The lights are on
The reviews for Other M are in and they span from 6's to 9's. I can't remember the last time I was this excited for a release and there was that big of a gap in the reviews from site to site.
I know there are about 16--20 reviews out there and I believe I have read as many as I can. It looks like people are angry about 3 things.
1. Too much story.
2. Frustrating control mechanic, mainly switching from 3rd to 1st.
3. Adam releasing items to Samus instead of finding them.
My theory is team ninja simply didn't change how or what metroid is, but are shattering players perceptions of who, what and why Samus Aran is who she is. It is more difficult for Nintendo than anyone else to give a player a voice. We have been projecting our own personalities and assumptions onto Samus since 1986. This leads to many different perceptions on what a Metroid game should be like.
Why do you guys think there is such a difference of opinion in the gaming community?
Disregard Zelda, acquire triforce.
Honestly, why would anyone try and compare Metroid stories to Super M? It will be the only Metroid game made with a decent story. All games before, all games after will benefit from just making it a pew-pew Oh look I found a heatseeking missile game.
Aw man. What a shame. And to think I was going to add it to my Wii library.
You should at least play it and not go by a reviewer of one magazine. The game has mixed reviews so chances are you will love it or hate it as well. Why risk missing a game that would be a blast? If it blows, you can just return it.
@ kerrigan
To be honest, I respect the opinions of the Game Informer staff more than any other reviewers out there. And after reading Phil Kollar's review, he is far too specific and detailed in his criticism to ignore it.
Simply put, I think he is holding the game to a higher standard than the other reviewers I read. And rightly so.
The Metroid series is one of the top series in gaming history, on any console, any date, period. The 2D versions are still revered by most devs and players as the pinnacle of 2D shooters/adventure (hence the term "Metroidvania") and the 3D Prime games are among the best single-player experiences ever made.
Throughout all those games, Nintendo upheld a ridiculously high standard for the series, specifically for the balance of narrative/character vs. allowing us to project our interpretations on the game. Retro Studios brought an incredibly skilled and nuanced design into the 3D realm in a way that I don't think anyone else could. And to hand off this kind of project, this kind of legendary franchise, to the immature and arrogant hands of Team Ninja is just total idiocy.
Team Ninja is known for 2 things:
1. Creating frustratingly difficult action games that sacrifice deep story, emotion or progression for "hardcore-ness" (see Ninja Gaiden series).
2. Creating waves of cheap, unrealistic and downright offensive female characters (see Dead or Alive and DOA Extreme series).
It's quite clear from all of their games that they have NO respect for female characters, and no inclination to create nuanced or complex female characters, because they haven't made a single one in their games. Simply put, they seem to not care about girls at all. So it is perfectly in line with their history and tendency to take a strong female lead like Samus Aran and turn her into the stereotypical poutty schoolgirl, turned into the stereotypical macho female soldier. Thanks Team Ninja, for turning Samus Aran into one of the f*ing Sailor Moon girls.
Team Ninja has a lot of flaws in their company and in their design, made only more apparent and worse by the departure of the studio lead and some of their key talent. I really, really hoped that they could surprise me and make a worthy successor in Other M, but it looks like they didn't.
Is it a good game? Maybe. Is it good enough to be part of the powerhouse Metroid series? Apparently not. Taking a beloved and powerful character and turning her into a cheap bimbo sidekick is NOT my idea of innovation.
Needless to say, I will NOT be getting this game now, and I will be encouraging all of my friends and family to do the same.
The potential gain of a decent action game is not worth the potential risk of having one of my favorite characters forever ruined in my mind and heart, as Samus was for Phil.
And if it were not for this reason, I would at least buy/rent it to try it for myself to make my own judgement. I've played a lot of shitty games so I could see for myself. But what Phil said is something that can't be reversed, so no, I won't be trying it. I'll play through the Prime trilogy again instead.
@GWNightmare
I completely agree with you about the credibility of GI and all of its staff. I have been a subscriber for about 15 years now. I always go to GI first and weight their opinions most heavily. Your views on Team Ninja are truthful. I disagree with you on a few other areas.
I personally will never allow a single review to determine whether or not I will play a game. This is much more important regarding my favorite franchises. Maybe it isn't the best Metroid game, maybe it will be the worst, but it could be a huge stepping stone for the series future. Team Ninja and Nintendo have proven to me that you can control Samus in a 3d environment with a D-Pad, and I desperately would like to see that on the DS...
I felt disconnected from Samus while playing the Prime series. I don't want to be behind the helmet, I want to feel like I am watching her story unfold, not making it. But that is my personal opinion, I own all three games and all three are great.
I am hoping this leads to a successful evolution of the Metroid series, even though the first game (other M) at this juncture might be a bit ugly. I am also hoping Nintendo will learn not to give a strong, silent, protagonist such a dialog driven game.
As far as, encouraging all of your friends to avoid the game because of 1 review, from 1 source seems strange to me. Phil's review may have confirmed your suspicions, your friends and family however, are a different story. I like many of the same games, movies and TV shows as my friends and family, but we disagree on whats great often.
I played the Wand of Gameleon and watched the cartoon Legend of Zelda, so I am not going to be worried about one game (if it turly is terrible) ruining a franchise for me.
Discouraging others to play a game you have not even played based on one review is a bit short sighted, sorry.
I'm playing the game right now. Yeah, the cut scenes are slow and overly dramatic for certain. The gameplay is fun and the 1st to 3rd person switch is a bit awkward at first, but not a show stopper.
I have always pictured Samus as more of a Ripley type person, but I don't think they have disrespected her. She views Adam as her father figure as she was not with her parents long. It make sense for her to respect and even play by his rules in this situation.
I am most irritated by Samus moping over the baby Metroid. Even though it saved her twice, I still think her attachment to it is over the top.
Rent the game and play for a few hours before judging it. Metroid is my number 1 or 2 franchise, I've been there since the start. I played all the 2D verson and the first Prime, I am in no way upset about this game.
Regarding Samus' personality and player's projections: it's one thing for people to imagine her voice or name pronunciation (Aaron vs. Ah-Ron, say) but I think it could be said that she's universally regarded as a strong woman who's heroically brave in the face of all comers, who's independent and self-reliant, and resourceful. Other M gives us an oddly emotionless Sailor Moon-ite (thank you GWNightmare) who's both a rebel (always disagreeing with orders, questioning orders, leaving military) and a complete puppet for whoever's controlling her (will only use equipment when given permission, even if it means running through a magma-filled caldera without protection). The barest lip service is paid to her background (a mention of her parents, a brief cut of her as a child witnessing Ridley's attack on her home) but she's always referring to it.
I understand the challenge of creating a personality for a silent protagonist but this one was something of a gimme. It would be like having Solid Snake voiced by Justin Bieber with a script written by whoever raped English into "Twilight".
However, fun action game. Just plug your ears when someone is talking and go play Super M or Fusion if you want to see Samus being a galactic bounty hunter.
GI gave leisure suit larry a higher score than this game. I think there is something wrong. Maybe its because Phil hates the wii and doesn't like using a controller more than for clicking around in WoW and Starcraft. the "W" key will not move samus forward. By the way, we have been "rooted" when going into first person mode before. Remember Mario? Zelda? Give me a break, I thought we had mastered that game mechanic.
I finished the entire game, 100% 11 or so hours. This game felt just like Super Metroid.
I had no issue EVER with the controls, I thought the switching to first person would be awful, but in fact, it was fun and made some fight scenes more intense. Voice acting aside ( I never pay attention to that in games anyway) I feel that this will become one of my favorite Metroids of all time. All the stuff about not feeling "alone" because of the galactic federation being there: The game turns into a sci-fi horror story very early on. Its not like someone is holding your hand down the corridors.
I am actually dumb-founded by the bad reviews, I feel like I played an entirely different game. I don't think that this is a 9-10, and I really don't believe it should be a 6. Thats ridiculous. Its a good, solid metroid game.
I picked this up with so much excitement. I blew through the game in 7 hours, was amazed by the return of Nightmare and Phantoon, but that was it....I thought the game would be alot longer really. And it was easy. Very easy. Don't want to take damage? Just keep hitting a direction. Want to find the "hidden items"? Kill the enemies in the room and they will be presented to you. I obtained about 40 missiles before I was given free reign of the station, and I used them only when to destroy passages and when a boss needed one in order to hurt it. There is no run and gun missile use, and I didnt like that, I loved in the the true 2D ones when you unload on a boss or a room of baddies on the go. The flashbacks were terrible. Samus was in the army? Fine. The fact that she was a rebel? Fine. Showing her act like she was six? WHAT THE HELL? My childhood heroine of strong will and fearlessness now a whimpering kid. And why tease about so much fluff like MB being Mother Brain's intellectual clone and designing the Metroid's habitat like Tourian and not showing MB's hatred towards Samus or showing any of the new Tourian? I felt as if the designers and storyboard teams just slopped it together then went to lunch after posting the trailer. The controls I can live with, but the lack of an interesting and longlasting story is a *** shame. I spent my childhood pretending I was Samus exploring Zebes, feeling lost but heroic ( I grew up in the woods). This game was so linear is was boring at some points. I remembered where everything was that I could not get once I recieved orders from Adam to use another ability. And whats up with that? She should have lost some and regained some upon exploration due to the Mother Brain encounter. The game really lost most of its "alone against a planet" feeling. It was too much story (a bland one) and not enough lone girl surviving against deadly odds. One more thing that bugged me: Did Samus react like that in front of Ridley on Zebes? You would thing she would be more pissed really than scared. She has seen it all and he still scares her, yet the thing that ate ridley didn't hardly budge her. Seeing a queen was cool by the way. All in all the game was fun as I blasted through it, but once I was done watching the fights again in theatre mode and looking at the crappy art pics, I was done and upset. There was too much missing for this to be a good Metroid. This is just my opinion.
I would like to add one more thing before I go: THIS GAME IS FUN, AND ITS NOT HARDCORE. I am just a little upset over what could have been. My expectations are very high considering the technology Nintendo has these days. I HAD FUN PLAYING IT. I just had childish wishes not come true. THIS GAME IS FUN. The dialogue was bad, the addition of so many other characters was bad, but the shootin and runnin were sort of fun throughout the game. PLEASE PLAY THIS IF YOU CAN BEFORE MAKING A DECISION ON WHETHER YOU WANT TO OWN IT OR NOT. You might like it.
I completely agree, and have written similar posts. You should check out the IGN review, they gave a 8.5 which I think is about right
I agree the game was fun but to easy. If you want to fix that play hard mode, that's where team ninja takes over. Entire game with one e tank and no upgrades = le hard
(or at least the queen is and a few enemies
I love it, it has a classic Metroid flavor without drudging up old concepts. Yeah its hard to see Samus as anyone's b**tch like Adam telling her what to use and not use, but other wise i love this game and haven't had this much fun ins a long time, and this Metroid is one of my faves, easily up there with Super and Zero Mission.