Topic: Metroid Other M

[Chozo Ghost]

Amazon finally shipped my copy of this game. The delivery estimate is September 10th.

[Halbred]

Hard Mode is definately doable. I'm very far into Sector 2 now...I just beat the construction vehicle. Oddly enough, the toughest enemies are the jumpy things with tentacles on their backs. They abuse the "jump on Samus and shock her" attack, which takes half your health off.

[broodwars]

Finished the game with 100% items so everything's unlocked now.  To be honest, I'm pretty unimpressed by the post-game content.  The new boss isn't all that interesting, must like his original incarnation.  He just floats around shooting lots of projectiles that you can easily dodge and counter-attack.  And the sequence that follows it is so half-assed it's astounding, not to mention nonsensical (why in the world did Samus leave her damn suit turned off!  Are you seriously suggesting that she isn't capable of carrying a frickin' helmet with her free arm in the Power Suit?!.

Overall, I'm satisfied with Other M, though it comes nowhere close to matching the quality of Prime 1 or Prime 3 IMO.  It's rare that a Wii game makes me anxious at work to come home and play it, but this one certainly accomplished that.  It's a step in the right direction towards doing something new with the franchise, though.  Just get a more competent director onboard than Sakamoto, and I can't wait to see what this game might lead to with the franchise.

[Mop it up]

Amazon finally shipped my copy of this game. The delivery estimate is September 10th.

When did you order it? Was it a pre-order? I'd be surprised if Amazon didn't have enough stock to ship all orders on the release date.

[Caterkiller]

I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. I think the voice acting is great and story has me very interested, for a video game anyway. When I first played the demo I could not do first person shooting to save my life, but switching back and forth now is so easy. I have absolutely no problems with the controls at all.

I am so happy Metroid took this direction and hope it sticks for future titles.

[Chozo Ghost]

Amazon finally shipped my copy of this game. The delivery estimate is September 10th.

When did you order it? Was it a pre-order? I'd be surprised if Amazon didn't have enough stock to ship all orders on the release date.

I preordered it. All the way back on August 1st, so it wasn't like I preordered it at the last minute... but I opted for free shipping, and I guess that must have been my mistake.

[MegaByte]

I did the free Amazon Prime release day delivery, and they actually overnighted it to make it happen.

[Adrock]

More thoughts

1. Metroid Prime still looks better graphically which is pathetic because it's a nearly 8 year old game. Maybe it's the art design. Still, Samus sans helmet at the end of Prime looked amazing. I remember thinking that no character model in any videogame on any console that generation looked that good. The character models, outside of Samus, are average at best. Team Ninja is capable of better on a non-HD console (Ninja Gaiden on Xbox).

2. I know this is a nitpick, but Retro Studios amended Samus' glaring character design flaw: the arm cannon. Other M went back to the original design. It makes no sense for it to be the same length as her arm. Granted, where she keeps all those missiles and bombs is a whole different story. I liked the cannon longer (that's what she said).

3. Other M is riddled with questionable gameplay choices. Concentration as a means of regaining health is lame. The over-the-shoulder segments only serve to slow the game down. It's supposed to affect atmosphere, but it just fucked with the pacing. Same with the force 1st person investigation segments. Stop slowing me down, Other M! I just want to play the core game.

4. What the hell, Sector 3? I know others have addressed this, but it still begs the question, "What the hell, Sector 3?" Adam doesn't authorize the Varia suit until 75% of the way through that part of the section. While a stretch, I can kind of buy the weapons authorization, but why wouldn't he just let me put my shields up? Emo Samus has so much to f-ing say, but not once was she like, "Um, this intense heat is literally killing me. I might legitimately die in the near future." It just doesn't make any sense at certain points of the game. Before Adam tells Samus to go to Sector 2, you run into a "dead-end." It's only a dead-end because Adam won't let Samus use the grapple beam. "We'll deal with that thing later." No, asshole, just let me use my things and I'll deal with it now. Jesus Christ....

5. Other M has a number of great ideas that are either poorly implemented or just not explored enough. So far, anyway. I like the 3rd/1st person switching, but not enough was done with it and in some cases, it's just terrible. 1st person view just seems like it's in the game because the Wii remote didn't have enough buttons for missiles though I guess the minus button could have been used to scroll through missiles/super missiles in a Super Metroid-esque set-up. Other M doesn't really take advantage of the Wii remote since you have to lock-on to shoot a missile. I would have preferred to use the Classic Controller for this game and nixed the entire first person for missiles thing (being able to look around in 1st person is still a must). At the same time, I would love to see Nintendo try this again but really work on better integrating the different perspectives.

6. Nothing in Other M has really wowed me thus far. In 1994, I remember when Ridley flew towards the screen after stealing the baby Metroid. Then, in 2002, I remember first seeing rain and fog on the visor in Metroid Prime. That was awesome and all...... until I saw Samus' reflection for a brief second. Holy sh*t...

I am having fun with the game; it's just deeply flawed. I want to finish the game first before fully judging it, but so far, it's probably the worst Metroid game to date, taking into account the time period it was released. To clarify, the original Metroid is the worst. It hasn't held up terribly well. However, it's reflective of 1987 game design on top of NES hardware limitations.

[greybrick]

Metroid Prime still looks better graphically which is pathetic because it's a nearly 8 year old game. Maybe it's the art design.

Bingo, I found the Prime games to be much more visually inspired and complex. That and I found the graphics to be a bit more eye-catching in Prime just from a nuts and bolts perspective. When you arrive in that first "outdoor" area in Sector 1 (Other M), all I could think was, "ew."

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

An Amazon box just dropped through the letterbox. I don't have anything else ordered, so this must be Other M. See you all later, I have to go play.

[Sarail]

I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. I think the voice acting is great and story has me very interested, for a video game anyway. When I first played the demo I could not do first person shooting to save my life, but switching back and forth now is so easy. I have absolutely no problems with the controls at all.

I am so happy Metroid took this direction and hope it sticks for future titles.

I'm glad someone else feels the same way I do. I think the game is fantastic, and I, too, really look forward to future Metroid titles using this game engine. Feels great.

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

Well, I've played the game a fair bit today. The last thing I did was find an E-Recovery Tank using the Speed Booster in Sector 2.

It's been fun up to the point where I'm at. The action rarely lets up - progression is quick, boss encounters are numerous and always interesting, the sectors are interesting to wonder in despite their linearity and I'm enjoying the upgrade hunting. There seems to be a lot of sneaky missile expansions that play on the fact that the camera is fixed, so they'll be hidden in blind spots with subtle tells that you will find more than first glances would indicate. By the way, it's funny how they took a page straight from the Legend of Zelda book and now have the Metroid equivalent of Heart Pieces. Anyway, speaking of the camera, it is keeping up successfully, yet dynamic enough to give a cinematic feel. Giant lava monster fight = epically awesome.

I'll briefly address the storytelling, in that it's exactly what I was expecting: meh. As several others have already explained, it's not the voice acting (which is of medium quality as far as games go), it's just the scriptwriting is a little off. Probably works better in its native Japanese, but as it is, it's excessively wordy and unnatural. In terms of the plot, it's decent, if a bit nonsensical at times.

Next, the controversial areas. Firstly, I'm finding the controls great. Moving around with the D-Pad took no more than 10 minutes to get used to. The use of the pointer for shooting is also quite seamless and easy to execute. It wasn't obvious straight away, but I realised there is momentary bullet time when you switch to first person to allow you to get your bearings, which was invaluable against the tree giraffe creature. Thanks to the slow motion, it doesn't take long to adapt to the immobility of this mode. The concentration technique, however, remains to be seen. The E-Recovery tank I just collected may help, because while most of the time this mechanic is no trouble to deal with, there are a couple of occasions when it has bitten me in the backside. Perhaps the health threshold for being able to use it is too low.

I'll provide more thoughts tomorrow.

[BwrJim!]

"Ahhh RIGHT!!!" Retro highfives self.

[Halbred]

Finally beat Ridley on Hard last night. Dude's a cheap bastard, and many of his attacks are on-hit-kills. There is a trick you can abuse, though. During the second half of the fight, if you're at full health and he picks you up and drags you around, you can shoot him to stun him (and take health off), and when you land, you have just enough time to recover your health and missiles. He'll just pick you up again!

Repeat for the win.

[BwrJim!]

For the first time I listened to the podcast.  I heard one great comment in there..

Take the monologue and turn it into text.  That would of driven home so much more power. 

[Caliban]

Woah...The Metroid Queen, a callback to Metroid 2.  That's cool and all, Team Ninja.  I certainly wasn't expecting that.  Just one small thing, though: WHAT THE **** DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?!  There doesn't seem to be any frickin' way to attack that boss, and he's swarming with extremely annoying pests that are too numerous to Super Missile and don't stay frozen long enough to look around for a clue as to have to attack the boss.  ARGH!

Same boss. Same reaction. Those creatures are vicious. VICIOUS! I even tried DAaaMan64's idea to charge beforehand. No fun at all.

[Caterkiller]

 Loved all the monologues, I could not stand the very end with the forced first person segments. I just didn't know what the heck to do! And that last boss!For anyone who needs help just go under "it" and start blasting to get "them" all at once where they will collect.

Other than that really loving everything.
 
Edit:
Who was the traitor?

and who gave me a smiting for loving the monologues?
 
Last thing, how do I hide everything in black to type spoilers?

[Adrock]

I finished the game with 100% completion. It was good, not great.

1. The story wasn't necessarily terrible, just terribly executed due to long cutscenes and numerous storytelling missteps such as on-the-nose dialog, countless show, don't tell moments, infodumping, and excessive use of voice over. Oh, by the way, plot twist fail.

2. Samus? Respond? Respond? Saaaaammmuuussssss! Fission Mailed. I need scissors. 61.

3. For all of you canon sticklers, Other M certainly did a number on Fusion.

4. I didn't find the infamous Ridley scene to be sexist at all. I understand the effect Sakamoto was going for, but ultimately, it's poor characterization for a number of reasons. Chronologically, it makes no sense here.

EDIT: 5. Best line: "Any objections, Adam?" Then, she activates Screw Attack. Badass. Would have been nice a littler earlier, but oh well.

Who was the traitor?

Pretty sure it was James. You find his body where someone confronts Melissa Bergman (I used this instead of MB because 2 letters might defeat the purpose of spoiler tags) then a shot is heard when the screen fades to black. As you know, Melissa lives to be one of a few predictable plot twists later.

However, shame on you, Caterkiller, for not knowing this. James was the only one with a molestache, you should have known he was bad from the get-go. And unless I missed something, I found it odd that after the yellow Metal Gear battle, Samus doesn't go looking for him or anything.

[gojira]

Just beat the game and I have to say I basically loved it overall.  It's not perfect, but I still had a lot of fun.   I don't understand the poor reviews the game has gotten. Under some fairly surface level complaints, the game is still very much Metroid.

I really didn't have any issues with the story personally.  Of course I'm the type that has read all the Metroid comics and what not, so I've never really had this "Samus must be a lone warrior" conceit for the series.  Also having played the previous 2d Metroids it's pretty obvious the Metroid series was headed this way.  Metroid Fusion received a lot of the same complaints.  I guess a skip option for the cutscenes would've appeased some people, but I would never have used it.  The whole story/cinematic aspect of Super Metroid is one of the reasons it had such a great impact on me and remains my favorite game ever.  So I won't begrudge a Metroid game for expanding in that way.

The controls are not nearly as awkward or funky as you would think controlling a 3d game with a dpad and switching between 3rd and 1st person perspective.  However it is obvious to me that using a nunchuck would have been a great option to have.  But even so I was still able to switch fairly quickly and dodge and all that fairly easily.  Later I found out you actually can dodge in 1st person mode.  RTFM I guess.  And I would've loved to see melee utilized more.  I just really enjoyed that aspect of the combat.

For my actual issues with the game, which are very minor.  The pixel hunt scenes in the game.  It seems that the target area you have to scan is pretty small.  It's not enough to scan the dead guy, you have to scan the emblem on his chest.  But like I said there are only a few of these scenes so it doesn't affect the game overall, but it is weird that it's even in there.

My only other real problem is with the music.  It's not bad or anything.  But it is more subdued that what Retro did in the Prime series.  The music in Prime takes what was done previously in the Metroid series and then expands on it greatly.  So the understated music in Other M is somewhat disappointing for me. 

Like I said it is overall a great game.  I love how it ties to the main line Metroids, especially Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion.  And you have to give the game some love for having the speed booster and a bit of shine sparking.

[Caterkiller]

Thanks Adrock, and yes I should have known.

I really enjoyed this game, the only thing I out right did not like was pixel hunts because I just did not know what the heck to look for, and when I was in the right place I wasn't in the right place. Then there were certain times when I tried to lock on to something in first person during a boss fight by my target would be drawn else where.  Now I understand where ever the target went thats what I needed to hit, but it wasn't that clear during certain fights.

I very much enjoyed the story, I wasn't jumping up and down when certain things happened or tried to get major emotion out of me, but for a game (now a'days I see game stories for what they are) I was entertained. I know we used to and probably still do see Samus as some loner bad apples but if this is Sakamoto's vision of her I can accept it. The first time Samus appeared to be anything but an inhuman fighting machine was in Fushion and then again in Prime 2 when she gave her silent respects for the fallen soldiers.

Besides that I was so sick of Sci Fi female Link, it's nice to see another Nintendo franchise take up voice acting and a more story driven approach and flesh out a seemingly rich world. 

And get Ridley in the next smash bros! Shrink him somewhat to a bowser size and let him loose. I thought he was great in this game. Unlike Prime 3 where he appeared to be a mindless beast, did he really have to charge like a bull? you know winding up like Rambi the rhino before a stampede?

Oh and can someone please explain Ridley in this game?

[gbuell]

The only things I strongly dislike so far are the pixel-hunting portions and the over-the-shoulder segments (really just the one loooong one I've encountered so far, when you find the Zebesian with the Galactic Federation suit. Short over-the-shoulder segments aren't a big deal.) Those are such small parts of the game that it's not really tainting my overall experience, which is quite positive.

[Adrock]

Oh and can someone please explain Ridley in this game?

From what I understand, the Galactic Federation extracted cell samples from Samus' suit after the events of Super Metroid. They just haphazardly cloned whatever cells they could find stuck to Samus' suit. One of the cell samples was Ridley's, except no one realized it was Ridley because it was just that little fuzzy white thing so they raised it as a pet for whatever reason. It plays dead then attacks a scientist and escapes. Throughout the course of the game, baby Ridley eats enough then becomes that lizard thing that tries to stab you with its tail outside of the Biosphere Testing Area then eventually Ridley's adult form. Basically, the Galactic Federation chose Charmander and it evolved into Charmeleon and finally, after gaining enough experience, he evolved once more at level 36 to become Charizard.

I believe the Galactic Federation's plan was to clone the Space Pirates, including Ridley, to act as special forces for them except they didn't know they cloned Ridley yet which is further complicated by the fact that Ridley's presence made all the pirate clones go crazy. I think the Galactic Federation decided to abandon that plan when they started cloning Metroids, stripping them of their one weakness, and attempting to use MB to control them. I'm a little unclear on the time span of all of this because that seems like an awful lot of things happening so soon after Samus fucked up Zebes. Additionally, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to hearken back to Metroid Prime 3 and the Aurora units, but since Sakamoto repeatedly curbstomps continuity and practically pretends that the Prime series exists/counts, I guess I'm asking too much.

[Halbred]

I beat Hard mode last night. You get NOTHING. I was PISSED. Don't freaking bother.

I've come to the conclusion that either Other M is not canon, or Fusion has been taken out of the continuity. There is so much repeated in Fusion (because Fusion supposed takes place AFTER Other M) that Samus should've been like "This again?" almost every breath in Fusion. Seriously.

[MegaByte]

Holy crap @ Japanese box art.  It's more than you think.

[TJ Spyke]

I have to disagree with whoever wrote that, Japanese boxarts are NOT usually better than ours. Sometimes they are, usually they are worse IMO.