Topic: Nintendo Offers Advice for Metroid: Other M Glitch

[NWR_Karlie]

How to create and avoid the progress-halting issue, and a last resort fix.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/24122

Nintendo of America have confirmed a glitch in Metroid: Other M that prevents players from progressing due to a permanently locked door.

In the Sector 3 area, if after a certain sequence of events, you backtrack to a previous room rather than moving forward through the next door, a certain door later in the area will not open. This does not happen if you proceed normally.

For users who have encountered this glitch, Nintendo are able to fix save data that is sent to them on an SD card. Full details are on the Nintendo website.

[BlackNMild2k1]

is that the room where you can change it into a forest?

I only ask because I played a demo at GS the other day and that's where the game was stuck at.

[broodwars]

I said this previously in the Other M topic, but this "fix" is pathetic in the age of online patches (even Nintendo used a firmware update to help fix the Twilight Princess cannon glitch).  Nintendo should re-author the discs with the fix and offer a trade-in program for those who wish to swap out their discs.  Putting the burden of fixing the issue on the consumer by having them send in their Wiis or SD card saves is not acceptable.

[Jonnyboy117]

They should just patch it online or let people email their save files. I guess the mail-in option is okay as a backup for certain people, but there are so many ways to address this problem digitally without involving the freaking post office.

[UncleBob]

I can't wait to hear Ian's comment on this.

And I'm guessing I'll probably agree with him pretty much 100% on this.

Hey Nintendo - Free Advice:
Create a free, downloadable Metroid: Other M channel with gameplay videos.  Include a bug fix program in this channel.  If you've got an effected save file, you load this Other M: Demo Channel, select the "Fix Save File" option, it opens the save file in your memory, fixes the locked door, then re-saves it.  Easy-peasy.

[King of Twitch]

You should totally fax that idea to them.

[BlackNMild2k1]

You should totally fax that idea to them.

Fax...!? I think you meant courier pigeon it.

[AV]

The game wouldn't need a patch and wouldn't have an ugly glitch if RETRO STUDIOS made it 


Team USA > Team Japan in making Metroid games

[Ian Sane]

Well maybe if Nintendo went online last gen when the rest of the videogame industry did they would be familiar enough with how this internet stuff works to offer a real solution.  This is the exact sort of "solution" I would expect from a company with their head up their ass completely oblivious to what the rest of the industry is doing.  This just isn't acceptable.  Nintendo can sell a billion copies of Wii Sports but when it comes to the really obvious stuff they just don't get it.  If they left their little Nintendo bubble for ten minutes the CORRECT solution would be obvious to them.  Case in point: we all instinctively knew the ideal solution because we don't have Nintendo focused tunnel vision.

And this lets me get a dig in on Other M as well!   If they designed this like a REAL Metroid game instead of having arbitrary locked doors and disabled abilities that open when the game says so then maybe such a bug wouldn't exist.  The bug is more or less triggered by someone playing Metroid like a Metroid game!

[BeautifulShy]

The game wouldn't need a patch and wouldn't have an ugly glitch if RETRO STUDIOS made it 


Team USA > Team Japan in making Metroid games

There actually was a glitch in Metriod Prime. It was in the earlier copies.

[Mop it up]

Metroid Prime still does have glitches, ones that allow you to collect items before you are supposed to.

Super Metroid has a glitch that can erase save files, if you activate the Spazer and Plasma beams at the same time.

Glitches happen.

[Halbred]

And this lets me get a dig in on Other M as well!   If they designed this like a REAL Metroid game instead of having arbitrary locked doors and disabled abilities that open when the game says so then maybe such a bug wouldn't exist.  The bug is more or less triggered by someone playing Metroid like a Metroid game!

BAZINGA!

[LJKKJLCM9]

And this lets me get a dig in on Other M as well!   If they designed this like a REAL Metroid game instead of having arbitrary locked doors and disabled abilities that open when the game says so then maybe such a bug wouldn't exist.

Really? In the other games you just lost all your abilities at the start and had to get them back.  In this instead of getting a pick up after a boss battle or something, you're just allowed to use something.

Honestly, is this game so long that you can't just start over.  It really doesn't take that long to get there, especially if you know what you're doing.  Plus, you could probably get a few power-ups you missed along the way.  It'd certainly be faster to do that than to send it to Nintendo.

THE JACKEL

[broodwars]

Honestly, is this game so long that you can't just start over.  It really doesn't take that long to get there, especially if you know what you're doing.  Plus, you could probably get a few power-ups you missed along the way.  It'd certainly be faster to do that than to send it to Nintendo.

THE JACKEL

It should never be the player's responsibility to have to destroy hours of progress just to work around shoddy QA work AND shoddy certification work on the part of Nintendo.  True, it's probably not that much of a hassle to replay the game up to that point, but it's not the user's problem that Nintendo shipped a faulty product.  This bug only triggers if you attempt to backtrack at a certain point in the game, which is what every other Metroid game emphasizes you do.  This is a game-ending bug with a high probability of discovery and easy repro-ability.  Nintendo should have caught this issue before the game was released.

[yoshi1001]

For the record, this is a hard bug to catch during QA. Testin doing the "correct" thing is easy compared to figuring out what the "wrong" thing to do, especially since there are so many more "wrong" ways typically.

[broodwars]

For the record, this is a hard bug to catch during QA. Testin doing the "correct" thing is easy compared to figuring out what the "wrong" thing to do, especially since there are so many more "wrong" ways typically.

Indeed, this bug's cause would be difficult to nail down in QA, just because it's such a weird trigger to cause it.   Still, doing the complete opposite of what you're meant to do is the cornerstone of QA: if QA was doing its job (and I have a feeling, given Nintendo's usual quality control, that they were), they would have at least spotted the issue.  Even if Dev couldn't figure out the cause of the bug, they could have fixed it just by setting the door so that it never locks for any reason (if I remember the door in question, you can't even get to it until the game lets you).  You don't take chances with game-ending glitches of this magnitude.

[brian577]

Sounds a lot like the bug in Prime 2

[KDR_11k]

Hey, free SD card!

[DAaaMan64]

Seriously Nintendo. You suck fucking monkey sack at online and EVERYONE is laughing at you.

PATCH THE GAME. ITS 2010

[Plugabugz]

How do you patch a game, which is loading a dual-layer DVD (featuring many gigabytes of teh Samus), onto a Wii with 512mb that could possibly be full?

[Ian Sane]

Metroid Prime still does have glitches, ones that allow you to collect items before you are supposed to.

Well that's just sequence breaking.  If the game allows sequence breaking then that's just good Metroid design.
 
Though I do recall Metroid Prime having occasional crashes during elevators.  As a programmer I know that sometimes there are bugs you just can't foresee so I cut devs a bit of slack there if it's an isolated bug.  But I also know that this isn't how you handle a serious bug in today's day and age.
 
But with Metroid doing things out of sequence has been a core part of the gameplay since day one.  They should more or less EXPECT the player to be doing so.

[DAaaMan64]

How do you patch a game, which is loading a dual-layer DVD (featuring many gigabytes of teh Samus), onto a Wii with 512mb that could possibly be full?

1.  If Wii is full, don't install patch and tell user.
2.  When DVD is loading, check the ID on the disk. If ID match, run patch.

Done.

[UltimatePartyBear]

At least if I trigger this bug, I'll finally have a use for that tiny 32 MB SD card that came with a camera.

I know patching is out of the question (and seeing even Nintendo deliver game breaking bugs greatly diminishes my opposition to patches in general), but either the Nintendo Channel or Wii Shop Channel would be perfect vehicles to deliver save fixing utilities.  Of course, Nintendo's solution is the only option for people who don't have their Wiis online, so it's the only option for "everybody," which is probably why Nintendo went that way.

[BlackNMild2k1]

It could be one of many ways Nintendo could entice those not online to get online though.

Advertise an easy fix for those connected to the WiiShop and maybe those that have been reluctant to get the Wii Online will finally take the 2 minutes it takes to actually connect it.... assuming they already have wifi.

[vudu]

And this lets me get a dig in on Other M as well!   If they designed this like a REAL Metroid game instead of having arbitrary locked doors and disabled abilities that open when the game says so then maybe such a bug wouldn't exist.  The bug is more or less triggered by someone playing Metroid like a Metroid game!

The door is locked because it's in the same room as a boss fight--after you beat the boss the door opens.  They had these types of doors in Super Metriod.

Think before you post.