Metroid Other M does NOT suck!

[Howard_Casto]

This game seems to be a hit or miss in terms of if people like it or not, but I wanted to assure everyone that it IS a good metroid game. Not the best by any means, but it's good!

I haven't done any of these reviews in a whie but I thought this one merited a review.  So let's get into the short of it. 

Graphics:

The best I've seen on a wii game yet.  Except for the lack of hd, this rivals something high-end you would see on the 360.  Due to more fluid animation and more faithful creature design it even looks better than the prime trilogy. 

There are two glaring exceptions though.  Ever noticed how in japanese cut-scenes, especially those done by team ninja the humans faces look sort of doll-like?  We have that problem here.  It's not that there isn't enough detail or anything, they just look a tad on the anime side of things.  Samus, thankfully doesn't suffer from this, it's just the supporting cast.  Also there's this big black guy called anthony in the game and quite frankly he's rendered in such a way that it looks a tad racist to me.  Keep in mind that sort of thing normally doesn't bother me so it's really bad.  Again this is a japanese thing... I guess they don't get many black guys over there.  Aside from the fact that he's nearly 8 feet tall, he has the biggest lips and the widest, whitest eyes I've ever seen.  Almost looks like black-face, but oddly enough I can tell it isn't intentional. 

The second thing, and this is a minor annoyance is the over/poor use of billboarding.  Billboarding is when you use a 2d sprite in a 3d game but keep it straight with the camera to give the illusion that it's 3d.  This is what they use for many of the monster's attacks, or spit or whatever.  In fp mode it looks great, but in the normal mode it looks a little off.  There's actually a bonus monster you can fight after you beat the game and I can tell why he's not officially in the story.  The bill-boarding effects are so terrible that it looks like something you'd see on the ps1!!

Sound:

It's there and it's metroid, nothing more to say.


Gameplay Mechanics:

Suprisingly, they are pretty darn great, despite the odd design choices.  95% of the time you'll be in third person mode and it's pretty damn flawless.  You have full 3d movement, but the camera angles make it feel very 2d.  Also the controls are intelligent enough to make it control like a 2d game when you want it to.  Say you are going down a cooridor and it gently curves.  You don't have to press a different direction on the d-pad because the game can tell you are trying to go down the hall and it'll compensate.  Pretty nifty!  Also the fixed camera angles are perfect.  I never found a single instance where I couldn't see due to poor camera placement.  The d-pad controls samus really well btw.  I was worried about that, but honestly it isn't an issue at all.  The new additions I liked the most though is the new spring in her step and the melee combat.  In the nes metroid, samus was snappy quick and super responsive.  Ever since that game, however, she's gotten slower and slower.  Frankly by the time prime came out it felt like she was on the moon.  She's now just as quick as she was on the original nes title!  Also the melee combat (team ninja's signature) is a welcome addition that was obvious lacking from the series.  Don't worry, samus still primarily uses her gun, but now you can do "duh" things like dodge and enemy, or jump on it's back and shoot it directly in the head.  It makes for more believable combat.  As for the fp mode... well it's ok.  Transitioning between 2d and 3d is quite flawless but it takes forever to get used to the concept.  Also samus needs to be facing the direction you want to fire BEFORE you enter fp mode because, while you can turn in fp mode, you turn slowly and you'll get hit.  Thankfully it's rarely required to go into fp mode.  People keep screaming in other reviews about only being able to shoot a missile in fp mode and it's freaking people out.  What they don't mention is that combat priority isn't the same as in other metroid games... you don't depend on missiles to finish off monsters.  But I'll get to that later.  Long story short fp mode is servicable and although it feels akward at first, you'll get the hang of it about 1/3 of the way in and in those rare instances in which you need fp mode, you'll have no problem using it.

Now I want to talk about some of the things that other reviews keep harping on and explain why many (but not all) of the complaints are unmerited.


"Samus is a wimp/ the storyline sucks/ ect":

Well first off, she's not a wimp, she's just emotional.  But let me make this perfectly clear, SHE WAS ALWAYS EMOTIONAL!  Most people just aren't nerd enough to realize that.  There was an official, cannonized, manga released by nintendo just before super metroid came out and many of the scenes in the game mirror that story.  Hell, the Adam character that everybody keeps complaining about is from that manga.  She never comes off as weak in the game btw... she just has a few issues.  I get the feeling that people who are complaining just aren't familiar enough with the chracter, particularly her roles in super metroid and metroid fusion.  Long story short, the cut-scenes don't detract from the story for the most part and they never shame the charcter of samus.  Some people jsut want here to be Ripley from Aliens and she is NOT Ripley from aliens.  Also about the whole "swooning over her boyfriend Adam" thing.  First off Adam is NOT here boyfriend and she goes right out in the frist damn cut-scene and declares that he is the closest thing to a father she's ever had.  She listens to him and pines for his approval because he is "daddy"  every woman, no mater how strong, is going to get all emotional over interactions with here parental figure.  All of that aside even assuming that you don't like the story, it's a video game and the GAMEPLAY is good, so get over yourself.


"Samus has all of her weapons at the start but she waits for authorization. That doesn't make any sense":

Nope it doesn't.  Maybe we should go back to the "logical" method of where she arrives on the planet with all of her weapons and gets into a fight 5 seconds after landing in which she magically loses the weapons that are FULLY INTEGRATED INTO HER SUIT.  After all of that she JUST HAPPENS TO FIND IDENTICAL WEAPONS LYING AROUND A HOSTILE PLANET THAT WILL SOMEHOW MAGICALLY INTEGRATE INTO HER SUIT!  Yeah your way makes MUCH more sense.  That aside, for the most part, there is a perfect logical explaination as to why she waits for authorization.  First off, it's a military operation and she's "just helping out" so she has to follow the chain of command. Secondly it is explained blatently in the first damn cut-scene that you are boarding a science vessel with unknown damage and an unknown number of survivors and high yield weaponry should be avoided until survivors can be found so that you don't kill anybody or blow a hole in the ship.  There are exceptions to this though and they are bad enough to make it understandable that people are complaining.  Defensive stuff like the varia suit and the gravity suit also have to be authorized.  That's just dumb and it's inexcusable.  The concept of waiting for authorization in general though makes sense and fits well with the story.


You can recharge missiles in battle, you can't get energy from killing monsters.  WTF?:

This is not a detrement to the series, it's a much needed improvement.  First off, you recharge missiles (and up to three tanks of energy if you are in the red) but standing still and holding A and it won't charge at all unless you hold it until the beep.  This means that in battle at least, it isn't easy to recharge, so it doesn't make the game any easier.  What it does is free you in two ways.  First off, you don't have to shoot a thousand enemies or run to a save point everytime you get in a battle or blow open a door.  It just cuts down on the needless back-tracking.  Secondly, it means boss battles aren't mindless arms races in which you can only beat the boss after you have enough missiles and e tanks.  That always infuriated me about metroid.  You get in a small room and this giant boss is shotting at you so much that it's impossible to dodge and whe only takes hits from missiles so if you beat him or not has more to do with collecting skills rather than combat skills.  It was just dumb, and this game fixes it.  Also missiles are used spraingly in fights anyway.  Many boss battles don't requie their use and when they do it's usually a matter of either hitting the boss with a single one to stun him and then wailing on it with your gun or wailing on the boss with your gun until it's stunned and then using the missiles on a motionless beast before it comes to.  This is why the fp mode and weather or not it is akward (it really isn't) is irrelevant.  This metroid isn't one where you need 80 missiles to kill ridley.  I finished the game after only colelcting about 30 missiles out of 80, so that should tell you something.

The scanners from metroid prime are gone:

Yup and good riddence!  Those things were dumb!  And the fact that my completion percentage depended upon if I stupidly scanned a boss while it was beating the crap out of me is no longer a problem!  That being said though, there are three or for "forced fp mode" sections of the game where it would have been welcomed. It's one major annoyance of the game actually.  You'll be forced in fp mode and told to "find something." That something is usually a tiny brown blotch in a sea of brown blotches. It just kills the momentum of the game.  Not enough to make it unplayable, but enough to annoy a person.  Thankfully there are literally only 4 instances of this in game, so it isn't too bad.

They made samus too sexy!  They show her ass all the time ect:

First off, why in the world would you complain about it?  Secondly, no they really didn't she was already pretty sexy and they left her design practically unchanged from the prime series.  She wears her skin tight zero suit under the armor and there are a few scenes in the game in which she's wearing it, but keep in mind that she's been wearing that thing since zero mission and it was actually introduced to cover her up more!  In metroid she wore a one-piece bikini with a big v down the front and in super metroid she wore a black version of that v-shaped monstrosity that borat wore!  Keeping that in perspective she's been toned down a lot over the years.  With that in mind, yes there are a lot of shots of her ass, but it isn't a framed shot of her with zoom in or something creepy.  It's generally an integrated cinematic camera angle and she isn't even centered on screen, but to be frankly she's good looking and the zero suit shows it off, but guys are going to notice only her butt.  Also when you die yoru armor blows off, revealing the zero suit.  This has been tradition since super metroid though so I don't see the issue.


The game is only 8 hours long, that's too short!:

Yup it is, I couldn't agree more.  Although take into account the fact that in other metroid games a lot of the length was due to mindless back-tracking, which you don't really do in this game.  That being said it is a really short metroid game and it should have been longer. 




All of those myths busted there was an issue with the game that nobody seems to have picked up on.  Invisible walls!  Again this is a japanese thing as team ninja games are always plagued with invisible walls.  Now it isn't a game breaker and they aren't excessive, it just makes the game feel unpolished.  In previous games you were always free to explore the limits of a room, even if going to the edge of the room would kill you (lava, bottomless pit, ect).  Rooms were also designed in such a way that a barrier of some kind is placed at the edges of the room.  On rare occasions in other M, there are simply invisible walls.  You get out of your ship and you are in a huge hanger and it's obvious that you are supposed to go right so 90% of the people will go right and never run into my issue.  However if you go left you see the hanger is HUUUGE going off into the distance.  I thought "lets look around" but then after walking about 20 feet or so there's a damn invisible wall! Inexcusable!  How hard would it be to put a fence there?  There are more annoying uses of invisible walls though.  Lets say you are on a catwalk and there is a room you aren't supposed to go into or a pit or something below.  Well you can't jump down!  Yeah even with the screw attack, which basically gives samus flight, you can't jump over some catwalks!  Even if the room is supposed to be accessable, you might not be able to jump down.  That's just poor game design! 

Again, not a deal breaker and a "normal" play who just wants to do general exploring and gameplay won't run into it, but it sure takes the fun of flying around the rooms looking for glitches after you've beaten the game.



Long story short this is a good game so do NOT ignore it!  Even if you just rent it, give it a try... you won't be disappointed unless you are just going to hate any metroid that isn't prime or super.

[Gorotsuki]

I bought it, and I just can't seem to enjoy it.
The boss battles aren't much fun because of
the constant wiimote changes to fire rockets.
It's not a bad game, I just would have loved
an old style 2d Metroid with updated graphics.
The flashy kills are probably the best addition
to the Metroid series, if they keep anything
from this game, that should be it.

[AtomSmasher]

Someone brought a copy into work the other day to play during lunch and one of the directors said "Oh, I see you got yourself a box of controversy."

Overall, people at work seem to be enjoying it though.

[Howard_Casto]

Again, not a deal breaker and a "normal" play who just wants to do general exploring and gameplay won't run into it, but it sure takes the fun of flying around the rooms looking for glitches after you've beaten the game.

Can't speak for anyone else, but thanks to all those 3D platformers on N64, if I'm playing a game and I should clearly go one direction, I ALWAYS go the other first, looking for power ups.   

Not really an issue with this game though.  Like I said, the instances in which you run into them is rare.  Also this is the most linear metroid game since metroid II on the gameboy, so more often than not you can't go the wrong way anyway.

[hypernova]

Graphics:

The best I've seen on a wii game yet.  Except for the lack of hd, this rivals something high-end you would see on the 360.  Due to more fluid animation and more faithful creature design it even looks better than the prime trilogy.  

There are two glaring exceptions though.  Ever noticed how in japanese cut-scenes, especially those done by team ninja the humans faces look sort of doll-like?  We have that problem here.  It's not that there isn't enough detail or anything, they just look a tad on the anime side of things.  Samus, thankfully doesn't suffer from this, it's just the supporting cast.  Also there's this big black guy called anthony in the game and quite frankly he's rendered in such a way that it looks a tad racist to me.  Keep in mind that sort of thing normally doesn't bother me so it's really bad.  Again this is a japanese thing... I guess they don't get many black guys over there.  Aside from the fact that he's nearly 8 feet tall, he has the biggest lips and the widest, whitest eyes I've ever seen.  Almost looks like black-face, but oddly enough I can tell it isn't intentional.

So some black guys aren't allowed to look like some black guys?  And I didn't know you were an expert on race relations.

That being said, I agree with the take on the graphics.  And they probably didn't spend too much time on the rest of the crew because the game doesn't spend much time on the rest of the crew.  I'm in Sector 1, and we haven't had much face-time with the crew so far, save the beginning sequences.  Probably just a matter of priority in their view.  The rest of the game does look good, but I do miss the 3-D environments from Prime.

The second thing, and this is a minor annoyance is the over/poor use of billboarding.  Billboarding is when you use a 2d sprite in a 3d game but keep it straight with the camera to give the illusion that it's 3d.  This is what they use for many of the monster's attacks, or spit or whatever.  In fp mode it looks great, but in the normal mode it looks a little off.  There's actually a bonus monster you can fight after you beat the game and I can tell why he's not officially in the story.  The bill-boarding effects are so terrible that it looks like something you'd see on the ps1!!

Sound:

It's there and it's metroid, nothing more to say.

Billboarding is rather annoying when you do have to backtrack.  (Or at least when you think you do from the uncertainty of how to get where you need to go.)  Your basic defense is to either go exceptionally slow to allow monsters time to populate the screen so you don't run into them, or run like hell and have cat-like reflexes when one does pop up in your way.

Gameplay Mechanics:

Suprisingly, they are pretty darn great, despite the odd design choices.  95% of the time you'll be in third person mode and it's pretty damn flawless.  You have full 3d movement, but the camera angles make it feel very 2d.  Also the controls are intelligent enough to make it control like a 2d game when you want it to.  Say you are going down a cooridor and it gently curves.  You don't have to press a different direction on the d-pad because the game can tell you are trying to go down the hall and it'll compensate.  Pretty nifty!  Also the fixed camera angles are perfect.  I never found a single instance where I couldn't see due to poor camera placement.  The d-pad controls samus really well btw.  I was worried about that, but honestly it isn't an issue at all.  The new additions I liked the most though is the new spring in her step and the melee combat.  In the nes metroid, samus was snappy quick and super responsive.  Ever since that game, however, she's gotten slower and slower.  Frankly by the time prime came out it felt like she was on the moon.  She's now just as quick as she was on the original nes title!  Also the melee combat (team ninja's signature) is a welcome addition that was obvious lacking from the series.  Don't worry, samus still primarily uses her gun, but now you can do "duh" things like dodge and enemy, or jump on it's back and shoot it directly in the head.  It makes for more believable combat.  As for the fp mode... well it's ok.  Transitioning between 2d and 3d is quite flawless but it takes forever to get used to the concept.  Also samus needs to be facing the direction you want to fire BEFORE you enter fp mode because, while you can turn in fp mode, you turn slowly and you'll get hit.  Thankfully it's rarely required to go into fp mode.  People keep screaming in other reviews about only being able to shoot a missile in fp mode and it's freaking people out.  What they don't mention is that combat priority isn't the same as in other metroid games... you don't depend on missiles to finish off monsters.  But I'll get to that later.  Long story short fp mode is servicable and although it feels akward at first, you'll get the hang of it about 1/3 of the way in and in those rare instances in which you need fp mode, you'll have no problem using it.

I just realized myself that I've not been orienting myself in the correct direction prior to invoking fp mode, and that was because I was too focused on staying alive.  Some attacks in the game can deplete you of half an energy tank.  And it's extremely annoying when you faced the wrong way, and try to right yourself in time, plus you have to get the remote pointed at the right part of the screen, which can be troublesome when you've had it sideways in your hand just a second prior.  But I shouldn't have the problem of orientation much anymore, as I've identified myself as the main problem, though I'm thinking it might happen again in a more intense and faster-flowing fight.  It was a definite problem during the wasp/queen wasp fight, as well as the worm fight.  The aiming part is still an ongoing issue, and probably always will be.  It always takes a second or so to get it pointed where you want it.

The hand-to-hand type combat is pretty cool.  I love the way Samus grabs enemies and slings them around.

"Samus has all of her weapons at the start but she waits for authorization. That doesn't make any sense":

Nope it doesn't.  Maybe we should go back to the "logical" method of where she arrives on the planet with all of her weapons and gets into a fight 5 seconds after landing in which she magically loses the weapons that are FULLY INTEGRATED INTO HER SUIT.  After all of that she JUST HAPPENS TO FIND IDENTICAL WEAPONS LYING AROUND A HOSTILE PLANET THAT WILL SOMEHOW MAGICALLY INTEGRATE INTO HER SUIT!  Yeah your way makes MUCH more sense.  That aside, for the most part, there is a perfect logical explaination as to why she waits for authorization.  First off, it's a military operation and she's "just helping out" so she has to follow the chain of command. Secondly it is explained blatently in the first damn cut-scene that you are boarding a science vessel with unknown damage and an unknown number of survivors and high yield weaponry should be avoided until survivors can be found so that you don't kill anybody or blow a hole in the ship.  There are exceptions to this though and they are bad enough to make it understandable that people are complaining.  Defensive stuff like the varia suit and the gravity suit also have to be authorized.  That's just dumb and it's inexcusable.  The concept of waiting for authorization in general though makes sense and fits well with the story.

I assume you refer to Prime 1 and 2.  Losing her weapons isn't all that "unbelievable."  Also, much of what she finds on Tallon IV wasn't in her inventory prior to the suit malfunction.  Same thing with Prime 2 and Aether.  (Personally I've wondered why we need to find the same items each game.  If the Gravity suit is so useful in water environments, why does she keep getting rid of it?)  

That said, I agree with the authorization being a sound reason for the inability to use them.  I have no beef with that part of the story.

I finished the game after only colelcting about 30 missiles out of 80, so that should tell you something.

You can recharge the missiles, so no, it doesn't really tell me anything.    But the fact that you can recharge them...why in the world did they put 80 in there to begin with?

The scanners from metroid prime are gone:

You'll be forced in fp mode and told to "find something." That something is usually a tiny brown blotch in a sea of brown blotches. It just kills the momentum of the game.  Not enough to make it unplayable, but enough to annoy a person.  Thankfully there are literally only 4 instances of this in game, so it isn't too bad.

I soundly agree with this.  The first time this happened,  I wondered if it was a problem with the game (I play off the HDD.)  It didn't help that there was commotion in the room I was playing, so I couldn't hear the rustling, nor was I really paying attention to the video.  I must've sat there for about a minute before I noticed the leaves rustling.

They made samus too sexy!  They show her ass all the time ect:

Hey, they must've been listening to Justin Timberlake while they were designing.  I have no problem with them bringing the sexy back, either.

The game is only 8 hours long, that's too short!:

I couldn't agree less.  I wholeheartedly enjoy games that don't require massive amounts of time to complete.  The game is supposed to look better, sound better, and play better as we progress with consoles.  We don't need to extend the hours of required playtime to beat a game with each generation.  Besides, since when are Metroids supposed to last longer than around 10 hours?  All three Primes were just under that.  The generations before that were even shorter.

All of those myths busted

Hm.  When did your opinion become the gospel truth?

there was an issue with the game that nobody seems to have picked up on.  Invisible walls!

The map's there for a reason.  It won't tell you where the hidden items are, but it shows you the invisible walls, silly.

Again, not a deal breaker (invisible walls) and a "normal" play who just wants to do general exploring and gameplay won't run into it, but it sure takes the fun of flying around the rooms looking for glitches after you've beaten the game.

Long story short this is a good game so do NOT ignore it!  Even if you just rent it, give it a try... you won't be disappointed unless you are just going to hate any metroid that isn't prime or super.

Hold up for a minute here...

I want other M to be a good game, but quite frankly, considering it was made by team ninja (strike one) and that the exploration has been reduced to 2d (strike two) and this akward "if you want to aim while you shoot, you have to change perspective, oh and you can't move while you shoot" (strike three) I doubt it will be nearly as good as the prime series.  I think they got the perspective changing gimmick backwards.  The game should be in 3d, like prime most of the time, but when a complicated set of platforming comes up it should switch to a psuedo-2d view with a fixed camera, so it's easier to jump.  Prime's gameplay was FLAWLESS, with the one exception being that tricker jumps were hard to judge due to the camera.  

And if you find it suprising that a programmer  doesn't find a bugs in a game acceptable than you certianly don't understand the programmers mindset.

Just a little blast from the past I figured you'd enjoy.

So previously you ---smurfette--- about bugs being in a game.  Now you say it's fun to go around looking for bugs in a game, and are bitching about the inconvenience to do so.    Now I'm convinced you were arguing that day simply for the sake of arguing.

All things considered, it is a fun game.  I personally don't consider it better than the Primes, but it is an interesting continuation of the Metroid storyline.  (Though right now I'm a bit confused, as it is still called Metroid, yet according to both Super Metroid and the opening sequence of this game, all Metroids have been eradicated.  Perhaps this is where "Other M" comes in.)

[shmokes]

I just started to play the game today, coincidentally.  I like it a lot so far (I've only played to just past the first boss), but the characterization definitely bugs.  She is portrayed as weak.  She lacks self-confidence, she acts all emo.  She does this stupid thumbs-down thing at military briefings in which she comes across as a bratty 14-year-old.  The dialogue is overwrought and incredibly heavy-handed. 

Her codependency issues are off-the-charts, and the story they give to explain this is not remotely satisfying or believable.  I don't really care about the existence of some obscure manga that is apparently just as asinine.  That doesn't make it better at all.

But the gameplay seems awesome, so . . . whatever.  I mean, how many time have I saved Princess Peach from Bowser?

[Howard_Casto]

UGH hypernova... seems like you have it out for me for absolutely no reason.  Thus why I left fro two years I haven't voiced my opinion on a game since. 

I'm not going to quote all of that you'll just have to scan up. 


He doesn't look like some black guys.  He looks like a borderline black-face era characterization of a black guy.  I almost expected him to talk like jar jar and carry a spear around. 



I don't think you understand what billoarding is or my complaints about it.  It's a graphics technique and it visually looks off.  It's not a gameplay issue.  I'm not sure what avoiding enemies would have to do with it unless you mean avoiding them to where they can't attack.


Nah I was talking about all metroids basically (except the first of course).  You don't always lose your powers in all of them (you do in prime though) but you need to keep in mind that your suit is chozo tech, which is supposed to be rare and incompatable with everything (thus why the space marines don't have her suit) and yet she's always finding compatable weapons lying around in hostile areas.

You can recharge missiles, but generally you don't have enough time to do it mid boss battle because it takes to long to recharge and you'll get hit (and have to start over) first.  It means that in general you don't need over 30 missiles.  I don't have a clue why they put 80 in, but then again mindless fetch quests are the norm this generation.

If the prime games were under 10 yours for you then you must have really been good at them.  I don't go by what the length of the game is if you go through it perfectly and never die, I always go by how long it actually takes.  Most metroid games take around 15-20 hours to complete and fully explore. In real human people terms that's about 2 weeks to a month worht of enjoyment.  I bought this one on tuesday, and had 100% completion by friday.  Because of the lack of back-tracking and easy enemies this is the shortest game in metroid history aside from the portables.

It's not.  Fortunately these are statements of facts laced with my opinions that show that many these "issues" people have really aren't there.  They just haven't played it, ect...  Besides I simply meant the issues had been covered so far by the review, you seem to obsess over specific wording far too much.

I get what you are saying about those old quotes, but in the first one I hadn't played the game yet.  Now I have and I've changed my mind.  And about the slowness thing... I guess it happened so gradually over the years I didn't realize it was an issue until they presented me with a samus that can actually move around again.  Her jumps did feel pretty damn slow in prime though, even before I realized this but I understand why they made that choice... jumping fp mode is hard, so they made her jump slow.... has to do with my platforming complaint about prime.

The second quote was taken completely out of context.  Someone was saying a game is bad because it had fewer bugs and you couldn't use said bugs to cheat with.  That's a stupid reason to dislike a game and I stand by that.  Invisible walls are a programmers trick to lazily eliminate bugs by simply making them impossible to approach.  If the walls weren't there you'd probably fall though the world or the camera would get all screwy or something.  The solution isn't to put up an invisible wall, it's to fix the bugs!  But getting to what you were illuding to... FINDING bugs can be fun, but complaining when you don't find them is like complaining about your hot girlfriend being too attractive or having too many bars of gold in your basement.

Blanet bugs, especially gameplay breaking ones (being able to skip a level ect) are unacceptable, but exploiting the physics of a game to do something fun albeit it pointless (see the original metroid bugs, the elevator jump in smb, ect) can be fun to play around it.  It doesn't mean they are any less annoying and shameful to the designer, but they can be fun to find.


 
Looks like for the most part, though everybody seems to be in agreement that it's a good game.  I was worried about this because I  honestly want to see if team ninja can improve on this new gameplay style with a sequel.  That was the point of my sharing, so I'm satisfied.

[Howard_Casto]

I just started to play the game today, coincidentally.  I like it a lot so far (I've only played to just past the first boss), but the characterization definitely bugs.  She is portrayed as weak.  She lacks self-confidence, she acts all emo.  She does this stupid thumbs-down thing at military briefings in which she comes across as a bratty 14-year-old.  The dialogue is overwrought and incredibly heavy-handed. 

Her codependency issues are off-the-charts, and the story they give to explain this is not remotely satisfying or believable.  I don't really care about the existence of some obscure manga that is apparently just as asinine.  That doesn't make it better at all.

But the gameplay seems awesome, so . . . whatever.  I mean, how many time have I saved Princess Peach from Bowser?

The problem is it isn't an obscure manga, it's THE manga.  It was immensely popular in japan, but it was never released in the states, because... well look how much people are complaining about her characterization.  That's the problem though.... just like they expect you to have already played super metroid and metroid ii to understand what's going on in the story, they expect you to have read the manga as well.  Remember metroid's creator is japanese and team ninja is primarily a japanese company, so for them, the manga is old hat reference material.  You guys are too early on, so I won't spoil it for you but there are one or two scenes taken almost directly from the manga.  It's almost like they started out doing a remake of metroid/super metroid and then decided to make a sequel at the last minute.  I will say this, you are too early on in teh game to judge yet. A lot more flashbacks and cut-scenes are coming and some of it helps to explain why she acts the way she does.  She does still have "issues" though.

[Gorotsuki]

Yeah,
You guys will love
the part where you walk around
in the behind the back mode for 10 minutes
with the payoff being some story you don't care about,
then trying to figure out why 4 guys
won't let you look at a dead body,
and wonder what the heck your supposed to do.
That was soooo much fun.

[hypernova]

Yeah, You guys will love the part where you walk around in the behind the back mode for 10 minutes with the payoff being some story  you don't care about, then trying to figure out why 4 guys won't let you look at a dead body, and wonder what the heck your supposed to do. That was soooo much fun.

You hit that nail right on the head.  On both accounts.  I thought those green splotches were freaking leaves, and ignored them!  And that walking around for 10 minutes doing nothing is easily the worst stretch of the game.

UGH hypernova... seems like you have it out for me for absolutely no reason.  Thus why I left fro two years I haven't voiced my opinion on a game since.  

Truthfully, I did have it out for you.  I don't know if you were having a bad stretch of time during that thread, but you came off as incredibly condescending and rude.  Your response above contains not even a smidgen of those things, so I'll gladly forget that thread.  (The part I quoted where you were skeptical of the game was just for fun, and heck, I was just as pessimistic about the game.)

He doesn't look like some black guys.  He looks like a borderline black-face era characterization of a black guy.  I almost expected him to talk like jar jar and carry a spear around.  

Eh...I still don't see the big deal.

I don't think you understand what billoarding is or my complaints about it.  It's a graphics technique and it visually looks off.  It's not a gameplay issue.  I'm not sure what avoiding enemies would have to do with it unless you mean avoiding them to where they can't attack.

Technically, I don't.  Your post was the first I've heard of the term, so I just tried inferring the meaning from the context of your post.

You can recharge missiles, but generally you don't have enough time to do it mid boss battle because it takes to long to recharge and you'll get hit (and have to start over) first.  It means that in general you don't need over 30 missiles.  I don't have a clue why they put 80 in, but then again mindless fetch quests are the norm this generation.

I't seems like the game has programmed certain moments in boss fights where you do have time to recharge things.  Some fights have obstacles to block incoming projectiles, while other fights have the boss  be stunned by a charge shot or even just AI is programmed with a lull in order to accommodate recharge times.  I had time to recharge my energy even (which takes longer than just missiles) during three recent boss fights - the tentacled monster fight with that large obstacle in the middle to block his missiles, that weird gravity monster, and even the Ridley fight, which had no obstacles.  Just recognize the pattern, get distance, and there should be time to recharge.

If the prime games were under 10 yours for you then you must have really been good at them.  I don't go by what the length of the game is if you go through it perfectly and never die, I always go by how long it actually takes.  Most metroid games take around 15-20 hours to complete and fully explore. In real human people terms that's about 2 weeks to a month worht of enjoyment.  I bought this one on tuesday, and had 100% completion by friday.  Because of the lack of back-tracking and easy enemies this is the shortest game in metroid history aside from the portables.

I go by the time in the game, as it's rather difficult unless taking stats of your own time.  I'm able to finish the Primes in under 10 hours with no issues.  I have noted that my last time check on this one is about 8 or so hours, and I just enabled the Gravity Suit (after the Adam/Sector 0 scene.)

And about the slowness thing... I guess it happened so gradually over the years I didn't realize it was an issue until they presented me with a samus that can actually move around again.  Her jumps did feel pretty damn slow in prime though, even before I realized this but I understand why they made that choice... jumping fp mode is hard, so they made her jump slow.... has to do with my platforming complaint about prime.

Jumping in Other M is fairly slow too, compared with her walking/running speed.

The second quote was taken completely out of context.  Someone was saying a game is bad because it had fewer bugs and you couldn't use said bugs to cheat with.  That's a stupid reason to dislike a game and I stand by that.

I remember stating that I hoped there were possible sequence breaks, in order to make subsequent playthroughs a different experience, but I never said it made a bad game if they weren't there.

Looks like for the most part, though everybody seems to be in agreement that it's a good game.  I was worried about this because I  honestly want to see if team ninja can improve on this new gameplay style with a sequel.  That was the point of my sharing, so I'm satisfied.

I have been enjoying these boss battles immensely.  But then again, most boss battles since Prime came out have been an absolute blast to me.

[shmokes]

Yeah, You guys will love the part where you walk around in the behind the back mode for 10 minutes with the payoff being some story  you don't care about, then trying to figure out why 4 guys won't let you look at a dead body, and wonder what the heck your supposed to do. That was soooo much fun.

You hit that nail right on the head.  On both accounts.  I thought those green splotches were freaking leaves, and ignored them!  And that walking around for 10 minutes doing nothing is easily the worst stretch of the game.

UGH hypernova... seems like you have it out for me for absolutely no reason.  Thus why I left fro two years I haven't voiced my opinion on a game since. 

Truthfully, I did have it out for you.  I don't know if you were having a bad stretch of time during that thread, but you came off as incredibly condescending and rude.  Your response above contains not even a smidgen of those things, so I'll gladly forget that thread.  (The part I quoted where you were skeptical of the game was just for fun, and heck, I was just as pessimistic about the game.)

He doesn't look like some black guys.  He looks like a borderline black-face era characterization of a black guy.  I almost expected him to talk like jar jar and carry a spear around. 

Eh...I still don't see the big deal.

I don't think you understand what billoarding is or my complaints about it.  It's a graphics technique and it visually looks off.  It's not a gameplay issue.  I'm not sure what avoiding enemies would have to do with it unless you mean avoiding them to where they can't attack.

Technically, I don't.  Your post was the first I've heard of the term, so I just tried inferring the meaning from the context of your post.

You can recharge missiles, but generally you don't have enough time to do it mid boss battle because it takes to long to recharge and you'll get hit (and have to start over) first.  It means that in general you don't need over 30 missiles.  I don't have a clue why they put 80 in, but then again mindless fetch quests are the norm this generation.

I't seems like the game has programmed certain moments in boss fights where you do have time to recharge things.  Some fights have obstacles to block incoming projectiles, while other fights have the boss  be stunned by a charge shot or even just AI is programmed with a lull in order to accommodate recharge times.  I had time to recharge my energy even (which takes longer than just missiles) during three recent boss fights - the tentacled monster fight with that large obstacle in the middle to block his missiles, that weird gravity monster, and even the Ridley fight, which had no obstacles.  Just recognize the pattern, get distance, and there should be time to recharge.

If the prime games were under 10 yours for you then you must have really been good at them.  I don't go by what the length of the game is if you go through it perfectly and never die, I always go by how long it actually takes.  Most metroid games take around 15-20 hours to complete and fully explore. In real human people terms that's about 2 weeks to a month worht of enjoyment.  I bought this one on tuesday, and had 100% completion by friday.  Because of the lack of back-tracking and easy enemies this is the shortest game in metroid history aside from the portables.

I go by the time in the game, as it's rather difficult unless taking stats of your own time.  I'm able to finish the Primes in under 10 hours with no issues.  I have noted that my last time check on this one is about 8 or so hours, and I just enabled the Gravity Suit (after the Adam/Sector 0 scene.)

And about the slowness thing... I guess it happened so gradually over the years I didn't realize it was an issue until they presented me with a samus that can actually move around again.  Her jumps did feel pretty damn slow in prime though, even before I realized this but I understand why they made that choice... jumping fp mode is hard, so they made her jump slow.... has to do with my platforming complaint about prime.

Jumping in Other M is fairly slow too, compared with her walking/running speed.

The second quote was taken completely out of context.  Someone was saying a game is bad because it had fewer bugs and you couldn't use said bugs to cheat with.  That's a stupid reason to dislike a game and I stand by that.

I remember stating that I hoped there were possible sequence breaks, in order to make subsequent playthroughs a different experience, but I never said it made a bad game if they weren't there.

Looks like for the most part, though everybody seems to be in agreement that it's a good game.  I was worried about this because I  honestly want to see if team ninja can improve on this new gameplay style with a sequel.  That was the point of my sharing, so I'm satisfied.

I have been enjoying these boss battles immensely.  But then again, most boss battles since Prime came out have been an absolute blast to me.

WTF is this?  Dude, you can't just write your way into a face-to-face conversation you never had.  The post you are responding to is not a series of sentences, each existing in a little mini-vacuum.  I cannot understand what possibly possesses people to write like this.  YOU HAVE NO IDEA THAT YOU ARE THE GUY WHO WRITES IN ALL CAPS.  EVERYONE THINKS YOU ARE ---smurfing--- ANNOYING AND THEY DO NOT READ YOUR POSTS.  LEARN MANNERS.  WRITE IN PARAGRAPHS.  UNDERSTAND THAT YOU CAN RESPOND TO THE OVERALL MESSAGE OF A POST WITHOUT RESPONDING INDIVIDUALLY TO EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE.  CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT YOUR POST WOULD LOOK LIKE IF HOWARD NOW QUOTES EACH OF YOUR STATEMENTS, WITH HIS ORIGINAL QUOTES FOR CONTEXT, AND RESPONDS TO THEM THE WAY YOU DID.  AND THEN, WHAT, YOU WILL DO THE SAME?  IT'S RETARDED.

[shmokes]

The problem is it isn't an obscure manga, it's THE manga. 

I probably went a bridge to far using the word "obscure".  My thoughts on the matter really work better if you just strike that word.  The important thing is that it's not compelling.  Cannon is no excuse for suck.

[Mikezilla]

On a lighter note...I heard that when you pick up a new item it doesnt play the metroid sound. 

As to what shmokes said... Its kind of a bummer if they make her out to be a punk ass little brat, cmon. Thats just the japanese culture though, thats how they expect girls to act in general. I also loved LOVED the scanning in the Prime series, it gave the game more depth. It also paused the action when you were scanning during a boss fight, so no need to whine about it. If you cant do that, then you must not be very good at games.  I loved those games more than super metroid. And I LOVED that game. The music, graphics, gameplay, and story are tough shoes to fill following the prime series, so how good could you expect it to be?

[hypernova]

WTF is this?  Dude, you can't just write your way into a face-to-face conversation you never had.  The post you are responding to is not a series of sentences, each existing in a little mini-vacuum.  I cannot understand what possibly possesses people to write like this.  YOU HAVE NO IDEA THAT YOU ARE THE GUY WHO WRITES IN ALL CAPS.  EVERYONE THINKS YOU ARE ---smurfing--- ANNOYING AND THEY DO NOT READ YOUR POSTS.  LEARN MANNERS.  WRITE IN PARAGRAPHS.  UNDERSTAND THAT YOU CAN RESPOND TO THE OVERALL MESSAGE OF A POST WITHOUT RESPONDING INDIVIDUALLY TO EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE.  CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT YOUR POST WOULD LOOK LIKE IF HOWARD NOW QUOTES EACH OF YOUR STATEMENTS, WITH HIS ORIGINAL QUOTES FOR CONTEXT, AND RESPONDS TO THEM THE WAY YOU DID.  AND THEN, WHAT, YOU WILL DO THE SAME?  IT'S RETARDED.

Get some sand in your vagina, guy?

I respond with such posts because I assume people don't like reading the entire post over and over again to find what I'm responding to when I write a long, multi-paragraphed reply responding to multiple points.  In addition, while they aren't in a vacuum, each point I respond to I attempt to make sure that the info is completely unrelated to the paragraphs/sentences before and after.  I can't speak for HowardCasto, but I'm fairly certain that I took nothing out of context (save for the one he pointed out) in his quotes.  Quite frankly, you're always the only one to ever gripe (and, Jesus Christ, do you gripe) on my post composition.  It's my mistake if that is generally the incorrect way to post on a forum, but I'm fairly certain it's just you.  Do you ---smurfette--- to gorotsuki about his posts, because they resemble prose?  They annoy me, but I'm not going to have a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin----fit over it.  I've seen other people do the same things I do, hence my belief that my method isn't wrong.  I figured it was more of a "choose your flavor" type of thing, as is most everything on the internet.  I don't go around spending hours a day at multiple forums, so my forum etiquette knowledge is fairly limited.  The only other forum I've been a longtime member of was gamefaqs long ago.  Sure, I have "accounts" with other boards, but it's mainly to ask one or two questions regarding the subject, or some other reason to view something.  In other words, this is the only forum I'm active on.

Everyone thinks I'm annoying?  That's news to me.  Everyone must be exchanging PMs about me.

Could I imagine HowardCasto doing the same thing?  Well, yeah.  It's what I'm used to, since, as I've stated before, nobody, except now you, has belligerently corrected me regarding it.  edit:  I see your point, but I wouldn't requote myself, as I shouldn't need to.  Nor would I expect someone else to, either.  A quote pyramid would not be under construction.

I thought about pushing that really big red button and responding to each of your sentences separately, but figured I'd take the high road.  Heaven forbid the almighty shmokes should smite me with all caps invective again.  Take a page from your own book.  Try addressing me with manners.

Oh, by the way.  I'm interested.  If everyone thinks I'm so "---smurfing--- annoying", what is it about me that's so annoying?  My personal way of composing posts?  Manners?  What?  I'm not being disingenuous here.  I'd like to know.  PM me.  This is an invitation to anyone who truly thinks I'm annoying.  If possible, cite examples, quotes not necessary, just recollections.

And if I'm so annoying, it could be worse...

I cld rte lik ths.  (Hell, I don't know proper texting shorthand.)

edit:  I added a few small things.

[hypernova]

I just finished the game yesterday.  I found the end to be quite anticlimactic.  The final boss was rather simple.  The previous major boss was a much better battle.  It definitely wasn't an epic battle like the final bosses of the Prime series.  Then the "final, final" battle is quite lame.  I figured the ending was appropriate, and I didn't have any beefs with it.  I'm back in going for the 100%.

[Gorotsuki]

[/quote]
Do you ---smurfette--- to gorotsuki about his posts, because they resemble prose?
[/quote]

Some smurfs have,
and now I'm smurfed.

[shmokes]

If everyone thinks I'm so "---smurfing--- annoying", what is it about me that's so annoying?  

Sorry, pronoun trouble.  When I say "you" I am referring to the guy generally who chops up posts and responds line-by-line.  Like with all-caps, it is the practice, not the person, that is annoying.  I didn't mean that people personally dislike you. 

But it's not just me.  Those posts are incredibly tedious to read, even for the person you are responding to.  They are simply skipped by almost everyone.  Consider the effort that you require of your readers to make it through a post like that.  You don't just risk taking Howard's quotes out of context; you deprive your own responses of any context save for Howard's quotes.  So even though we've already read and understood Howard's post in its entirety, to be able to make your responses even comprehensible we are forced to go back through Howard's post and re-read it line, by line (only now with commentary).  As you might imagine, this is incredibly boring since, A#1 we already read and understood his post and, B#2 it's not that likely that you truly have something interesting to say after each line.  As if this wasn't all bad enough, you can see what it does to the length of your post.  You end up with a veritable novel of this disjointed, schizophrenic mess that doesn't remotely flow together.

And, then, obviously it just becomes untenable.  If Howard then responded in kind it would already be too big and unwieldy to even follow, let alone if the conversation continued beyond that.

So, yeah, I was probably a bit harsh.  It's a pet peeve and yours just happened to be the post I really snapped on.    

[hypernova]

So, yeah, I was probably a bit harsh.  It's a pet peeve and yours just happened to be the post I really snapped on.    

Heck, I was starting to figure you had something against me after reading that.  Mainly that no matter what format I typed in, you didn't like it.  (You chided me before for just generically quoting, instead of referencing the author as well, which I did out of laziness, and I agreed with you.)  I've done quotes like this since I've posted on forums because I figured people did like a recap on what a person is responding to.  Pretty much all points I was referring to were in paragraphs of their own, as they were independent thoughts, so I treated them as such, and couldn't figure out what your major malfunction was regarding it this time, especially as I'd never heard of anyone having an issue with the practice.  So in the future, I'll keep that in mind.

Back on topic.  I beat the extra boss, and later found the last item.  Finally.  Although it was right within my view, I couldn't find the route of access to it.  It's the one right in the hangar when you land your ship.  Stinking dark screen prevented me from seeing the point of entry, and I'd looked around that area more than a few times.  Does anyone else think this game has a rather low lighting by default?  That you have to up the brightness a hair?  My final time was around 14 hours.

I'm starting on hard mode now.  Now that I know the location of the items, I'll be interested in what the final time will be this go-round.

[hypernova]

Well, nix the middle of that last sentence, as item location knowledge is irrelevant.  What makes hard mode hard is there are no items.  No energy tanks, no accel charge.  Nothing!  I can't tell whether the damage inflicted by enemies is the same, or if my beam's power is weakened or not.  My initial belief is that unlike the Prime's hard modes, damage inflicted is still the same on both ends.  It still takes three missiles to destroy one of those glob-hives the flying insects come out of in the early stages of the game.  Other enemies still seem to take the same amount of time to kill.  So hard mode is simply going through the game again with no extra items.  It's like a low percent run on any of the Prime games in normal mode.  I'm really not expecting it to be that difficult, due to the ability to recharge things in this one.

[hypernova]

As an update, I finished hard mode a few days ago, and as I've read elsewhere, you can't do the post-game boss battle.  It was definitely a decent challenge, as I died probably a good 40-50 times during the course, but definitely fun in doing so.  Lots o' one hit kills, and others that you think would be a OHK, yet wasn't.

I'd recommend hitting up hard mode if you get the chance.  Like Howard mentioned regarding the Primes, it takes away the brute force method of getting through the game.

[shateredsoul]

Uhhh...

So I found an interesting and short article.  It's titled "maybe video games aren't are after all", now I'd suggest not to get hung up on that.. because I don't think it's her actual main point.  She lives in Brazil and posts interesting stuff to read. Any-who, this article is mostly about Metroid other M and talked about how one reviewers critique about the Samus' portrayal as weak and insecure really goes against all the series where she was a confident and daring bounty hunter. Maybe she's not anymore sexualized than before, but her character has been changed. 

In response to the article most people left pretty harsh comments and shrugged off any further conversation by saying "it's just a game", "focus on the game and not politics", and some even changed the focus of another thread started on the review to focus on sexualizing and objectifying her.

I find this the case usually, many time gamers don't want to talk about these issues or shrug them off.  Now I haven't plaid through the whole game, but black guys do usually get portrayed and rough spoken and big and mean (i.e. Berret FFVII).  The biggest issue is that people play through games, watch movies, read news without fully analyzing what they are watching,reading or playing.  They take as face value and say "it's just tv, it's just a movie" or in the games of video games, "it's just a game".  Games sometimes recreate the values and perceptions of our society. All games are created by people who have certain beliefs that include valuing consuming, racism, specific ideals about beauty, stereotypes, objectification of women. Because of this fact,  there is a chance that game directors/designers/etc..  may recreate some of these ideas and values in games.

Objectivity is a myth.. if you ask me.

Maybe people on other boards are generally not willing to discuss these topics because well.. they are younger and maybe immature.  The good thing about byoac is that there's always at least some who care to go further than "it's just a game"

http://gamecomments.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/maybe-games-are-not-art-after-all/

[rlemmon]

It sucks if you have it glitch in sector 3. I'm not buying it unless its fixed.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/18/game-breaking-bug-found-in-metroid-other-m/

[hypernova]

It sucks if you have it glitch in sector 3. I'm not buying it unless its fixed.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/18/game-breaking-bug-found-in-metroid-other-m/

I played through both regular and hard modes, and had no glitch.  And I saved at just about every opportunity, especially the first time through.

[patm95]

I thought it was a pretty good game.  Of course, I didn't care for any of the Metroid Prime series. 

[ahofle]

Also when you die yoru armor blows off, revealing the zero suit. 

Why do I have the feeling I'm never going to finish this game?