Story
Ok, this segment is going to be a bit long, so bear with me. The story was a pretty good concept but could use some reworking, some explanations for certain events, and a bit of polish.
Metroid: Other M is the direct sequel to Super Metroid. The first scene picks up right after Samus was blasted with Mother Brain's rainbow attack in Super Metroid, except in crystal clear, fantastic, 1,987,895,435,454,654,634,364,634,651,654,651 bit 3D graphics. Samus is being carried by Baby M while being healed and Baby M is taking several vicious attacks. The death of Baby M is even more dramatic, as it shows Ma Brain impaling Baby M with a nasty beam attack and then we hear the high pitched cry from the Metroid. The cliche heartbeat sound played as Samus reached up in horror towards her "child" (as if saying NOOOOOOO!!) as she fell from the grasp of Baby M. Baby M exploded into tiny, gelatinous bits as Samus held out her hand to catch a small reminder of Baby M. Enraged, Samus calmly but angrily said, "Mother, time to go!" then following a totally epic view from within her arm cannon, fires the Hyper Beam.
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| NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! |
Fast forward a bit and Samus woke up in a futuristic recovery room. An officer had her suit up and he began testing her abilities. (Wait, they didn't mysteriously disappear this time?! O.O) After this she headed for the board room to deliver her report. She lamented about the loss of Baby M (or "The Baby" as she called it) for a bit. She flew around in her ship before receiving a distress call, code named "Baby's Cry" due to it's urgency. (I know personally how freaking urgent a baby's cry is, especially when my daughter Sarah is hungry! Oy!) This signal led her to a mysterious facility known as the Bottle Ship (fitting acronym, seeing as how there is a lot of that going on in there!). She landed and discovered a ship that belonged to the Galactic Federation. She went inside and encountered her old team, including her old friend Anthony Higgs, and her ex-commander Adam Malkovich. Adam asked her why she was there, she explained and returned the question. He basically told her it was none of her business and she was a little taken aback. She assisted the GFeds in opening a door then went on to narrate about her past for a bit. The crew was attacked and Samus assisted in it's defeat. Adam told her that he wants her help on the mission and that she would have to follow his commands and use her arsenal on an "as-needed" basis to hopefully ensure the success of the mission. People have complained about the whole "authorization" thing in this game, but I see it as Samus being a respectful person and doing what she can to help out the crew instead of being a hotheaded feminazi who would basically tell Adam that she authorizes him to go screw himself. No, Samus is actually a nice person. (Which was a good place to start. Give Samus a character that is kind hearted but a little more rough around the edges. Think Sarah Walker from Chuck, if you have seen that show.)
I admit that I do have a gripe about the infamous "Lava room with no Varia Suit" fiasco and think Adam was off in La La Land when she went that way, that and maybe Sammy should have been like, "Hey Adam? Ya think I should use my Varia Suit right about now?" Yeah, that was not cool. (Pun slightly intended...) Anyways, a few of the crew members were picked off one by one like some sort of Whodunit sci-fi horror movie, which leads me into another complaint. What the hell was the deal with the "Deleter" thing? Seriously, that was poorly written and was pretty much left up to the imagination, even though evidence points to James Pierce, it was never truly confirmed in the game. There were a good bit of plotholes. Anyways, Samus joins up with Anthony and encounters DLANWVFRANGSLDFWENGVLSAJFNVHOLYSHITSONUVABITCHMOTHERFRACKERARSEFACEIT'SRIDLEYBACKFROMTHEDEADAGAIN!!!! Apparently Samus has a case of PTSD and totally flaked for a few seconds. Ridley grabbed her and Anthony shot at him, causing Ridley to drop Samus. Anthony started taunting and yelling at Ridley cause, you know, Ridley ain't got no style! Anthony decided to try to teach him a lesson about subtlety and how to treat a lady. However this was short lived and Anthony was knocked into the lava. :( NOT EFFING COOL, RIDLEY!!! Again....bad pun. Samus got super pissed and snapped out of it, then creamed Ridley till he flew off like a wimp. Asshole. Samus had lost contact with Adam during that whole Ridley debacle and started thinking to herself again. I admit she sure does talk a lot. Oh well, so do I, as is evident in my reviews. Sue me us. Samus pursued the Deleter, and he dropped the bridge. Samus decided to use her Space Jump/Screw Attack ability ("Any objections, Adam?") on her own accord, since Adam was incommunicado. This showed an inkling of what seemed to be a somewhat naturally rebellious personality, as was depicted in Fusion. She lost track of the Deleter and then ran into a young woman who finally introduced herself as Madeline Bergman. (Madeline's my name too! O.O) Madeline told Samus about what's been going on and revealed that they were cloning Metroids and created an Android named MB who was based on.... O.o YOU'VE GOT TO BE FRACKING KIDDING ME. Samus parted ways with Madeline to deal with the Metroids and MB. Samus arrived at Sector Zero and encountered....a baby Metroid. It squeaked playfully and floated around Samus for a bit. Samus decided not to spare this one and prepared to kill it (she apparently decided not to make a mistake like sparing Baby M again, since it was used to clone more Metroids. D'oh!), then Adam blasted her and somehow deactivated her suit (......!?!!??). She hit the floor and the Metroid saw her laying there helpless and followed it's instinct to try to kill her, but Adam blasted it to smithereens. Samus came to and she and Adam had a discussion. Apparently the more mature Metroids were unfreezable. Adam told her to go take down Ridley and told her he was going to take care of the Metroids and MB himself, basically going on a suicide mission. He apologized to her for blasting her and bid her farewell. Samus loudly protested his decision and tried to stop him. He disregarded her pleas and entered the area, which soon launched away from the Bottle Ship. Samus was distraught over losing her "best friend", the "closest thing to a father she had" (Chozo? What's that?), she cried a little, and then regained composure, suited back up, and went about her business. She found to her disturbing and I guess morbidly pleasant surprise that Ridley had been killed. She entered an area an encountered yet another familiar foe, the Queen Metroid. She fought the Queen, and then the ship slammed on the breaks and Samus and the Queen were knocked over. Samus went after her some more and then allowed herself to be swallowed by the Queen. (Hmmm...I wonder if that's been done before..?) She dropped a power bomb and blew Queenie to bits. Samus encountered a red-haired woman who was terrified of her, so she calmed her down, and then the woman introduced herself as....Madeline Bergman. Samus didn't believe her until Madeline showed her ID and proceeded to tell Samus that the "Madeline" she met earlier was none other than MB. Madeline explained everything to her, including that she called MB Melissa and had grown fond of her. MB eventually turned after the scientists tried to alter her AI programming. Samus and Madeline's conversation was cut short by MB's arrival. MB was super pissed and Madeline tried to reason with her to no avail. MB attacked her and before Samus could go after MB a platoon of GFeds showed up. MB proceeded to sick a bunch of nasty creatures on everyone until Madeline froze her. The GFeds gunned MB down after that, much to Madeline's horror. Some douchbag commander told Samus that she was an outsider and was to be escorted off of the bottleship and was not to have contact with Madeline. However, the escorting officer was none other than Anthony! He had managed to survive the fall by freezing a monster. Since Anthony was still alive, Samus was able to take Madeline with her back to the GF Headquarters, since she would have a lot of explaining to do. Samus starts narrating again. It's decided that the Bottle Ship was going to be destroyed. Samus returned there to collect "something important". She arrived and encountered yet another familiar foe: Phantoon. A whole lot bigger and way more terrifying. Even so, she wasted him and went to get what she came for. Adam's helmet. She deactivated her suit and embraced the helmet as she grieved a little bit. This moment was cut short by the warning alarms alerting her that she had five minutes to get off of the ship! (Haven't heard of that one before, that must be new! Hmm.)
Ok, so the story was pretty good except I think it was somewhat poorly delivered in some scenes. There have been complaints about Samus's voice but I don't think it's that bad. The Ridley scene was a good scene except for Samus's unexplained freakout. There were a few scenes that left me scratching my head, like the "Deleter" substory. Another gripe I have is that there are a few insta-kill sequences, like the famed "Elevator Incident" where if you don't stand in an alcove, you get crushed by the elevator. Overall though, I wasn't too disappointed.
Gameplay
The gameplay was fantastic. The third person controls were simple yet top notch. The first person controls were a little bit clunky. You basically point the Wiimote at the screen to switch to first person. The problem with this is that you can't move in first person. It's not so bad if you are quick though. You can also shake the Wiimote to perform a Sensemove to get out of the way. Which leads me into my next discussion. This game brings back everything from Super Metroid and includes a few things from Prime and Fusion, such as the Seeker Missile and the Diffusion beam. This game also introduces a few new and awesome things. For starters, during a fight Samus will sometimes kick a baddie in the face, which makes this the first game (not counting the Super Smash Bros. games!!) to show melee attacks from Samus. Awesome. The amazing Sensemove was introduced as well, where you can dodge attacks by tapping the D-pad. In first person view you shake the Wiimote. There are a couple more moves introduced, the Overblast, where you can jump on top of certain monsters and blast them at point blank by pressing 1, and the awesome finishing move, the Lethal Strike, where Samus wrestles a downed monster and blasts them point-blank. Sweet. This game does not have enemy-dropped refills, but there are plenty of save stations and you can replenish missiles by holding the Wiimote upright while holding "A". It's kinda strange but it works. This same method can be used to replenish health, but it takes a while and in the heat of a boss battle it's unwise to use it, because you have to be below 40 energy points to use it. This could be tweaked a bit to make it better...better yet there could have been enemy drops!
Aside from the controls, Samus was very quick, nimble, and easy to control. The items were not very difficult to obtain, and their locations are sometimes displayed on the map. Overall the gameplay was excellent and made the game very fun to play. The first person view could use some polish, but it's not too bad. One gripe I have is the forced first person in a few scenes, known as "Pixel Hunts" where you search for a small thing to proceed in storyline. These events are few and far between though, so they are forgivable.
Graphics
This is definitely the game's other strong suit. The quality is nearly flawless in the cutscenes, and the gameplay graphics are very clear and impressive as well. This game certainly pushed the Wii to it's limits. Samus is shown in a sleek and simple suit and when outside of her suit, I'd say this game has the prettiest ZSS out of all of the games, maybe on par with how she looks in the end of Hunters, if not better. I'm not sure.
The action graphics were just awesome. The beams were beautifully animated and the Power Bomb animation really sold how devastating those bombs really are. Let's not get me started on the epicness that is the Speedboost and Shinespark. That was very well executed and I just love doing that.
Well, I guess there is not much else to say in this section without rambling, so I'll just say this. The graphics are amazing, even though the environment is rather unoriginal (Zebes ring a bell?), it was definitely a treat for the eyes.
Music/Sound
Ok, so the music wasn't exactly of Prime quality, but it wasn't bad. Ambient and fitting would be the best terms to describe it. While the music is hardly memorable as it is in other Metroid games, it was more or less perfect for the atmosphere. There were a few pretty arrangements in the game, such as the piano melody, and the story title song (which is extended in the credits). Of course when you first start the game and see the game title screen, you are greeted with an ethereal rendition of the classic six notes that are used in other mainline Metroid titles. Very nice. After you beat the game for the first time, the title screen opens up with the piano medley, then it transitions into the six notes. It cycles through the two. In the story recap screen, you are given an awesome rendition of the awesome Theme of Super Metroid. Awesome. Then of course you get a really good arrangement of the classic "Samus Appears" fanfare. One of my gripes though, is that they got rid of the "Item Obtainment Jingle." Not cool at all. They replaced it with some cool-sounding sound effect. I still miss the jingle though. Guess they sort of copied MP3, which is guilty of removing the appearance fanfare except when she gets out of her ship. Not a good trend to follow, sound team!
Sound effects on the other hand were amazing. They were crisp and clear. I just loved the SFX they used for the Power Bomb. It sounded like an awesome, satisfying, hard-core explosion instead of whatever weird whirring noise they used in MP and MP2. I also loved the Wii Loader sound. It was just really epic sounding. So yeah, two thumbs up for sound effects!
Also, the voice acting for the most part was well done. Samus herself has received a lot of criticism, but there are so many differing opinions on this matter as to why she sounds the way she does. I think her voice was pretty good, though maybe it could have been a little bit better.
Overall
Ok, so yes, I really liked the game. I have a blast playing it. Everything I have mentioned in my review are reasons why I loved this game. Of course, like I said also, it has it's faults, which a lot of great games do. (Raucous laughter scene in FFX ring a bell? Draw system in FFVIII *best game ever*? Link jumping in Zelda II? Mario dying from stubbing his toe on a turtle in various sidescrolling Mario games? You get my point.) Despite a few flaws in execution this game did not disappoint and was a really fun experience that I can't wait to play again.
Some of the cons are this:
Clunky presentation of the story
Confusing sub-plots and scenes (Deleter, Adam's suit-nullifying gun)
3rd to 1st person controls take some getting used to
Music wasn't very memorable
Samus's VA could use some practice
No item obtainment jingle
No enemy-dropped refills
Pixel-hunting was irritating
The famed elevator sequence
The famed "no Varia Suit in lava room" fiasco.
Rating
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
After replaying I have reduced my rating from 9 to 8. Still good, but that story really needs some work to make it great.
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| Oy! Um, surprise! |
Gameplay
The gameplay was fantastic. The third person controls were simple yet top notch. The first person controls were a little bit clunky. You basically point the Wiimote at the screen to switch to first person. The problem with this is that you can't move in first person. It's not so bad if you are quick though. You can also shake the Wiimote to perform a Sensemove to get out of the way. Which leads me into my next discussion. This game brings back everything from Super Metroid and includes a few things from Prime and Fusion, such as the Seeker Missile and the Diffusion beam. This game also introduces a few new and awesome things. For starters, during a fight Samus will sometimes kick a baddie in the face, which makes this the first game (not counting the Super Smash Bros. games!!) to show melee attacks from Samus. Awesome. The amazing Sensemove was introduced as well, where you can dodge attacks by tapping the D-pad. In first person view you shake the Wiimote. There are a couple more moves introduced, the Overblast, where you can jump on top of certain monsters and blast them at point blank by pressing 1, and the awesome finishing move, the Lethal Strike, where Samus wrestles a downed monster and blasts them point-blank. Sweet. This game does not have enemy-dropped refills, but there are plenty of save stations and you can replenish missiles by holding the Wiimote upright while holding "A". It's kinda strange but it works. This same method can be used to replenish health, but it takes a while and in the heat of a boss battle it's unwise to use it, because you have to be below 40 energy points to use it. This could be tweaked a bit to make it better...better yet there could have been enemy drops!
Aside from the controls, Samus was very quick, nimble, and easy to control. The items were not very difficult to obtain, and their locations are sometimes displayed on the map. Overall the gameplay was excellent and made the game very fun to play. The first person view could use some polish, but it's not too bad. One gripe I have is the forced first person in a few scenes, known as "Pixel Hunts" where you search for a small thing to proceed in storyline. These events are few and far between though, so they are forgivable.
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| Gets him in a headlock and blasts him point blank. Sweet. |
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| Chuck Norris could not touch this. |
This is definitely the game's other strong suit. The quality is nearly flawless in the cutscenes, and the gameplay graphics are very clear and impressive as well. This game certainly pushed the Wii to it's limits. Samus is shown in a sleek and simple suit and when outside of her suit, I'd say this game has the prettiest ZSS out of all of the games, maybe on par with how she looks in the end of Hunters, if not better. I'm not sure.
The action graphics were just awesome. The beams were beautifully animated and the Power Bomb animation really sold how devastating those bombs really are. Let's not get me started on the epicness that is the Speedboost and Shinespark. That was very well executed and I just love doing that.
Well, I guess there is not much else to say in this section without rambling, so I'll just say this. The graphics are amazing, even though the environment is rather unoriginal (Zebes ring a bell?), it was definitely a treat for the eyes.
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| Extremely close to actual in-game footage. |
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| Actual cinematic footage. Samus is horrified by the death of Baby M. :'( |
Ok, so the music wasn't exactly of Prime quality, but it wasn't bad. Ambient and fitting would be the best terms to describe it. While the music is hardly memorable as it is in other Metroid games, it was more or less perfect for the atmosphere. There were a few pretty arrangements in the game, such as the piano melody, and the story title song (which is extended in the credits). Of course when you first start the game and see the game title screen, you are greeted with an ethereal rendition of the classic six notes that are used in other mainline Metroid titles. Very nice. After you beat the game for the first time, the title screen opens up with the piano medley, then it transitions into the six notes. It cycles through the two. In the story recap screen, you are given an awesome rendition of the awesome Theme of Super Metroid. Awesome. Then of course you get a really good arrangement of the classic "Samus Appears" fanfare. One of my gripes though, is that they got rid of the "Item Obtainment Jingle." Not cool at all. They replaced it with some cool-sounding sound effect. I still miss the jingle though. Guess they sort of copied MP3, which is guilty of removing the appearance fanfare except when she gets out of her ship. Not a good trend to follow, sound team!
Sound effects on the other hand were amazing. They were crisp and clear. I just loved the SFX they used for the Power Bomb. It sounded like an awesome, satisfying, hard-core explosion instead of whatever weird whirring noise they used in MP and MP2. I also loved the Wii Loader sound. It was just really epic sounding. So yeah, two thumbs up for sound effects!
Also, the voice acting for the most part was well done. Samus herself has received a lot of criticism, but there are so many differing opinions on this matter as to why she sounds the way she does. I think her voice was pretty good, though maybe it could have been a little bit better.
Overall
Ok, so yes, I really liked the game. I have a blast playing it. Everything I have mentioned in my review are reasons why I loved this game. Of course, like I said also, it has it's faults, which a lot of great games do. (Raucous laughter scene in FFX ring a bell? Draw system in FFVIII *best game ever*? Link jumping in Zelda II? Mario dying from stubbing his toe on a turtle in various sidescrolling Mario games? You get my point.) Despite a few flaws in execution this game did not disappoint and was a really fun experience that I can't wait to play again.
Some of the cons are this:
Clunky presentation of the story
Confusing sub-plots and scenes (Deleter, Adam's suit-nullifying gun)
3rd to 1st person controls take some getting used to
Music wasn't very memorable
Samus's VA could use some practice
No item obtainment jingle
No enemy-dropped refills
Pixel-hunting was irritating
The famed elevator sequence
The famed "no Varia Suit in lava room" fiasco.
Rating
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
After replaying I have reduced my rating from 9 to 8. Still good, but that story really needs some work to make it great.
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| What I think of this game. |
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