Topic: Metroid Other M

[Halbred]

Review is up. Go check it out!

I have some fun things planned to further cover this game, including an radio drama with Neal and a blog post where I post my original, rage-fueled review.

[KnowsNothing]

You know what's strange?  That Other M is considered sexist but rewarding players with a shot of Samus in her underwear at the end of every game up until Prime (and even then the Zero suit is pretty revealing) is ignored.  Apparently Other M ruins the Metroid tradition of respecting its female protagonist

In other news Amazon fucked up my release date delivery and I'm pissed.

[Morari]

Yeah. They definitely should have respected Samus' feminine power!

[broodwars]

I picked up my copy of Other M over my lunch break, and so far I have to give props to Nintendo on one thing: that Art Folio is surprisingly (and pleasantly) classy.  It's a big pet peeve of mine when companies (particularly anime companies) pack in postcards or whatnot with their DVDs, but they give you nowhere to put them so I end up having to chuck them into a bin I have set aside for that very purpose.  The postcard artwork for the Other M folio, however, comes in a black envelope made out of what looks like high-quality cardboard (which has an almost felt-like texture to it).  The artwork inside is quite lovely; on high-quality paper; and surprisingly large, with captions on the back of the cards.  I'm usually very unimpressed by Nintendo pre-order bonuses, but this one's very satisfying.  My only complaint is that because the fold for the envelope is on the inside, it can be a little hard to get the cards back in it.
 
Also, I wasn't terribly fond of the Other M cover art when I saw it online, but in person it looks pretty nice.  You can't fault Nintendo for the artwork in this game, that's for sure.

[Chozo Ghost]

Anyone who wants to discuss spoilers please mark them accordingly, because some of us are still waiting for our copies to come in the mail.

[broodwars]

Anyone who wants to discuss spoilers please mark them accordingly, because some of us are still waiting for our copies to come in the mail.

Alright, can we lay down the rules of just what qualifies as spoilers?  Obviously, any plot developments told in cutscenes or whatnot qualifies.  IMO, though, bosses and power-ups should not and I've seen some real hand-wringing from people over boss discussion in the past, to the point where it can get really silly (like people whining about the cloud suit in Galaxy 2 being revealed on NWR).

[King of Twitch]

Samus is a bounty hunter!

[Halbred]

The blonde-haired girl is an android created to house a computer program that's been reverse-engineered to resemble Mother Brain so that Metroids can be controlled telepathically. However, at a certain point, the android gained self-awareness and then developed emotions. She thought of lab's head researcher as her mother.
 
The bonus boss is a giant version of Phantoom. It's a fairly easy, but AWESOME fight. Fanservice FTW.
 
In the few scenes where she's out of her Power Suit, Samus does, indeed, have a big rack. Makes me happy.
 
 

[Ian Sane]

I think a good rule with spoilers is if it's something that the dev really didn't want you to know ahead of time then it's a spoiler.  If it's in the manual it's not really a spoiler for example.  You're supposed to experience the story going in fresh.  If some area or boss is such that the knowledge of it would reveal the plot to someone who hasn't played it yet then it's also a spoiler.  Let's say the boss is someone who was portrayed as a good guy earlier in the game.  If you mention that boss fight without spoilers anyone just starting the game will be able to put two and two together.

It's probably better to be overly careful with spoilers then to be careless.

[Halbred]

The instruction manual tells you how to use EVERY SUIT AND WEAPON POWER-UP YOU GET.

I assume this is because the game was made with a more "Blue Ocean" strategy in mind, but when I was flipping through the manual, I was like, "this is bullsh*t."

[Caterkiller]

Manuals are for non-men! And including info on how to use every suit and power up is for non-men too!

Going to head out and pick up my copy.

[broodwars]

The instruction manual tells you how to use EVERY SUIT AND WEAPON POWER-UP YOU GET.

I assume this is because the game was made with a more "Blue Ocean" strategy in mind, but when I was flipping through the manual, I was like, "this is bullsh*t."

Yeah, I had to shake my head at that as well.  Then again, I have to wonder if "TEH CASUALZS!" actually read game manuals.      Maybe they just figured only we would, so they just layed out the list of power-ups to expect.

[Sundoulos]

Yeah...I stopped seeing the need to read manuals when games started integrating tutorials into the gameplay anyway.  What's the point?

[Ian Sane]

The instruction manual tells you how to use EVERY SUIT AND WEAPON POWER-UP YOU GET.

Okay, let's specify that the manual has to not be written by stupid morons.  If what constitutes a spoiler is not painfully obvious to you then just don't say anything or assume everything is a spoiler.  It seriously should not be hard to discern.
 
The irony of the "blue ocean" approach in this is that there is all this emphasis on the NES game.  The original NES Metroid is one of the least user-friendly games I've ever played and is by FAR the least accessible Metroid game.  If you look at the original game as inspiration then this should be even MORE obtuse and confusing.  When Nintendo acts as if the NES was this golden age for intuitive mainstream-friendly games I wonder if anyone at NCL has gone back and actually PLAYED these old games.
 
The elusive "everyone" game is a pipe dream anyway and I wish Nintendo would not bother attempting it.  The spectrum of human taste is far too great for any game to please everyone.  You change this to try to attract this group of people and you turn off people from that audience.  That's how it works.
 
Today's day at work is really dragging.  Despite the mixed reviews I really want to try this out for myself but I have to wait until I get home.  Stupid reality.

[Mop it up]

Alright, can we lay down the rules of just what qualifies as spoilers?

I'd think anyone who is concerned with boss and poerup names has stayed away from this and all relevent threads, so I wouldn't worry about that. However, this may not technically qualify as a spoiler, but I think that explaining in detail how to defeat a boss is probably something most people don't want to know unless they are stuck, so it'd probably be a good idea to give some sort of warning before going into that, though the black spoiler tags may not be necessary.

Speaking of, I should probably now abstain from this thread until after I beat the game, before I learn something I don't want to know. See the lot of you back here in a week or two.

You know what's strange?  That Other M is considered sexist but rewarding players with a shot of Samus in her underwear at the end of every game up until Prime (and even then the Zero suit is pretty revealing) is ignored.  Apparently Other M ruins the Metroid tradition of respecting its female protagonist

Because females never played games until today.

[DAaaMan64]

To me, everything about a game is a spoiler. If a boss is easy, its a spoiler. If a character you meet is blonde, its a spoiler. If the level structure is a central hub its a spoiler. So just make your whole post a spoiler.

Anything that would possibly give you a preconceived feeling about the game.

[broodwars]

To me, everything about a game is a spoiler. If a boss is easy, its a spoiler. If a character you meet is blonde, its a spoiler. If the level structure is a central hub its a spoiler. So just make your whole post a spoiler.

Anything that would possibly give you a preconceived feeling about the game.

Alright, then I consider the fact that you have been hyping this game to kingdom come the last couple days to be a spoiler.      You're obviously trying to give me a preconceived feeling about the game.

[Stratos]

To me, everything about a game is a spoiler. If a boss is easy, its a spoiler. If a character you meet is blonde, its a spoiler. If the level structure is a central hub its a spoiler. So just make your whole post a spoiler.

Anything that would possibly give you a preconceived feeling about the game.

Sounds like most everyone here has been 'spoiled'

[BwrJim!]

If you read the interview on Nintendo.com where they take all main people involved with the series, the talk about the voice acting.  It was done on purpose and really hard for them to get her to sound that way.  So her voice acting is exactly what they wanted. 

[Ian Sane]

If you read the interview on Nintendo.com where they take all main people involved with the series, the talk about the voice acting.  It was done on purpose and really hard for them to get her to sound that way.  So her voice acting is exactly what they wanted.

So bad direction instead of bad acting.  Good to know.

[TheFleece]

I picked up my copy earlier today and I've been playing off and on throughout the afternoon. I'm up to a point where Samus is controlled as if she were a tank and I hate it. Everything else that I was on the fence about: voice acting, controls and lack of music really compliment the atmosphere of the game. Samus sounds boring because she's just encountered all of her frenemies from her past which she neatly tucked into the back of her mind, it's like a high school reunion with all of the people you'd hate to share a table with.

[broodwars]

If you read the interview on Nintendo.com where they take all main people involved with the series, the talk about the voice acting.  It was done on purpose and really hard for them to get her to sound that way.  So her voice acting is exactly what they wanted.

I'm strongly reminded of what happened with the English dub for the anime series Love Hina in the early 2000s: one of the stipulations of the licensing contract is that the domestic distribution company (I think it was Bandai at the time) had to allow the Japanese license holders to select the English voice actors and direct them.  It is one of the most notoriously awful dubs in the history of English anime dubs, but it was exactly what the creators wanted.  So yeah...stuff like voice acting is best left to the professionals.  Just because a dub turned out "exactly how they wanted," that does not mean it was good.  -_-'

Just got home, so I'll be starting up my playthrough soon.

[DAaaMan64]

To me, everything about a game is a spoiler. If a boss is easy, its a spoiler. If a character you meet is blonde, its a spoiler. If the level structure is a central hub its a spoiler. So just make your whole post a spoiler.

Anything that would possibly give you a preconceived feeling about the game.

Alright, then I consider the fact that you have been hyping this game to kingdom come the last couple days to be a spoiler.      You're obviously trying to give me a preconceived feeling about the game.

Nah I just don't understand peoples complaints. They game has problems, but its an 8.5 haha.

[broodwars]

Just defeated the first boss.  So far, the game's ok and the controls work better than I thought they would.  It has been annoying, though, coming across upgrades I can see plain-as-day right in front of me that I can't get just because "Adam hasn't authorized it."      It can also be kind of hard, with this graphical style and fixed camera angle, to see what you can and can't interact with without entering 1st person view.  I am a bit bugged by a bit of continuity error, especially after having just finished Super Metroid: if I'm not mistaken, isn't Samus' ship in Other M supposed to be the one she had in Super Metroid?  That one was a top-loader, yet the one she has in Other M is a bottom-loader...

Anyone found a way to turn those hints off that appear occasionally to tell you things you probably already know? 

[Spinnzilla]

So far I really like it.  But i'm definitely frustrated with the whole first person aspect, so very forced and script is cheesy. But I don't really have any complaints that already haven't be addressed by others.

I really like the finisher moves. All of the little battles are very visually appealing with the camera constantly panning around you. I really, really hope that something similar to that is kept in future titles.  It just adds some to the experience.

Just really...how hard would have been to give us missile use in 3rd person? :/