Compared to Samus with her Power Suit, she doesn't have as strong of a long-range game, but she has a better up-close game. Being a lightweight character fighting up close, though, means you have to rely on your speed and defense a lot more. Zero Suit Samus has two ways to stun opponents with her Paralyzer weapon.

In Metroid: Other M, the Zero Suit is capable of materializing the Power Suit from within itself. She is 190 cm (6 ft 3 in) and 90 kilograms (200 lb) while wearing the Power Suit. The Super Metroid Nintendo's Player's Guide describes Samus as 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) tall and weighs 198 pounds (90 kg) without her Power Suit.

Chozo marks (鳥人族マーク^?) are present in several forms on Samus Aran's Zero Suit. All Chozo marks are light-pink outlined with dark pink. The symbol on the back of Samus' hand resembles a circle with two points protruding from the top and bottom, four rectangular lines circling it, and a zig-zag pattern on the circle.

Samus broke ground early in the gaming world when she debuted in the 1986 game Metroid. Originally players were under the impression that Samus was a male, as the English translation of the instruction manual used male pronouns for her. However, completing Metroid in under five hours revealed Samus to be a young woman.