Topic: Metroid Other M

[Luigi Dude]

Yes I do understand that Nintendo has advertised a lot of the game on the story and that since the game requires everyone to watch it the first time, if someone find it bad they have the right to dock it some points.  But the thing is the majority of the game is still mostly gameplay which all the good reviews have actually pointed out.  A lot of the reviews basically say the game takes somewhere between 10-15 hours to complete depending on many items you collect on your first playthrough, with about 2 hours of this being made up of the storyline cutscenes.

In the case of G4's review, they basically do nothing but talk about how terrible the storyline is and barely even mention much about the gameplay.  They basically call the game a bad game because it's story is bad, even though it's story makes up less then 1/5 of the actual game.  This is why their review is nothing more then a joke to me since they're basically giving the game a low score over something that doesn't even come anywhere close to making up the majority of the actual game.

GameTrailers Review: 8.6
 
The usual culprits: awkward controls for dealing with 3D movement, poor script, and poor voice acting.

And yet they actually gave the game a good score because they said it's still a great game because the controls still work fine for the most part and the storyline while not the greatest, doesn't ruin the entire game.  Unlike G4's review which did the complete opposite.

[broodwars]

Yes I do understand that Nintendo has advertised a lot of the game on the story and that since the game requires everyone to watch it the first time, if
In the case of G4's review, they basically do nothing but talk about how terrible the storyline is and barely even mention much about the gameplay.  They basically call the game a bad game because it's story is bad, even though it's story makes up less then 1/5 of the actual game.  This is why their review is nothing more then a joke to me since they're basically giving the game a low score over something that doesn't even come anywhere close to making up the majority of the actual game.

I think the G4 Reviewer (the Xplay review, in case you were wondering) was personally insulted by the story and what she found it did to Samus as a female character in gaming.  If you hold the series in high regard because of the respect the series has shown Samus, and then you play a game like Other M that you feel destroys her character (in a game that's story-centric) then I can understand why that aspect of the game would dominate your impression of the game.  Toss in gameplay that that you feel is hampered by an inferior, antiquated control scheme (for a 3D game) and exploration you as a reviewer find is arbitrary, and I completely understand where that reviewer is coming from and feel they justified the score.

[KnowsNothing]

For most people Metroid games mean isolation and exploration, while Samus as a character isn't really more than a silent suit of power armor.  While I definitely think that those characteristics were very important aspects in the series so far, I'm not going to naively think that the franchise will never try anything new.  Some people might be satisfied with a few new worlds to explore in the traditional Metroid fashion, but personally I find nothing wrong with Nintendo trying to take the series in a slightly new direction.

If you want to be alone on an alien planet with nothing more than your Gravity Suit then you have Metroid, Metroid II, Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2, and Metroid Prime 3.  To a lesser extent you even have Metroid Fusion (which I personally loved; I have yet to find a more atmospheric game on a handheld console.  Some of those SA-X segments were terrifying). In any case the release of Other M in no way reduces the quality of those seven games (just like how Metroid Prime Pinball didn't destroy the series either); it is simply trying to flesh out the story and the character a little more.  Honestly, what else could they do with the franchise?  Where else could they have gone?  They been doing the isolation thing for decades.

Besides, many of the people playing Metroid today (in fact, I'm willing to bet that MOST of the people playing Metroid today) don't share the same expectations as you guys do.  I'm one of them.  I don't think giving Samus a voice is a bad idea.  I WANT her to be an actual character because Mario and Link already play the silent protagonist. Samus actually has the potential to be a little more interesting.

People are always complaining that Nintendo never does anything new, and yet when they do people bitch some more.  I understand if you legitimately dislike the story or the dialogue, but to complain simply because story and dialogue exist AT ALL is pointless.  If you don't like it, ignore it.  Don't play it.  Problem solved.

PS. Sorry for the wall of text! It should also be noted that I have not yet played the game and I could end up hating it too My rant is probably a little too late since most people have moved on to complaining about other aspects of the game like the controls.  I just started typing and couldn't stop myself...

[NWR_insanolord]

People have the right to complain about Nintendo trying something new if they don't do it well. They're not complaining that Nintendo tried something; they're complaining because trying isn't good enough if it's not done well.

I can't say I'm that surprised at this. Nintendo has proven in the past that they aren't capable of doing anything more than a bare bones story, with the possible exception of Intelligent Systems. I don't particularly care about that; I don't expect or even really want that from Nintendo, but when they try and fail it gets in the way of a good game.

[Luigi Dude]

I think the G4 Reviewer (the Xplay review, in case you were wondering) was personally insulted by the story and what she found it did to Samus as a female character in gaming.  If you hold the series in high regard because of the respect the series has shown Samus, and then you play a game like Other M that you feel destroys her character (in a game that's story-centric) then I can understand why that aspect of the game would dominate your impression of the game.  Toss in gameplay that that you feel is hampered by an inferior, antiquated control scheme (for a 3D game) and exploration you as a reviewer find is arbitrary, and I completely understand where that reviewer is coming from and feel they justified the score.

The thing is the reviewer at G4 barely even talked about this stuff.  If these were major issues they had with the game then the reviewer should have talked about them more.  Instead all they did was spend the majority of the review talking about how they hated the story and then just briefly mention the problems they had with the gameplay at the end.  If someone didn't care much for how the story was and wanted to know about how the game played, the review would barely tell them anything about that except for some flaws that they don't even explain very well.

The whole point of reviews is to inform people about a game and the G4 review completely fails at that except telling that the story is crap.  Which is why the review is a complete joke since the reviewer fails at actually reviewing the entire game.

[Mop it up]

How have some people gotten this game already? Is it through illegal/questionable means, or did some stores break the street date?

I took a look at that G4 review.  Now I'm curious to know how many other female gamers will feel the same way.

I'll let you know after I play the game, though I usually try not to look into such things. I've long ago accepted that games are male-centric, so I don't get caught up in it.

[broodwars]

How have some people gotten this game already? Is it through illegal/questionable means, or did some stores break the street date?

Most of these sites are credible review sites who probably got their review copies a while ago.  I'm guessing that the review embargo ended today around 12:00 PM EST, so everyone posted their reviews.

[Mop it up]

I'm talking about people like DAaaMan64 and Sundoulos. I didn't think they were reviewers.

[broodwars]

I'm talking about people like DAaaMan64 and Sundoulos. I didn't think they were reviewers.

From the sounds of at least one of them, some local mom & pop stores got the game in early and sold them early.

[Sundoulos]

I haven't acquired the game, but I've watched some videos that some people posted who did (I posted a link at the Dual Layered Disc topic in Talkback).  The person who posted them appeared to have a legitimate copy, though I have no idea how they acquired it.

Any information that I've gotten about the game has been from watching the first 45 minutes or so of gameplay on the video and/or reading reviews.

I'll stress that even though I'm a bit disappointed that the game is getting knocked for poor storytelling and for nerfing Samus' cool persona, I'm excited about playing the game.   The videos that I watched looked pretty awesome, and I think that I'm defintely going to enjoy Other M.

[Mop it up]

Ah I see. I was skimming through all the new replies, I guess I misread what you said.

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm listening to the Weekend Confirmed crew talk about this game; they're being fairly critical of it, but oddly enough everyone thinks the story is done well, even if they don't like the choice of going into as much detail as they did. The general consensus is switching between third and first person views doesn't always work right.

[Halbred]

Okay, let me put it this way:

You know the Star Wars prequel trilogy basically RUINED Darth Vader because it made Anakin Skywalker a whiny little nerf-herder who was all emo and angsty?

This game does something similar, but not as bad (so far) to Samus. Her running internal monologue DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS her brave, warrior-like persona that we've come to know and love from previous games and, frankly, the gameplay portions of Other M.

"I was so young and naive, hurt and scared!" *blasts an alien in the face with a charge shot*

"Adam was like a father figure to me! Leaving the military was so hard!" *fires missiles at a tree-sauropod*

Kinda weaksauce.

[Mop it up]

So far the positive reviews are outweighing the negative reviews.

I wouldn't even call those negative reviews, except the Xplay one. 6-7 is still considered an "average" game.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Okay, let me put it this way:

You know the Star Wars prequel trilogy basically RUINED Darth Vader because it made Anakin Skywalker a whiny little nerf-herder who was all emo and angsty?

This game does something similar, but not as bad (so far) to Samus. Her running internal monologue DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS her brave, warrior-like persona that we've come to know and love from previous games and, frankly, the gameplay portions of Other M.

"I was so young and naive, hurt and scared!" *blasts an alien in the face with a charge shot*

"Adam was like a father figure to me! Leaving the military was so hard!" *fires missiles at a tree-sauropod*

Kinda weaksauce.

Warriors have no personality. They are mindless drones who don't have feelings.

I'm sorry but Samus had no freaken persona in Metroid 1-3 and Prime 1-3. She was an avatar that fought, she had no depth, was just a means of the player to go from point A to point B shooting stuff. At the most there were just a couple scenes in those games that showed any kind of emotion, mainly in Super Metroid and the Prime games.

It gets repetitive seeing feminine heroines portrayed in games now days as lacking any female traits. A balance is needed and it looks like Sakamoto at least tried it, who knows how it turns out, I'd like to see a female review the game to add a voice to all the guy's reviewing it.

[broodwars]

Warriors have no personality. They are mindless drones who don't have feelings.

Judging by the quality of Samus' voice acting in this game and the way she clings to Adam's orders even if they get in the way of self-preservation, I guess you would considering her a warrior. 

[GoldenPhoenix]

Warriors have no personality. They are mindless drones who don't have feelings.

Judging by the quality of Samus' voice acting in this game and the way she clings to Adam's orders even if they get in the way of self-preservation, I guess you would considering her a warrior. 

Lol I have to admit the orders allowing Samus to activate weapons is kind of silly. I have heard from others though the story is pretty well put together even if the voice acting is, well, not so hot

[MegaByte]

If you need to go to sleep, I'm streaming the BGM.

[DAaaMan64]

I'm talking about people like DAaaMan64 and Sundoulos. I didn't think they were reviewers.

I live right around NOA, so I have ways to get games early.

[broodwars]

Well, it didn't take G4 long to realize that they had a pretty fair controversy on their hands with their Other M review.  They've already posted a follow-up video "talkabout" with the reviewer that allows her to go into greater detail what she thought of the game than what a 3-minute mini-review allows.  I'm watching it now, and it's pretty interesting IMO.

I also recommend the latest episode of GameTrailers' Invisible Walls podcast, where they have a pretty good roundtable discussion of Other M.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Well, it didn't take G4 long to realize that they had a pretty fair controversy on their hands with their Other M review.  They've already posted a follow-up video "talkabout" with the reviewer that allows her to go into greater detail what she thought of the game than what a 3-minute mini-review allows.  I'm watching it now, and it's pretty interesting IMO.

I also recommend the latest episode of GameTrailers' Invisible Walls podcast, where they have a pretty good roundtable discussion of Other M.

Very interesting. Sounds like they may not have a good balance in regards to who Samus is, a mixture of masculine and feminine traits. Still can't wait to play it, it sounds like the core game is pretty good even if it is (Like I expected) inferior to the Prime games.

[broodwars]

Well, it didn't take G4 long to realize that they had a pretty fair controversy on their hands with their Other M review.  They've already posted a follow-up video "talkabout" with the reviewer that allows her to go into greater detail what she thought of the game than what a 3-minute mini-review allows.  I'm watching it now, and it's pretty interesting IMO.

I also recommend the latest episode of GameTrailers' Invisible Walls podcast, where they have a pretty good roundtable discussion of Other M.

Very interesting. Sounds like they may not have a good balance in regards to who Samus is, a mixture of masculine and feminine traits. Still can't wait to play it, it sounds like the core game is pretty good even if it is (Like I expected) inferior to the Prime games.

Sure.  I just hope that wherever Metroid goes from here, Sakamoto is kept far, far away from it.  I wasn't terribly fond of Metroid Fusion, and a lot of the stuff I'm seeing and hearing from this game echoes problems Fusion had as well.  Many of the new problems with Other M can also be directly attributed to Sakamoto's stubborn design decisions, so I'd rather see the series either take a long hiatus or have Nintendo pick new blood to helm the series now.  The Prime games showed that we can have fine Metroid games without him, and what can happen when Nintendo puts control of a franchise in the hands of people who are young and hungry to prove themselves.

[Spinnzilla]

Although, I haven't played it yet, one thing I would like to see more of in the next Metroid game, if it works correctly, is the new use of melee combat.  It just looks fun and adds some flash to game's visuals.   No reason not to have the more dynamic action and exploration in the next one. 

[DAaaMan64]

Jesus christ, Samus wasn't even a character before, at least we have something now. Plus, what I've played she seems cool enough, though we only really know about her your past, nothing about how she is now.

[broodwars]

Although, I haven't played it yet, one thing I would like to see more of in the next Metroid game, if it works correctly, is the new use of melee combat.  It just looks fun and adds some flash to game's visuals.   No reason not to have the more dynamic action and exploration in the next one.

Yeah, I'm curious how that might have played if Team Ninja wasn't constrained by the limits of the NES-style Wiimote and was allowed to use the Nunchuck or Classic Controller.  Given the team's history with Ninja Gaiden, maybe we could have seen something more advanced or involved than just pressing a button to execute a finishing move (something like No More Heroes, perhaps).  I wouldn't be opposed to seeing more interaction of that nature in future Metroid titles, as it always seemed kind of odd that Samus was basically limited to being a walking turret.

Of course, I've found it even more odd in this modern Metroid era that Samus' Power Suit basically just materializes and dematerializes in a flash of light around her Zero Suit, rather than something that has to be put together and disassembled.      But this is a suit of armor that can turn into a ball...