Metroid: Other M

[Shino]

  Tellyn said:

I just wanted to drop in to say that Other M is amazing. I finished the demo completely, so if you have any questions before the preview, fire away!

 

How is it?

[Jonnas]

Does 2D feel like Super Metroid (Or any 2D Metroid game, really)?

 

And how do those "special 3D moves" work, anyway? (I mean, things like the fancy dodge the other "hands-on" mentioned)

[Nintendohnut]

Not particularly spoiler-y, but if you don't want to know anything about the game then I don't want to be shouted at... There's quite a lot, no gameplay details, just details of the 2D controls and the way in which you switch to/work the first person control method. Sounds interesting...

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The controls are surprisingly uncomplicated. You hold the Wii remote sideways (most of the time, which I'll get to) and finger the D-Pad to move Samus. Digital controls, I know -- but they work very well within the context of the game. Oftentimes, the presentation is quasi-two-dimensional, meaning that despite the fact that the levels are constructed via polygons and full 3D, the viewpoint unfolds via a 2D angle. Samus can walk in and out of the foreground even as she runs left and right. There's a lot more to it than that, though, because the structure of the world enables her the ability to run sideways at one moment and then directly forward via behind-the-back third-person the next. The camera very competently follows the action regardless of your choices or placement, although there are the occasional quirks that need management -- for instance, the character might sometimes walk into the screen as she seeks a door, which is not ideal.

 

The 1 button shoots her beam. Hold it down and she'll unleash a powerful charge attack. You'll quickly find that while there's no real lock-on system from third-person mode, the heroine very accurately auto-targets the nearest enemy. Simply face her into the general direction, press the 1 button and your chances of success are very high. The 2 button, meanwhile, is used for jumping. Press the A button and Aran will go into morph ball mode, at which point she can lay bombs every time you tap the 1 button. If you hold down the 1 button here, you'll drop a single power bomb, capable of burning up everything in the room in a powerful nuclear light. The controls feel very responsive and Samus moves through environments extremely fast -- an attribute of the character missing from the Prime games.

 

There's more, though. Yes, some pro-tips -- for example, if you charge your beam completely and then switch to morph ball, Samus will automatically lay four or five bombs circling her perimeter, which is a great way to quickly dispose of enemies. But if pyrotechnics are not your thing, you can also play defensively. When enemies shoot projectiles, you can cinematically dive out of harm's way if you tap any direction on the D-Pad just before impact. Works flawlessly and looks good, too. Time it just right and Samus can pull off reversals on alien attacks, too. And if you beat an enemy into submission, you can also perform a thrilling finishing move complete with a sweeping camera that spotlights Samus as she cinematically disposes of the poor creature in question.

 

Here, though, is where the gameplay mechanics take on a few distinguishing facets. At any time, and anywhere, if you point the Wii remote at the screen, the action will change to the first-person and you'll be able to take direct control over Aran's beam as you might in the Prime games. There are some differences, however. First, you can't move around in the first-person -- you can only look and shoot. Tap the A button to very rapidly shoot down foes on a static screen. Hold B-trigger and you can actually look around in a full 360-degree radius. The latter is amazingly useful for examining rooms because you will oftentimes see crevices, vents, and more that cannot be easily observed from the quasi-2D viewpoint. It's also useful because when you've got the B-trigger held, you can lock onto potential targets and fire missiles (and presumably other weapons, as you gain access to them) at objects and enemies.

 

Utilizing the Wii remote in this dual fashion is extremely uncommon and there's certainly a very small learning curve to the process -- one more likely to seem difficult in the heat of intense battles. But I have to note, it works really well and I like it. The aim sensitivity on the Wii remote is fast and very reliable. However, I would like the ability to set my turn speed so that I could crank it up a little higher during those situations when I want to thoroughly examine all areas of a room. Right now, it's a bit slow for my liking. (I tried to access the options menu but it was completely disabled.)

 

[LostOverThere]

Tellyn, we need to know. From the information we have, the controls seem weird but a whole heap of hand-ons say it feels great. What is your impression on this?

[Zechs Merquise]

I'm a little worried about this game - summer release seems soooo soon. I hope it'll be polished and finished properly. I get nervous when big releases come out so soon. Also, wtf is going to be the big Christmas game?

[Owen]

  Zechs Merquise said:

I'm a little worried about this game - summer release seems soooo soon. I hope it'll be polished and finished properly. I get nervous when big releases come out so soon. Also, wtf is going to be the big Christmas game?

 

Zelda is your big Christmas game, i think Nintendo should just go all out and make 2010 Wii's year!

 

October release is Wii Relax and the Vitality Sensor!

 

Don't expect anymore from Nintendo this year after that, they would probably collapse with the amount of work they've done in 2010.

[Retro_Link]

  Zechs Merquise said:

I'm a little worried about this game - summer release seems soooo soon. I hope it'll be polished and finished properly. I get nervous when big releases come out so soon. Also, wtf is going to be the big Christmas game?

It'll be over a year since it was shown at E3'09, and it looked at a pretty decent stage back then, I think this will have had a good deal of development time.

[Ren of Heavens]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/metroid-other-m-hands-on

 

They love the control system, but skeptic about it being so storydriven.

[S.C.G]

How the hell is this control scheme even working on a controller that has less buttons than a SNES pad? It looks nice but I'm still concerned on how all the upgrades etc are gonna work.

[Tellyn]

  Shino said:

How is it?

 

Awesome.

 

  Jonnas said:

Does 2D feel like Super Metroid (Or any 2D Metroid game, really)?

 

And how do those "special 3D moves" work, anyway? (I mean, things like the fancy dodge the other "hands-on" mentioned)

 

It's strange, because it's a fully 3D game, and as such you can move along corridors in any direction you wish, not just side-scrolling. The perspective can change a lot sometimes too, which feels pretty cinematic. I found a toilet somewhere on the space station, and the perspective changed to over-the-shoulder, a bit like Resi 4. In other parts, such as running across a wider corridor towards the briefing room, the camera goes behind Samus at a slightly diagonal angle.

 

It definitely still feels like a 2D Metroid though, oddly enough.

 

In regards to those "special 3D moves", you basically tap anywhere on the D-Pad just before a shot hits you to do a Matrix-like jump out of the way. I didn't use them much beyond the tutorial.

 

  LostOverThere said:

Tellyn, we need to know. From the information we have, the controls seem weird but a whole heap of hand-ons say it feels great. What is your impression on this?

 

I loved it, it all seemed pretty natural (SNES/NES style controls for the most part). I personally think we were sat too close to the TVs, so the first-person switch felt quite jumpy, but it seemed to work seamlessly when I physically moved a fair distance away from the sensor bar.

 

  Retro_Link said:

It'll be over a year since it was shown at E3'09, and it looked at a pretty decent stage back then, I think this will have had a good deal of development time.

 

"Many years", according to Tim.

 

  S.C.G said:

How the hell is this control scheme even working on a controller that has less buttons than a SNES pad? It looks nice but I'm still concerned on how all the upgrades etc are gonna work.

 

It's wonderful, it works much better than I thought it would. In terms of upgrades, there are no upgrades beyond Energy Tanks (and probably Missile expansions). Samus has everything available that she usually spends the entire game collecting, but as she's teamed up with the Galactic Federation, she's under the direct control of General Adam Malkovich, who has to authorise the use of weapons. For instance, when you fight a disturbing eye beetle boss with the soldiers, he authorises the use of freeze guns, and later bombs and missiles. He says he'll authorise Samus' weapons as and when needed, but emphasises that she is following his orders. He refuses to authorise the Power Bomb though, since this poses a danger of, um, killing everyone.

Edited February 26, 2010 by Tellyn

[darksnowman]

  Tellyn said:

He refuses to authorise the Power Bomb though, since this poses a danger of, um, killing everyone.

 

I foresee a twisted ending where Samus only remaining option is to drop a power bomb and get outta there toot sweet.

[viceview51]

  darksnowman said:

I foresee a twisted ending where Samus only remaining option is to drop a power bomb and get outta there toot sweet.

Isn't that what Jeff Gerstmann said on his hands-on of the demo (check for the Metroid: Other M hands-on on Giant Bomb, since I'm not allowed to put urls just yet)?

 

About the game, I have my reservations though.

[marcel]

hey guys, you might appreciate the following info. The news comes from the Dutch site wiids.nl.

In the past they got the exclusive release date for Mario kart Wii from an insider and also reported June as the release date for Mario galaxy 2 (3 days before the media summit of this week) in Europe.

 

Now the same insider reported that Metroid other M will be released on July 16th 2010, which falls in the Q3 timeframe that Nintendo Europe reported.

[Owen]

  marcel said:

hey guys, you might appreciate the following info. The news comes from the Dutch site wiids.nl.

In the past they got the exclusive release date for Mario kart Wii from an insider and also reported June as the release date for Mario galaxy 2 (3 days before the media summit of this week) in Europe.

 

Now the same insider reported that Metroid other M will be released on July 16th 2010, which falls in the Q3 timeframe that Nintendo Europe reported.

 

I heard this too...but start of the summer holidays? Not too sure myself...people go on holiday in July/August...not really months to stay in and game..

 

but i hope for Europes sake it's that date, if it is though..why not announce it?

[Jonnas]

  Tellyn said:

It's strange, because it's a fully 3D game, and as such you can move along corridors in any direction you wish, not just side-scrolling. The perspective can change a lot sometimes too, which feels pretty cinematic. I found a toilet somewhere on the space station, and the perspective changed to over-the-shoulder, a bit like Resi 4. In other parts, such as running across a wider corridor towards the briefing room, the camera goes behind Samus at a slightly diagonal angle.

 

It definitely still feels like a 2D Metroid though, oddly enough.

 

In regards to those "special 3D moves", you basically tap anywhere on the D-Pad just before a shot hits you to do a Matrix-like jump out of the way. I didn't use them much beyond the tutorial.

 

Nice The dodges don't sound too appealing, but the rest sounds good.

 

And LOL at Samus' being too dangerous for several allied soldiers

[Zechs Merquise]

  Tellyn said:

I just wanted to drop in to say that Other M is amazing. I finished the demo completely, so if you have any questions before the preview, fire away!

 

Thanks for the impressions, you've made my fears disappear! I hope this is good, I just hate it when you play the big game you've been waiting for and you feel a little 'if only they'd just...' about it. Where you can see the blatent improvements the developers have just ignored.

[Mike]

16th July would be good! And it'd still give me three weeks to finish it before I get married.

[Shino]

  Jonnas said:

Nice The dodges don't sound too appealing, but the rest sounds good.

 

And LOL at Samus' being too dangerous for several allied soldiers

 

The dodges is what's appealing me more, I imagine in harder parts it can get incredibly rhythmic and satisfying if done correctly, making a really good cinematic experience.

[darksnowman]

  viceview51 said:

Isn't that what Jeff Gerstmann said on his hands-on of the demo (check for the Metroid: Other M hands-on on Giant Bomb, since I'm not allowed to put urls just yet)?

 

About the game, I have my reservations though.

 

All I've read on Other M is whats been posted in this thread. I gave that a Google and found the article you're talking about. (You'll be able to post links after you reach a certain post count. )

 

  Quote

Originally Posted by GiantBomb

Before too long, he'll authorize the use of bombs... but not the Power Bomb. The game practically grinds to a halt long enough to tell you that Adam has "no plans to authorize the use of power bombs" because they are TOOOOO DESTRUCTIVE! Even back in the tutorial, your scientist associate raises big metal shutters before you test them out. Though I wasn't able to play long enough to find out, I'm going to take that as pretty obvious foreshadowing that, at some point later in the game, you're going to do something big and bad with power bombs.

 

Looks like me and big Jethro are thinking along the same lines then.

[FalcoLombardi]

Oh man, I'm definitely more excited today than I was 2 days ago.

[LostOverThere]

  Quote

Oh man, I'm definitely more excited today than I was 2 days ago.

This.

 

I actually hope for a August release date in Australia. Don't get me wrong, I really want it, but my exams are in July/early August, so I really don't want it to crush them.

[mcj metroid]

tellyn what was the voice acting like? gonintendo said it was horrific ign used " not so bad" whats your impression?

 

I don't mind OK voice acting but if it's resident evil bad i'd be concerned

[Kav]

The opening cinematic has been posted on YouTube... it's badass! Oh yes it is!

[Dante]

 

GT Interview.

 

 

Behind-the-scenes: New images.

 

Gameplay videos to shown on the 9th of March at GDC.

Edited February 27, 2010 by Dante
Automerged Doublepost

[Kav]

Regarding the voice acting, I'd say it sounds like the voice actors didn't learn their lines but that they're reading them straight from the script as opposed to it being from memory.