Topic: Metroid: Other M – A Retrospect View

I've learned that the Internet hivemind gave the game more crap than it deserved. I mean it wasn't the best metroid game, but it was fun, and that's what's important. the story was not as awful as people like to make it seem, and the gameplay is where the game shone. I couldn't care for the story, but that was all the fault of metroids creator himself. Team ninja did a great job with the gameplay.

Definitely hated more than it should be. That said, prime is infinitely better in my books

It was mainly hated for the fact it was too different. If it was not a metroid game, it would not have been bashed so much.

I got it for my birthday, and liked it. Then I played it again after a while, and...I didn't really care for it. It's been while since then, so maybe I'll try it again soon, and see which reaction was more reasonable for me.

Gameplay was good story was bordering on bad, that's how I look at it in a nutshell and as I hold gameplay higher than story for this kind of game I quite like Other M.

I actually don't think it was that different. No more than the Prime series was. Indeed, it focussed more on story and combat, but exploration was still present. In terms of gameplay, Other M felt more similar to the 2D Metroid games than Prime did.

Agree with all points of the original post.
I'm a fan of the Metroid background story and Samus as a character since I got Super Metroid in 1994.
Super Metroid is an alltime fav of mine, so I completed every Metroid game that followed to re-experience that Super Metroid feeling. Only Other M got close.
Obviously I'm oldschool and not from the Prime generation. Those games were filler, great but not what I expect from a Metroid game.

I agree with most of the OP's points and actually liked this game, even if it was different from Super Metroid and the Prime series.

My highlights

Fantastic boss fights. There was a lot of variety, and I especially enjoyed fighting my favorite boss in the series (Nightmare)

Great combat: while people have mixed opinions on this, I actually thought the combat was quite good. I never had problems with the camera or auto aim system, and found the enemies a pleasant challenge

Great atmosphere

I actually liked Samus' voice acting and many parts of the story (other than Samus' reaction to Ridley, which really doesn't make sense since she's faced him multiple times beforehand)

That said, I do need to point out several flaws:

While I'm not bothered by the characterization of Samus per se, some things, such as her reaction to Ridley, do not make sense considering how far the game is on the Metroid Timeline. If this was her first encounter with Ridley, her reaction would make sense, but it was a little strange here when she had already defeated him a couple of times

I think there could have been a better way for Samus to gradually regain her powers than the authorization system, or at least, it should have been limited to certain powers for which it makes sense. For weapons, it makes sense because the space station is fragile. It makes no sense, however, for the grapple beams and varia suit (or whatever the suit that makes you immune to heat is) to be held back on the same logic.

I was disappointed with the weapon variety. I despise the limited nature of the beam stacking system in the Metroid games that have it (i.e. Fusion), and still think that Metroid Prime 1 had the best beam system

They needed to make what you were looking for in the "where's waldo" sequences easier to see

I loved this game and thought the critique levelled against it was unjustified and a very narrow minded thing. A bit of what happened to the wiiU - if the internet hates against it, it just works against you in the public mindset.

I thought it was a great game. The authorisation could indeed have been something else, and the morphball / exploration in prime series were more epic to me, but the game itself was really good.

Glad to see a group not completely bashing this game. lol. I never understood how the game became so unreasonably hated. It was a pretty good game, the action was fast paced and the story was good, if a little too similar to Fusion.
I actually liked the Ridley scene. It showed how big an impact Ridley had on her life. I'm pretty sure if someone killed everyone you knew as a child, you'd flashback and turn into a child for a moment if they reappeared. Though I do admit it took her a bit too long to snap out of it.
My only real complaint would be the point and click parts, specifically the part where you have to scan the green blood. That was pretty frustrating. I never look up things online but I actually had to for that part lol.
Overall, I enjoyed this game. It's not the very best Metroid game but it's certainly not the worst. Definitely not deserving of all the hate it gets. Nice to find people who actually enjoyed it!

Everything you pointed out is just wish-washing over the terrible writing, man.

Taking Commands

Indeed, the sexist argument is just a load of bull - the problem is the nonsensical structure of this subordination. Adam treats Samus like an obstacle, and barely anything revealed about him in Fusion holds true. Excellent military mind? So there was a strategy behind obviously noticing Samus cook in the lava sector, and not allow her to use the Varia Suit? Why the hell did Samus turn it off to begin with? The answer: fake tension, simple. At the very least, Samus could've contacted Adam to SEEK permission, but as soon as mister Malko-suckit-vich is on her radar, Samus turns incompetent. That directly contradicts her usual willingness to ignore commands for the greater good.
In general, the whole "turn off your good stuff" ploy is probably one of the worst excuses to downgrade Samus at all. How could the Varia Suit, Morph Ball bombs (not Power Bombs), or the Grapple Beam hurt the others? Never explained, but we're supposed to accept it.

Too Emotional

That's one difficult topic. Samus might've been more impulsive in the past, but if we've learned one thing from her, it's that her determination is practically unbreakable. Her melancholic monologues are mostly pointless repeats of events the player had just afew minutes ago, and only serve as crutches because the situation in itself was badly enough designed to raise questions otherwise. I'm not denying her emotions, but the emotions she shows here are flat-out ignoring what Samus has been through. If anything, Samus would've properly analyzed everything and collected data before making baseless asumptions and whining about things that don't have any other impact on her, the story, or anything else.
The voice acting wasn't too bad, but Samus' voice actress was just plain terrible. She sounded way too monotone in general, and especially Samus' innate interest in biology was downplayed, because a curious Samus would've sounded much more lively, and killed the artificially creepy atmosphere.

The damn Ridley scene

This is what proceeded to make Other M look like a Hollywood-ified joke.
Look at ANY Ridley encounter after Metroid NES/Zero Mission! Did she lose it in Prime? He was evidently dead, after all. Did she lose it in Corruption? He was dead again, after all. Did Samus have a breakdown in Super Metroid, where Ridley not only returns, but also captured her dear Metroid larva? He was more than dead after Corruption, after all!
But no, we need some stupid trauma to make the boss fight more interesting! Yes, Samus remembers her childhood all too well, but the Chozo taught her to keep calm, because these memories are a weakness Ridley could exploit, otherwise. Besides, there was no reason for Samus to assume Ridley couldn't survive the Super Metroid fight (and imminent destruction of Zebes), either, considering he survived a planetary self-destruct bomb, the wrath of the Chozo, falling for a month, getting blasted to bits by a Phazon-enhanced Samus, and getting chain-destroyed by Phaaze's downfall. Ridley survived every single encounter, and Samus normally would be smart enough to at least suspect he managed to survive somehow.
Also, a simple scan of either the Choogle (or Little Birdie, if you prefer) or the Scorpion Lizard would've revaled the obvious DNA match. But for the sake of a surprise nobody needed, Samus was playing dumb.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Other M isn't a bad game by itself, but it openly contradicts, denies, and ignores MANY things from previous games for a terribly written, cinematic show-off. If this game was NOT part of the Metroid franchise, half of the problems would just disappear. But by wanting to be a Metroid game, and furthermore relying on MANY arbitrary callbacks to previous games, it DEMANDS a comparison, a retrospective review. But as it is, Other M not only ridicules all previous games with inconsistency, it also fails to deliver anything meaningful except for Adam's ultimately pointless death.

If it gets a HD rerelease then it will instantly become the best thing ever and somehow everyone will have loved it since it was first released (See Windwaker).

We can only pray that Other M gets released alongside Xenoblade Chronicles on the New 3DS!!!!

If they just took out the story, talking, characters, 'where's wally' sections, used the wiimote pointer to aim the blaster, allowed camera rotation and made the exploration exactly like Super Metroid, I think it would have been one of the best games on Wii but instead it was just a bit disjointed.

So. You just want super metroid then.

The story in Other M seemed to me like they were just trying to update the Metroid series story with more cutscenes, voice acting, etc. to match modern story-over-gameplay driven games (For example, Adam's authorization. As unrealistic as that was, its still more realistic than the usual), and that makes sense to me because I'm always hearing people say that they want Nintendo to update their series. In a way they succeeded, because Other M's story is about as good or better than many of those types of games. The problem is, like Kaze_Memaryu said the story has twice as many problems because its a Metroid game. I'll agree with that. The story has problems.
However, can we forgive it because of how Metroid-like the gameplay was? I felt like I was playing a 3D super Metroid. Other M's gameplay is just so much fun, almost as fun as Super Metroid, which is why I agree with Octane, a lot of the people who say Other M is a bad game are people who just looked up all the cutscenes on youtube, or who haven't even seen them at all.
@Kaze_Memaryu You made some good points, but they're all about the story. Would you agree that gameplay-wise, the game is great?

Because really, why are we so worried about the story in a Metroid game?

I really liked Other M ! To me, even the story was good. I don't get why so many people disliked it. It really feels like Fusion some times, but other than that it's just great ! Not even talking about the gameplay which is brillant. But it's true that the first time i got through the game ... i was like ... mehhh ok but not much. The second time tough, i'v played it on Hard and men ... what a nice game it became ! 10/10 for me and i would buy again in HD anytime !

@Of_Folsense I do care a whole lot about the story in Metroid, because it's unique in many ways - from the whole setting not being focused on one specific key location, over the constantly shifting struggle against different enemies, all the way to Samus' incredible, passively fleshed-out characterization, everything about Metroid lore is intriguing to me.

The gameplay wasn't a focus of @Octane , so I wasn't talking about it either. But okay, here goes:

While the gameplay generally doesn't do anything wrong, it also doesn't make anything new, except for the Speed Booster, which never appeared in a 3D Metroid before. The mechanics work, and the simple dodging system, while heavily watering down the difficulty, makes most things more intuitive. The slight aim support makes combat with beam attacks faster (and makes a bit more sense than 8-directional aiming in 2D Metroids), the platforming bits, while being short, weren't obstructive or annoying, and some sections heavily benefited from the control scheme (especially the Warwasp Queen boss fight) due to becoming much more intense. A bit better visibility of weakpoints or a proper indication of damaging minibosses would've been nice, but it's not too bad.
Sadly, the exploration aspect was practically killed due to always having a map ready from the start, and the obscene lack of hidden powerups and rooms made traversing the rooms feel very dissatisfying - especially large, empty corridors. There's nothing really interesting to see, since anything worth noticing is directly plot-relevant. From a logical standpoint, it makes a little bit of sense, but for the gameplay feel, it didn't do the game any favors.
The only aspects that were really annoying were all the first-preson sections, missile and Grapple Beam mechanics included. They felt extremely out of place, often breaking the pace during combat sections, or, in case of the search events, being too finicky to be enjoyable (especially when you have no idea what to look for). Having to change the way you're holding your controller just to perform a single action is hardly a good mechanic, since the majority of the game is about fast-paced action, which the first-person sections take the pace out of - but while Samus can't move during these moments, enemies will continue stomping towards her, often making it hard to aim and shoot. At some point, it's advisable to exploit room geometry and get enemies stuck in a corner befor firing missiles.

In general, I can say that, while Other M's gameplay doesn't feel very Metroid-ish, it's not completely gone, just watered down. Combat was integrated as a core mechanic in favor of exploration. Before, exploration was a joy for most Metroid fans (it even makes some people forgive Prime's insane backtracking), with combat being a byproduct you can mostly avoid (except for Bosses) and which you don't benefit from, instead making some enemies even useful as frozen platforms or at least to replenish ammo and energy. Other M makes combat much more mandatory, and builds everything around said combat, with varying success, but forces the player directly into combat, sometimes just for the hell of it. Still, the hate on the actual gameplay is much less justified than the hate on the story. I think in terms of gameplay, Other M doesn't compliments the selling points of the Metroid series, but does its own thing well enough to prevent it from being bad.

@Kaze_Memaryu
I disagree, the gameplay felt very Metroid-ish to me. Mainly because, like you said, it doesn't have much new, but also because they perfected the 3D feel of moves and power ups from the 2D games, like the screw attack. The screw attack in particular felt just like Super Metroid's. For some of the power ups they even found new ways to use them.
About not having new things, that is true. I may be wrong, but I don't think there was a single power up in that game that was new. However, there was just enough to keep it fresh, like dodging and switching perspectives, so I don't think it was a problem. The one new thing they did add were mandatory mini boss fights everywhere. I mean, there were in prime, but never this many. And while they were a lot of fun and difficult, I think they did add just a bit more linearity, because you always new you were going the right way when you'd have a mandatory fight, although I always knew it was the right way in super Metroid because it wasn't blocked or a map room, so...
I actually liked the first person switching idea. It was a bit strange at first but once I got the hang of it, I was switching back and forth with ease. In fact, it actually felt good to have mastered it. I don't think the fights would have been nearly as intense without it. That's not to say it couldn't be improved. I do with you could move or at least dodge without switching back to third person (again though, it would be less intense so I hope that they could make up for it somehow). I think the reason they did this was to keep the game from becoming first person, and if that is the reason, I understand, but there may have been a better way to do that. Maybe not being able to jump while in first person mode, of only being able to dodge. If they ever return to this style or rerelease the game in HD, I hope that they improve that.
This game never felt much more linear than super Metroid or the primes to me. Metroid's never been 100% open world to me. There's always a specific place to go and a specific way to get there, but there are also secret places to explore for extra items. Other M is like that too. There were plenty of secret missile expansions and stuff, and then there were secret rooms you couldn't see on the map. In fact, I think you couldn't see any rooms on the map until you go into them. That may be the prime games I'm thinking of though (I've been playing those recently). Also, the after game wasn't linear at all. I know its not as urgent since you've already beat the game just to get it, but if you want exploration, there you go.
Not sure how you can say the gameplay was watered down, to me it was the opposite. Even exploration, while there wasn't as much as the first three games in the main game (though who was expecting that in the first place?), even that is pumped up in the after game.
Even though the gameplay isn't perfect like Super Metroid's arguably is, there is so much more to a 3D game that Other M definitely impresses me, and I hope they can impress me again in the next Metroid.

@Of_Folsense Actually, there was nothing new to the power-ups in Other M. Most were only used in their most literate way, and some even lost their usability (like the Wave Beam not going through walls and enemies anymore).

The combat is a difficult thing, though, so let me explain:

Metroid games often had a sense of territory. the only straight exceptions being Other M and Fusion. Instead of a natural environment, both employed an artifical habitation. But nonetheless, creatures remained in their territory. Other M openly throws enemies at you at various points during the game (which also happens a lot in the Prime series, yes), but you don't feel like you're invading teerritory, instead you're being assaulted by recurring minbosses that appear seemingly everywhere. That makes it very hard to get a feel for the environment, since most other Metroid games had by far more docile enemies that only protected their territory. With that gone, combat feels too satisfying.
Metroid never actively raises any moral questions about such things, but due to most enemies not pursuing you, gives you a sense of justification. Most creatures are harmless and can be left alone without trouble, and as such don't need to be killed. But you can still be a jerk and shoot these innocent critters. It made the environment feel more natural, and helped relate to them. But almost every enemy in Other M is aggressive, making it much harder to ffeel bad for killing them. In addition to that, you don't even get anything for it, so the game just expects you to go on a field trip with the beam.

The linearity of Otther M is not a big problem, but Super Metroid, for example, never told you to go anywhere. Metroid Prime, while having clear objectives, only tells you about it after quite some time, making it feel more like a support mechanic, since the time frame until the popup is enough to find it if you have an idea where to go. Even Fusion had all these sidepaths to explore, except they were less derailing than Super Metroid.
And that's the problem in Other M: nothing to discover. Yes, some rooms aren't shown on the map, but even those are always mandatory and easy to spot. As such, it doesn't feel like exploration, but like guidelining. You have nowhere else to go than the intended path for almost the entire game.

And about the hidden stuff: not only are most of these powerups useless (due to the recharge mechanic), they're also hidden in plain sight. None of the secrets are hard to find, and it doesn't feel accomplishing to do so.