Topic: Metroid Other M

[Chozo Ghost]

Holy Crap! Amazon says the shipping estimate for my copy is September 7th! That's just the shipping estimate, not counting when it will actually deliver.

But it is my fault, because I opted for Free Shipping.... Ah well, at least I will get it eventually. Still worth it though, because I saved a lot of money doing it this way (no taxes and no shipping equals savings).

[Mop it up]

In my experience, the "shipping estimate" is actually the estimated day it will arrive at my mailbox. For example, when I ordered Super Mario Galaxy 2, it gave me the "shipping estimate" of May 26th. I received the game on May 25th.

Although, I'm pretty sure Amazon sends out shipping notices to email. Did you not get a notice?

[Halbred]

So, yeah. I'd like to also see a review from someone who is a little less invested in Metroid and more level-headed, that would be closer to my taste.

Oh...kay.

[Nick DiMola]

I found the answer, dude!

Okay, go back to the quarter-circle room where you fought the treeosaur. Run to the left side of the room, underneath the automated wall thing. See the metal surface on the ground? I haven't tried this 'cause I'm at work, but according to the Internet, you can speed boost through the wall underneath the automated lift by running along the metal surface, and this will take you to that mysterious door.

I'm going to try at lunch!

Oh man, thank god you figured this out, it was driving me nuts! Me and Chessa just wrapped it up at 100%, doubt we're going to go through the hard mode right now, but it was a fun journey while it lasted. I'll be interested to give it another go at some point soon and see how I feel going into the game without super high expectations.

All in all, I agree with most people's comparisons to Fusion. They feel like similar games in a lot of ways, though I still feel like that was the better of the two games. Regardless, it's a really good game and I'm glad that a different team was able to mess with the formula and try a few new concepts, some of which I hope to see again - namely the layered combat system.

[Halbred]

I'd like to see a 3D Super Metroid-sized map with all the interconnections but with this game's aesthetic.

[NWR_Neal]

I haven't read your review yet, but I did see you say that you were going to put your original, raw, negative review as a blog. So, yeah. I'd like to also see a review from someone who is a little less invested in Metroid and more level-headed, that would be closer to my taste.

To be fair, I'm very invested in Metroid. Perhaps I'm a bit more level-headed than Zach (that's entirely subjective. We're both crazy).

But Zach's review is by no means wrong. I actually think his review is very fair, and last time I checked, a 7 isn't a bad score. It's just he didn't enjoy the story section that much. On the contrary, I do, and I also don't see eye-to-eye with Zach on other parts of his review, but I see where he's coming from.

[Luigi Dude]

So yeah, game is awesome.  Beat it and am now trying to get 100% items.  HOLY SH!T the final part of it was amazing.

Oh and after beating the game I can truly say the G4 review is complete trash that is nothing more then a joke.  Unless Samus suddenly puts on a pink dress and bakes a cake when I get 100% items, there is no sexism in the game.

[Mop it up]

But Zach's review is by no means wrong. I actually think his review is very fair, and last time I checked, a 7 isn't a bad score.

I didn't say it was wrong, and didn't mean to imply that if I did (the reason I have not read it is because I don't want to know about the game; I will do so afterward). I'm just encouraging posting a second review for the simple reason that, in general (I've suggested this before), I like it when NWR can offer more than one review of a game, especially if people on staff have pretty different opinions. A game like this, which seems to be pretty controversial, is the perfect candidate. I realize it is more work to post multiple reviews, though the second one can come out later on.

NWR used to have multiple reviews for some games, I appreciated that.

[broodwars]

Man, Adam's a pretty incompetent commander. 

Adam: "Samus, I need you to go to Sector 3: the volcanic, geothermal testing environment.  We'll decide on weapon and suit authorization later.  I first need you to go down there and tell us what the conditions are like."

REALLY?!  I mean...Christ...REALLY?!  You REALLY needed to know what the situation was like in the Lava environment before deciding that letting Samus use her anti-heat Varia suit and Ice Beam was a good idea (especially since he had already authorized his men to use their ice guns at the beginning of the game)?!

*EPIC DOUBLE FACEPALM*

I'd really like to know what possible threat to his men Samus' Varia Suit was that he had to withhold authorization for so long (the grapple beam too, for that matter).  At this point, I think he's withholding suit authorizations just to screw with her while he sits all nice and comfy back in the nice communications room.  Pretty awesome boss battle in the volcano, though.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I found the answer, dude!

Okay, go back to the quarter-circle room where you fought the treeosaur. Run to the left side of the room, underneath the automated wall thing. See the metal surface on the ground? I haven't tried this 'cause I'm at work, but according to the Internet, you can speed boost through the wall underneath the automated lift by running along the metal surface, and this will take you to that mysterious door.

I'm going to try at lunch!

Oh man, thank god you figured this out, it was driving me nuts! Me and Chessa just wrapped it up at 100%, doubt we're going to go through the hard mode right now, but it was a fun journey while it lasted. I'll be interested to give it another go at some point soon and see how I feel going into the game without super high expectations.

All in all, I agree with most people's comparisons to Fusion. They feel like similar games in a lot of ways, though I still feel like that was the better of the two games. Regardless, it's a really good game and I'm glad that a different team was able to mess with the formula and try a few new concepts, some of which I hope to see again - namely the layered combat system.

I agree, the formula for the game is something that I hope is further explored in new Metroid games. Team Ninja, I think, has paved a really interesting path for new Metroid games to take advantage of, with some ironing out in places I can see the next Metroid being close to Super Metroid or Metroid Prime in quality, if not surpassing them. 

[broodwars]

I found the answer, dude!

Okay, go back to the quarter-circle room where you fought the treeosaur. Run to the left side of the room, underneath the automated wall thing. See the metal surface on the ground? I haven't tried this 'cause I'm at work, but according to the Internet, you can speed boost through the wall underneath the automated lift by running along the metal surface, and this will take you to that mysterious door.

I'm going to try at lunch!

Oh man, thank god you figured this out, it was driving me nuts! Me and Chessa just wrapped it up at 100%, doubt we're going to go through the hard mode right now, but it was a fun journey while it lasted. I'll be interested to give it another go at some point soon and see how I feel going into the game without super high expectations.

All in all, I agree with most people's comparisons to Fusion. They feel like similar games in a lot of ways, though I still feel like that was the better of the two games. Regardless, it's a really good game and I'm glad that a different team was able to mess with the formula and try a few new concepts, some of which I hope to see again - namely the layered combat system.

I agree, the formula for the game is something that I hope is further explored in new Metroid games. Team Ninja, I think, has paved a really interesting path for new Metroid games to take advantage of, with some ironing out in places I can see the next Metroid being close to Super Metroid or Metroid Prime in quality, if not surpassing them.

I agree, Team Ninja is free to stay on and continue working on Metroid games as far as I'm concerned, so long as Sakamoto isn't allowed a blank check to do whatever he wants.  I have very few problems with the combat and general gameplay.  It's fast, fluid, and feels unique and yet at home with the series.  All my problems (the controls, the script, the setting and probably the voice direction) can all be traced back to Sakamoto.  Maybe have a senior designer from Retro Studios direct the next Metroid made by Team Ninja?

[NWR_insanolord]

I think it's going to be a while until we see another Metroid game, at least on a console. I think there have been too many of them lately; there were 3 of them from 1987 until 2001, but in just the last 8 years we've had 6. That's compared to 5 mainline Mario games and 4 Zeldas.

[UncleBob]

Holy Crap! Amazon says the shipping estimate for my copy is September 7th! That's just the shipping estimate, not counting when it will actually deliver.

But it is my fault, because I opted for Free Shipping.... Ah well, at least I will get it eventually. Still worth it though, because I saved a lot of money doing it this way (no taxes and no shipping equals savings).

Although I did pay sales tax and a whopping 97 cents for the shipping, I got release day delivery with Walmart.com.  Very impressed, considering my history with their preorder system.

[broodwars]

"The Deleter."  Wow, Sakamoto...that's really the best name you could come up with for that sort of character.  -_-'  From now on, let's leave the hilariously stupid-sounding fake names to the professionals like Hideo Kojima, shall we?

[NWR_Neal]

Mop - It initially sounded like you weren't reading Zach's review because Zach wrote it. I get what you mean now, and because I disagree with Zach in some ways, I do plan on writing a second review.

For the recent times, I can explain why we don't have as many second reviews. Using Galaxy 2 as an example, what could we add with writing a second review? There wasn't really a lot of division on that title. Everyone generally loved it.

Other M offers lots of division, and I personally think a second review is warranted, especially since I know the text for my review would say different things than Zach's.

[Adrock]

Maybe have a senior designer from Retro Studios direct the next Metroid made by Team Ninja?

Why not just have Retro develop it? Yeah, I want them to develop something new, but Retro should expand into more than one team. And so far, even Metroid Prime 2 is better than Other M. Retro is a better developer and they'd done the series justice and then some.

[broodwars]

Maybe have a senior designer from Retro Studios direct the next Metroid made by Team Ninja?

Why not just have Retro develop it? Yeah, I want them to develop something new, but Retro should expand into more than one team. And so far, even Metroid Prime 2 is better than Other M. Retro is a better developer and they'd done the series justice and then some.

Because I don't want Retro's talent wasted on one franchise when they can either be reviving other Nintendo franchises that have long needed some TLC (like Star Fox) or (heaven forbid!) be making a new IP.  Besides, Retro said they were sick of working on Metroid, and I don't want a team that's tired of working on one franchise continuing to pump out more on increasingly less inspiration.  I'm perfectly fine with Team Ninja's contributions to this game, and would be happy to see them return to handle the grunt work on another title in the franchise.

Just killed the Lava Fish, which is where I'll put it up for tonight (that's no spoiler.  You run into the thing early in the game, so you know you'll be dealing with it eventually.).  Man, this may be my favorite collection of boss encounters in any Metroid game, and considering how good the Prime Trilogy's bosses were, that's no small feat.  They follow patterns and they're all kind of easy, but they don't fall into the Nintendo trap that other series like Mario and Zelda fall into with the Rule of 3 and they're all fairly exciting (not to mention frequent).

[Adrock]

How's that different than having a senior designer who's supposedly sick of working on Metroid? And do you really think a Japanese developer is going to take kindly to a western designer calling the shots? Something tells me that wouldn't sit too well, especially with an elitist studio like Team Ninja, though maybe that attitude left or at least softened with Itagaki's departure.

Like I said, Retro should expand. Last I checked, they have 80 employees which would give them a chance to work on something new and Metroid. And Retro did get to work on Donkey Kong which is a complete change of pace. I wonder if Retro was tired of working on Prime games. I would like to see what they could do if they were given free reign over the franchise. I don't know if Nintendo would allow it, but I'd still like to see it happen.

[Mop it up]

Why not just have Retro develop it? Yeah, I want them to develop something new, but Retro should expand into more than one team. And so far, even Metroid Prime 2 is better than Other M. Retro is a better developer and they'd done the series justice and then some.

I'm fine with Retro creating another Metroid, but I don't want it to be another Prime game. They are about to get some experience working on a 2D game with Donkey Kong Country Returns, so I wouldn't mind seeing them create a 2D Metroid game. They're a small company though, I don't know how well they could handle developing more than one game at a time.

For the recent times, I can explain why we don't have as many second reviews. Using Galaxy 2 as an example, what could we add with writing a second review? There wasn't really a lot of division on that title. Everyone generally loved it.

That's a good point, I can't think of a game in recent memory on which I wanted a second opinion.

I'm sorry about the confusion, I appreciate all of the work that everyone puts into the site.

[broodwars]

How's that different than having a senior designer who's supposedly sick of working on Metroid? And do you really think a Japanese developer is going to take kindly to a western designer calling the shots? Something tells me that wouldn't sit too well, especially with an elitist studio like Team Ninja, though maybe that attitude left or at least softened with Itagaki's departure.

Someone has to keep Team Ninja in line, and my main pick (Miyamoto) I'd rather have working on other games.  Besides, it gives Nintendo a chance to nurture new talent by giving them a chance at a directing a game, something that could pay off in the future.  And considering Retro spent the entirety of the Prime games with a Japanese company calling the shots, I'd say Team Ninja can just grow up and deal with it.  Besides, Retro's owned by a Japanese company, so it's not like they were being ordered around by a Bioware Exec.

Like I said, Retro should expand. Last I checked, they have 80 employees which would give them a chance to work on something new and Metroid. And Retro did get to work on Donkey Kong which is a complete change of pace. I wonder if Retro was tired of working on Prime games. I would like to see what they could do if they were given free reign over the franchise. I don't know if Nintendo would allow it, but I'd still like to see it happen.

I'd only want Retro to expand if they could maintain their high quality standard, and I'd only want them working on Metroid games again if Retro said they wanted to return to the franchise.  Maybe they would if Nintendo unshackled them from the icy grip of Sakamoto and let Retro do some of the things they apparently wanted to do in Prime 3 (such as actual bounty hunting).

[King of Twitch]

And do you really think a Japanese developer is going to take kindly to a western designer calling the shots?

You mean, someone to stand around and arbitrarily authorize certain tasks??

[KnowsNothing]

I'm really having a blast with this game but the entire time I'm only thinking about how much better it would be on the 3DS...there are very few games in which I have had trouble judging depth but this is certainly one of the worst for me.  Am I the only one with this problem?  I finding jumping in and out of the screen somewhat difficult to judge on occasion. 

In sweet, delicious 3D this game would be so sweet....and delicious.

Other than that I think this game is really fun.   The controls and first-person aspect actually feel pretty good to me, and as I've said before I really enjoy a more Fusion-like linearity once in a while.  The voice acting (or direction, whatever) and story are not the greatest but honestly I think some people here are taking their video games a little too seriously.  There's always this desire by fans to keep certain Nintendo franchises "pure" in a sense (which explains why everyone freaked out over Metroid Prime Pinball or Tetra's Trackers) but to me experiments like Other M will always be worth it.

In truth I love the atmosphere and composition of past Metroid games more than Other M, but as a breath of fresh air and an indicator of the potential the series holds I think it's just great.

[BwrJim!]

retro needs to get back to the dragon game they had..  Yes nintendo, their name is Retro, but that doesnt mean they make RETRO games so literally, it was about style..

but, that aside im sure the next project will be star fox or something.   you know, that retro is in..


all sarcasm aside, I can honestly say that I am enjoying Other M very much. MOre so than most games as of late.   The game seems to really be catching on in pace and the bosses are getting pretty wicked fun to play.  I would have to say that the sense moves are really fun to play around with and they add a good feel to the game.

"Samus, activate the varia option on your suit"  uhm.. yeah, really needed an order for that one.  heh.. 


 

[GoldenPhoenix]

I love Retro and the work they did with the Prime series, but really Metroid needed a fresh direction after 3 MP games. That is what Other M is, a fresh approach to the series and while it may not be perfect, it is an extremely promising first step. I know the first moment where I got to play the game in the training facility I KNEW it was going to be a fun experience, the gameplay alone sets it apart from the Prime games (not in terms of quality but in terms of being a fresh take on the series in 3D). It is exciting to play and to watch as well.

[greybrick]

I love Retro and the work they did with the Prime series, but really Metroid needed a fresh direction after 3 MP games. That is what Other M is, a fresh approach to the series and while it may not be perfect, it is an extremely promising first step. I know the first moment where I got to play the game in the training facility I KNEW it was going to be a fun experience, the gameplay alone sets it apart from the Prime games (not in terms of quality but in terms of being a fresh take on the series in 3D). It is exciting to play and to watch as well.

The game is exciting to watch; I love the flashy animations and weapons!

I can say that I am darn excited about renting it tomorrow. All of the criticisms I have made about control won't matter all that much if I am only out $2 on the rental. If I like it, I will just marathon all the way through and be happy since I have yet to replay a Metroid game anyhow.