Ever since “Super Smash Bros.” first released in 1999, gamers have wondered: could Nintendo’s iconic characters and IP ever cross over outside of a fighting game setting? Or at least, one gamer wondered that in a Reddit post I saw recently. I mean, what the hell, right? Mario can team up with Sonic and the freaking Rabbids of all things, but he and Link have never met up to kick some Koopa ass? Well buckle up, nerds, because we’re about to blow your minds as we explore whether two of Nintendo’s most iconic franchises, “Metroid” and “Star Fox”, could take place in the same shared universe. The answer is decidedly “no”, but I’m contractually obligated to write this article about it anyway, so here we go! 

Ok, first thing’s first…um… they, uh… they both take place in space! Yep. The first hint that “Metroid” and “Star Fox” may have a shared continuity is the fact that both franchises feature star-faring heroes on missions to save their respective (or, perhaps, very same?) galaxies. Now, I know what you’re thinking: the “Metroid” games feature horror elements and maintain an overall serious and suspenseful tone while the Star Fox series follows anthropomorphic animals who pilot complex starships and constantly quip with one another. How could Samus Aran possibly exist in the same continuity as a walking falcon named Falco Lombardi? Well, dear reader, here is where the rabbit hole goes even deeper: the Chozo. 

That’s right, I said it. I bet you thought this article wasn’t going anywhere, huh? Well think again! Any fan of the “Metroid” series knows that it features the Chozo, an alien race of bipedal bird people who took on Samus as their adoptive daughter and act as a force of good throughout the galaxy (except that Raven Beak in Metroid: Dread is a member of the Chozo, but that doesn’t jive with my theory, so ignore it.) You know who else is a bipedal bird person who acts as a force of good throughout the galaxy? Oh yeah. Falco, baby. Falco is a Chozo confirmed. And might even be Samus’s sibling. That’s an article for another day. 

But wait, there’s more: “what about the scary Metroids?” you may ask. “Why haven’t we ever seen them in the Star Fox series?” Heh. Someone clearly hasn’t played the certified GameCube classic Star Fox: Assault, the best game in the series (fight me.) The main story of that game is: an alien race of invaders called Aparoids (Met-roid? Apa-roid? Seeing the connection?) suddenly appears and threatens to take over all of the universe, but Fox and his team put a stop to it by finding the Aparoid queen and destroying their nest. But what was the Aparoids’ home planet called, I wonder? Perhaps…SR388? 

Now, is any of this really tenable at the end of the day? No, not at all. Do I have any real evidence? Not even a little bit. Am I just grasping at straws for content? Absolutely. But I did fill my word count and then some, so I hope you’ve all enjoyed this little thought experiment (and the cash money that will come flowing in as a result of it) as much as I have.