Metroid as a series has always carried traces of H.R. Giger-inspired sci-fi horror, but the reactions to Metroid Prime 4: Beyond show that a lot of players didn't expect the new game to lean into that influence so openly.
The heated discussion Metroid Prime 4's environments that blend organic shapes with mechanical structures, have tied it close to the biomechanical aesthetic Giger pioneered.
It was his art, which fuses living tissue with machinery in unsettling ways, that shaped the tone of Ridley Scott's Alien.
The creators of the very first Metroid have acknowledged Alien as a major influence, and many players have long noted the parallels: a solitary armored heroine navigating hostile alien worlds, derelict structures that feel half-alive, and a tone of quiet dread.
Because Alien itself is deeply tied to Giger's art, the Metroid series inherited hints of that same biomechanical eeriness.

But Metroid Prime 4 just goes next level with this biomechanical eeriness.
Talks about the game's "yonic" or vaginal-looking aesthetics come from the way it depicts many of its doors.
Lotta vaginas in this game.
[image or embed]— Aidan Moher (@aidanmoher.com) December 5, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Earlier Metroid games incorporated these influences in subtle ways.
For example, Super Metroid has some of enemies, statues, and portions of Zebes that looked like ancient alien fossils or skeletal machinery, and the Chozo statues that cradle Samus’s upgrades have often been compared to the Space Jockey/Engineer designs from Alien. These details were suggestive but somewhat abstract, partly due to the pixel art and hardware limitations of those eras.
Other games in the series kept touches of organic architecture or ominous alien ruins, but the Giger-like tone was inconsistent. Some environments felt purely sci-fi, while others dipped into darker, more organic-horror influences.
Fans have debated for years how directly Metroid borrows from Giger, with some arguing the influence is overstated and others insisting that the series’ atmosphere, isolation, and strange mix of the living and mechanical are unmistakable descendants of Alien’s aesthetic.
Metroid Prime 4, however, presents these influences with far greater clarity thanks to modern hardware and Retro Studios’ more assertive art direction.
that's a vagina
[image or embed]— Cobalon (@cobalon.bsky.social) December 5, 2025 at 8:02 AM
In this case, early levels such as Volt Forge contain arches, chambers, and mechanical-living hybrids that echo the smooth organic curves and dark, womb-like architecture associated with Giger's work.
Players online quickly noticed that several doors in Prime 4 resemble vulvas or yonic shapes, and once a few critics and fans pointed this out, social media filled with screenshots and jokes about "vagina doors."
Metroid Prime 4 empieza con Samus despertándose frente a una vagina gigante y teniendo que disparar al clítoris para abrir las compuertas.
Nadie entiende esta franquicia mejor que Retro Studios.
[image or embed]— Nacho MG (@nachomg.com) December 5, 2025 at 6:20 AM
The discussion caught fire precisely because the imagery feels more overt than in earlier games.
High-definition textures and detailed modeling make the organic shapes more readable, where past titles relied on abstraction. Even if the developers didn’t intend the doors to explicitly resemble human anatomy, the combination of curves, folds, the upper gland, and central openings evokes that interpretation strongly enough that many players immediately latched onto it.
Pleased to report that Vagina Doors are in Metroid Prime 4
[image or embed]— Matt Silverman (@mattsilverman.bsky.social) December 3, 2025 at 3:30 AM
This kind of reaction fits well within how biomechanical art operates.
Giger's designs frequently evoked subconscious human associations without being literal depictions of body parts. Architecture that seems like bone, metal shaped like muscle tissue, or openings that resemble biological orifices were part of the unsettling power of Alien's environments.
And Metroid Prime 4 appears to embrace a similar philosophy: alien structures that feel grown rather than built, technology that seems organic, and shapes that hint at biology without being exact replicas.
MY GAWD #MetroidPrime4 Graphics are absolutely BREATHTAKING
A Masterclass in Visuals at 4K 60fps! One of the best-looking games today on Any Console #NintendoSwitch2 pic.twitter.com/KLiccDb3hf— NintenGOD (@AesirMalos) December 4, 2025
The result is a world that feels simultaneously foreign and disturbingly familiar, tapping into the same primal discomfort Giger's work evokes.
The "yonic doors" have become a focal point of discussion not because they are explicit, but because players are not accustomed to seeing Nintendo-published games experiment so directly with body-horror symbolism, even in a sci-fi context known for its darker tone.
Why is all the discourse on Metroid Prime 4 about Miles and not how all the doors are extremely vaginal? Just curious. pic.twitter.com/rLRXbypR92
— TwoTonTunic (Randyman Machosaveage) (@TwoTonTunic) December 4, 2025
Metroid 4 has vagina doors pic.twitter.com/3GhrYvWaTx
— THANKFUL DAVE (@thankfuldave29) December 4, 2025
In this sense, Prime 4 doesn’t introduce sexual imagery to Metroid so much as sharpen long-standing influences.
Older games had hints of alien biology merged with machinery, but the leap to modern graphics makes those influences more immediate and difficult to ignore.
The shapes that earlier entries implied, Prime 4 expresses more clearly, pushing the atmosphere closer to the source material that originally inspired the franchise.
Whether players take the "vagina door" phenomenon as humorous, uncomfortable, or artistically bold, it reflects how the series is returning to its roots in a more confident and visually expressive way.
thanks vagina temple
happy to see that prime 4 is continuing the tradition of metroid doing the pg13 version of alien's sexual hr giger biomechanica pic.twitter.com/k6zxRsveXj— Sam (@Spainkiller) December 5, 2025
Also the yonic imagery is pretty interesting.
Almost like an inverse of Alien's whole thing, which is cool to me since Metroid does take inspiration from that series + Samus' whole thing pic.twitter.com/bPrJvK7XJh— Nachtflugel Fatali (@Verumleonhart) December 4, 2025
Yonic imagery in shapes that resemble or evoke the vulva, has been part of pop culture for decades, but the internet has made it louder, faster, and funnier.
The moment people online spot a curved, organic-looking doorway or an oddly shaped object, screenshots start circulating and suddenly everyone is talking about "accidental vagina art." That same pattern is now happening with Metroid Prime 4, where several alien doors look unmistakably yonic once you notice their organic folds and curved openings.
This kind of design has a long history in sci-fi, especially through the influence of H. R. Giger.
His biomechanical art blended machinery with human anatomy, flesh, bone, cavities, and all, creating visuals that felt alien but also uncomfortably familiar.
When Ridley Scott hired Giger for Alien, that aesthetic shaped everything: the Xenomorph’s smooth, embryonic skull; the egg chamber; the almost womb-like structure of the derelict ship.
Much of Alien’s horror came from mixing sexuality, birth, and biology with cold machinery, turning environments into symbolic bodies the characters had to move through.

Metroid has always borrowed from this lineage.
From its lonely atmosphere to its ancient alien ruins and even an enemy named Ridley, the series has carried pieces of Giger's influence since the beginning. But earlier Metroid games were limited by their graphics, so any yonic or organic shapes felt abstract.
With Metroid Prime 4, those shapes are sharper and more detailed, and fans immediately noticed. What used to be "alien architecture" now reads as "okay, that's definitely a space vulva."
Whether intentional or just a natural outcome of biomechanical design, Metroid Prime 4 has become part of this larger pop-culture pattern.
Giger did it in fine art, Alien did it in film, and now Metroid is joining the conversation through its game, helping remind the society that when sci-fi mixes the organic with the mechanical, the human mind will always find meaning in the curves.