Other M - Why Does It Suck So Badly?

[Terronium-12]

I'd imagine it'd be pretty hard finding another Metroid fan here (personally, I only know of one other) but if there are any here lurking about on the fence trying to decide whether or not Other M should join their Metroid collection, the short answer is "Hell to the No", the long answer is as follows:

First, the positives...

- You'll appreciate the homage to the classic gameplay style (think NES). I know I did/do.

- Samus (finally) has a voice. Okay, I'm all for change provided it's reasonable and doesn't deviate from the integrity of whatever the subject matter is. More on that later.

- If you've played Zero Mission you'll finally get to find out who Adam is.

- A backstory.

That's just about where I'd stop complimenting the game however and here's why:

Samus may have a voice, and while it fits her (never heard her Japanese voice actor) you might find yourself regretting the desire to ever know what she'd sound like -- she never shuts up. Now while I don't have a problem with a talkative heroine, Samus has become Captain Obvious and more disappointingly, a seemingly immature insecure brat looking to be vindicated by her former Captain Adam whatever-the-hell-his-last-name-is. What? Since when has Samus, a bounty hunter who does what an entire Galactic Federation is unable to, needed to be vindicated by anyone? She's more of a man than most tough guys, hell she's tougher, braver, and more mentally stable than an entire battalion. Where's this "I want your approval" BS coming from? I'm a little fuzzy on why she originally left the GF to become a bounty hunter but I'm pretty sure Other M skews that as well. If you're coming from the Prime trilogy then don't even bother with this, don't even expect to find the same enjoyment you found in Prime. For some reason Nintendo thought it best to contract Tecmo and Team NINJA to give Metroid a different feel, a complex and enriched environment, perhaps even give proper insight into why Samus is the way she is. Well, they didn't succeed, not in my eyes. What they did achieve was tarnishing the "tough as nails" reputation Samus had.

Now, unless the next Metroid totally resuscitates her proper M.O and mannerisms (as in Retro is back on the scene or another in-house developer just as capable), all I'll ever see now is some insecure woman who wants to be vindicated.

 

[Akira AC]

Team Ninja, that's why (me thinks, also "Yahtzee", the dev team always have weight in the quality of games).

 

[Terronium-12]

I have an incredibly low tolerance for it. The recharge mechanic is fine but it's the special maneuvers and attacks that annoy me. Usually when I'd die, so would the game.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going back to the classics and Prime (which, coincidentally is a classic...technically).

 

[yoman297]

Jeez... a similar reaction to gt5 when it came out... look at the good side of things, sheesh.

 

[Terronium-12]

Jeez... a similar reaction to gt5 when it came out... look at the good side of things, sheesh.

Excuse me?

Her portrayal actively goes from 'Ice Queen' to 'Reliant upon what someone else thinks of her'. And what does GT5 have to do with anything?

 

[F1 fan]

Samus may have a voice, and while it fits her (never heard her Japanese voice actor)

This is her Japanese voice.

 

[Cowboys965]

I played the Metroid series before, but that's when I had a Wii and a DS

 

[Tornado]

Team Ninja, that's why (me thinks, also "Yahtzee", the dev team always have weight in the quality of games).

For some reason Nintendo thought it best to contract Tecmo and Team NINJA to give Metroid a different feel, a complex and enriched environment, perhaps even give proper insight into why Samus is the way she is.

Not Tecmo. Not Team Ninja. Sakamoto. Everything wrong with the game; The stupid controls, the terrible story, the unskippable cutscenes, the linearity, the idiotic story justifications for the character progression, the stupid game decisions only included to limit the nuisance of the even stupider ones; was personally foisted on Team Ninja by Sakamoto during development.

Sakamoto fought to make Other M as bad as it was, and Nintendo let him despite the tidal wave of complaints that started pouring in about his ideas long before the game even came out. He even had the balls to keep trotting out to the press and saying that his stupid ass ideas were good, and that everyone who disagreed was an idiot. He is the Takashi Iizuka of the Metroid series, and I'm quite glad that Other M will likely finally be the straw that gets rid of him.

Jeez... a similar reaction to gt5 when it came out... look at the good side of things, sheesh.

Can't imagine how you thought this post was relevant, but I'll bite.

Good side of things for Other M:

Nintendo probably won't let Sakamoto touch another Metroid game again.
Nintendo will never let another Metroid game like Other M be released again.

Other than that, I got nothing, because there isn't anything.

 

[Terronium-12]

That's something I forgot to mention before, the controls. They appear easy enough at first because all you're doing is pressing either A, 1, or 2, right? If only it were that simple...there are special maneuvers you can do that require you to press the d-pad in conjunction with the 1 button in whichever way you're facing and either dodge, perform some unique kill shot, or whatever else there is. Turning the Wii-mote right side up also gets annoying after a while as well.

Why do you need to do that you ask? For some reason it was deemed comfortable and even worthwhile to position the controller in such a way that you enter 'Search Mode' and in this mode it's basically a first-person perspective like in Prime...except you can only pivot your head from left to right, you can't move at all. There's also the annoying recharge and weapons charge mechanic and while the charge beam is nothing new at all, waiting for the meter to fill feels out of place and downright unnecessary. If you let go before it maxes out, you'll only fire a normal shot. If you're in a pinch and low on health, you can refill your health meter, irrespective of how many energy tanks you're in possession of because it only refills one. So, I have to ask....what's the point? I honestly wish I had pirated Other M (even though I would have had no way of playing it), perhaps then I would have enjoyed it more.

 

[Akira AC]

I will say that the Wii hardware might have some part in Other M's awfulness, but then that opinion might be subjected because I really do hate the Wii hardware and input methods, I like what they do with Prime back on the Gamecube, maybe they should avoid the silliness and just do what Monster Hunter tree did and map a good classic controller layout.

But that's just me, and I still believe that Team Ninja has more weight in the Other M awfulness, Team Ninja has a record of doing "visually pleasant" female characters, the problem is that such experience in this area will make them do some mistakes, the lack of experience in the Metroid "theme" also contributes to the making of certain mistakes.

Apart from that, the lack of writing experience also points towards some of the failures present in the game, needless to say, the artists will not fix the mistakes done by writers, and for Team Ninja(who also makes CGI videos) the creation and production of cinematic seems to be primordial.

And bla, bla, bla... Prime for the win.

 

[Terronium-12]

Actually, the controller mapping is of a classic layout, it's the special actions that are tedious and deviate from the whole thing, and despite everything else the cinematics are great...as is Samus.

She's just as hot as she's ever been. Perhaps even moreso now.

Also, I'm pretty sure it's been pointed out that Team Ninja (or Tecmo) had very little (if anything at all) to do with this catastrophe. They just followed the outline given to them it seems.