A special thank you to MDb Discord member Tsukiyomaru0 for bringing this cool character (with obvious nods to our favorite bounty hunter) to our attention. Franke is a character from the 2016 mobile tower defense game Metal Slug Attack. The Metal Slug Fandom Wiki describes Franke as:

“a former human scientist who admired the Invaders so much that she grafted half of an Invader onto herself. She’s somewhat mad and wants to create a new breed of human-invader hybrids like herself. She uses an advanced battle suit since she is not as good in hand-to-hand combat like the other prominent Invaders.”

Franke in-game sprite animations.

Franke was released just last year, in Metal Slug Attack, and (in a likely homage to her inspiration) her appearance coincided with Metroid’s anniverary 8/6/18. We here at the MDb just love the character design and her backstory is twistedly-cool.

Do you know of any more Metroid influences/homages or cameos that we may have missed? Let us know!