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Year was 2009. The place? E3. The one man who doesn't have all that good of a reputation to the general public, who I might add that is the spokesperson for Nintendo, introduces one of the biggest bombshells in E3 2009. One of the greater renown gaming development companies, known as Team Ninja who brought new life to the Ninja Gaiden series on the X-box, joined up with Nintendo to bring more light to a already well-known franchise within the Nintendo ranks. Samus Aran would once again set out to show how much of a BA female she could really be, all the while saving the galaxy from some sort of peril. From there, trailers of all sorts get posted from IGN to YouTube, making this game probably one of the most highly anticipated game of 2010.
So now, September, and its finally here! Does this game hold up to hype, let alone my anticipations? Find out. Hopefully I can keep out the spoilers.
Story:
I guess I should start with what sets this game apart from the other titles within the Metroid franchise, if anything. In this case, for the first time since Metroid Fusion back in 2002, a lot more emphasis was placed into the story. This game, in particular, takes place immediately after Super Metroid. The epic fight against Mother Brain is shown, the Metroid baby getting deep six'd over the famed bounty hunter, Samus Aran, and all that good stuff leading up to where the game begins.
Samus sets out to a space station which apparently had a lot of serious crap going on. Creatures of all sorts had ran loose in the various sectors of the space station, rocking the ship from top to bottom. Samus soon finds out that she and the creatures weren't the only ones there. The Galactic Federation apparently beat Samus there, along with her former CO, Adam Malkovitch. She, rather it be to the Fed troopers pleasure or dismay, decided to stick with them, until the CO finally realizes early on that he needs Samus's help.
The story will go on to be a constant unfolding conspiracy along with several mind-screws that when I came up on them, I nearly wet myself to be honest. While that instance may be the good thing, the bad thing to the story is that it's mostly told from Samus's perspective, which isn't much of a bad thing sans the fact that she sounds like a high school teenager writing in her diary in secret. I love the fact that we get more into Samus's head, more so than what little what we found out about her in Fusion, or for the few of us that actually caught sight of the Metroid manga, but seriously. That may have been executed a little better in my opinion.
Gameplay:
So, with so much story being in emphasis, does that take away from the game play? Well, let me put it this way...
Other M is kind of a throw back to Metroid's roots, however with some various new-school elements to it, its made so it doesn't have to be along the lines of the 'New Super Mario Bros.' games that came out, where there's just a couple of tweaks to the original Mario Bros. game play and insert vaguely creative levels and that be it. Which hey, I'm game for that.
Samus not only can run and gun if you so feel like it in past Metroid games, she gained about twenty levels of hard core by getting a whole wide array of melee moves. Rather it be tackling a creature to shove a arm cannon down his throat followed up by a pull of the trigger or pulling the wings off a giant insect then tossing it around like a rag doll and stupid if anything else gets in the tossed insect's path, Samus pretty much does it.
However, as far as gameplay goes, apparently Team Ninja paid more attention to Metroid Fusion than they did in any other game. Why do I say this? A fatal flaw in the game known as linearity. Metroid, rather it be old school 2-D side scrollers or the Prime series (sans arguably Metroid Prime 3), has very much placed an emphasis on exploration. While the game may hint to you to go to some location, you didn't have to be there right away, per se. You could explore around, maybe find pick ups that could be crucial to you later, and so on. This game, taking a bit much out of Fusion, doesn't give you a whole lot of room to explore, if any at all, until closer to the end if not at THE end of the game, which that is just...yeeeech.
The other hitch to it is that in Other M, the various suit powers that Samus gets are.......handed to you? Let me explain. In past Metroid games, Samus usually had to go out and find these various upgrades. Sometimes she even had bosses to fight for them. See Metroid Prime 2 or Fusion in that instance. Here, Samus doesn't get caught up in some sort of catastrophe at the beginning of the game (see MP1, MP2 or Fusion) or just don't have the goods because of it simply being the start of the game (see Metroid 1/zero mission and Super Metroid), she actually has them all with her. Unfortunately, instead of rushing through the space station armed to the teeth, she has them all disabled and she cannot re-enable them until she has permission to do so from the CO for a good portion of the game.
Apart from the aforementioned short comings, the controls, while quickly gotten used to in my case, was a bit irritating. Holding the Wiimote sideways, a la NES style, enabled you to do all the various melee and run and gun action that your hearts content. Pointing your Wiimote at the screen, however, switches you to a first-person perspective, like you used to see in Prime. However, the hitch is that you do not move at all in first person. Kind of like a gun-turret effect. And on that note, its the only means you have to actually use Samus's missiles, which gets fairly irritating when you need to use them in a boss fight, which you WILL need them for.
The love it or hate it bit of Other M falls in the Concentrate ability. You get to heal or replenish your missile ammo just by thinking about it! Seriously though, you do not get any pick ups from enemies at all in the entire game. You use the concentrate ability to do that job for you. While you can use it whenever to reload the missiles, to restore your health (or small portion of it if you're trying to perform a 100% run), you have to be at least on critical energy levels, if not the brink of death to pull it off, probably to counter act the potiental spamming of energy restoration. I'm on the fence with this decision, actually...can't decide either way rather its a good thing or bad thing. You can use this ability in boss fights believe it or not...just good luck trying to get the 7 seconds to pull it off to its fullest.
While there are only a few instances like this in the game, there are pixel hunts in Metroid: Other M. Basically, in certain parts of the game, you are locked in a stationary position in first person and you got to look for something that is out of the ordinary. Which really, first run-through of the game, I spent a while trying to find whatever the hell it was wanting me to find and it was fairly irritating as well to be honest. Something I could had lived without.
Visuals/Sound:
The music gave the game a bit of ambiance, that is at least the original tracks within the game. Though a little irksome I have to say when you can recognize a track or two and pretty much point out that its by no means a remix at least that it is a direct rip. Pokemon Company had been notorious with that in PBR, ripping the exact cries down to GBA/DS audio onto their Wii game, but seriously. The Area deemed Sector 1 is the exact same track as Sector 2 TRO from Fusion. At least the game isnt down right loaded with them, but even so, thats a bit on the laziness side.
Visuals on the other hand were pretty good, if not a bit on the dark side at times. Rather or not it was to give that feel of a wrecked ship or just because it's supposed to be a dark and gritty game somehow, mileage may vary on that one. Animations were spot on, same with all sorts of effects rather it be Samus, enemy, or environment induced. Anything in this gen, there is virtually no excuse for pushing the envelope if only a little in the graphic department.
In General:
Anything else I could possibly say would probably be me being a Metroid purist somewhat, ergo nitpicking. As in accuracy and such for some weapons or suit upgrades. It may be Team Ninja taking artistic liberties but ehhhhhh. Im not sure how one can argue that one. For instance, Samus's suit. For those who play the Metroid games, at least half as much as I do, would know that once you see Samus show up at the start of the game, you think "Oh! She's in the Varia Suit!" Um. No. Trust me, I thought the same thing, but once we got into a super-heated lava area, she was taking damage for being there and it wasn't until a boss fight a good ways into the area where Samus got permission to use the Varia suit. Same goes for the Gravity Suit. Not only Samus is supposed to have the shoulders of doom like the Varia does, the suit is supposed to have like a purple paint job or something, not keep the Varia colors and just glow purple. It's...weird.
That aside, I praise the fact that some bosses from previous Metroid titles make a return to this game, aside from Ridley of course since it apparently isn't a true Metroid without a Ridley fight in some form and of course, the renditions of said bosses are nothing short of jaw-dropping and about 10 times harder than their previous counterparts. One of them will foreshadow what one faces in Fusion, believe it or not.
Replayability is there for certain...at least one more round anyways. After beating the main game, you can unlock Hard mode. This pretty much helps the low percent runners out by it going "hey? Just going to avoid the items anyways? Here let me help you." All Energy Tanks and Missile expansions? Gone. Have fun spamming Concentration for a measly 10 missiles speed runners.
The final word:
So. To answer the question. Is Metroid: Other M that grand masterpiece that a good number of us so dared dream about? Hell no. By no means. HOWEVER. That said, despite its shortcomings, Other M is a pretty solid Metroid title that is worth picking up if you can forgive at least a couple of the weird decisions made by Nintendo and Team Ninja, such as the "NO ABILITIES WITHOUT PERMISSION" kind of bit. Having Samus's story finally fleshed out, which is something long overdue, and seeing just how BA Samus can be when plowing through hordes of enemies, plus the actual legit shout-outs to prior games, and the potential nostalgia rush of it all for those who play the Metroid games would be worth the buy. On the typical 1 to 10 scale? I give it a bit of a wavering 8 out of 10. It would be higher...hell, I wanted it higher, but some things I just cannot find the heart to let slide.
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