Metroid: Other M

[Captain Falcon]

I can't for the life of me seem to reach a missile expansion in the Bioweapon Research Centre. It's the one that's in the largeish two-story room, to left of the screen, behind big panes of glass. I've looked at it from every conceivable angle, I can't figure out how to get to it. Halp?

 

This is the exact same one MoKong was having trouble with which I answered here.

 

in the middle of the upper room Is a computer display that looks to be cylindrical but the side farthest away from camera has a hole In it. You can jump inside and wall kick up It to find the item expansion.

 

[Ganepark32]

Other M at #37 in the UK chart last week

 

You mean this week as last week it debuted at #12. Never going to be a huge seller as the Metroid series never has been one.

 

I'm getting a severe hankering to start this again. Weird how the game has continued to grow on me even after finishing. Almost like its subliminally great so that you come back and play through it again.

[Kav]

...I'm getting a severe hankering to start this again. Weird how the game has continued to grow on me even after finishing. Almost like its subliminally great so that you come back and play through it again.

 

I find this to be the case too. I've already played it through twice, once on normal and once on hard and yet I want to play it again already!

[EEVILMURRAY]

I've started Zero Mission again for fun.

[grantjames]

I've just finished the main part of the game and all I can say is "WOW"!

 

If Zelda had a story this awesome... then omg we'd have a TRUE classic on our hands.

 

I can't wait to start the epilogue.

[EEVILMURRAY]

If Zelda had a story this awesome... then omg we'd have a TRUE classic on our hands.

Yeah... Link would have the Master Sword, bow and arrows, bomb/chus, hookshot etc but can't use it until Zelda says so, sounds like a great game.

 

 

By great I mean shit.

[Cube]

You mean it could be the best game on the console, like Other M is?

[Dante]

Dophine HD Engine:

 

[david.dakota]

Nintendo should look at this emulator for backwards compatibility with their next console (and if they did, we can be rest assured they'd be releasing a powerhouse machine too).

 

On another Metroid related note, Metroid 64 nearly happened.

Edited September 15, 2010 by david.dakota

[EEVILMURRAY]

You mean it could be the best game on the console, like Other M is?

 

[Goron_3]

You mean it could be the best game on the console, like Other M is?

 

...................?

 

Is this a joke?

[or else you will DIE]

Well it's certainly my favourite Wii game.

[LostOverThere]

Trying to evaluate the story at the moment. Honestly, I really think it seems to be a fairly good story told poorly. Overly wordy dialogue and awkward voice acting makes things a little weird.

 

Your thoughts?

[Zechs Merquise]

It's not the story I find annoying, it's the fact the game really isn't up to scratch. For every great moment there is an equally frustrating one where the controls just fail you. I have completed the game, and I'm working my way to getting all the items. I get to the area where you use a power bomb and a bug comes off the wall. The fight is a mess to say the very least. I shoot the bug, when it hits me I take MASSIVE damage. I tap to dodge, Samus dodges, but still ends up getting hit as the bug launches itself so far forward. I will dodge one attack, only to land into the path of another. The whole affair seems like a random mess, sometimes I dodge and avoid attacks, other times I dodge and land in the path of an even more devasating attack. My health is dropping rapidly, the stress of the fight and wrestling with the idiotic dodge mechanic is frustrating. I feel like however the fight turns out, it's as much down to luck and stabbing wildly at the controls as it is skill. The moments of genius in this game are equally weighted with moments that have you screaming and pulling your hair out. This game is NOT what it could have been. They should have put the effort into making it play better rather than pouring all those hours into the fabulous cutscenes and elaborate story telling.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Trying to evaluate the story at the moment. Honestly, I really think it seems to be a fairly good story told poorly. Overly wordy dialogue and awkward voice acting makes things a little weird.

 

Your thoughts?

I didn't think the voice acting was that bad, but I agree that the dialogue was "wordy". As I mentioned many a page back, Samus' sentences are very eloquent. We would all say "Get to the choppah!". Samus would say "I traversed to the helicopter."

 

What I just said.

Fight the power. You're going to see more of them as you hunt along.

Is to get as far away as you can before setting the power bomb off. And fire 3-4 super missiles at it before it has a chance to come near you.

 

[LostOverThere]

Samus' sentences are very eloquent. We would all say "Get to the choppah!". Samus would say "I traversed to the helicopter."

Haha, yeah. That reminded me when Samus casually used the word "Nebulous". I was like "lolwot!? What's wrong with 'cloudy'?"

[Kav]

Nebulous fits though considering they're in space... lol

[Diageo]

There are loads of characters that speak eloquently on TV and films.

Bones, House, Death Note etc.

[Fused King]

There are loads of characters that speak eloquently on TV and films.

Bones, House, Death Note etc.

 

I hate Near.

Damn you Mikami for fucking up Light's master plan!

[Diageo]

I hate Near.

Damn you Mikami for fucking up Light's master plan!

Bitter because he won? :p

[david.dakota]

I thought the voice acting was overall pretty good - each character had a strong personality and performed well by its actor. Its the script and story that really needed work. Nintendo really should have had a professional - and good - script editor on board, at the very least to reword some phrases. Personally speaking I think a decent scifi writer would have done an infinately better job - Sakamoto is a game designer, not a script writer (George Lucas will be able to tell him how hard it is to combine story and the). I suspect its misplaced pride that stopped him from seeking advice on story. Its good - and increasingly important - that Nintendo has a designer concerned with story, but that doesn't make him a good story teller. Eternal Darkness should have been a quality bench mark for them at the very least (especially considering Metroid is one of Nintendo's top franchises).

 

The story itself has some nice ideas; exploring Samus and her relationship with Adam was definately a highlight, but actually, having the Metroids - again - genetically engineered (only to again be destroyed) has become too padestrian; a poor and lazy narrative tool. The reliance on genetic engineering in the franchise needs addressing.

 

I did like the idea of MB - a human representation of Mother Brain; but she was shamefully underused. And what a stupid Red Herring - initially referring to MB as Madeline Burgman. From that moment, I knew she was Mother Brain in some form. I'd have rather seen MB direct Samus and Adams team, leading them to their deaths - or at least planning to, before a big reveal.

 

With Metroid Prime 3 hinting that Mother Brain is actually a corrupt Federation Aurora unit, why not take that opportunity to have Mother Brain infect an Aurora unit on the Bottle Ship, as a survival measure? The being a bio-research vessel, she could telepathically order the Pirates - who would presumably be in stasis, since mankind would unlikely wish to commit genocide on any species - onboard to attack. That would make more sense than this 'dark side of the federation' thing? While the original Metroid games took some inspiration from the Alien series, why on earth ape Alien Resurection (an abysmal film).

 

 

Retro Studios created some fantastic ideas in their games, but it is almost as if these Japanese teams have completely disregarded their work and input. But thats Nintendo through and through - its the Japanese way or the Highway.

 

Although I don't rate the game badly - I'm furious that the team haven't created a story that lives up to the franchise. In my opinion, the story ideas in the Prime saga are better - their just not fleshed out as well. And its a huge shame that the developers haven't at least embraced the legacy of Prime.

 

And to put money where my mouth is - some better scifi ideas than genetic engineering (thats so, 90s!)

- if Aether was split into two dimensions, why not bring Metroids back that way too by opening a rift?

- Metroids being used as a weapon by the Space Pirates, right? A mighty force who have attacked Earth and set up research facilities on a handful of planets? Get real, the Pirates would have attacked many a planet in their time - and potentially left Metroids there. Easy plot device.

- Introduce time travel to the franchise. Take the Metroids from the past, before Samus has made them extint.

- With the Choze originally creating the Metroids, why not explore why? A meteor, containing frozen Metroids, is discovered. It is unknown where it is from, but clearly a 'present' from the Choze.

 

Lastly, why, oh, why can't they let the Metroids live? Why bring them back, for nothing more than a cameo, to just kill them off within the same game - yet again. Bloody hell fire.

[D_prOdigy]

 

Retro Studios created some fantastic ideas in their games, but it is almost as if these Japanese teams have completely disregarded their work and input. But thats Nintendo through and through - its the Japanese way or the Highway.

 

And its a huge shame that the developers haven't at least embraced the legacy of Prime.

 

 

I really don't think that's a fair assessment at all. Having said that, it was always obvious that it would be a view of Other M no matter what.

 

Retro did a fantastic job of creating a completely separate ark for the series. Prime retained much of that made those original games special, but it also substituted other aspects to include their own quirks and conventions. That is of course the point of driving a series in a new direction.

 

It seems to me a startling number of people were hoping or even expecting Other M to be Prime 4 in all but name. Sakamoto and his team made an interquel for between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. Nothing to do with Prime, so no-one should have felt burned when it turned out to not feel like the 3D games. In fact, Other M was probably the nearest thing we'll get to Metroid Dread for the near future.

 

Even with that said, I can't agree at all with the view that Other M disregards all that Prime provided. Do you really think without this

 

 

we'd have gotten any of this

 

 

?

 

There's a lot more Prime in Other M than people are giving it credit for.

[Burny]

Although I don't rate the game badly - I'm furious that the team haven't created a story that lives up to the franchise.

While I get your points, I wouldn't say the story doesn't live up to the franchise. That is because it never has had any sensible story in the first place, neither in the Nintendo developed Metroids, nor in the Prime games. The more time you spend picking their "stories" apart, the more you'll realize that they're over-the-top Sci-Fi thrash at the core. And for me your suggestions aren't helping to make Other M's story less so, I'm afraid. So far the games just gracefully neglected to narrate a coherent story, which let a lot of room for interpretation.

 

Reading a bit through all the hate towards Other M, it's obvious that a some fans ended up using this room to interpret all kinds of depth into the story or character traits into Samus, that probably even the game's creators wouldn't have dreamed of.

 

I'll admit however, that I care much more for finding the next morphball sized hole with a blue thing in it, that mysteriously increases your missile storage, than for the reason, why the galactic federation feels the need to clone every monster Samus has come across in a Jurassic Park like space station and use it as bio-weapon. If I'd fuss over such minor logical flaws, I'd have stopped enjoying video games a long time ago.

 

That said, the development teams should actually rely on some professional writers or at least consult one, once they start to flesh out the stories more.

 

For future iterations of Metroid I'd just wish, that they would let Metroids, Ridley Clones and various other classic enemies rest and moved on to something else. This would free them of the obligation to find some silly excuse - no matter how plausible - to bring all these monsters back. Much more important however, from a gameplay perspective it would mean that the players were confronted with a lot of unknown things, which might really add to the sense of exploration.

Edited September 18, 2010 by Burny

[EEVILMURRAY]

It seems to me a startling number of people were hoping or even expecting Other M to be Prime 4 in all but name.

I declare myself not of these species! I was expecting Super Metroid with some Prime elements (although I did expect more Prime elements I shan't lie. I can't put my finger on what, even though it semi-annoyed me at the time I think I actually began to miss scanning random shit) but it was mainly the strafing I missed. But as I said, more Super Metroid. Which I'm afraid didn't deliver.

There are loads of characters that speak eloquently on TV and films.

Bones, House, Death Note etc.

So? I don't watch the others, but in House long complicated words are expected. Except they mainly come in the form of diagnosis.

 

For me it's just a shock to hear Samus speak like that. I expected her more straight talking, being a solitary bounty hunter. Not dancing around sentences, I can only assume she browses a thesaurus inbetween missions.

 

It won't be long before Link speaks. Sadly.

[James McGeachie]

So long term Metroid fan, finished game today for first time.

 

 

Main pros

 

-Speed Booster was excellent in 3D, as was shinespark. Space Jump/Screw attack were better than in the Prime games.

-Battles against Nightmare, Phantoon and Metroid Queen were all unexpected and cool

-Story had some nice highs and I enjoyed the dark tone.

-I feel the desire to replay the game again, unlock hard mode, etc. I also look forward to it, a good sign of how much I value the gameplay.

-Seeker missile's return was unexpected and cool as it was at least an acknowledgement of one of Retro's ideas

-Ridley's corpse coming from here instead of the fucking atoms of Planet Zebes makes far more sense

 

Main cons:

 

-The game makes Samus seem like the biggest idiot ever in Metroid Fusion. You can't have 2 entires right beside each other in the timeline and have them both so cloning dependent and have the main character surprised each time.

-The dialogue was as bad early on as the trailers suggested, although it DID improve throughout thankfully

-Some of the over the shoulder sections and "where's wally" parts felt like examples of terrible game design that I'd expect from a budget title.

-Music was criminally understated throughout the entire game. Why the fuck does Kenji Yamamoto have to be involved in Donkey Kong Country returns instead? Who's idea was that? If he was in charge I'm sure he'd have made awesome decisions like actually including Nightmare's theme for his boss fight, etc.

-Gravity suit should've been motherfuckin purple

 

 

Anyway actually overally, though I had plenty of cons, I'd still go with 8.5-9/10 and put it above Metroid Prime Hunters undoubtedly, at least on par with Metroid Fusion and I'd consider the game as a whole to feel more like a 2D Metroid game than the Prime series.

 

The only thing really irritating me is how despite serving as the bridge between Super and Fusion, the game creates more plot holes than it fills, or at least, where as it fills in plot "holes", it creates glaring inconsistencies in their place.