Samus made her first appearance in Metroid (1986) for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game kept the fact that she was a woman secret (with the intent of surprising gamers after they completed it); even the game's instruction manual refers to Samus as a male. Though believed to be created by Gunpei Yokoi, the original game concepts for Metroid were done by director Makoto Kanoh and designer Hiroji Kiyotake. The original "Metroid" saw Samus on her first mission on the planet Zebes, sent to stop the Space Pirates and destroy Mother Brain, the mechanical life-form that controlled the fortress and its computers. Samus successfully completed the mission. Later, the remake Metroid: Zero Mission would reveal more about Samus's backstory, establishing that she was born on the Earth colony K-