Congrats!

As a bonus for reading this far, have an honorable mention: the suit Samus wears in Smash 4 and Ultimate.

It's based on the Other M suit, but gets rid of the plastic-y feel and adds some much-needed detailing and a metallic sheen. Still kinda smooth and bland, but a marked improvement over Other M.

Speaking of Prime 4, I'm already really liking its suits. While I wish they had the iconic Varia Suit shoulders, I think they both look pretty great.

I also feel like there will be another one; the white suit was shown on Nintendo JP's website, and it's not like them to show everything like that.

Even in the upcoming Metroid Prime 4, the design of Prime 2's Varia Suit is still largely unchanged. The green and orange lighting of the armor and arm cannon have been changed to purple to suit the game's identity, and the "third eye" was added, but the suit itself is more or less exactly the same.

Other further details involve an overall thicker look to the outer Varia Suit plating, more detailing on the yellow Power Suit base layer, and more visible segments on the red chest plate. The facemask is also recessed further into the visor, helping it appear more form-fitting.

The lights lining Samus's legs were embellished upon, recessed into the suit itself and made brighter to make it look like they're shining through a gap in the armor plating rather than simply running along the surface, adding a sense of depth and layering to the suit's look.

The biggest room for improvement in Prime 1's Varia Suit design was the helmet, and boy was there improvement in Prime 2. The rounded parts on the side were narrowed, as well as the facemask part near the bottom. The visor has a more angular design as well, giving Samus a much fiercer look overall.

As far as I can tell, there is no actual difference between the Varia Suit in Prime 2 and Prime 3, other than the slight improvements in model detail and lighting thanks to the Wii's marginally more powerful hardware. That is, of course, a good thing; no need to mess with perfection.

1: Varia Suit (Prime 2)

Many people are unaware that there's even a difference between Prime 1 and 2's Varia Suits. But Prime 2 tweaked the design it in various ways to end up with what is absolutely the best look the suit has ever had.

I'm going to need a few posts to go over why it's so amazing.

2: Phazon Suit (Prime)

Prime's Varia Suit corrupted by Phazon. It sports a very dark black-and-silver color scheme with a red visor and highlights, as well as a vignette around the suit in-game that shows the Phazon radiation literally... well, radiating off of it. This would be #1, if not for...

3: Varia Suit (Prime)

Prime's Varia Suit is not without its flaws. Mostly, the head and visor are too rounded, and the segments between the armor's plates are a bit poorly defined; but it approached perfection of the design.

4: Gravity Suit (Prime)

I'll talk more about Prime's Varia Suit design in a moment, but its Gravity Suit is a perfect alternative. With a duller color scheme than most of the Gravity Suits in the series, with bright light blue highlights and visor, it has a very clean look, especially underwater.

5: Gravity Suit (Zero Mission)

A Zero Mission exclusive that didn't exist in the original Metroid, this was, chronologically, the first time Samus acquired her "full-powered suit" that she'd wear for the rest of the series. Slightly more embellished than Super Metroid's, and ranks higher for it.

6: Varia Suit (Super)

There isn't much to say about this one. It's the same as what you just saw above, only with the usual Varia Suit colors. Fantastic, but not without room for improvement.

7: Gravity Suit (Super)

The first appearance of the Gravity Suit in game order release. The image provided is also a fan mock-up, a color edit of the Varia Suit art. It's everything the Varia Suit should be, with what would become an iconic color scheme for the Gravity Suit. No notes, great design.

8: Gravity Suit (Samus Returns)

While I bemoaned a bit of the mechanical bulk of Samus Returns's other suits, I think it fits the Gravity Suit very well, between the darker color scheme and, again, the implication that each suit upgrade builds upon what's underneath it. Very good design overall.

9: Varia Suit (Return of Samus)

It's actually impressive that the iconic Varia Suit design was nearly perfected all the way back at Metroid 2. It's got its flaws, but this overall look would become the basis that all of Samus's future suits were designed after.

10: Varia Suit (Dread)

The Varia Suit upgrade in Dread builds onto the Power Suit's redesign, while restoring some of the iconic color scheme. The white body and sinewy-looking underlayer helps it maintain its weakened look, which keeps its unique feel compared to other Varia Suits.

11: Power Suit (Dread)

The lore behind this suit is that Samus's Power Suit from Fusion is slowly recovering its form after the events of that game. It wonderfully blends the organic look of Fusion's suits with a more standard overall shape, and has a wonderfully angular shape to the visor.