My Review of Metroid: Other M

So, I played through Other M recently (it was offered for $4 unopened so why the hell not?), and I must say that I have strongly mixed (mostly negative) feelings regarding it. For those of you who don't know the specifics as to why this game is a troubled mess, here is a quick look at my experience with the game. Will it get a decent score? (Spoiler alert: it won't.)

My scoring is broken into 4 different categories that add up to 40. That way I can judge each aspect individually and allow it to form a collective score as a result.

The Story
Horrendous. Just horrendous. Samus' dialogue is painful to listen to (and you'll listen to a lot of it) and character motivations don't make sense. Bad script, bad voice actors, all given to you in 5-8 minute cut scenes (or longer~). Even if the cut scenes were shorter it'd feel like 10-20 minute cut scenes because of the monotony. Also, "show don't tell" is thrown out the window here. Like, in all aspects. Samus tells you everything. Very little is shown except for action sequences. Dialogue and character development is pushed aside for more monologues. It sucks.

Since this game's focus was the story, and since the story is so terrible and encompasses at least a few hours of the game that you must sit through wondering when you're going to play again and when Samus will shut the hell up, I give the story an amazing 2/10.

The Game play
This is probably the saving grace of the game (welcome to reality). It plays well enough. Gameplay is pretty linear, but the biggest issues lie with 1) the controls and 2) the SEARCH SEQUENCES FUCK HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW TO LOOK FOR GREEN BLOOD ON GREEN GRASS WHEN WE'RE LOOKING AT A BODY THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. Search sequences are painful if you don't know what to look for or have a dark television screen. As for controls, why are we limited to the Wii remote? A d-pad is the last thing a 3D game needs for directional turning (and why I only put in a maximum of 30 minutes on Super Mario 64 DS) and the switch to Search view requires you to point the Wii remote at the screen, many times during combat which is hectic and fast-paced.

Again, outside of this it plays well enough. So I'm going to give it a 5/10 because this could have been a decent non-Metroid game with some adjustments.


The Aesthetics
It looks pretty. Particularly cut scenes. Doesn't look realistic, though. By that I mean that I looked at maybe 2 screenshots of Metroid Prime and felt far more immersed in the world due to the emphasis on creating alien worlds. Other M feels like Mario levels in the worst way. These aren't locales, they're platforming sections. I'd argue that that's because the game takes place on a ship with controlled weather, but that's the problem: Other M feels tiny, and not in a good claustrophobic way. Taking place only on the ship leads to the problem of everything feeling similar even with weather and changes in the background designs. Backtracking doesn't help this feeling that the game is a little too small.

The soundtrack is passable. Orchestral composition is nice and all, but the use of it as screeches and nightmare fuel limits the scope of the music's potential. Only a few boss tracks really stuck out (one of them Ridley's theme which isn't even a new track!) and whenever the orchestra attempts swells of emotion during cut scenes there is no thematic material nor legitimate emotion from Samus to back it up. The composer is new to the video game scene and seems to not understand the nuances to scoring video games (I'd go further into detail about this but then it'd be half the review). This forces me to leave the score for Aesthetics at 4/10 due to the potential vastly wasted with this tomfoolery.

The Continuity
What continuity? Trying to retcon games in the series and going against the emphasis on exploration in the series kind of defeats the purpose of calling it a "Metroid" game. 1/10 for at least trying to tie in with Metroid Fusion (but failing that even).

Final notes before the verdict
The game is pretty short. I beat it in about 10 hours or so. Apparently there's a game breaking glitch somewhere but I didn't personally encounter it.

The Verdict
In the end, the game gets a 12/40, or an F as a Metroid game. If the game play and story were improved considerably and had this not been a Metroid game of all things, it could have had some decent potential as a standalone title or perhaps kicking off a different series. Really makes me mourn what this game could have been.

It gets a 12/40 even if it *wasn't* a Metroid game. I'd personally score it lower since it is a Metroid game, as they made the main character a total bitch when she was a strong and independent character.

Yeah this game is just sad every point you brought up is pretty much what I thought I beat it in 8 hours and almost 100% I stopped because it was too awful. The gameplay would've been SO much better if you were able to use a nunchuck. The green blood on the grass part took me 5 minutes. The best part of this game is the Phantoon fight.

I'm a little overdue on this but FREEZYPOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!! suggested to give my review on this thread to not clutter shit up as much. I'm gonna borrow his structure thingy so I can have things organised a little better.

The Story
Absolute shit. Also failing to execute the intent properly. Aside from it being a shitty rehash of Metroid Fusion with more holes, this game tried and failed to capture a more maternal side of Samus due to the The Baby. Making things so painfully obvious with even calling the ship the BOTTLE SHIP. I admit that I first thought it was referring to a bottle like a terrarium or something since the place had so many simulated enviorments. I got bored and decided to read the Metroid wiki about it and it sounded alright to me on paper what with Samus still recovering from the events of Super Metroid against Mother Brain and the death of the Metroid larva that insisted Samus was its mother. So playing through the game with a emotionally vulnerable bounty hunter that is trying to continue their job while their guilt is (kinda sorta?) gnawing at the back of their mind on how they could of done things better. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit but the maternity theme but it really could have been done well if it weren't cursed with shitty writing and poor timing.
Speaking of shitty writing! There was this kinda subplot going on with a hired assassin amongst the platoon that...kinda got swept under the rug at some point and hoped that no one would notice. Looking back on it was an assassin even necessary? This assassin was apparently sent by the Federation to silence the platoon that answered the distress call and found out about forming bioweapons. I don't really remember much of the details (nor care to remember) but the The Deleter subplot was shit. Along with the alias Samus coined for the assassin, The Deleter, was dumb too. Don't quit your day job, honey--oh wait, you can't seem to do your day job either.
Emotionally unstable(???) or not why the hell is she relying on some asshole's orders on what weapons she can and can't use? Powerbombs? Okay, I can buy that one but not approving the Varia Suit until you reach the top of the volcano is fucking stupid! Some father figure Adam is. He just sits around and lets Samus die of hyperthermia/heat exhaustion/heat stroke three times before he goes "lol okay".
Main plot is confusing when they start dragging MB into the mess too.
tl;dr Game was shit, characters were shit and plot had some potential but was utterly shot down, run over by a truck and forced to eat shit and roadkill. I think I lost track on what I was going to say but who the fuck cares. I'm getting mad trying to figure out this game's plot.

The Game play
The controls were...clunky. As others have said, use of the nunchuck would have been great since using a D-pad in a 3D world is an invitation for trouble. Switching between third and first person mode was a pain since the fights are so fast paced and the cursor is always placed somewhere inconvenient when it first goes into FP mode so it takes a couple precious seconds to get reoriented. Autolock made me scream since it kept switching to something I didn't want to lock onto. Those fancy moves that you can do to kill shit when they're down or jumping on their back and shooting them was also difficult to use. I never was able to consciously do that outside of having those Desbrachians go down in the post game.
tl;dr Controls could seriously have used the nunchuck. More fancy moves were difficult to pull off. Autolock is a bitch.

The Aesthetics
The graphics were nice but that's really it. They weren't "OMG SO COOL" but it wasn't painful to look at while playing. I'll give it that much.
Music was ambience music and unmemorable ones such as that. I think Freeze said a good number about why it was underwhelming.
The ship felt small but at the same time big. Too small for an actual world but too big for a ship. Things got pretty cluttered at times. The post game boss area like the boss room and the pathway to the boss felt like I could finally breathe again due to having a window seat of the vacuum of space.

The Continuity
lolwhut? This game was apparently written by the original writer of Metroid. Needless to say, original creators tend to get a little resentful when another party does a better job at handling their work than they do. It can be seen when they tried to retcon and deny the Prime trilogy with Samus and the Galactic Federation (I think? I forgot exactly but they had Samus say something that was completely against what was stated in Prime). The tie in with Fusion was also poor. Trying to recreate Metroids a second time after the BOTTLE SHIP was a total flop makes no sense.

Misc. AKA Yes, Nightmare gets its own section
I liked the battle with Nightmare. Nightmare may not have worth five bucks maybe three at most but it was a really unnerving battle. Maternity theme or not, having a baby screeching and screaming while it stumbles around trying to kill you is not a pretty mental image. Nightmare being mainly robotic but moving around organically doesn't help. I have a bit of a fear of things like that. It was a fairly fun battle and maybe I'll have a save file set aside to go back and fight it again when I feel like it (if I ever bother touching this game again).

The Verdict
I can see why this game was so poorly received. They spat in the faces of the Prime lovers, completely ruined Samus' character, poorly written plot and script, unmemorable characters and a rehashed plot that we had already back in 2002. There isn't much replay value either unless you really like sitting through ungodly long and bland cuntscenes. Overall rating is an F in my books.
Alright, I think I'm done

Jesus. You guys hate that game.

Honestly it was only $4. Even so, I could have had more fun playing Jetpack Joyride or Toss the Turtle or something and those cost even less.

Story
The baby the baby the baby the baby the baby the baby the baby the baby ADAM!!

Gameplay
The wiimote the wiimote the wiimote the wiimote the wiimote the wiimote the wiimote NO NUNCHUCK!!

Aesthetics
These graphics ICK! But really they were alright not as great as Metroid Prime though.

Continuity
Why did they make this a direct sequel to the best Metroid game? Super Metroid was damn fine. Quit bringing The villains and Metroids back.

Verdict
Controls would've been fine if I could use a nunchuck. Everything else was ICK besides MB, she was Kawaii. Samus too. I bought it for $10 but I am a fan of the series and want all the games so nya.

Was it four? I thought it was five. I really didn't care about this game if I forgot the price.
Edit: I think I phrased that wrong when I said about them spitting in the face of Prime lovers. My thoughts got too jumbled to notice that I typo'd. But they did deny that continuity along with spitting in the face of other Metroid games too. yes, I just noticed my error.

KENDARRR wrote:Jesus. You guys hate that game.

Because it's awful.