Metroid: Other M

The game industry is increasingly moving towards the Hollywood distributor & studio model simply because it's more cost effective.  Designing a game and physically coding a game are two very different skill sets, and it may no longer be cost effective to have them both under the same roof.

So, is anyone playing this?

I haven' finished it yet, but I'm kinda torn on it, I guess.
On one hand, I really like what they've done to the combat, it's very fast-paced and action-packed, and you really have to stay on your toes.
You can tell it's by Team Ninja since it kinda feels like they want you to fight in close quarters, instead of staying at a distance shooting.
You can also tell it's by Team Ninja because it's kicking my ass into next week. I don't even want to think about how many times I've died.

On the other hand, I don't like how it's paced.
Far too many times you'll hit a dead end, and you'll have to track back only for some event to happen in a room you already visited.
It keeps confusing me by locking me into rooms to fight enemies and then NOT giving me something but just expecting me to walk back the way I came. It seems counter-intuitive and, frankly, kinda boring.
I also HATE the bits where you are forced into First Person to look for something really damn tiny in the environment. They totally take the speed and fun out of the game.
And that's pretty much all there seems to be to the puzzles as well.

I can recall the Prime series doing some really great and clever stuff with the morph ball, but in this game the morph ball is just a way to move through narrow corridors and nothing more. It feels like there's something missing...

So in other words, yeah, great combat, some awesome boss fights, but lousy pacing and puzzles.

PS: The new way you "unlock" your abilities is retarded.
I had to slog through an entire lava filled area struggling to stay alive while my health gauge drained, only to be "authorized" to use my Varia Suit at the very end. F*ck that sh*t.

I was reading reviews onnline, and I thought this one was good (although keep in mind,  I have not played the game):

"I bought this game with an open mind,knowing that it was going to be different from others in the series.I don't mind that,I don't mind change in a series such as this, I view it as a good thing assuming it is done well.So when I read negative things about this game, I erroneously assumed that it was just die-hard fans of the series that just couldn't accept the change, and that their bias led them to overlook a good game.I was wrong.Very wrong; The game just isn't that good.

The game starts with some very nicely rendered FMV scenes complete with voice acting (barring comparatively minor sound bites, this is the first Nintendo game to feature voice acting, meaning it has an actual script) however the voice acting is average at best in the game,bordering on horrible for certain characters.

Without spoiling too much, Samus answers a distress signal from a space station, and while there happens upon her old buddies from her squad in the galactic federation, including her former commander.These are terrible characters with no personality,as well as being so unbelievably generic as to be indistinguishable form one another, except of course the black guy and the asian guy, who are so stereotypical it's laughable.

In past Metroid games,as you explored the world(s),you would find along the way,various upgrades,namely new beams for Samus' arm-cannon,grappling hook,as well as upgrades to her suit itself.This was a staple of the games as well as the characteristic music that would play when you found those items.

That's where this game falls apart completely.This game throws away that classic colleciton aspect, in favor of a premise so outrageously stupid and contrived that it completely spoils the game and casts a veil of absurdity over the whole thing.It is This:As you arrive on the spaceship,and meet up with your old gang,it is made apparent through a cut scene that the commander has authority over Samus,who has all her abilities available to her, but she agrees to only use them as he authorizes them,and accordingly they are dispensed every so often as their immediate need arises.This is is just a horrible idea that is executed even worse.Samus is always fighting somehting in this game so why wouldn't she want to be well equipped, and why wouldn't her commander want her to be well equipped?Even more ridiculous yet is you must await authorization of the Varia suit which serves no purpose other than to protect Samus from extreme heat in the lava areas. So she wont turn on a feature to prevent her flesh from melting just because it isn't authorized.Among the game are other examples of that nature. I know it doesn't really effect the gameplay really, but as I said earlier it paints the game in such a ridiculous light that it's very hard for me to get over it.

Onto the controls:In the 3rd person perspective aspects, you hold the Wii remote sideways, which actually works very well, considering you are using a 2 pad to control Samus in 3d.Her movements are very fluid and easy to pull off which is nice.However that is only half the game, the other half is first person.At any given time when you flip the controller and point it at the screen, it shifts into a first person view from Samus' perspective.You can aim up and down and 360 degrees but you can't move around, as if her feet were cememented to the spot.This actually works well alot of the time, allowing for a unique novelty.Unfortunately there are other times where the action is just way too frenzied and there are too many enemies around for this to be practical and I found myself taking damage during the switch because there just wasn't enough time to aim and fire.Also for some ridiculous reason you can only use missles in first person.

There are some very annoying segments that bothered me alot; one of them is when you finish a cutscene, you will sometimes be locked into first person mode, and you can't move until you find a particular object and scan it, sometimes it is so particular it is almost impossible to find.

Another is that occasionally there are some 3rd person segments which do not control like the rest of the game; the camera zooms up behind Samus, and her speed is reduced to a crawl; she may not jump or shoot even.Just walk around.These segments are wholly unnecessary and why the developers included them at all is a mystery to me.

The sad thing is that those problems aside, the game is great. It's very fast paced and the action is excellent, and the graphics, while certainly not the best, can be very vivid and pleasant to look at, with some very pretty areas.The music is somewhat bland I guess but it never becomes annoying.The tragedy is that had the things I complained about been removed, as well as with perhaps scrapping the first person view altogether, this would have been a really great game, but with them, it's basically unplayable."

In regards to

avatar! wrote:

"Without spoiling too much, Samus answers a distress signal from a space station, and while there happens upon her old buddies from her squad in the galactic federation, including her former commander.These are terrible characters with no personality,as well as being so unbelievably generic as to be indistinguishable form one another, except of course the black guy and the asian guy, who are so stereotypical it's laughable."

and

rein wrote:

I've only played for about an hour, but I've already had enough of the self-serious, first-person voiceover, ham-fisted introspection, and gratuitous backstory.  I suppose I appreciate that Team Ninja restrained its T&A impulses, but the plot is still self-indulgent and leaden.

It's hard for me to imagine that there had been a clamor among Metroid fans for an overwrought examination of Samus's psyche, so it seems as though Nintendo has just supplied an overlong answer to a question that hadn't been asked.

I haven't played it yet and have no desire to, but I could see this coming for a long time. The very notion of trying to strap some sort of dramatic story or character study on a series like Metroid that thrived on it's non-verbal appeal to begin with is just ridiculous. This rot began in Metroid Fusion on the GBA. Don't get me wrong, Fusion is a great game, but the parts where they tack on a contrived backstory by way of the computer that guides Samus's missions was horrible, and it foreshadowed what seems to have been taken further in Other M. Seriously, Metroid is a great series, but its hardly gotten to the place it holds in the hearts of gamers by it's "incredible narrative", and that won't change even if Nintendo hired an all-star team of writers headed by Shakespeare himself or something. I guess I can just quote myself verbatim from this thread from over a year ago:

Daniel K wrote:

What I loved about the original 8- and 16-bit games was that the whole game experience was so organic, intuitive and non-verbal: no other human characters, no conversations, no damn cutscene soap-operas. Even such a primitive game as the original NES Metroid from 1986 managed to create a feeling of isolation and creeping dread because it really made you feel like you were alone in a vast, hostile, and unnatural alien world, without any human elements to rely upon. Its one of the aspects that made Metroid so unique and beautiful. This looks like any random half-assed sci-fi soap-opera mixed with generic 3D action gaming.

Daniel K wrote:

This rot began in Metroid Fusion on the GBA. Don't get me wrong, Fusion is a great game, but the parts where they tack on a contrived backstory by way of the computer that guides Samus's missions was horrible

Fusion does feel completely different because of this, but for some reason I actually liked the story revolving around "the computer" even though it really put a cap on exploration. It was flawed, but ironically it was the only thing keeping me in that game because the level design sure as hell wasn't.

Despite not having a Wii I have to say I was somewhat interested in how this prequel was going to continue that narrative, and while I'm disappointed to hear it bogged down the game, I really can't say I'm surprised.

Samus' favorite album: http://www.amazon.com/Ok-Computer-Radio … amp;sr=8-1

Bernhardt wrote:

This is one title I was ready to completely ignore, especially when the GCN Metroids were FPSes.

You're doing yourself a tremendous disservice by not playing the Prime series just because they're FPS.

I'm not particularly fond of FPS's in general either, but the Prime series is excellent.

Random prediction: The next Metroid game will be in traditional 2D style.

Bernhardt wrote:

Well, then there's the whole thing about having to get a GCN controller and memory card (I never had the GCN, and thus, neither the peripherals).

If you have a Wii, you could always get the Trilogy collection.  16:9 and much better controls when you're able to point!

Qui-Gon Joe wrote:

Bernhardt wrote:

Well, then there's the whole thing about having to get a GCN controller and memory card (I never had the GCN, and thus, neither the peripherals).

If you have a Wii, you could always get the Trilogy collection.  16:9 and much better controls when you're able to point!

The Trilogy is nice in that it does include all 3 games on one disk, however there are a number of problems with it.

1)It's expensive, more so than just purchasing the other 3 games separately.
2)It's graphically inferior to the original prime games... yes, surprise!
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/09/metroi … originals/

Still, to each their own. I've only played the first Metroid Prime, and I thought it was very good. Very pretty game, and I loved the fact that there was a lot of back story provided when you scanned enemies or computers. It was a nice subtle storytelling, unlike the newest Metroid which apparently was ruined by making it an unnecessary melodramatic space opera!

Hmmm, maybe soon we'll see Super Mario Drama...

I'm avoiding all Metroid topics since all the Sakamoto bashing is depressing. The game is fun though.

Loved it.  That's not to say that it's not flawed in many ways, but I still loved it.  I don't think it's as good as Prime 1, but it's better than Prime 2 and 3.  The way Samus moves feels perfect.  She has that heavy feeling from the old 2D games, and you can tear through enemies in many creative ways.  My only complaints are the "locked door" story where exploration and revisiting areas are heavily limited by the story (I had the same gripe about Fusion), the weakening of Samus' former "strong, silent type" character in favor of making her a girl with daddy issues, and the lack of Samus' appearance changing when activating new suits.  I would heartily accept a sequel with more open gameplay and less story.  As a side note, this is easily the best game Tecmo's ever made.

I actually enjoyed Metroid Other M a lot.  It wasn't perfect; it did seem kinda short and while the cinema/acting scenes were great, there could have been an option to skip through them.  All in all, however, I thought the game was pretty good.  Not the best Metroid, but a very interesting take.  It's definitely nowhere nearly as bad as some make it out to be.

vert1 wrote:

This game is awful...
-Obnoxious voice narration. Samus is going on-and-on about her life. It is extremely irritating. This game should serve as an example of why Nintendo should never ever allow voice acting in their games...

I have not played the game, and it certainly may be awful. However, just because one game has bad voice acting or is "irritating", that means all Nintendo games should not have voice acting?! I don't understand how you come up with these "logical" deductions! Have you played any of the Professor Layton games? Those were by Nintendo, and I would say the cutscenes would be devoid of life if it were not for the wonderful voice acting.