After an entire generation of Prime titles, Nintendo decided to return to the roots of the Metroid series, continuing it after the highly lauded Super Metroid. With a surprising partnering with Team Ninja to assist with the cinematics, does this team-up change the series, or hold it back and prevents it from being a masterpiece?
Story:
Other M’s story starts out with a recap of Samus and her exploits on Planet Zebes and her eventual return to the Galactic Federation. While on exploration in space, she receives a distress signal and goes to respond. She reaches a station and shortly after docking meets a few familiar faces from her old GF days. After a teaming up, thy soon learn, this station has quite a few secrets of its own. With Samus taking the lead, they intend on finding out what is going on and what is really going on.I’ll just come right out and say it, I’ve only played a handful of Metroid titles, but the ones I have played generally use this as a starting narrative. Samus goes to a planet/destination (seems innocent enough), chaos erupts, save the galaxy; wash, rinse, repeat. Now does that mean it’s a bad story? Well, no. Tons of same ideas and stories have been used for years now, it’s how they’re tweaked and spun that truly shows new life in an idea or story. Unfortunately, Other M’s story just takes a bit too long for one to get too concerned for it. About 75% through the game, the twists start unveiling and the action really picks up,…and then it ends. It’s rather abrupt in my opinion. Yes, there is a bit after the credits where Samus can go and finish the job, but it’s mainly a device to encourage 100% completion of the game.
Luckily, you’ve got the amazing team at Team Ninja handling the cinematics for the game, and their talents were NOT wasted. The CG looks great, and seeing a lot of the characters in a new way was very welcome. However, you can bury the poo as deep as you can, but you’ll still smell it. I can’t tell you how happy I was to see an old enemy makes his return, but afterward, get bored again. This is a rare occurrence where someone has the opportunity to broaden their characters and practically does nothing with it. It’s almost as though they tested with Metroid, on whether or not they could do it. I must say, I’d rather them do it on Samus and her universe rather than Link or Mario. You know, Nintendo’s BIG franchises!
Gameplay:
Other M’s gameplay is almost as archaic as you can get. As you undoubtedly know by now, you play Other M like a NES/SNES game, holding the controller horizontally. And while that’s nice, in order to take out some of the bosses or enemies, you must turn the Wiimote towards the screen and enter first person mode. Unfortunately, in a heated battle, that can be a bit disorienting, and can lead to quite a few deaths. Perhaps it relates to my skills as a gamer, but I never fully mastered the controls, even by endgame. I truly think they should have just kept it a 2-D control scheme, with no first person mode.Another fault I had with the controls was with the d-pad. Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Nintendo’s d-pads, just not the way it was used for Other M. basically, there is NO 8/16/32/64/etc. running system, it’s strictly a 4 way directional pad. So what that boils down to, is when you’re running down a hallway, you must stop, turn, then proceed, it’s not fluid at all. Albeit, it’s not a huge stop, but there is 0 momentum when you continue your run, it’s rather irritating. It’s hard to imagine why they didn’t let one use the analog stick to control Samus.
I should clarify, this only happens when you're running down a straight hallway/corridor, when you're in a circular room, it controls a lot better. This might just be small pet-peeve of mine, so don't let it discourage that much, but if this has occurred to you in the past, you'll probably notice here and loathe it too.
Also, whoever decided that when Samus enter close quarters she must move like a tank, WTF?! While these moments are few and far between, they are unacceptable. This is NOT a Resident Evil or PS1 game, which was unnecessary, for shame, Nintendo, for shame. On the other hand, the dodge mechanic was a nice addition, it really helped keep the battles interesting so they didn’t become dull "shoot, shoot, shoot" endeavors. As were the lethal strikes. Running up on a downed enemy only to stylistically destroy them was somewhat endlessly entertaining. And with Team Ninja’s style behind it, it was over-the-top a lot of the time!
Presentation (Graphics and Sound):
Why, why did you let/have Samsus talk? Or better yet, why did you not get someone who doesn’t sound like a robot? Samus Aran has always been mute, and now we know why, she’s irritating when she opens her mouth. It really wouldn’t have been so bad if she weren’t the main character. The rest of the cast is more tolerable, perhaps better. Somehow, they just found someone in the office with ovaries and said “You, record these lines, please! ... No, no, we need you to deliver them drier. Lose all emotion, thanks!”Ugh, even Team Ninja’s couldn’t save the scenes where she decided to open her yapper. Hopefully you can tune her out and just watch the gorgeous CG cutscenes they throw at you. While they're not nearly as excessive as a Square RPG, Team Ninja found a good balance for the cutscenes. They’re beautiful when used, but they don’t bog down the gameplay, or keep the controller out of your hands for too long. The aforementioned “reuniting” scene especially had my eyes drying out from not blinking. Very well done, and it almost makes me wish they were strictly a cinematic maker and not just a boob-bouncing fighting game company.
On the soundtrack side of things, we have the music, and honestly, besides a few commonplace themes, nothing really stood out to me as noteworthy. It’s mainly orchestral during the cinematics and haunting during the gameplay segments. I’m sure more adept Metroid fans will correct me and ultimately love it, but I’m going to pass on looking for this soundtrack upon its release.
Final Thoughts:
Ultimately, this a game for Metroid fans, but not quite. Metroid fans will LOVE that you can finally continue the Super Metroid story, but not the route you must follow to do so. The gameplay is fun, but problematic, and the acting from the main character is HORRENDOUS!! I can’t see anyone enjoying it, at all. This is a damaging entry into the unanimously enjoyable franchise. Hopefully, Nintendo does not go this path again and just gives gamers what they really want: a 2-D Metroid for the 3DS (or would that technically make it a 3D Metroid..?). Or at the very least, a new game in the vein of Prime.Final Score: 7 out of 10