Topic: Metroid Other M

[Kytim89]

Isn't Samus 6'3"?

I had wondered the same thing.  It seems like a lot of the old material Nintendo published on Samus back in the day indicated she was well above average in size.   I thought she looked fairly small in the Other M cinematics.

So, maybe everyone in the Metroid universe is unusually tall? 

Many changes have been made to increase Samus's sex appeal, including shortening her height, making her blonde, adding a "beauty mark," etc. It's kind of unfortunate, but at least it isn't something which affects the quality of the games.

Samus's sex appeal is one reason why the reviewers called the game sexsist.

[TJ Spyke]

Her hair was always blonde, it just went from dirty blonde to bleach blonde. As for sex appeal, remember that the reward for beating the first game good enough would show you her in a bikini, so I would say the sex appeal has always been there (the improved graphics just make it more noticeable).

[MegaByte]

Funny thing is, Samus has actually had MORE clothes coverage in the best ending with every iteration of the game.

[Mop it up]

I never said it wasn't always there, just that it's grown worse, and certain character design decisions seem to have been made for no other reason.

I thought her hair was brown in the NES game, but that may just be due to its limited colour palette.

[BwrJim!]

actually, her hair was green in the original.   

I always thought that, in the suit, she was tall, but out of the suit she was smaller.   Other M kind of cemented that thought when you see her die and loose about 5 inches all around.   I always wondered how that armor fit, and at least we now know it actually does spawn out of the blue suit. (is it tethered to her? or was).   

The blond part, i could easily see for her character.  yes dammit i admit it.  I like the Samus, and i think her suit has more sex appeal then he actual human body.  While I am near the end i believe (some monster that poops metroids) and was wondering if there are extra endings besides the beat 2 times endings.

Did you know Zelda Oot had multiple endings.

[MegaByte]

It was only green if you used certain passwords.  It was red in the ending.  Pretty much all of the female Nintendo characters have had their hair color changed from what it was in their original games.

[Stratos]

I'm pretty sure OoT only had one ending. Differently named Link's and Scarecrow Songs don't count.

[NWR_insanolord]

I do think a lot of that is because of limited color palettes, and because the original choices may have been made to make the sprite distinctive, like why Mario has a moustache.

[Mop it up]

Samus's hair turned green in the NES game when you got the Varia.

[King of Twitch]

Why is blond = sex appeal? Why can't she be brunette

[Chozo Ghost]

Isn't Samus 6'3"?

I had wondered the same thing.  It seems like a lot of the old material Nintendo published on Samus back in the day indicated she was well above average in size.   I thought she looked fairly small in the Other M cinematics.

So, maybe everyone in the Metroid universe is unusually tall? 

Many changes have been made to increase Samus's sex appeal, including shortening her height, making her blonde, adding a "beauty mark," etc. It's kind of unfortunate, but at least it isn't something which affects the quality of the games.

But isn't being tall considered sexy? But of course, this game was tailored more to appeal to the Japanese market, and their tastes differ from those in the west.

[Chozo Ghost]

Her hair was always blonde,

Flat out false. Her hair was green in the original game (I think), and there are also media depicting her with hair that was red, brown, etc. Apparently the powers that be have settled on her being blond and have made that a permanent change, but it wasn't her original hair color.

[Adrock]

In the original Metroid, if I remember correctly, Samus' hair is green using the Justin Bailey code and brown in the ending. I don't think she was blonde until Super Metroid. Peach and Zelda both ended up blonde too.

[Chozo Ghost]

As is Rosaline (in your avatar) and hell, so is Link for that matter. There's far too many blonde mascots in the Nintendo universe! I would have liked it if Samus' hair remained green as per the original. It could be explained by her alien background, and it would have made things more interesting without really taking away from her sex appeal any...

But seriously, blonde haired mascots in Nintendo games is way overdone. Other colors need to be better represented.

[Mop it up]

Samus's hair turned green in the NES game when you got the Varia.

Did everyone not see this? Her hair is not green normally.

[Kytim89]

As is Rosaline (in your avatar) and hell, so is Link for that matter. There's far too many blonde mascots in the Nintendo universe! I would have liked it if Samus' hair remained green as per the original. It could be explained by her alien background, and it would have made things more interesting without really taking away from her sex appeal any...

But seriously, blonde haired mascots in Nintendo games is way overdone. Other colors need to be better represented.

Their next mascot needs to be a ginger. 

[Enner]

The Destructoid review was pretty harsh, but this discussion of the game's plotline failings is pretty good:
 
http://www.destructoid.com/metroid-other-m-s-story-fails-on-so-many-levels-183310.phtml&mainnav=&track=featurebox
 
An excellent point is made: you can't say it wasn't bad for trying something different. It can still be badly done, as it was here.

Suddenly everyone is a dramatic and expert story critic. Just kidding. If anything, this shows how much the author really cares about the series. Nobody writes this much if not out of love. Or else we would be seeing more articles about how exactly a story in any given video game fails or succeeds.

I don't have any argument to counter since I recognize and enjoy the game's failings. I enjoyed it so much that I watched the whole 2 hour and 10 minute Metroid: Other M The Movie in the theater mode and came away entertained. Ah, I'm a sucker for Nintendo daring to flex a big budget. Two things: 1) it was a lazy weekend and I wanted to refine/modify my feelings toward the story after listening to the podcasts; 2) I know I'm not doing the story any favors in saying that I've experienced worse entertainment.

A few thoughts on two aspects discussed in the article:
I really like a lot of Samus's characterization. I can see how it is boring, but I can't help but think that this is just how a loner of a space bounty hunter would think and sound like. Shame that the screenplay wasn't all there.
I really like Anthony Higgs despite being gigantic cliche of a black character and a space marine and a huge stereotype of what Japan thinks a black person looks like. Take a gander at Anthony's concept art in the gallery and notice the lips.

[TJ Spyke]

Her hair was always blonde,

Flat out false. Her hair was green in the original game (I think), and there are also media depicting her with hair that was red, brown, etc. Apparently the powers that be have settled on her being blond and have made that a permanent change, but it wasn't her original hair color.

Wow, do you not read other posts? You try and correct me by making a false claim that two other people have already mentioned is not true.

People are mis-remembering, her hair at the end of the first game was dirty blonde (which is a dark blonde). Her is a picture that shows her sprite from the endings of the first three Metroid games:



Other material (like comics) may have had her with brown hair, but you can see that her in-game sprite was blonde.

[MegaByte]

Sorry, that's a recolored sprite.  This is the actual coloring:

[KDR_11k]

Speaking of her height, has anyone else ever thought it strange how she is able to curl up into a basketball? She really must have alien DNA if her suit can do that to her without crushing her internal organs and bones. That would kill an ordinary person for sure.

She does not fit into the suit at all. Zero mission really drives that home when you regain the suit and see the Samus image fading over to the suit, the shoulders are in completely different locations.

Prime states the morph ball has a size of one meter so it's not THAT tiny. Of course the sprite based games seem to have smaller balls but really who cares? Samus is a two-legged, one-gunned thing that jumps when you hit the button.

[Caterkiller]

http://www.n-europe.com/news.php?nid=14325
 
http://www.gamestm.co.uk/interviews/yoshio-sakamoto-discusses-metroid-64-metroid-dread-and-the-unwritten-future-of-the-warioware-series/
 

I was actually thinking about the possibility of making a Metroid game for N64 but I felt that I shouldn’t be the one making the game. When I held the N64 controller in my hands I just couldn’t imagine how it could be used to move Samus around. So for me it was just too early to personally make a 3D Metroid at that time. Also, I know this is isn’t a direct answer to your question but Nintendo at that time approached another company and asked them if they would make an N64 version of Metroid and their response was that no, they could not. They turned it down, saying that unfortunately they didn’t have the confidence to create an N64 Metroid game that could compare favourably with Super Metroid. That’s something I take as a complement to what we achieved with Super Metroid.

They mention Metroid Dread as well. 

[broodwars]

http://www.n-europe.com/news.php?nid=14325
 
http://www.gamestm.co.uk/interviews/yoshio-sakamoto-discusses-metroid-64-metroid-dread-and-the-unwritten-future-of-the-warioware-series/
 

I was actually thinking about the possibility of making a Metroid game for N64 but I felt that I shouldn’t be the one making the game. When I held the N64 controller in my hands I just couldn’t imagine how it could be used to move Samus around. So for me it was just too early to personally make a 3D Metroid at that time. Also, I know this is isn’t a direct answer to your question but Nintendo at that time approached another company and asked them if they would make an N64 version of Metroid and their response was that no, they could not. They turned it down, saying that unfortunately they didn’t have the confidence to create an N64 Metroid game that could compare favourably with Super Metroid. That’s something I take as a complement to what we achieved with Super Metroid.

They mention Metroid Dread as well.

What a shock: Sakamoto "modestly" saying that one of the main reasons they didn't make an N64 Metroid was because they didn't think they could make a better Metroid than what he had made.   
 
Can we please get this guy off of Metroid?

[TJ Spyke]

Agreed, the guy is a egomaniac who doesn't care what anybody else (including fans) think or want, he is not as good as he thinks he is either.

[broodwars]

I did find it interesting, though, how he criticized the N64 controller.  I've occasionally read about Miyamoto and Sakamoto not being fond of each other, and the N64 controller was created for a Miyamoto game, so this does seem to back that up.

[mantidor]

It's impossible to deny that Samus sexual appeal has been gradually increasing, skin tight suit doesn't count as "completely clothed", she might as well be naked, and is being used more and more in the games. Also the zero suit now has freaking heels, which doesn't make a lick of sense in any way. The beauty mark is another dumb thing. In general, Retro had it right until Sakamoto started messing with the character. I second the motion of taking this guy as away from Metroid as possible.