Metroid: Other M

System: Wii
Release Date: 2010
Published By: Nintendo
Reviewed by: Darien
Rating:

So this is a pretty fun game from time to time, but it's loaded with so much random garbage you may not have enough patience to get there. The fundamentals of the game are pretty solid; ultimately, it plays a lot like you'd expect from a 2D Metroid game, but expanded into 3D. You run, jump, shoot, collect power-ups -- you know the deal. But just when you're starting to get into the groove, it interrupts you with some lame bullshit.

Like a cutscene, for example. Other M is loaded with them. I didn't count them, but my conservative estimate is eleven thousand, and they run long. Notwithstanding the intro and the ending, there are at least two cutscenes in this game that run (I believe) at least ten minutes. Ten minutes! Of listening to these women act! Because you know what? The voice acting is downright terrible, and you have to listen to shitloads of it, because the cutscenes never ever stop. By "never stop," of course, I don't mean that they're never interrupted so you can play a stupid minigame; of course that happens. Game design, don't you know. In Other M, your recurring minigame selection is threefold: the Survival Horror, Adventure Game, and Shooting Gallery games.

In the Survival Horror minigame, the camera cuts from its fixed position right up in behind Samus, and she starts walking really slowly, and she blocks like 30% of your field of vision. Also, there's no attacking or jumping or running in Survival Horror mode -- just wandering around really slowly, trying to cope with the controls (which spontaneously changed when you entered Survival Horror, of course), listening to the spooky heavy breathing / heartbeat sounds and waiting for the cutscene to resume. These sections of the game are utterly pointless, since there's no risk or challenge involved, and they force you to slow down to a crawl; there is absolutely no reason they couldn't just put the spooky shit in the normal game. Or put it in the cutscenes so at least I don't have to go hunting around for it.

Oh, speaking of hunting around for things: the Adventure Game minigame is even dumber than Survival Horror. How this one works is like this. Your cutscene will get interrupted with Samus staring at something, then you'll suddenly shift into first-person free-look mode. You can't move, can't shoot, and can't get out of first-person until you locate (so help me God) whatever element in the scene Samus saw and was alarmed by, be it a mob, or a corpse, or maybe just like a discoloured spot on the ground. Whatever it is, it's usually small and unobtrusive. And in case you thought, hey, I'll just sweep the view around until I land on it: oh, you poor, naïve fool. The scanning reticle doesn't show up until you've already focused on the right object for a few seconds -- anywhere else in the game this is not the case, which means this is a deliberate fuck-you from the designers. So get ready to hunt around (in 360 degrees!) for the magic pixel before your jumping and shooting game will resume. Alternate solution: look it up.

The Shooting Gallery minigame is the rarest of the three; I believe the game only uses it twice. Like Adventure Game mode, you're locked into first-person and can't move. But you can shoot! I ask you this: in what kind of games can you look around and shoot, but not move? That's right! House of the Dead, baby! So be prepared to swing the remote all over the place to shoot at shit as needed, and be quick, since you can't dodge.

Now, I hate to seem picky, but come on, game designers. If you're going to make a game that's all cutscenes, at least have the decency to make it all cutscenes and not this stupid "interactive cutscene" crap where I can't even just zone out or read a book or something while the mobs are talking, because, hey, a big lava shark might suddenly leap into play and eat me if I don't mash some buttons really fast! Oh, also, please make the cutscenes good. And either don't have voice acting or else maybe get voice actors who aren't awful. Those all are good ideas.

Also, please pay attention to where in the continuity of the series your game is set. Retro had this issue with Metroid Prime 3, which they attempted to end with a big suspenseful scene where it looks like Samus didn't survive, apparently forgetting that the Prime series is a prequel and we goddamn already know she survived. Tecmo makes a similar mistake here in Other M, trying to present a Samus who is brash and inexperienced and easily frightened, apparently forgetting that they positioned their game between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, thereby making it the second-latest game in the series. At this point, Samus has been through the events of Metroid / Zero Mission, Metroid 2: The Return of Samus, Super Metroid, Metroid Primes 1, 2, and 3, and the Prime Hunters game I never played -- to say nothing of Metroid Prime Pinball -- and you're trying to convince me that she's reduced to tears and blubbering and is much to afraid to act at the sight of Ridley? She's killed him at least five times already! I know, because I was there.

Don't accuse me of spoiling anything. You knew damn well Ridley was in the game. Ridley's like the Bowser of the Metroid games; it might not make any sense at all, and maybe last time it really really seemed like he was dead for sure, but you just know he's in there somewhere, except for the weird second game that doesn't have any of the recurring characters from the series in it. And besides, the opening narration talks about how Samus has finally killed Ridley once and for all and he's definitely totally dead this time, and if there's ever been a clear indication that a recurring character is not dead, that's it.

Plot-wise, the game is pretty standard. It's set, as I said before, in between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, which I guess makes it Metroid 3.5, and it's definitely written with copious references to the events of the previous games, and anticipation of the events of Fusion. In fact, it owes a great debt to Fusion for a fair few of its plot elements -- several times, I found myself wondering if perhaps it was intended as a reworking of Fusion instead of a prequel, but I believe that isn't the case. There's a weird emphasis on Samus' weird emotional crises, which is totally out of character, along with a hamfisted tearjerker scene that won't surprise anybody who's played Fusion -- which is ten years old and sold a million copies.

Switching gears a bit to positivity, the actual system is very playable. The whole game controls with only the Wii remote and no attachments at all, which should win some kind of award for economy of design; the controls are fluid and elegant, even though all you have available is a digital D-pad and three face buttons. There are a few motion-sensitive elements also: you enter first-person mode by pointing the remote at the screen, at which time you can cursor around and look and shoot, and you can "concentrate" by pointing the remote upward and holding A.

Concentration is an interesting mechanic. At first, I thought it was a pretty stupid gimmick, but the more I played it, the more I liked it. It goes like this. Mobs in Other M don't drop anything -- no health pickups, no missiles, no linen cloth, no nothing. At any time, you can concentrate to restore your missiles, but, of course, you'll be vulnerable for a few seconds; this can be an interesting dynamic during tense situations. Concentration can also restore your energy, but only if you're below a certain threshold, and only up to a certain amount -- 99, plus 100 for every "energy charge tank" or whatever you've collected. Restoring energy is a much longer concentrate than restoring missiles, so you're often left to choose between concentrating (and being helpless for a few seconds) and trying to press on with what little energy you have. It's a pretty effective design. On a related note, except for certain instant-death events (such as being crushed by an avalanche or under a falling elevator), nothing can kill Samus in one hit. If you take a hit that would kill you, your energy meter starts alternating between 0 and 1, and you stay alive; you can only be killed if your energy is already at that point and you then get hit again. So if you can successfully concentrate, that guarantees you at least one more hit you can take, no matter how low your concentrate amount or how strong the mob's attacks.

Power-up wise, there's nothing new under the sun, which is kind of boring. Come on, designers! I love the wave beam and the varia suit and the screw attack as much as the next guy -- maybe a bit more than the next guy when it comes to the screw attack -- but it would be nice to see something new now and then. Metroid games are becoming a predictable checklist of power-ups. Half the fun of the four "numbered" Metroid games is that they have new items that do neat things; the Primes and Other M mainly just rehash the stuff we've already seen. And Other M uses a really irritating conceit; instead of finding the loot in the dungeon somewhere, Samus starts play with all of it available, but she just won't turn it on until she (or the mission commander) decides it's the "right time." Never goddamn you mind that the "right time" to get equipped with grapple beam is when there's a grapple beam target right there that I can see -- no, she leaves it shut off until later. That's just annoying. Also, hey, half the fun of getting loot is the part where you actually get the loot.

The game looks great, insofar as it goes; there's nothing particularly new here, and nothing as awe-inspiring as, say, the first time you entered Inner Norfair in Super Metroid, but what there is looks good. Basically it's using the same idea as Fusion, with the different "sectors" that all have a different theme, there just aren't as many this time. Samus' beams in particular look excellent; the Prime series (Corruption in particular) was a bit laggard in that respect, and provided weapons that weren't really visually appealing, but Other M does not fall into that trap. Also it provides a bit of a progression in that as you add new beams, your shots get not only stronger, but also better-looking. No more of that Metroid Prime dilemma where the plasma beam's better but the wave beam looks so much cooler.

The sound is fine, except for the aforementioned voice acting. The music is pretty much bass-only, exactly like you'd expect from a Metroid game, and very subtle and atmospheric. The sounds sound like what they should sound like, except for that one part where something explodes outside the ship and you can hear it loud and clear, and apparently like the shock wave causes the ship to rock back and forth a bit. Which is interesting.

There's a fair bit of unlockable stuff if that's your bag -- you can watch the cutscenes again from the movie gallery if you didn't get enough of them the first time, there's a concept art gallery, and there's a hard mode. There's also a short "epilogue" section to give you a little bit of impetus to go back and search for things you missed, which is a nice touch. The less-nice element of that touch is that there's a whole lot of stuff you legitimately can't collect during the normal game, and have to come back for. What is the point, I ask in vain, of fifteen missile tanks you can't collect until the whole game is beaten? What exactly do we need those missiles for? There's the optional boss, sure, but: good luck hitting it with a missile. At least they've eliminated the ability to chain shinesparks, which means you never ever have to perform stupid shinespark tricks to get anything. I've still, to this day, only collected about 95% of the stuff in Zero Mission because I just don't have the patience for the shinespark tricks.

Boss battles are a lot of fun, which is good, since they kind of sucked in the Prime games. There are some old favourites back for another go, and a few new bosses besides; I'm tempted to say the game leans too heavily on the repeated old bosses, but I'm not actually sure that's the case; they certainly seem to have more character than the new bosses made specifically for the game. Some boss battles proceed in "phases" like it's World of Metroidcraft, and, if you die, the game generally allows you to continue from the beginning of the phase you're on, which prevents you from having to repeat the same content over and over. So that's nice, I guess. The sinister dark side, though, is that it removes a powerful check on the ability of the designers to build stupid gimmicks into the boss fights, and more than once you'll have to do something over and over again searching for the right trick. The final boss is particularly egregious in this regard, and mainly because it violates an interface convention that's been employed consistently throughout the game.

In all, I'd say Metroid: Other M is a promising game that needs revision. I'm really inspired by the simplicity of the controls, which are brilliantly designed to allow a tremendous range of action without memorising complex and arbitrary button sequences. If the designers had focused a bit more on what made Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion great, and a bit less on what I made fun of relentlessly about Xenosaga up to the point where somebody actually smashed in my front window and stole my copy just to shut me up, it would be a great game. As shipped, unfortunately, it is only an okay game.

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