Crocomire

Crocomires are huge, multi-eyed creatures that live in the Norfair regions of the rogue planet Zebes. While apparently thermophilic in nature, they are not capable of surviving being dunked in lava, restricting their movement as they grow older. Young Crocomires are known as Stokes, in a similar manner to the young of cats being called kittens or those of dogs being called puppies. Strangely enough, they seem to be able to survive and in fact mobilize for a very short period of time as a simple skeleton, leading one to assume that they do not move by way of muscles like many organisms do.

The skin of a Crocomire may have a waxy property to it, and when heated to high temperatures becomes sticky and seems almost to perpetually ooze. Not only this, but it is incredibly resistant, a likely indication of how it survives in the heat or the magma-filled pools. Bounty hunters and the like must take care when encountering the rare and dangerous creatures that Crocomires are, as conventional weapon systems such as missiles, super missiles, and even beam technology will simply temporarily push the creature back. Luckily, for the most part Crocomires are relatively sluggish and usually simply lumber about.

While young stokes often breathe gouts of flame, full-grown adults will spit fireballs instead, although how this is done has never been researched, at least not by the Galactic Federation. They also have sharp claws that they will often rake at closer opponents.

Super Metroid
When Samus Aran faced a Crocomire in her second mission to Zebes, she had to push it back far enough to collapse through an old bridge and melt gruesomely in the lava as it desperately tried to escape the death trap, seemingly to no avail. However, in a final attempt to make it out of the lava alive, it same to the other side of the cavern and broke through a wall of spikes that the Space Pirates had presumably set up there to deter the famous bounty huntress. Unfortunately for the Crocomire, it did this with the last ounce of its strength, and it collapsed as a pile of bones.

Crocomire was also planned to make an appearance in Metroid: Zero Mission, but this was probably cancelled due to a time problem. However, the Crocomire can still be accessed by hacking in the gamecode

Trivia

 * It is the only boss in Super Metroid that reacts aggressively when a Power Bomb is used against it.
 * Curiously, while Crocomire is indeed fought in Norfair, it does not seem to be at all adapted to the environment; the creature is inside an unheated room and the lava which it falls into destroys its skin, pointing to the fact it cannot tolerate any form of heat. Why Crocomire was in the unsuitable (and mostly heated) Norfair region is unknown. However, it should be noted that the lava present in the chamber is more intense than the lava seen everywhere else in Upper Norfair; this superheated lava is commonly found only in Lower Norfair, therefore insinuating that Crocomire was possibly adapted to Upper Norfair's more common lava and heated regions.
 * In the second Castlevania title for the Game Boy Advance, Harmony of Dissonance, the player will eventually come to an area called the "Cave of Skeletons." In it, there are giant skulls which can be used as ramps to get to the next part of the area. Since Super Metroid paved the way for many future 2D Castlevania games from Symphony onward, this game appears to pay a specific homage to the franchise by making these skulls bear an uncanny resemblance to the Crocomire's. There has been no official statement about this possible tie.
 * Some Space Pirate weapons look similar to the Crocomire's skull.
 * There is a glitch with the Crocomire. Samus must simply get the Grappling Beam via the reset glitch and grapple its body. The Crocomire is now able to be pulled around with disembodied legs and arms. Its tongue should stay in place, flopping around.
 * If one uses a hacking device to get the Hyper Beam ahead of time and then fires it into the Crocomire's mouth, it will do so much damage to it that the Crocomire will dash straight into the lava after only a single shot.[1]
 * Curiously, when the Crocomire's skeleton falls apart, the sound it makes is similar to that of a Dry Bones from Nintendo's Super Mario series, and it is particularly similar to the sound made by Dry Bowser falling apart at the beginning of the boss battle with him in New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS. Dry Bowser is a form of the series' main villain and a derivative of the Dry Bones species concept. Dry Bowser first appears after the player drops Bowser into a pit of lava (in the classic style of the series); first Bowser rears up out of the lava to roar at Mario, then disappears. Dry Bowser then does the same. Like this brief appearance by the Crocomire, Dry Bones (and therefore Dry Bowser) are also living skeletal creatures. Whether Crocomire's appearance as a living skeleton, only to fall apart moments later, was a reference to the Dry Bones or not, or whether Dry Bowser falling apart at the beginning of his boss battle was meant to be a reference to the Crocomire, is unknown. The similarity is especially striking considering that Dry Bowser is formed when Bowser falls into a lava pit.
 * Oddly, Crocomire's skeleton has only one pair of lower legs when Crocomire has two pairs of lower legs. This may be a result of the creature's skeleton not having been able to remain completely intact after its swim across the room and the destruction of the spiked wall.
 * Crocomire and Spore Spawn are the only bosses in Super Metroid to leave behind remains after their death. In Crocomire's case, it is his skeleton. Kraid and Draygon are two other bosses who leave behind their bodies, but both quickly sink into the ground.
 * Vorash in Metroid: Other M is facially similar to Crocomire.
 * The name Crocomire may be a portmanteau of the two words "crocodile" and "mire."
 * The boss battles with the Omega Metroid in Metroid Fusion, the Kiru Giru in Metroid: Zero Mission and the Desbrachians in Metroid: Other M involve Samus firing at them to push them back, similar to Crocomire.
 * The Super Metroid manga has a strip called Looks Happy, Looks Sad, where Samus jumps onto Crocomire's head and counts its eyes, overjoyed that all eight are completely round. Samus does not notice that the embarrassed Crocomire is crushing her with the Spikes on the wall.
 * In Donkey Kong Country Returns, made by the studio that created the Metroid Prime Trilogy, has what appears to be Crocomire's skull in the background of the Foggy Fumes level.
 * Crocomire's roar is similar to that of Titanosaurus, a monster from the Godzilla series.

Appearances

 * Super Metroid