Metroid: Other M

[david.dakota]

Not true, part of the attraction of the 2D Metroids is the use of abilities that just aren't possible or as accurate in 3D. Samus is far less agile in the Prime series. She moves like a tank. Where's the space jump, screw attack and speed booster? 2D Metroid titles are far more faithful, Metroid Other M just needs some tinkering. I agree that the nunchuk should have been used.

 

Two out of the three of those upgrades appeared in some form in the Prime series - and they were pretty faithful to the original 2D upgrades while working well in the 3D worlds. You say Samus is less agile but strafing around enemies seems pretty agile in my view, but I'll agree that Samus is pretty slow in the Prime series - a slight speed increase is the one thing I would have liked to have seen, but its certainly not a massive issue for me. I think its highly unfair - and totally incorrect - to say they, especially the original Prime, are any less legitimate to the franchise.

 

Perhaps I could accept your criticism if it were directed at Metroid Prime 2 and the shockingly linear Prime 3, but I consider the original Prime an absolute marvel of a game; it oozes the Metroid atmosphere and sense of isolation, its crammed full of genuine Metroid gameplay mechanics and, I feel, its legitimacy and integrity within the series equals that of Ocarina of Time within Zelda.

 

Other M does get loads right. In many respects its a great Metroid game; its design, atmosphere and - most of the time - Samus' inner thoughts, an idea I genuinely liked (although, crying at Ridley should be on the cutting room floor). The whole thing was let down by those stupid, terrible, game breaking controls. Ultimately though, its as legitimate to the series as the original Prime is - its just not as good a game due to those controls.

[Grazza]

I didn't think Wall Jump or Screw Attack were as good in the Prime game as they were in the 2D ones/Other M. However, Metroid Prime is a good game. It's the old dilemma of how far you should stray from a game's origins to make it work in 3D.

[Jamba]

I didn't think Wall Jump or Screw Attack were as good in the Prime game as they were in the 2D ones/Other M. However, Metroid Prime is a good game. It's the old dilemma of how far you should stray from a game's origins to make it work in 3D.

 

I can't say anything negative about Prime 1. Absolutely fantastic game on every level but I think it's easy to debate it's Metroidness. Personally I was happy for the departure and enjoyed getting lost

[david.dakota]

It's the old dilemma of how far you should stray from a game's origins to make it work in 3D.

 

But how far did Retro stray from those origins? In my view, not very far. They must have soaked themselves in Super Metroid when developing Prime 1. Its all there bar a few upgrades, which, lets face it, are periphery to the overall experience. The atmosphere is there, the exploration is there, the isolation is there, the gameplay mechanics are there. To say Prime is any less legitimate to the series is just wrong.

[Grazza]

But how far did Retro stray from those origins? In my view, not very far.

 

Not very far, no.

 

I'll have to be careful here so it doesn't sound like I dislike Prime... I do like it, although it took me a few years to come to that conclusion. I still don't think it's the best introduction to Metroid as it's very difficult and therefore too easy for a first-time player to get the wrong idea about the series.

 

But you ask how far it strayed... Simply by being in 1st-person perspective it gained a few habits from the FPS genre. Sure, there were still Missile Doors and such, but the general layouts could have come straight from Turok.

 

The other habit is that battles became focused on strafing and circling. In the 2D games, Samus is agile - you can fly through the corridors. As has been said, in Metroid Prime she's a tank. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a difference nonetheless.

 

Also, the beams don't stack!

 

As has also been said, the Metroid Prime games had inferior Wall Jump, Space Jump and didn't have the Speed Boost at all. It's interesting that the original Prime had none of these. Perhaps they were introduced into 2 and 3 to make it feel more like Metroid? And yet the decision to leave them out of the first one was surely correct, simply because of the type of game it was.

 

Anyway, as I say, Metroid Prime is a very good game, but I think I've listed five or six things that do make it feel considerably different to the other Metroids. It's legitimate, sure - I never said otherwise - a legitimate side-story, but it still makes quite a few diversions.

[Captain Falcon]

But you ask how far it strayed... Simply by being in 1st-person perspective it gained a few habits from the FPS genre. Sure, there were still Missile Doors and such, but the general layouts could have come straight from Turok.

 

The other habit is that battles became focused on strafing and circling. In the 2D games, Samus is agile - you can fly through the corridors. As has been said, in Metroid Prime she's a tank. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a difference nonetheless.

 

Also, the beams don't stack!

 

 

Was the reference to Turok intentional? I only played the first Turok game but the world felt nothing like Prime in terms of it's construction - it mastered the isolation part but that was only because you couldn't see further than 10m away and there was sod all going on on the screen until something jumped out at you.

 

The focus on circling and strafing isn't limited to first person games. Almost every game with a remotely competant action mechanic has used it since Ocarina of Time's Z targetting system. Also, don't forget, Prime started out from a 3rd Person Perpsective anyway. I've only ever seen stills of the game in that form and so it's difficult to say if the lock-on was around back then but the smart money says yes it was - and if Retro hadn't gone for it themselves, I bet Nintendo would have forced them to put it in.

 

As for the beams not stacking, without it, you wouldn't have had the elemental puzzles and enemy weaknesses that needed to be exploited - plus the super combos were neat. Ultimately, it gave the combat a bit more depth than it otherwise would have had. Prime 2 had the opposites, which then got combined, which was cool and then Prime 3 stacked them and felt a bit less special for it.

 

If you feel Metroid is about the isolation of being the only thing on planet full of creatures ready to attack you at amoments notice, whilst hundreds of metres below the surface with no way out and no other option but to explore and delve deeper, then Prime will appeal to you more. If you like the idea of being this all powerful bouty hunter who can flip around and desomate enemies with an arsenal of powerful moves, then that's what Other M delivers.

 

Prime is the 3D gameplay sequel to Super and Other M is 3D gameplay sequel to Fusion. Either way, they are both games worthy of owning with plenty of fun to be had - they just play to different strengths of the series.

[Wii]

I like the Prime series just in case there's any confusion. I just feel Metroid: Other M is more legitimate than Prime. Super Metroid is the pinnacle. A game that's nearly 20 years old and it's still to be topped. The wall jump was sandwiched into Prime 2 & 3 and could only be performed in set areas. Then look at the grapple beam, it was very basic when compared to the beam in Super Metroid. The screw attack is another example. Prime started out as a 3rd person adventure but they couldn't make it work. I think it was because Retro weren't able to but Nintendo a generation before managed with Zelda and Mario. I believe if it wasn't forked out and developed internally it could've been done. Why start off in 3rd person if 1st person is better? They couldn't cope with it. Retro did do a good job but things had to be sacrificed and I miss those things. M:OM brought them back.

 

My idea for the Wii U would be a Metroid title with 3rd person on the TV and 1st person on the gamepad. If not that then a stunning 2D version ala Super Metroid.

[Magnus]

I finished Metroid: Other M last night, and I thought it was great.

 

I haven't laughed like this since playing Eternal Sonata. The baby! The Deleter! Ridley! The whole thing is comedy gold.

 

Other than the fantastic writing, the rest was okay, I guess? The controls were passable, but they never felt natural. The game is super linear, but that's okay, because exploring will pretty much only yield you more missile packs, anyway (I counted forty billion, but I know I missed a few). The scanning made me nostalgic for nineties adventure games for some reason.

 

Oh! I almost forgot the best part: starting out with all of your equipment but not being able to use it until you're told to. Comedy. Gold.

[Wii]

@Magnus I get what you're saying about some of the things like all the abilities at the start but waiting for orders to use them but hell at least they tried something different. Guess what Mario is doing in his next game? Let's see, rescuing the P.......zzzzz Every game since year dot. Yawn!

 

It certainly wasn't linear. Have you played Prime 3? As far as controls, I said earlier that the nunchuk should've been used.

[Magnus]

I've been reading through the thread and someone posted this MovieBob video that I think is worth posting again because it's so funny.

 

He has an actual character called "Straw Man" who just makes up arguments so MovieBob can have some easy arguments to knock down.

 

Comedy gold.

 

@Magnus I get what you're saying about some of the things like all the abilities at the start but waiting for orders to use them but hell at least they tried something different.

Maybe the next Metroid game will be a kart racer. And then we can all praise them for trying something different again.

[Wii]

Maybe the next Metroid game will be a kart racer. And then we can all praise them for trying something different again.

 

Ya because that's what I was talking about. While you're at it why not say the next Zelda will be a Starfox Assault clone?

[Captain Falcon]

It certainly wasn't linear. Have you played Prime 3?

 

When it comes down to it, most of the Metroid games are fairly linear. The thing that separates them is whether there is someone/something telling you to go to a specific point or whether you have to find that point on your own. Either way, the only way you can progress is by proceeding to that point. That said, Other M is far more direct about things than Prime 3 is. You proceed from one navigation room to the next which is normally 3 rooms away with no deviating paths in between - or those that are are locked to you in your current state. Prime tells you your destination whereas Other M shows you the path - that makes a big difference in the mind of the player.

 

I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing and generally speaking, non-linear games are usually just better at deception than linear ones. But I don't know how anyone could possibly claim Other M is better at masking its highly structured nature than Prime 3.

Edited September 20, 2012 by Captain Falcon

[Jamba]

Right so I owned this game about 9 months ago and tried to play it but something was really stopping me from enjoying it.

Last night I watched the entire story on youtube:

 

 

And do you know what occurred to me? There's very little game in this game! It may be that bits were missed out in this video but there's very little environment exploration and it's very point A to point B. Quite glad I didn't spend my time playing it now.

[Dcubed]

Right so I owned this game about 9 months ago and tried to play it but something was really stopping me from enjoying it.

Last night I watched the entire story on youtube:

 

 

And do you know what occurred to me? There's very little game in this game! It may be that bits were missed out in this video but there's very little environment exploration and it's very point A to point B. Quite glad I didn't spend my time playing it now.

 

Yes, they skip most of the gameplay with the included "Metroid Other M: The Movie" - only adding in a very small amount of snippets so that the story flows as intended.

 

There's plenty of gameplay in MoM and it's also really great fun too!

 

Overall MoM gets a really bad rap for two reasons - its story (which is pretty poorly written and intrusive - admittedly a tremendous failing when you consider that its story was bigged up as a major selling point of the game...) and the fact that its gameplay/exploration follows on from Metroid Fusion rather than Super Metroid (so you'll find that the path forward is very linear and story driven, rather than open like SM and the Metroid Prime games are); Understandable, considering that all the pre-release material bigged the game up as a sequel to Super Metroid, rather than the prequel to Metroid Fusion that it actually is, so people expected something close to the former rather than the latter.

 

Despite that though, it's a lot of fun to play. There is a healthy amount of exploration involved (if you're after the item pickups), Samus has her agility back from the 2D titles, the combat is well done and really innovative and it's just outright fun to play. If you can look past the badly written story (which unfortunately, seemingly most people cannot), just go in expecting a prequel to Metroid Fusion (though with an even stronger focus on story than in that game), rather than a sequel to Super Metroid and you'll enjoy it

Edited July 27, 2013 by Dcubed

[Fierce_LiNk]

I really enjoyed this game and it's one of my favourites evaaar. It's Fusion in 3D. It's fun to play, quite tense at the right moments and it has some memorable boss fights. It's a shame it didn't get more recognition. I'd love another game in this sort of style, maybe even on the 3DS.

[Kav]

If you try to play this game like a traditional 3D throd person game then it's annoying. The moment you play it as though its 2D it's becomes brilliant! Just like they said when developing... they wanted it to be a "modern-day NES game". This is how it Gould be played an when done so, it's brilliant!

[Blade]

I saw it in CEX for 3 quid the other day. Worth it then?

[Retro_Link]

^ Nope :awesome:

 

 

(haha, nah I mean personally I couldn't stand it, but for £3 you can't go wrong, worth a try and see what you make of it)

Edited July 27, 2013 by Retro_Link

[Ville]

Think I bought this for 3€ as well, haven't even tried it yet though.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I saw it in CEX for 3 quid the other day. Worth it then?

 

Give it a try, brah. Fuck the haters.

[ReZourceman]

What is this game like? Good?

 

Replaying Fusion has made me realise that this game series is amazing. Even though it's the only one I've played (and Prime, a bit).

[Fierce_LiNk]

This game divides opinion. I love it. It's more of a prequel to Fusion (ish) than a sequel to Super Metroid.

 

Either way, it's one of my favourite Wii games.

[viceview51]

Yes. It's very linear in the beginning but it gets better late in the game. If you like Fusion, which is also a bit linear, you'll like this one.

[ReZourceman]

I kind of love linear, because I struggle when its not linear. coz im dumb

[Retro_Link]

I kind of love linear, because I struggle when its not linear. coz im dumb

I didn't like it at all...

 

But it's really cheap, £6.49 at Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nintendo-RVLPR3OE-Metroid-Other-Wii/dp/B002BSC4ZS/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1395601689&sr=1-1&keywords=metroid+other+m, so probably best to just go for it, as yeah others love it! Might be your type of Metroid.