oh my god. just finished 100%... the end is so worth it. the final boss is a shock.

by the way, if you haven't played yet skip this post.

samus took the risk of saving the baby metroid last time and it backfired and cost the lives of a bunch of scientists and nearly rebooted the space pirate's metroid cloning program. the fact that she was prepared to shoot it meant that she had learned her lesson that there's no safe way to keep metroids alive.

samus was determined to destroy the metroids herself, but with her weapons there was no way she could fight them. regardless, she never would have let adam sacrifice himself to take them out even though it was the only way, which is why he stunned her so that she wouldn't interfere and get herself killed.

the cloning sector was set to jettison and self destruct as a fail-safe in the event that the lab became too damaged to safely contain the metroids, which adam exploited to destroy the sector.

@romulux: 100%, you say? Then that means you know how to get the missile tank that's trapped behind some glass in the Bioweapon Research Center. Care to help a fellow Metroid-head out? It has me stumped. So far the only way to get to it that I can think of is bomb jumping, which I suck at, so I hope that isn't the way in there...

Never mind, I got to it. The way the path is hidden is quite clever, and you'd never notice it unless you look at it from just the right angle...

I finished it with 100% collection rate now, too, and loved the challenge of locating all the pick-ups (some of which are quite tricky to find/get to). Oh, and I loved the cameos from Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. The game and the Wii definitely count playtime differently, since my file says I was just seven minutes shy of nineteen hours, while my Wii says I was thirty five minutes shy of thirty hours. Either way, the game definitely met, hell exceeded, my expectations and overblasted all the doubts I had in the head. I'm sad that it's over and done with, but there's always Hard mode! I'll probably leave that play-through for another time, though, when the game's not to fresh in my memory...

I loved the image gallery, but I think the video gallery easily surpasses it in greatness, especially since I enjoyed the hell out of both the story and the voice acting. I guess all that's left to say is: when is the next Metroid game coming out?!

i know just what you're talking about, and yeah, that was a b****. it may not have had many puzzles, but somehow it felt tougher to find all the items.

@romulx: It's true that the pick-ups weren't as numerous as in previous Metroid games, but they were definitely more challenging to find/obtain. I remember looking around a room in Sector 2 for a few minutes because there was a blip on my map, and it turns out the missile tank was under a fallen stalactite that I was standing right next to, and getting it was as simple as rolling under the stalactite with the morph ball. I can't wait to play this game again on Hard mode later on...

The pick-ups are definitely some of the most fun to look for in this game. However, they're also, at least so far, the least satisfying once you do find them.

Not only is there the very strange lack of collection theme (seriously, what gives? I want the game to be excited when I find a power-up, too), but most of them are missiles. I know it adds up, but expanding your missiles by a measly 1 when you can very quickly and infinitely reload just isn't quite as exciting as finding a whopping five without the reload ability. In past games, I'd seek out power-ups not just because exploring is fun but because I'd feel compelled to expand my arsenal, but no so here.

As usual, my disclaimer is that I'm playing maybe two hours a day, so I'm not too far.

On another topic, Metroid fans will probably already be familiar with this awesome site devoted to speedrunning and sequence breaking, Metroid2002.com, but their Other M thread (particularly the first few posts) is hilarious: http://m2k2.taigaforum.com/post/the_official_other_m_sequence...

Edit: Ah, I thought I was just doing the infinite bomb jump wrong, but apparently there is an invisible ceiling programmed to stop you from bomb jumping higher than your normal jump height, according to the same thread. Dang.

Oh sh-t, guess I need to leave this thread because of the spoilers. Thanks a lot Mono. >.<

I wonder if a spoilers thread would be necessary? Mono's post definitely needs to be spoiler tagged. I mean, seriously. Fortunately for me, I'd already accidentally spoiled that on my own, but for others that would kind of suck to stumble across.

I have a spoilery comment regarding the Ridley fight.
SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERTAG
When he first confronts her, how could she possibly be so afraid? I mean, she's killed him before. Twice. That really didn't make sense to me. The way it was portrayed, it was like the first time she saw him since she was a child. I know a lot of reviewers think she should have no feelings at all, but I don't mean that she should just shrug and blast him in the face. It just seemed really overboard. I could see being surprised if it was the second time fighting him (Super Metroid), since she thought he was dead, but she should be used to unexplained resurrections by now, at least to the point of being above this, I think.
/SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERTAG

@Adam
Here's the way I see it
and SPOILERS, people...
In the beginning of the game she refers to Ridley, with a quiver in her voice, as her nemisis. When she sees him in the lava place, she's stunned silent. And when she briefly is depicted as a screaming little girl, it shows us that she's not just shocked--she's scared. It also tells me that this isn't the first time she has felt this way. It suggests that her encounters with Ridley have always been extremely frightening. And after overcoming her fears and finally conquering him in Super Metroid, she thought that he was gone for good. His sudden appearence was thus doubly frightening and shocking, which is why she was frozen. That's the way I see it anyway.

CONTINUATIONOFSPOILERYSPOILERSCONVERSATIONS
True, it's possible she's frightened every time, but if you consider how many times she's faced him, that seems excessive. Like I pointed out, we had also assumed he was gone for good in Metroid, so why should it be doubly shocking now? She knows he can resurrect himself / clone himself / whatever himself by now. And if you consider the Prime series canonical (I don't know why it wouldn't be, but I've noticed elsewhere that some people say it's not now? I don't get it), and if you consider Zero Mission (I seem to remember two Ridley fights, but I forget) to replace Metroid, she should really be used to it. I certainly am... though I have the benefit here of not having my parents killed by him, I guess. Even though he is consistently one of the coolest bad guys in any game, I really hope he is finally laid to rest in this one, though we'd obviously never know for sure with this series. If I were Kraid, I'd be really tiffed about all this preferential treatment.
ENDOFSPOILERYSPOILERCONVERSATIONS...FORNOW!

CONTINUIATIONOFSPOILERYSPOILERCONVERSATION
Ridley can't clone himself, although towards the end of the game you do get an explanation as to how he ended up on the Bottle Ship. And since he also appears in Fusion (unless I'm horribly mistaken) I'm guessing they also explain how he ends up in that one (which comes after Other M).

I guess the reason why I guess she was so shocked this time around is because she just killed him. For good, she thought. She just overcame her greatest fear and defeated him. But what the fu--HE'S BACK! That's got to be traumatizing. Especially since she obviously has a deep fear and hatred of him. Is it a bit of a stretch? Yeah. But for me, it worked. That whole scene was pulse-pounding.

Lousy spoilers.
Anyone else die a bunch in the elevator shaft?

Which one? If you're talking about the one where you're fighting the purple lizard and the elevator above you is falling, then yes. For some reason, my stupid brain couldn't figure out that I was supposed to hide in one of the nooks and let the elevator kill the lizard. Foolishness, Kid_A!

And while we're on the subject, why has nobody mentioned how beautifully smooth the wall jumping is in this game?

I died once.

I died at the elevator, I had a stupid moment and after shooting a missle at on weak spot I went "Cool anthor spot lets see what happens" so I shot the other one causing poor Samus to be crushed. >.<

Yeah, I died at the Elevator a few times too. I caught me some serious case of stupid.

The first time I unloaded all my missiles at the lizard and then fell to my death.
The second, I blasted the supports and the elevator killed the lizard.... along with me.
The third, blasted the supports while standing on the ledge, and killed the lizard. But then I wanted to see if the fire "hurt"... and it did. So, I had low energy and then went to the top and one of those critters was on the edge and hit me back toward the hole and I fell down to the fire again and died.

PERHAPSTHEFINALSEGMENT(ATLEASTONMYPARTIMEAN)OFSPOILERYSPOILERIZEDCONVERSATIONSABOUTRIDLEY?!
That's possible, but it's not really implied. She is drawing the connection to when he first attacked her as a child, which seems weird to me when she's faced him so many times since. It would seem more natural to have a flashback to Super Metroid if his recent "death" is the shocking part, but I think they were just so gungho on revealing her past (and who can blame them? I certainly want to know more) that they didn't think it through perfectly.

Anyway, since it's not a contradiction of facts, and we don't know how Samus felt in the other games for the most part, I don't guess there's any way of figuring it out for certain. Not that it matters. It was still super duper awesome -- the cut scene, fight, and music.
/PERHAPSTHEFINALSEGMENT(ATLEASTONMYPARTIMEAN)OFSPOILERYSPOILERIZEDCONVERSATIONSABOUTRIDLEY?!

Seriously, if anyone reads one of my posts and complains I've spoiled something, don't say you weren't warned.

Regarding elevators, I died at the first one (haven't gotten to a second one, I don't think) a few times. I hid in the nook once and got grabbed by the lizard, which made me think I wasn't supposed to do that, leading to a frustrating sequence of repeated deaths before I tried it again.

Actually, I appreciate it @Adam. Every time I see your post, I skip the part you have "tagged" and read the rest of the stuff that I have already played.

But that's one of the most infuriating things in gaming... when you have the right idea about what to do in a situation, but because of a fluke thing it makes you think it's wrong and then you go on a wild goose chase looking for a better option.

That's EXACTLY what happened to me in Super Metroid, on that wall jumping section with the critters. Ended up spending a long time doing a bomb jumps all the way up. This usually happens to me at least once in a good Zelda game, too.

lol, my first two were the same.
Then, I jumped to the bottom to run out of the shaft. Death #3
Then, I figured out I need to hide in a nook. Death #4 as the lizard grabbed me with his tail, held me up in the air, and let the elevator slam down on me.

Edit: I rule

Oh, nevermind, regarding the Ridley discussion. I get it now. Just got to the big halfway reveal cinematics. Very nice.