gigantic fuckin nerds, every single one of you, regardless of your position. i'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you.

They are aesthetically cool. The color has a really cool futuristic pop to it and the thought of rocket kicks are really cool. It also puts Samus in a tip-toe foot position, which is synonymous with ninja-esque runs, being light on the feet and pointing the foot downward. I think of Chell and Raiden in this regard; agile and can jump and land with ease. I believe they went with heels because of this reason and because a platform shoe attachment or large boots would look jarring for being oversized.

Besides, Sakurai removed tripping...

All this sexism talk seems to be a knee-jerk reaction; "heels on a fighter/strong female icon?" Classifying something as sexist is based on a sole principal; does it restrict a gender in roles or potential? In terms of combat, not at all. She is a character grounded in games with an upgrade based progression system. She kicks more ass with them, and it's definitely not a question of competence (though I did see someone make that claim :| )

But, then we get to the difficult question; is it sexist because she "has to look pretty". While nothing is grounded to reality in these games, the parallel to the real world is prevalent; its hard to do things in heels. Yet, that just makes it ridiculous; not sexist. In our fiction, we have mages in robes or dresses that go down to their feet and we equate this lack of armor to function; embroider robes and dress are mystical and don't restrain the body. The function and the design of the boots tell us they are action based. Case and point, she isn't wearing them for herself to meet some kind of sexiness quota. However, what was sexist was the Other M interpretation; she has hi-heels on the Zero Suit:

"The combat suit she wears under armor had to have heels... Something tells me that it would make the power suit boots paper thin trying to get all that heel in."

Yet I still have to ask, "did her shoes, themselves, have to meet a sexiness quota?" If they did, it would be sexist, telling the audience she can only wear sexy equipment. Well, I don't know about you, but I think the heels are sexy, because sci-fi chic is sexy. Joking aside, there is no quota in Smash Bros or Metroid, as they aren't selling the females as Sex Objects or strictly feminine. If clothing or a trait is attractive, and if it doesn't give sex object status, extreme implausibility, or weakness, then is it a problem? If anything, I may be fighting an uphill battle for plausibility, but just because Samus is a strong character doesn't mean she can't be attractive in any way beyond being a super-alien athlete.

Overall, Samus' rocket heels have a reason to exist, and even if they are considered sexy, so what? They are more believable than breast-only plate armor and, in the context of the world, they aren't telling me that girls can only wear sexy equipment and, therefore, are sex objects; instead they tell me you can look chic during a fight.

Attractive characters aren't automatically sexist; the worlds they are put in decide if they are sexist or not.