Mini-Kraid

Mini-Kraid,Super Metroid Nintendo Player's Guide also known as ,Super Metroid Hisshou Kouryakuhou Official Strategy Guide Book ,Metroid Zero Mission Official Site Development Room, as translated by Metroid Database Sclayd,Super Metroid's internal game data. Since "Clayd" is an alternate romanization of Kraid's Japanese name, it's possible that "SCLAYD" is an abbreviated form of "Small Kraid". and baby Kraid,Super Metroid Players' Guide is an enemy in Metroid and Super Metroid. His appearance varies in both games, but he always maintains his trait of being far easier to kill than the actual Kraid.
==Description==
===Metroid===
In the first game, Fake Kraid has the same shape and size as the authentic Kraid. They also share the same attacks (frontal spikes and arching boomerang cutters) and deal the same amount of damage to Samus. The differences between the two characters start at their coloration: the imposter has brown skin and blue fur on his back compared to the original's orange and green colors, respectively. His defences are far feebler as well, as he dies from a single Missile or at the slightest touch of the Screw Attack, a stark contrast from the real Kraid who can withstand 24 Missiles or an unknown multitude of impacts from the latter weapon. The last difference is Fake Kraid will always respawn like a regular enemy if Samus kills him and revisits his room afterwards.
The imposter was potentially the source of much frustration for first-time players of the original Metroid game, as they may have thought, after killing him, that they had achieved one of the requirements of the Stone Statues to access Tourian, considering one of the blue statues is shaped identically to Kraid and consequently his doppelganger too. As a result, players might have left Mini-Boss Hideout 1 prematurely, unknowingly leaving the true target alive. Due to the existence of several paths leading to Kraid, it is possible to miss the encounter with his weaker double.
Fake Kraid does not appear in the remake Metroid: Zero Mission, although his original room is still included in the game.
===Super Metroid===
The doppelganger is visually identical to Kraid's redesign in every way but size and sound; instead of taking up two vertical screens' worth of space, he is only slightly taller than Samus and emits short, high-pitched roars. Now appropriately named "Mini-Kraid", he is found within a long corridor that seemingly combines traits of his previous location and Kraid's room access from the original Metroid game. Before Samus can even see Mini-Kraid, he'll begin shooting his stomach spikes at her from across the other end of the room, requiring quick dodging and Morph Ball maneuvers if she wishes to evade the projectiles and the metal spikes on the ceiling. Once she reaches him, he will occasionally spit out of his mouth a small pair of harmful rock-like objects while continuing his barrage of spikes. Mini-Kraid's entire body is vulnerable to damage and he can easily be killed with two Missiles or one Super Missile. He is one of the few non-boss enemies to have an elaborate explosion upon death, and he will respawn once Samus re-enters his room.
All of Mini-Kraid's attacks are miniature and visually bland versions of Kraid's, and the former can neither strike with his fingers nor throw them. The doppelganger's belly spikes are fired at a faster rate and cause less damage, but his rocks are unexpectedly more powerful: they remove 20 energy points rather than the mere two dealt by Kraid's larger rocks (of which four are launched in a row). A greater discrepency can be seen when Samus makes physical contact with Mini-Kraid as she loses an amount equal to a full Energy Tank of health whereas the authentic Kraid can only remove a maximum of 20 energy points when touched.
Mini-Kraid is a bait-and-switch specifically made for players who previously experienced the first Metroid game. This is because his size and attack patterns closely match the original NES/Famicom incarnation of Kraid, with even the pair of rocks' arching trajectories being a direct callback to the boomerang cutters. In addition, the corridor where he's located has the same menacing face on the ceiling as Kraid's room access in Metroid. All of this is intended to lead players into thinking they were fighting the real Kraid when Super Metroid was first released and simultaneously maintain the custom of featuring a fake double. These intended effects however are lost on a player who experiences any game beforehand that features Kraid's modern design, with Zero Mission especially spoiling this due to how it retcons his original form and also removes Fake Kraid's existence entirely.
==Official data==
===Nintendo Power Volume 29===
Kraid's Hideout (pg. 43)
:A WIMPY IMPOSTER
:"This midget monster imposter is easy to defeat, but it's not the real Kraid."
===Super Metroid Players' Guide===
"You'll meet this ugly little fellow standing outside Kraid's lair. He may look nasty, but a couple of rockets with [sic] complete the job."
===Super Metroid Nintendo Player's Guide===
MINI-KRAID
;C. MINI-KRAID (pg. 56)
:"He's small in comparison to Kraid, but the shots that Mini-Kraid shoots have tremendous range. Blast through the Space Pirates and let Mini-Kraid have it with a flurry of Missiles."
===Nintendo Power Volume 60===
;Mini-Kraid
:"On your approach to Kraid, you'll encounter a small version of the lizard. Plug it with a pair of Missiles."
==Trivia==
*In Super Metroid, Mini-Kraid makes a cry similar to the Alien creature from the film franchise of the same name.
*There is an unused Fake Ridley in the original Metroid. Similar to Fake Kraid, it has a different coloration from the true Ridley and can be killed by a single Missile or at the slightest touch of the Screw Attack. It uses Ridley's fireballs to attack.
*The encounter with Mini-Kraid in Super Metroid may be yet another reference to Super Mario Bros., as Bowser and his imposters also begin firing projectiles from offscreen before Mario eventually comes face to face with them.
*Mini-Kraid appears in The Shape of Happiness. Disguised as an attractive woman, it encounters Samus while she is on her way to kill Kraid. It quickly claims to be the real Kraid, but is killed by Samus. She then discovers him wearing a shirt identifying him as a fake boss. However, she leaves a note on his body identifying him as the real boss, and considers Kraid dead.
*Yoshio Sakamoto referred to False Kraid as possibly one of the development staff's favorite enemy creatures.
*Although Mini-Kraid and Kraid are the same height in Metroid, Nintendo Power volume 29 prophetically referred to it as a "midget monster imposter" in 1991, a few years before Super Metroid depicted Mini-Kraid as a smaller version of Kraid.
*In the Captain N: The Game Master episode Mega Trouble in Megaland, Kraid can be seen twice in a single shot. While this may just be an animation error, it may also be a possible reference to Kraid having a body double in Metroid.
==Gallery==
KraidJ.jpg|Concept art of Kraid and Mini-Kraid from Metroid.
Manga Mini-Kraid.png|Mini-Kraid in Victory Techniques for Metroid.
Captain N Multiple Kraids.png|Possible appearance in Captain N: The Game Master.
Mini-Kraid's room beta.png|Mini-Kraid in an earlier version of Super Metroid.Kottpower. "Super Metroid Beta Footage (1993-1994)". YouTube. August 25, 2017. Retrieved May 21, 2022. (starts at 0:45)
==References==
es:Kraid falso
ru:Мини-Крейд
Category:Zebes
Category:Kraid's Lair
Category:Deceptive
Category:Reptilian
Category:Kraid
Category:Species
Category:Recurring Species
Category:Space Pirates