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Metroid: Other M

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D_prOdigy Newbie

D_prOdigy

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I'm glad it doesn't have Nunchuck-support. If it did, it'd probably just feel like Metroid Prime 4 w/ some 3rd person bits.

 

And the controls don't bother me, mainly because of virtually all hands-on previews saying they work a treat. The beauty of reading...

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Jonnas Collaborator

Jonnas

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I was thinking the same thing when I played it, I stumbled upon a bathroom and expected something to jump out of the cubicles, but it was just a little aside, I think. Nothing of interest.

 

I am now wondering what kind of technical jargon the Scan visor would say about a simple toilet :heh: Or if it would "translate" the man/woman depicted on the entrance.

That scanner should've examined more mundane objects.

James McGeachie Newbie

James McGeachie

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All I really notice about the music so far (going by all trailers) is that there's a whole lot of remixes of old music, except really repetitive versions that do the same thing for minutes.

 

The new composer has never worked on videogames before, mainly just anime in Japan. I hope he really knows what he's doing.

 

Anyway the trailer is great though, especially the inclusion of "shinesparking" near the end, something I would've thought impossible in a 3D Metroid.

 

Of course it looks like it's mostly automatic but it's still cool that it's in the game.

darksnowman Enthusiast

darksnowman

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Posted
The storytelling aspect of Other M continues to play a major role even after you beat the game, the way Sakamoto puts it. "There's a 'theater mode' that lets you view all of the cutscenes linked together seamlessly as a single movie," he explained. "We placed just as much weight on enjoying the story as we did on the action aspects of this game, but it's hard to fully communicate a storyline in a video game with just one playthrough. At the same time, though, it's asking a lot of players to beat the game twice to get it all, so that's where the idea for that mode came from. It lets you make a lot of discoveries, things you missed or dialogue that makes more sense in retrospect. I hope it helps people understand the story better."

 

This theater-mode movie is about two hours in length and divided into chapters like a DVD film. It's not just the movie cutscenes straight from the game, though -- there's some pre-recorded gameplay bits to it as well, although those sections aren't recorded off your own moves as you beat the game. "I wanted to do that," Sakamoto said, "but we're using our own sample play data instead because that's also a way of giving the player hints -- like, you can beat this particular boss this way too, and so forth."

 

Were there any differences of opinion between Nintendo and Team Ninja as development on Other M unfolded? "Samus has not been portrayed externally in 3D all that much, so there weren't many previous examples of how her movements and attack stance should look," Hayashi recalled. "As a result, we had a trial-and-error process for figuring out how to show off her assorted actions in 3D. We originally had scenes with Samus getting blown away in flashy fashion by enemy attacks. Nintendo didn't want that to be emphasized, but if Samus isn't 'selling it' that way, then that'll make the enemy's attacks have less impact -- it won't mean as much when Samus defeats the enemy. Eventually Nintendo saw it our way, and we had the freedom to do what we wanted there."

 

More here on 1Up.

Eddage Apprentice

Eddage

Posted
Posted
I don't see what is significant about this picture, can you explain?

 

There is a reflection of Ridley in Samus' visor (I think)

 

Dante Newbie

Dante

Posted
Posted

Yup!

 

Gamesradar Hands-On

Unexpected it may be, but the union of Team Ninja and Nintendo bears enticing fruit. The former gets to offer its revered brand of sharp, brutal action, but held to the latter’s impeccable design standards. As much as Other M looks and flows like Metroid, it handles like you wished Metroid always had. Samus is a tank, gymnast and sniper all in one. More than this, she has the heart and depth Nintendo rarely affords its mascots. Link may be the classic hero, and Mario the enthusiast, but both are simpletons in the wake of Sakamoto’s weighty Samus Aran.

 

 

Screens:

WII52.pre_metroid.trailer3--article_image.jpg

WII52.pre_metroid.capt_02--article_image.jpg

WII52.pre_metroid.trailer1--article_image.jpg

 

Scans:

metroid_other_m_scan.jpg

 

1UP

The way that Team Ninja leader Yosuke Hayashi puts it, Metroid: Other M -- the Wii action game his group's developing under the watchful eye of Yoshio Sakamoto, father of the Metroid series -- kicked off with the idea that it'd be a truly Wii-ready action game. "Sakamoto wanted to make a 3D action game that could be played with a single Wii remote," he told Famitsu magazine in an interview published this week. "The concept was 'the latest in gameplay with the simplest of controls.'" "We had decided how many buttons to use from the planning stages," Sakamoto added, "and I think Team Ninja went through a lot of trial-and-error with the controls, getting them right without increasing the number of buttons."

 

Other M offers a mix of third- and first-person gameplay, allowing you to go into first-person mode to search your surroundings and fire missiles and such at enemies. "There were a lot of things that couldn't be done here without the first-person view that Metroid Prime used," Sakamoto explained. "That's why we have the search view that lets you examine your surroundings from a first-person perspective and fire missiles. I think it provides the sort of gameplay that's only possible with the Wii remote. If you come across something that seems suspicious, that's your cue to try switching perspectives. We intended to have a lot of that searching aspect because that's what Metroid is known for -- Metroid games have unique map structures and lots of hidden corridors, and I was worried that Team Ninja would have trouble grasping the concept at first, but the know-how involved went over loud and clear and I'm impressed with the results."

 

Hayashi certainly seems to get it, at least. "I think Metroid is all about having suspicious-looking hiding places and finding items there," he told Famitsu. "There's nothing unfair about how we hide them -- they're hidden in places you can spot once you think it through a little, and that's what makes finding items fun in this game." (How many items are there to find in Other M, by the way? "As many as there are in any other Metroid game," Hayashi said. "I think you'll only find about 30% of the pickups in a normal plalythrough.")

 

Another aspect Sakamoto and Hayashi concentrated on was Other M's storytelling, which was constructed to be as smooth and seamless as possible. "We're making this game so there's no obvious seam between the cutscenes and action parts, ensuring the player isn't cut off from the scene and can get into the story," Sakamoto said. "Doing that required us to keep that concept in mind all through the motion capture process; you can't tell if it's working until you actually make everything. We couldn't re-do the motion capture afterward, so I was really anxious after it wrapped up."

 

"We set it up so that there are as few 'now loading' displays as possible," Hayashi added. "We want the player to get into the story and not feel cut off from it emotionally, so we were careful with that aspect of it. I think we've been able to set up the game so that players can forget that loading is taking place entirely. Even saving the game is a seamless process here, which I think makes it a very comfortable and addictive experience."

 

The storytelling aspect of Other M continues to play a major role even after you beat the game, the way Sakamoto puts it. "There's a 'theater mode' that lets you view all of the cutscenes linked together seamlessly as a single movie," he explained. "We placed just as much weight on enjoying the story as we did on the action aspects of this game, but it's hard to fully communicate a storyline in a video game with just one playthrough. At the same time, though, it's asking a lot of players to beat the game twice to get it all, so that's where the idea for that mode came from. It lets you make a lot of discoveries, things you missed or dialogue that makes more sense in retrospect. I hope it helps people understand the story better."

 

This theater-mode movie is about two hours in length and divided into chapters like a DVD film. It's not just the movie cutscenes straight from the game, though -- there's some pre-recorded gameplay bits to it as well, although those sections aren't recorded off your own moves as you beat the game. "I wanted to do that," Sakamoto said, "but we're using our own sample play data instead because that's also a way of giving the player hints -- like, you can beat this particular boss this way too, and so forth."

 

Were there any differences of opinion between Nintendo and Team Ninja as development on Other M unfolded? "Samus has not been portrayed externally in 3D all that much, so there weren't many previous examples of how her movements and attack stance should look," Hayashi recalled. "As a result, we had a trial-and-error process for figuring out how to show off her assorted actions in 3D. We originally had scenes with Samus getting blown away in flashy fashion by enemy attacks. Nintendo didn't want that to be emphasized, but if Samus isn't 'selling it' that way, then that'll make the enemy's attacks have less impact -- it won't mean as much when Samus defeats the enemy. Eventually Nintendo saw it our way, and we had the freedom to do what we wanted there."

 

Other M is due out August 31 in America and September 2 in Japan. Hayashi, for his part, sees it as a full-fledged Team Ninja title, not just another game in the Metroid series. "In making this game, I wanted to tell action-game fans that this is Team Ninja's newest game without feeling embarrassed to do so," he said. "At the same time, I also think that people who've drifted away from the genre can get a taste of what makes action games fun once again, so I'd love everyone to try it out."

Tellyn Newbie

Tellyn

Posted
Posted

 

"Confession time: Because I was so young when I lost both my parents, there's no question I saw Adam as a father figure." O_o

 

I've played through the first hour or so of the game three times now, and unless sleep deprivation was playing tricks on me, I'm certain this section was newly added. I couldn't recall Samus going into that much detail on her relationship with Adam.

Dante Newbie

Dante

Posted
Posted

1UP Preview - "Despite the Team Ninja Touch, Other M is a True Metroid Game"

 

By the end of my most recent hands-on demo with the upcoming Metroid: Other M, Nintendo's representatives had decided to start calling me "the android." This was inspired by the fact that I played through never-before-shown areas of the game with total efficiency, taking down foes and finding hidden items that had stumped everyone who had played the demo before me. In fact, I did so well that it screwed up their presentation, which had been tailored around the presumption that everyone would lose a certain battle -- one that I managed to squeeze through.

 

So... that means I'm, like, the most awesome gamer ever, right? Ha! Not a chance. Years of turn-based RPGs have dulled my action game reflexes to a dull, butter-knife edge, and I wouldn't dare to pretend otherwise.

 

Having played beyond the twin chameleon battle shown at this year's E3, though, I'm feeling a lot more confident about Other M's direction. It's shaping up to be very much a classic Metroid experience presented in a new and interesting way: Less talk, more poking around lonely environments crammed with monsters and secret passages. The Team Ninja influences are definitely visible, especially in the brutal killing moves and timing-based evasion system Other M introduces, but the most important thing Yosuke Hayashi and his crew have brought to Metroid is the way the game deals with 3D space.

 

Plus, there are plenty of extra items to be found for those who explore -- and as always, they require a grasp of the physical space Samus inhabits and how different areas are interconnected. At one point, I rolled through a cracked glass window in morph ball mode, cleared a room of enemies, and discovered it was a dead end. But a look around (and up) revealed a missile expansion in a duct running along the roof. So, I ducked back out of the room through the crack and ran along the exterior hallway to the open end of the duct, which I was able to climb into in order to collect the power-up and, in the process, reveal the next area. A classic Metroid moment, perfectly translated into a third-person action game.

 

Telling, what Other M doesn't feel like is Metroid Prime. This seems like a very deliberate decision by the developers, especially considering that Other M makes heavy use of the first-person perspective. It's significant, I think, that going into first-person mode requires changing your grip on the controller -- to enter Samus's viewpoint, you have to release the controller with your left hand and point it at the screen. This forces you to relinquish the ability to move Samus, preventing the game from adopting a first-person shooter style. You're not completely immobile in that POV, though; tapping the A button right as enemies attack will allow you to perform a quick evasion. But as with the powerful melee strikes, the first-person mode is a trade-off: You leave yourself more vulnerable in return for the ability to target specific enemies and make use of powerful missile attacks.

 

The game's enemies definitely put Samus's skills to the test in any perspective. The tensest part of the demo came shortly after the chameleon battle, as a trio of deadly armadillo-like creatures attacked in a sealed-off room. Heavily armored and devastatingly powerful, these beasts forced me to go into evasion mode, dodging their melee strikes while above ground and dashing out of the way when they burrowed and make a beeline for Samus underground. The key to this battle proved to be avoiding their attacks and using every brief opening to fire off a charged shot, which could potentially stun them and leave them open to a melee strike. This sequence reminded me of nothing so much the infamous fight with the grey space pirates in near the end of Super Metroid; the rhythm and strategies of the two encounters are quite similar and really drive home the fact that Nintendo and Team Ninja have nailed the classic Metroid feel in the third dimension.

 

Metroid-Database Preview

 

Nintendo has lifted their media embargo for Metroid: Other M, giving us some brand new screenshotsas well as allowing press who got to play the game this weekend to talk about their experiences. Though the version played was not a final build, play experiences are revealing many new things, including:

  • Speed upgrades increase the rate of the charge beam.
  • The game is mostly gameplay NOT cinematics. As in, an hour or more stretches without a single cutscene.
  • That said, there will be small real-time cutscenes (similar to Prime), but these seem to be thinly placed.
  • You cannot skip cutscenes.(Not sure about successive play-throughs though)
  • You can dodge while in first person.
  • Deactivating holographic generators reveals new areas to explore.
  • The music seems to be mostly atmospheric, but should include lots of remixes.
  • The auto-aim function can hit enemies from very far away, but missiles have a limited range.
  • Samus turns slowly in first person.
  • There will be sequences that can result in instant-death (such as one involving an elevator).
  • There are both save points and continue points. Continue points occur more frequently, and usually right next to difficult sequences (such as the said elevator sequence).

 

While some of you might be as shocked as I initially was to learn about instant-death sequences, especially after those obnoxious pistons in Metroid Prime: Hunters, which made me hate that game even more. Thankfully, the generous inclusion of continue points should mean we don't have to play long stretches over and over again, so hopefully they won't be too bad. It also seems that surviving these sequences requires a little common sense (i.e. don't stand underneath a falling elevator - what did you think would happen!?).

 

I have to say though - I'm more excited to play this than ever!

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