Metroid Other M

Metroid's out. I've been playing it. Shelby finished it, with 100% completion. You can read his review on the site. We want to know what you guys think. So far, I've been very impressed with the game. The controls are the one sticking point, but even they haven't gotten in the way too much at this point. The story is pretty good and it makes Samus into a human being, which, judging by the reaction on the internet, people didn't want. They want her to be this soulless bad@$$ bounty hunter with no feelings. I'm glad she actually has some flaws.

So let us know what you think of the game.

Ahoy Peeps! I'm doing the grave digger here. Let me do a little post-mortem on this topic and the game it concerns.

So, what I thought about Other M... I know Shelby would probably not agree with me, but as a Metroid veteran, I was displeased by quite a few elements. I liked the new cinematic stuff and the story, but somethings felt really disjointed and out of place.

First, the first-person hide & seek moments were VERY tedious & mood breaking. In the end, even though they were few, they were also quite boring. Other than that, the one thing that irritated me most was the reduction of the exploration phases. Finding everything was VERY easy, thanks to the stupid glowing dots on the map after you killed every enemies in a room... What's up with that? Also, the way the upgrade system worked was also pretty bonkers. Talk about stupid: "No Samus, do not use your variasuit in that dangerous lava zone!" "Ok now that you are almost dead, use your variasuit!!"... uhh wut!? Also, where is the kick-ass soundtrack?! There is almost NO MUSIC AT ALL and what's there is really meh. Usually I humm the music when I play Metroid Games. I'll tell you, I surely was not an happy humming bird while playing this one. Another thing I thought was really grating, going back to the equipment system, was that the upgrades would only raise by 1 missile or 1 bomb at a time. Talk about taking the fun out of it... There is already no real pride in finding the upgrades since they are all so obvious, now the payoff is minimized. Give me 10 missiles & it WILL make some difference in how I'm playing & I'll feel more powerful... But only one missile is not enough for me to even start to really care about them. There is a bit more about what I didn't like about that game, but I'll leave it at that...

If you could believe it, there are a few things I liked about Metroid: Other M. The cinematic moments were cool somehow. The action was very very good and reminescent of previous 2D games... That, I liked pretty much, and that is the thing I prefered in the whole game. Also, the game was pretty... but I really am not a graphic whore. I like my good ol' Megaman & Bit.Trip, soo... yeah.

All in all, my two cents are that Metroid: Other M wasn't a bad game. But it was a bad Metroid game. To conclude all that, I'll give you a ranking of Metroid games according to my appreciation, the first one being my all time favorite, then, going down.

#1: Metroid Prime(the whole trilogy(yup!) ain't gonna split them, sorry)
#2: Metroid: Zero Mission (The only 2D game that surpasses Super Metroid in my opinion)
#3: Super Metroid (A classic.. I replayed it just before other M, and god did it felt good. )
#4: Metroid Fusion (Still a good game, but not as refined as Zero Mission nor as grandiose as Super Metroid)
#5: Metroid (Too classic to be a bad game... would be better with a map system)

(from now on, these are the games I didn't like as Metroid games)

#6: Metroid: Other M (I won't list my arguments again, come on... But I'll say: Since I played it right after Super Metroid, when I was done I felt like going back to Super Metroid again just to wash off that bad taste Other left in my mouth.)
#7: Metroid 2 (Good ol' game... That's what it is... an old game)
#8: Metroid: Prime Hunters (that game had the mood & the controls right, but the world & the quest felt oh so bland)

Well that is it. Tell me what do you think... agree, disagree?!

I get some people complaints against Other M but if nothing else Nintendo tried something different instead of doing the same thing over and over like they do for Zelda. It's a shame more people don't like it because now we will never get a sequel.

The thing I'd like to see is another 2D Metroid with some first person scanning mecanics. I think it would please most of the Metroid fans... Give me some pretty HD sprite graphics with an moody epic synth/instrumental soundtrack and I would be sold.

Plus, I do not think the failure of Other M represents the final word on many of the concepts it went for. The main issue with Metroid as I see it, is that they didn't put their budget at the right place. Come on, a "Theater mode"!? That's a total waste of money. Give me some exclusive unlockables instead. Metroid is all about fandom, so feed the fans!

One of my predictions for the year was another 2D Metroid game. I think Nintendo is seeing that people really do like the side scrolling games. They just announced a new side scrolling Mario game and I think Metroid could get the same treatment.

I played about an hour of Other M a couple of nights ago. The game was not as bad as I thought but it is not good either. The fact that you can't use your weapons until you are told to is stupid. Also the Samus voice is soul crushing.