Metroid: Other M

[Trynant]

If you have a Wii, and you like Super Metroid......

...

you probably shouldn't bother with Other M.

Good lord, the cutscenes are terrible and you can't skip them. Gameplay is meh* but I don't understand what was going through Team Ninja's/Nintendo's heads when they put the horrid story in.

Spoiler

Dear lord the thumbs down scene is so laughably bad.

Here's a commercial if you don't believe me.

[m]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlmMDbXxLw4[/m]

:tdown:

*the controls are great but the linearity, the change to health and missile replinishment (i.e. no more creatures dropping health and ammo), and the pointlessness of first-person are all pretty stupid.

 

[Fuzzle]

I read a few reviews, but this guy's half an hour rant on it sums up what I feel they dropped the ball the most on.

tldr: Samus always stood out as a strong female heroine who didn't take orders from anyone, and they pretty much turned that on it's head. It's like they did it on purpose.
In one of the cutscenes my friend showed me, Samus freezes up in fear as a boss roars, and a guy has to come and rescue her.

The way the new upgrade system works is that she has all her stuff from the start, just that she (I wish I was joking) needs to get permission from her love interest before using them.

 

[SleepyHe4d]

What about the lab part where it looked like some cloning bull**** or multiple suits were going on? Just curious about that part from some of the trailers.

I pretty much expected the game to suck though, I have no idea why everyone was so hyped up about it.

 

[Jackal]

so I guess I'll skip this one and try Metroid Prime then. It looked really cool, but I've never played any of the Metroid games on the wii.

 

[dotnetbeast]

I have only one question.






Who's the chick?

 

[Mister_Prophet]

I read a few reviews, but this guy's half an hour rant on it sums up what I feel they dropped the ball the most on.

I'm sorry, but that link has a commercial in front of it and the dude just takes waaay too long to get going.

-----

In regards to the game, I've only had time to play a little of it at work and the first thing that came to mind was that it takes my chief criticism of Metroid Prime 3 and exasperates it; gameplay mechanics that are simply too twitchy on the Wii Remote.

I haven't had a chance to play the game in full, and I certainly consider myself a Metroid fanboy. But just from what I've had a chance to touch myself and given the complaints some friends have made (the thing everyone seems to be talking about is the questionable way Team Ninja handled the "backstory" to one of gaming's principle female protagonists) I can say that so far it seems to be of quality below Prime's standards. But I cannot say more until I get a chance to play the game through. The most I can say about it now is that I had several Metroid Hunters flashbacks.

I pretty much expected the game to suck though, I have no idea why everyone was so hyped up about it.

Probably because in their entire run no single Metroid game made before this one was ever "bad," and quite a high quantity of them were "great." It's very easy for hype to blossom when a series has been going since 1986 and hasn't screwed up yet. This is a first for Metroid, where general reception and reviews are so fragmented. I don't even think Hunters had this kind of reaction.

 

[Big-Al]

poop

 

[Capt.Toilet]

so I guess I'll skip this one and try Metroid Prime then. It looked really cool, but I've never played any of the Metroid games on the wii.

If you are lucky you may find the wii collection for a decent price. If not good luck finding the first 2 games on the GCube.

As for this new game. I had my doubts when it was announced Team Ninja would be developing. While I am relieved we didn't get a big breasted Samus, I do see however that the puzzles took a backseat, or at least that is what I am getting from the reviews. I still have yet to finish Prime 3 so it will be a bit before I give this a go.

 

[Plumb_Drumb]

MP and MP2 are all over Amazon, just expensive and not always complete.

Awesome game though, the first one. (haven't played the second one)

 

[dragonfliet]

I'm curious what people think about all the hullabaloo over the G4 review. Should game reviewers DARE to discuss a game critically, or should they simply evaluate the component parts and slap on an aggregated score?

~Jason

 

[Trynant]

I'm curious what people think about all the hullabaloo over the G4 review. Should game reviewers DARE to discuss a game critically, or should they simply evaluate the component parts and slap on an aggregated score?

~Jason

I hope last sentence in your post was rhetorical.

Totally agree with that article. EDIT: And for that matter the G4 review sums up nicely how I feel about the game (albeit I might have even more complaints about this game). I see way too many posts by gamers who can't handle valid criticisms of their favorite games, belittling themselves and the games they love with their zealotry.

The "fans" of this game are especially ridiculous, however. How so many people could change their minds about the change of Samus' character and the way Metroids play so fast baffles me.

I was shocked to see so many fan(boy)s for this game. I considered myself a Metroid series fanatic until this game out. Now I realize I'm just a Super Metroid/Metroid Prime fanatic.

But really, you have to have been way too young to have played Super Metroid if you like this cutscene:

[m]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpplIHaZuac[/m]

 

[xMurphyx]

It's like they hated Super Metroid, its strong female lead character and the sparse narration but now they finally got their hands on the franchise so they could strangle it... Samus is a stupid, dependent chick hero now and there's overly long, over-explaining, vapid first-person narrator babble.

It's a parody. It has to be. I guess I could find that hilarious if that video above there wasn't quite as brain-freezingly cringe-worthy. It's funny, alright, but I just have to tap out. Maybe one day.

 

[Fuzzle]

q

 

[Mister_Prophet]

I'm curious what people think about all the hullabaloo over the G4 review. Should game reviewers DARE to discuss a game critically, or should they simply evaluate the component parts and slap on an aggregated score?

~Jason

The review gives the game a fair shake, to put it mildly. The comments regarding the review...are disappointing, but certainly no more infantile than the average fanboy comments for anything else, game or movie or what have you.

Ah well. You had a good streak Samus.

 

[Wail of Suicide]

I haven't played the game but from the looks of it their narrative seems to be trying to play the popular method of adding depth via interior monologue. Would we see the same type of complaints if a Halo prequel were released showing John117 giving a similar dear-diary style monologue about his past relationship with a commanding officer? Probably not IMO.

 

[toniglandyl]

as said in nerf-now :

 

[Trynant]

I haven't played the game but from the looks of it their narrative seems to be trying to play the popular method of adding depth via interior monologue. Would we see the same type of complaints if a Halo prequel were released showing John117 giving a similar dear-diary style monologue about his past relationship with a commanding officer? Probably not IMO.

Are you kidding? Plenty of Halo fans would be pissed off if that happened.

And probably a lot of fans would tar and feather the former fans because Halo, like Metroid, is seen by a lot of blinded fools as a shining beacon of gaming awesomeness that can do no wrong.

 

[Firefly]

and still no nude skin hack

pfff

 

[xMurphyx]

I can't wait for Team Ninja's next project. An as of yet untitled Half-life sequel where Gordon Freeman is a bare-chested, oiled-up body-builder who traded his crowbar in for a chainsaw and who talks as much as any Eddie Murphy character from the 80s. It's gonna be great.

 

[Wail of Suicide]

Are you kidding? Plenty of Halo fans would be pissed off if that happened.

And probably a lot of fans would tar and feather the former fans because Halo, like Metroid, is seen by a lot of blinded fools as a shining beacon of gaming awesomeness that can do no wrong.

Sure, plenty of "them" might be pissed off. To a certain extent inevitable when you go from cipher to actual character.
But I'm mostly speaking to the critical reaction (as in, reviewers) who seem to object pretty much on the grounds of representing a female character as feminine or even having the gall to take orders from a commanding officer. Just silly considering how much critical sneering there is toward chiseled-jaw masculine characterization but if you step away from that with a female character you're toast.