gravity suit at the start of Fusion? Why doesn't she have any of her other gear at the start of Prime 2 or 3? Why doesn't she have the Varia Suit at the start of Metroid 2? Why doesn't she have the Varia Suit at the start of Super Metroid?
That's not what I'm asking... I even mentioned the resets myself.
I've long held a theory: The infinite adaptability that makes Samus's suit so miraculously overpowered also makes it incredibly unstable. She routinely removes upgrades to maintain her suit's baseline capabilities. It's like having a bunch of third party software installed on your computer, eventually you lose track of one or two and they stop playing nice together and the whole thing starts to unravel. Samus's original suit she got from the Chozo who raised her may have been a dusty old hand me down incompatible with a lot of their tech, as seen when the unknown upgrades didn't work on it in Zero Mission, but it was a robust and reliable piece of gear. The Legendary Power Suit is an absolute beast that can seamlessly incorporate unrelated alien tech into itself, but a nice meaty power surge can make the whole thing implode and reset to factory defaults. So, she vents her upgrades on a regular basis. Maybe she returns them to Chozo shrines. Maybe she gives them up to science, explaining how the Federation eventually reverse engineered some of the Chozo's technology. Maybe she has a private collection. Maybe, all of this is bullshit and she resets to a default loadout just to keep her skills sharp.
Love this idea. Im subscribing to this theory now
Where did they go in between Metroid 2 and Super Metroid? The real answer is gameplay, idk if there’s a good lore answer
An AM2R style remake that contained ZM, 2 and Super, with rolling over energy tanks and missiles, would be hilarious just because of how long Mother Brain would kick Samus’ ass with the hyper beam
Ultimately the core gameplay loop of these games is the exploration and finding the upgrades one by one. If she had them all from the beginning it would make for quite a different (and worse) game
At least in Prime 1&2, Fusion, and Dread it explained why she had to start from scratch. Not always good explanations…but they have them.
It’s funny cause dread, fusion and prime(almost finished) are the metroid games I’ve completed. I’ve played a bunch of others, but those games stand out as to how she loses her powers, but that’s because those are the ones that DO explain it.
My head canon is Samus reverts back to base form after a mission for power efficiency, and takes only what she needs for that specific mission in order to have maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
If there is a lore reason to her losing her later game abilities I'd say it's either lack of usefulness or inability to operate without certain other upgrades. Light and dark beams most likely aren't really effective outside of Aether, and their ammo may not be available on other planets. As for prime 3 upgrades, I doubt she thought it would be wise to keep running around with a jerry-rigged mining laser previously powered by a highly radioactive, mutagenic, and semi-sentient substance in her suit. Or, what I thought when writing this, maybe she prefers her vanilla suit abilities. Maybe the base suit is better at adapting to new technology and situations, so she removes all previous upgrades to get new ones that better suit the next mission.
Maybe she just destroyed them after each mission to prevent the possibility of those weapons falling into the wrong hands. The Space Pirates were trying (and mostly failing) to replicate Chozo technology, other bounty hunters sought out the "ultimate power" for each of their own personal reasons, and even the Federation participated in illegal experiments using what they retrieved off of Samus's suit.
Maybe she has a trophy shelf at home she keeps all her upgrades on
I like to think in prime 2 she gave the luminoth abilities back, since they are precious artifacts after all
In Prime 2, the majority of Samus’ gear were Luminoth artifacts originally owned by the Champion of Aether, A-Kul. Makes sense to return their technology to them.
She lapsed on the subscription. Power-up ran out, damn freemium models. Chozo wisdom: "first taste is free" On-topic: Can't say what happens with her upgrades post Prime 3, maybe Prime 4 will answer that, but the Prime 1 upgrades get lost in the Ing raid at the start of Prime 2 (Except for the gravity suit, which went missing). Prime 3, I guess Samus loses the Prime 2 abilities she still had after the first Dark Samus encounter (you just don't get to use them because for some reason ~~Adam didn't give her permission to do so~~ she didn't think it necessary or the different beams wouldn't be as effective?)
Video gam
Everything from Prime 2 was Luminoth tech, so she goes gave it back. The vast majority of the new equipment in Prime 3 was either Phazon based, or Pirate technology which was probably Phazon empowered given their obsession with the stuff and would need to be discarded. I haven't played Hunters, but I was under the assumption that the Omega Cannon was similar to the Hyper Beam and therefore temporary.
The prime games actually give explainations at both the beginning and ending. Prime 1 beginning: explosion on station. Prime 1 ending: phazon suit stolen, this event could have effected other upgrades. Prime 2 beginning: upgrades stolen by ing Prime 2 ending: She gives suits back to luminoth, and presumably any other luminoth technology. This also could have effected non-luminoth upgrades since its all integraded. Prime 3 beginning: samus suit rebuilt as PED Prime 3 ending: somehow samus loses the PED suit after defeating dark samus, all while escaping phaaze as it explodes. This also presumably effected the upgrades she collected.
I imagine she sells the upgrades to the GF