Topic: Fils-Aime: 'Other M Should Be a Million Unit Title'

[Peachylala]

Anyone calling Mario games casual has obviously never tried to get 120 stars.

**** casual term, **** hardcore terms. Mario is about universal appeal, and he has it in spades damn it.

The true injustice is that games that were among the best of the generation (looking at you Zack and Wiki and Little King's Story) fizzled. This is partly due to the Wii's core appeal and partly due to the way the video game industry has changed.

I find that arguable at best. Those two games were brand new IPs that hardly received any marketing push, and when you are competing with Nintendo's games, which receive more marketing then the typical third party disasters (MadWorld, Dead Space: Extraction), there is a problem. We've been saying it over and over again, third parties just don't bother to advertise their games on Nintendo platforms. Unless Nintendo gives them moneyhats, if they think it will be a hit.

[Shecky]

Corruption didn't do all that well either. This has nothing to do with the quality of either title, and it certainly isn't a result of the crappy writing, voice acting, or any other specific criticism you want to make.

The reason is actually pretty simple, and I'm surprised that Nintendo of America claims to be so puzzled. Metroid can't sell a million units for the same reason that so many other high-quality, complex, adult-oriented games have performed below expectations on Wii. Nintendo didn't establish the platform as a strong destination for such games in the first place. Before Other M, what was the last first-party Wii game with a similar level of design complexity and seriousness of tone? All I can think of is Corruption itself, released three years earlier. It's no wonder that gamers aren't looking for these kinds of titles on Wii!

I agree.  The system is designed (and marketed) towards group play.  'Sharing' the gaming experience.  Looking at the sales charts, you'll probably struggle to find many single player games that rank high on the list and don't have Mario in the title.  Actually, it kind of surprises me that we don't have more of those types of games developed for the system.  Say for example, good 4 player racers.  Racing games are a blast in a group, and I believe Mario Kart was our first real offering.

That being the case, I think games for Wii are driven by what folks experience while playing in those groups.  Tried, Wii Fit at a friends house, gain knowledge of it, buy it.  Heck, that's how the system took off.  Good games that cater to that group play will strive in the same.

Another typical way for games to catch on if for owners to show them off.  In example, I was introduced to Shadows of the Colossus that way, because it was a neat concept.  Word spreads, kids take it back to parents, and the next thing you know parents are asking for it in store, even if they don't have the right system to play it...

Metroid M has neither of those points AND it's fairly straight forward, of moderate length, and linear.  If someone I knew was over and was interested in the title.... I'd probably just let them borrow it.

[Shecky]

it all comes down to Metroid being much more of a niche franchise than people are willing to admit.  the series has rarely done well in Japan and has only seen marginal success in the west.  people claim they want more hardcore titles on the Wii but truth is they really dont because we would see better sales otherwise.

That's very true, but the point Nintendo was trying to make was breaking out of that niche, targeting the everyday Wii owner, with a game they feel they have crafted away from the 'hardcore' gamer.  The point Jonny makes well is that they seem to miss the very properties that make up the everyday Wii owner.

[KDR_11k]

This one didn't make much sense to me. I saw more commercials for it than I do for most Wii games. It had a hot chick in it. Yet it didn't sell. I really don't think most people read reviews, they just buy on impulse.

People listen to other people and what many people said was that Other M is a disgrace to the Metroid name. You can't have that kind of hatred going around among the target audience and expect the game to sell as well as a regular game.

[Peachylala]

This one didn't make much sense to me. I saw more commercials for it than I do for most Wii games. It had a hot chick in it. Yet it didn't sell. I really don't think most people read reviews, they just buy on impulse.

People listen to other people and what many people said was that Other M is a disgrace to the Metroid name. You can't have that kind of hatred going around among the target audience and expect the game to sell as well as a regular game.

Then what about MGS4 and- *punches himself in the face*

[Flipster]

Say, did Nintendo ever fix that game-destroying glitch in the more recent copies of Other M?

Hm...

[Spak-Spang]

I wonder if this game had better controls if it would have done better.


If Nintendo had addressed the issues that everybody criticized that played the demo if that would have helped?


It's like sometimes Nintendo is too proud to go back and say we made some mistakes with this game.  Analog stick integration would have made the first person parts of the game more manageable.  And you could have fixed the auto aim shooting by allowing us to aim at the enemies ourselves. 


But yes, the biggest problem is they tried to evolve the Metroid formula into something that wasn't Metroid.  I know people complained about Fusion, but I didn't find that game so bad...because it still felt like Metriod.

[Luigi Dude]

Well it's nice to see that most of you have already forgot this little fact that I posted only 3 days ago.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=28384.1525

If the game is getting close to 500,000 copies in North America, that means it's already on track to outsell Zero Mission which according to the NPD sold 439,000 copies in North America.  So the excuse that it offended the Metroid fanbase doesn't work anymore since a much better loved Metroid game sold worse.

So once again, the internet backlash from the certain Metroid fans on the internet message boards had nothing to do with the games sales.  Zero Mission was loved by pretty much 99.9% of the internet Metroid fans, and yet it sold worse then the Other M.  This goes to show that even if Other M would have turned out better and been universally praised by the Metroid fanbase, it still wouldn't have been guaranteed big sales.


Like I said a few days ago, it's all about the advertising.  NOA made the ads something that only fans of the previous 2D Metroid games would understand and be interested in.  Problem is Fusion only sold over 900,000 copies in North America and Zero Mission only sold over 400,000 copies in North America.  So NOA was basically advertising to an audience that was only somewhere between 400-900k in size, which is why Other M is selling right between that at the moment.

[Chozo Ghost]

Zero Mission came out over 6 (actually, almost 7) years ago. Back in those days we didn't have Twitter and all that crap we have nowadays. Back then the only thing people used the internet for was to argue about which Star Trek captain was the best.

[Enner]

This one didn't make much sense to me. I saw more commercials for it than I do for most Wii games. It had a hot chick in it. Yet it didn't sell. I really don't think most people read reviews, they just buy on impulse.

People listen to other people and what many people said was that Other M is a disgrace to the Metroid name. You can't have that kind of hatred going around among the target audience and expect the game to sell as well as a regular game.

Then what about MGS4 and- *punches himself in the face*

That latter I can't guess, but Metal Gear Solid 4 goes in an expected direction for the series. Perhaps in a more Western and forgiving direction, but an expected one none the less.

[KDR_11k]

How do Zero Mission's sales compare to the NES Classics Metroid port?