Metroid: Other M a Second Opinion

Techpedition has spoken at length about the latest Metroid game. Our very own James Knots did a review shortly after launch. As a long time Metroid fan, and despite the mixed reviews across the gaming world I was really excited to pick it up and see what Team Ninja did to the world famous bounty hunter. Knots was kind to the game, and had a lot of good things to say about it. I may have enjoyed it, but there is a reason I am going to put my opinion on wax.

Metroid has always been about a lone bounty hunter exploring a space environment. It has tastefully done backtracking, item collection and exercised subtle storytelling throughout. From the original NES game to the Retro developed Prime series the entire franchise has an untouchable level of quality in controls and gameplay. Other M understands the basics of the franchise but misses in too many areas to excuse.

Let’s break it down element by element. What Other M does well is the exploration, tone and immersion. The item collection is doled out cleanly even though the story mechanic that prevents you from having all your powers up front is ludicrous. It feels like a Metroid game and looks like a Metroid game. The setting is fantastic and the connections to Super Metroid add an element of nostalgia to an otherwise un-Metroid-like story. Luckily, one of the most important elements of the franchise as a whole is tone and Other M gets it right. With that in place, fans of the series should be able to at least tolerate it, even if they find the sketchy elements hard to deal with.

Speaking of sketchy elements, Other M takes some mind boggling liberties with both the story and Samus as a character. Every gamer knows that story can be completely ignored if need be, but many of the things in Other M are as unexplainable as they are needless. Probably the biggest issue I have with the game is the quite broken and unnecessarily simplistic control scheme, but we’ll get to that a bit later. I want to dissect why the story Team Ninja has put together is not only inappropriate for the series but does Samus a huge disservice.

I don’t want to sound too much like a feminist, but Samus has always been the embodiment of female empowerment. The fact that she was woman never got in the way of what she had to do. In previous games when compared to male characters she was always held her own with no excuses what so ever. Other M takes these characteristics and throws them out completely. Samus is an emotional wreck for most of the game and is treated very much like a woman. I don’t mean that to be degrading, but women have been unfairly stereotyped as being destructively emotional and irrational. It’s a stereotype that is perpetuated in literature, movies and television. It didn’t occur to me that Samus had never been portrayed as having emotions until I played Other M. The idea of bringing emotions into the game does not bother me, it’s their execution that doesn’t sit well.

Samus’ character is all but subservient to the male characters in the game. Everything down to the Samus not being “allowed” to use her equipment without authorization from Adam is inconsistent with both Samus and the idea of a bounty hunter in the first place. I bet Boba Fett didn’t have to get permission from the emperor to blast a dude in the face. Samus is typically a loner and her attachment to the male lead is uncomfortable, especially when you realize that it is not a romantic attachment. All of this compounds to make Samus seem weak, and that’s not what you want out of that character. Samus is the baddest bounty hunter in the galaxy, and this should be apparent by her interactions with others in the universe. Other M fails at doing this and it makes the entire story uncomfortable. There is a way to add emotion to Samus’ character without making her weak, but in no way was that done here.

Oh, and the voice acting it atrocious too. The actress delivering Samus’ sounds like she reading the script for the first time. Her voice lacks inflection and almost makes it seem like something is wrong with Samus, like mentally. Her tones during her verbal responses in many scenes, don’t fit the situation and she sounds soul-less.

When developing the control scheme for Other M, Team Ninja wanted to appeal to a really large audience. They wanted the New Super Mario Bros players to jump on board, they wanted Madden players to drop the ball and pick up the arm cannon. How did they attempt to do this? They over simplified a complex and already established move-set. All of the staple moves are there: the morphball, missile launcher, screw attack, grapple beam amongst others are all used to traverse the environment and blow away enemies. Nearly everything is mapped to the Wii-remote in the sideways NES style hand position. This gives you the d-pad and the 1 and 2 buttons…that’s it. Also, during play, if you point the Wii-mote at the screen, Samus will jump into first mode and gain the ability to lock onto enemies and shot missiles. This is possibly the most ill conceived aspect of the control scheme.

When Samus goes first person, she has to stand still, leaving her vulnerable to nearly all attacks. Sure the pointing and shooting works, but the transition from 3rd person to 1st is clumsy and takes several hours to get used to. Why Team Ninja felt it was necessary to try and rope in new gamers to the Metroid franchise is beyond me. Being a high science fiction title with no multi-player, Metroid already appeals to a very narrow audience and creating a brand new control scheme that hasn’t really been seen in ANY game let alone Metroid won’t magically make non-gamers buy this game. Had Other M been a full Wii-mote/Nunchuk game with both 3rd and 1st person mechanics, the game would have been more comfortable it wouldn’t have had to rely on auto-aim as much as it currently does and frankly it would have been better.

Other M was the bright spot of the 2009 Nintendo E3 press conference and in some aspects the final product delivers as promised. In other areas it ends up being a confusing mess. The game isn’t as bad as the design decisions that made it into the game, but what is most disappointing is that its a huge missed opportunity. The quality of past Metroid games has been near flawless and the future of the franchise could be in jeopardy. Sure, more Metroid games will be made, but it will probably be a long while before we see Samus blasting away a space pirates.

Verdict: Let’s just hope for Metroid Dread on the 3DS in 2012.