Metroid: Other M

[darksnowman]

I'm trying to enjoy this game, but finding it very clumsy.

 

This game has some redeeming features, but I'm afraid I'm finding it a chore at the moment.

 

Happy days. You've seen the light!

 

...

 

OK, I take back the above rant.

 

It just suddenly became a lot more fun for me.

 

 

Alright, carry on your Metroid loving then.

[Grazza]

I'm grumpy again now because there's no save point after the "final" boss. There's a lengthy cutscene afterwards, followed by a section much more difficult than the boss. I've had to turn it off, wasting an hour or so.

[Cube]

http://www.game.co.uk/Games/Wii/Action-Adventure/Metroid-Other-M/~r342343/?hideflag=1

 

£9.98 in-store at Game.

[Eddage]

http://www.game.co.uk/Games/Wii/Action-Adventure/Metroid-Other-M/~r342343/?hideflag=1

 

£9.98 in-store at Game.

 

Seems to be that price online as well. I just ordered it, expecting to have to pick it up at a store tomorrow, but it let me select home delivery. Hopefully it'll be here by Saturday!

[Tissue Town]

I've never bought this. It even felt like a waste of time to rent. Can't say I'd be excited if they announced some for of a sequel to this.

[Wii]

http://www.game.co.uk/Games/Wii/Action-Adventure/Metroid-Other-M/~r342343/?hideflag=1

 

£9.98 in-store at Game.

 

Crap, I bought this at Christmas for €35. I liked this game not as good as Super Metroid but that's the Holy Grail of gaming greatness. 3rd person has far more potential mixed with 1st person perspective than sticking with the formula of the Metroid Prime series.

 

I hope we see a sequel and build upon the succeses of the first game.

[Fierce_LiNk]

No no NO. This is horseshit.

 

Screw you, I like the idea. As earlier said, it's a welcome change to "oh noes, I has to find my body parts."

 

I've been playing this for about 3 or 4 hours tonight, and I'm reeeeally, really, reaaaaally fucking loving this game.

 

I've just fought Ridley and pursued the traitor which led me to Madeline, who revealed the story to me. I realised earlier than Madeline Bergstrom (or whatever her name is) has the initials MB, like Mother Brain, heh. Wonder where this goes.

 

The scene where you confront Ridley is fucking brilliant. You enter the room, then you gain the super missiles enabling you to let the lava into the room. Seeing Ridley rising up and landing onto the platform was like watching Lucifer in hell or something. Reeeeally enjoyed that scene. Particularly when it flashed back to Adam in the control room, then back to Samus who was frozen.

 

The fight itself was great, too. I also loved the other boss that I fought not too long before this one (Vorash). A great way to use the grappling beam to pull him onto the platform before missiling him. Very Zelda-esque.

 

 

I don't know how far I am from the end, but I don't really want this game to finish. Loved every second of it.

[James McGeachie]

The authorisation method of attaining powerups would be absolutely fine if it made logical sense. Like even if we saw Adam away from the screen for a while before deciding Samus could use the Varia suit while she was burning to death, something to explain why there was any reason he wouldn't authorise that for fucking ages, or why Samus was totally cool with it.

[Grazza]

Completed it last night.

 

On the negative side, I found the "Dragon's Lair", "over-the-shoulder" and "Where's Wally?" moments very clumsy. The first time the latter happened, I honestly thought my game had gone wrong, and looked on the internet to see if it was a bug. There were also fights where you were forced into a certain perspective (eg. after the final boss) and had to do exactly the right thing, which seemed baffling and obscure to me.

 

I also somewhat agree with the critics of the story, but I don't want to put the boot in about that. When it comes to cutscenes, my theory is "less is more", although I did find the "thumbs down" thing quite cute.

 

Onto the positives, of which there are a lot:

 

The 3rd-person perspective and the general speed of Samus took the series back to how it's meant to be. I also liked the hand-to-hand combat. Team Ninja made the Wall Jump and Space Jump much more intuitive to control than the Prime games (sometimes I wonder if Retro Studios just wanted to frustrate us).

 

Also, despite a few baffling moments, none of the bosses feel like hitting a brick wall (as long as you know what to do). Nothing in this game frustrated me like the Metroid Prime or Spider Guardian - it's not that sort of difficulty - which I think is a good thing. Other M doesn't feel as big or important as the Prime series, but it's sort of more fun.

 

I didn't mind the linearity, and showing which rooms still have upgrades gets a big thumbs up from me. Furthermore, the post-game is brilliant, as you gather all the remaining items and find many more paths, making the maps much bigger and more complicated. Sheer Metroid bliss.

 

Whilst I don't think Other M should exactly be the "template" for a future Metroid game, Nintendo should not ignore all the ways it has put the series back on track.

 

Verdict: fun, but obscure. Well worth playing if you're fond of the series.

[Goron_3]

Funnily enough Fierce, the Ridley scene was actually one of my most disliked parts of the game and one of the reasons there's been a backlash against it.

 

'Oh no it's Ridley, it can't be! Ahhh im so scared!!'.

 

Fuck that, since when did Samus become a pussy! That scene alone has completely ruined my image of Samus; I dont think I can ever play Super and Prime in the same way without privately laughing to myself.

[or else you will DIE]

Funnily enough Fierce, the Ridley scene was actually one of my most disliked parts of the game and one of the reasons there's been a backlash against it.

 

'Oh no it's Ridley, it can't be! Ahhh im so scared!!'.

 

Fuck that, since when did Samus become a pussy! That scene alone has completely ruined my image of Samus; I dont think I can ever play Super and Prime in the same way without privately laughing to myself.

 

That's why this game was made. So everyone would have one universal understanding of the character.

 

Too bad it wasn't how you imagined (based on what, I don't know).

[Grazza]

My attitude to the Ridley scene is that I expected Samus to be more stoic than that. She'd fought him in Metroid and Super Metroid (and Metroid II?) and didn't seem to be particularly scared. I realise she might be more scared of him than other monsters, but she let it literally freeze her with fear, when she hadn't in previous games.

[flameboy]

ordered from game at 9.98 even though says no stock currently in, am happy wanted this but wasn't gonna pay full price!

[or else you will DIE]

My attitude to the Ridley scene is that I expected Samus to be more stoic than that. She'd fought him in Metroid and Super Metroid (and Metroid II?) and didn't seem to be particularly scared. I realise she might be more scared of him than other monsters, but she let it literally freeze her with fear, when she hadn't in previous games.

 

I think it was more to do with the shock of seeing him again after finally killing him in Super. Her life long nemesis, who destroyed her home and killed her parents, just suddenly re-appearing when she thought he no longer existed? That's bound to mess her up.

 

Also, nope, he wasn't in II.

 

ordered from game at 9.98 even though says no stock currently in, am happy wanted this but wasn't gonna pay full price!

 

Amazon has it for the same price

Edited January 14, 2011 by or else you will DIE
Automerged Doublepost

[flameboy]

I think it was more to do with the shock of seeing him again after finally killing him in Super. Her life long nemesis, who destroyed her home and killed her parents, just suddenly re-appearing when she thought he no longer existed? That's bound to mess her up.

 

Also, nope, he wasn't in II.

 

 

 

Amazon has it for the same price

 

ok cool ordered from there instead with a couple of other bits...

[Fierce_LiNk]

Funnily enough Fierce, the Ridley scene was actually one of my most disliked parts of the game and one of the reasons there's been a backlash against it.

 

'Oh no it's Ridley, it can't be! Ahhh im so scared!!'.

 

Fuck that, since when did Samus become a pussy! That scene alone has completely ruined my image of Samus; I dont think I can ever play Super and Prime in the same way without privately laughing to myself.

 

Hmm, I disagree with all of that entirely. I don't really see how it makes her a pussy. She is a human after all, and this game showed that. There was an emphasis on her vunerable side, which hasn't been explored before. I'd rather the character had...well...character, rather than just shooting things mindlessly like a drone, which we know that Samus isn't.

 

OR ELSE YOU WILL DIE hit the nail on the head when he explained why she reacted in that way. Completely understandable. It would have been hugely underwhelming had the character just turned up and Samus just fought it. Where's the emotion?

 

It's probably one of my favourite scenes from modern games. I'm probably going to be talking about that scene in years to come. Loved it. There's a real sense of terror and dread. How can that be seen as a negative? Don't understand that.

[LostOverThere]

The Ridley scene is, to me, a good idea gone horribly wrong. You can see what Sakamoto was getting at (just as what or else you will DIE mentioned), but the scene is quite poorly explained that it makes Samus just appear as a wimp instead.

 

I personally like the scene.

[Goron_3]

I think there is just tonnes of stuff which makes no sense. Like the scene towards the end (you'll know what i mean when you get there fierce). It just makes no sense and they really handled the Adam-Samus story pretty badly, it could have been loads better.

 

And I can understand why she'd been shocked at seeing Ridley BUT anyone who has played Super will remember the scene at the very beginning where you have no upgrades at all and Ridley appears; there is nothing to reference Samus as being afraid of Ridley at all, despite the fact that he should be dead. If she was shocked at seeing Ridley alive then fair enough, but her reaction was cringe worthy, it was alright like a 'no, I can't defeat you' type reaction when the Samus that has been introduced over every metroid game just gets on with it. Hell, she even shows character in the Prime trilogy despite the fact that she has no actual dialogue/no cutscenes in the way of story telling and you never for once expect that type of reaction from her. It was clearly a case of poor writing, like most of the game unfortunatley. Did they have to keep repeating 'baby' in the first few cutscenes?

 

Baby.

 

Baby baby baby. Sounds like she's got bieber fever more than anything.

[EEVILMURRAY]

I think it was more to do with the shock of seeing him again after finally killing him in Super. Her life long nemesis, who destroyed her home and killed her parents, just suddenly re-appearing when she thought he no longer existed? That's bound to mess her up.

She killed him in Metroid too, but didn't piss herself when seeing him with the baby Metroid in Super Metroid. As Goron mentioned.

 

Hmm, I disagree with all of that entirely. I don't really see how it makes her a pussy. She is a human after all, and this game showed that. There was an emphasis on her vunerable side, which hasn't been explored before. I'd rather the character had...well...character, rather than just shooting things mindlessly like a drone, which we know that Samus isn't.

A human with Chozo infused DNA and special abilities and has no problem being a bounty hunter, which by most definitions means cold and merciless*.

 

 

*This may be the exception since she's a woman :p

Edited January 15, 2011 by EEVILMURRAY

[or else you will DIE]

She killed him in Metroid too, but didn't piss herself when seeing him with the baby Metroid in Super Metroid. As Goron mentioned.

 

Do you really think Sakamoto had come up with Samus' history with Ridley way back then? I don't think anybody really gave a crap about the story. As far as we and probably Sakamoto cared, Ridley was nothing more than the leader of the Space Pirates.

 

*I* like to believe she simply defeated Ridley in Metroid (ZM), not killed off completely. Going by Zero Mission, she killed Kraid too, right? Yet he somehow managed to return in Super.

 

While making ZM, Sakamoto already knew that Ridley and Kraid would return in the future, yet had them both explode. This is one of the things I wish he portrayed differently in ZM, among other things, but it makes sense if the player just believes he was defeated rather than destroyed.

 

That is, unless he comes up with some explanation in a future installment.

 

I've always thought there were more problems with ZMs story than I do with Other M, yet for some reason people seemed to have looked over them.

 

A human with Chozo infused DNA and special abilities and has no problem being a bounty hunter, which by most definitions means cold and merciless*.

 

 

Again, where did you get this idea that Samus is a cold and merciless person? It's just the idea that you and many others seem to have made up in your head based on what, a few lines of dialogue in ZM, Super and Fusion?

 

Remember when she saved the Etecoons and Dachoras at the end of Super? Or in Fusion?

Remember when she spared the baby Metroids life at the end of RoS despite being ordered to eliminate them all?

Remember when she simply disarmed the Ion-Faerias after, again, being ordered to kill them in the manga?

 

What a cold blooded bitch.

 

And why do you think the infusion with Chozo DNA would change her personality? It wasn't a brain transplant. It's main purpous was to ensure her survival while living on Zebes.

 

The Ridley scene is, to me, a good idea gone horribly wrong. You can see what Sakamoto was getting at (just as what or else you will DIE mentioned), but the scene is quite poorly explained that it makes Samus just appear as a wimp instead.

 

I personally like the scene.

 

Yeah, I think the scene itself is great, it just wouldn't make sense to a lot of players. Unless you've read the manga, you have no idea what the beef is between Samus & Ridley. A cutscene showing the invasion of K2-L is definately something they should have included.

 

Personally, I think it would have been better addressed in Zero Mission, but since it wasn't, this would have been the next best choice. No go, though.

 

 

 

 

When you look at it as a whole and how it's tied with the rest of the series, Metroid: Other M really doesn't have that bad a story. There are just some little things that definately could have been addressed/improved. IMO.

Edited January 15, 2011 by or else you will DIE
Automerged Doublepost

[Kav]

In Metroid and Super Metroid, given the technical abilities of each console and the game engines themselves, how the hell are you supposed to show that Samus is scared of Ridley?!

 

Never mind that, if you look at it this way;

When you fight Ridley in the Metroid games he's always a tough boss. Hell, I bet some of us have died, even multiple times, trying to beat him.

 

Given that, now consider this;

On your experience of your battles against Ridley if you actually truly put yourself in Samus' shoes when confronting Ridley in any of the games, I bet you wouldn't have been stoic.

Each time you've fought him the guy has nearly killed you.

I don't care how many times you've killed something, if it's something that can kill you, you're going to be scared, much more so if it's something you have already killed!

 

Something so terrible coming back from death to try and kill you again... that's more than scary, that kind of thing doesn't just induce fear. Something so powerful, so deadly that took you to within an inch of your life, coming back from death to kill you... that is truly terrifying!

 

That scene was breath-takingly good!

 

 

Those who say otherwise have simply been poisoned by all the rough, tough, bad-ass, space marine type games there are these days, where the characters are all butch, bland, monotonous non-entities (ie: Gears, Killzone etc... even Halo)!

 

End of mini-rant.

Edited January 15, 2011 by Kav

[Cube]

Also remember that the Space Pirates were utterly defeated after Super Metroid. They were the ones who kept bringing them back. With both Ridley and the Space Pirates gone, Samus could finally stop worrying about him.

 

Now she's on a Galactic Federation ship. She sees this young creature who is feeding off the things that she kills. She lets it live. It grows up a bit and would have killed Samus if Anthony hadn't saved her life. So she would obviously be a bit bummed about letting it live. Then she finds out that this creature is actually Ridley when he appears in front of her, fully grown.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I think OR ELSE and Kav make very good points which are hard to argue against.

 

Imo, I think the story in Other M was handled superbly. It kept me on the edge, wanting to learn more. I don't think it portrayed Samus in a bad light or a "sissy" light at all.

 

Lets think about the character of Ellen Ripley for a second, who is taken from the Alien series, of which the Metroid series takes a loooot of inspiration from. Is she a sissy for being reluctant to go to the planet in the second film? Is she a sissy for being frightened when the one alien stands barely inches from her in the third film? No. You see emotion, but you also see strength. Samus's strength is that in each battle she ultimately fights and wins. She was taken aback by seeing Ridley (seriously, who wouldn't. Look at it...) and the Queen. But, she fights.

 

I'm glad the character has personality, rather than one of these "oh she's silent and alone so she must be tough" cliches. As OR ElSE also correctly says, throughout the series she displays moments of humanity and preservation.

 

With the constant reference to Baby, it was there to show the attachment she had grown to the creature, which mirrors the attachment that the creature had towards her. Also, for the Ridley cutscene, it will only not make sense if you don't know the backstory, that Ridley was responsible for the death of her parents when Samus was a kid. As OR ELSE says, maybe an extended cutscene where they showed the deaths or something would have been useful.

 

~ ~ ~

 

I finished the game yesterday and have now saved to go back to look for upgrades and stuff. I found the battle against Queeny a bit confusing at first but once I knew what to do it was a doddle. Those fucking Metroids kept jumping onto me, though, which made it annoying the first few times.

[LostOverThere]

A bit of an odd question, but at the start of the game when Samus says, "Babies cry...it was though it was crying specifically for me" just as the "Metroid" title pieces together, does anyone else get massive shivers down their spine?

 

There's something about it which is so hauntingly brilliant.

[Grazza]

Given that, now consider this;

On your experience of your battles against Ridley if you actually truly put yourself in Samus' shoes when confronting Ridley in any of the games, I bet you wouldn't have been stoic.

 

Right, but to us, he's no more intimidating than other bosses. Perhaps this is the key. We control videogame characters, so it's jarring when they behave massively differently to how we feel at the time. Isn't it up to us whether we're scared of him or not? If I was truly there, I'd be terrified of all of them!

 

Similarly, isn't the Metroid Prime series set before Other M? By that token, she's defeated a version of Ridley at least four times. If we can understand that this is sci-fi and all the monsters are always going to be revived, why can't Samus?

 

Those who say otherwise have simply been poisoned by all the rough, tough, bad-ass, space marine type games there are these days, where the characters are all butch, bland, monotonous non-entities (ie: Gears, Killzone etc... even Halo)!

 

Nah, I don't play that stuff. I'm honestly basing my views on the Metroid series alone. I don't agree that Samus has ever been particularly cold-blooded, for instance - I identify with her more because she's caring - but we've seen her deal with bosses so many times. Courage is not the absence of fear, but overcoming your fear (or something like that). I can understand that Samus is intimidated, but so much so that she can't fight? Again, this really comes back to whether games are something we control, or watch...

 

Lets think about the character of Ellen Ripley for a second, who is taken from the Alien series, of which the Metroid series takes a loooot of inspiration from. Is she a sissy for being reluctant to go to the planet in the second film? Is she a sissy for being frightened when the one alien stands barely inches from her in the third film? No. You see emotion, but you also see strength.

 

There's nothing else Ripley can do at that moment, though. Samus is fully capable of fighting back.