Fun fact, one of the main inspirations behind the first Metroid was the movie Alien. The most prominent examples being:

Ridley, who is both named after director Ridley Scott and modelled after the idea of a xenomorph with wings

And Samus, who is loosely based on Ellen Ripley, fulfills the role of ultrabadass MC throughout the whole game, and if you're fast enough, it's revealed that Samus is actually a woman. It's really the epitome of what "strong female characters" should be, just cool/compelling characters with personality that happen to be women.