Metroid: Other M - Why so negative?

[Amasov]

I am such a huge fan of this game. I completed it early this morning and found it an exhilarating experience. Exactly what I felt Metroid should be on a console today.

I was shocked when some friends and even some websites and magazines gave it a negative review. It was even selected as one of the worst games of the year by Entertainment Weekly and G4's Attack of the Show. I can't understand it.

I'm a Metroid fan and I felt this was really bringing the series back to its roots while also introducing a lot of new gameplay elements. I really didn't want a full on first person shooter ala Metroid: Prime.

Did anyone else play and enjoy this? Share your thoughts.

 

[bigdaddy]

I think all other people could go to hell. You like the game and fuck the rest. it's like Eternal Darkness, supposedly one of the greatest games ever for the Gamecube, but my friends and I think it's unplayable garbage because it's made so poorly.

So if you like it then that's all that matters. It's better than you hating the game and everyone else liking it.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

It just doesn't feel like a Metroid game to me. The emphasis on exploration and the feeling of reward when you acquire a new power up are jettisoned for simplistic, uninteresting combat. They tried to shoehorn all of the controls onto the wiimote and the result just feels clunky.

The biggest problem though, is the horrible way in which the plot is handled. Samus was one of the first female protagonists in gaming. She is an icon and a milestone. In previous games, she was the ultimate bad ass. In this game, she's just completely subservient to a male character. She won't use measures that would save her freaking life just because Adam "didn't approve them!" I know that supposed to be the workaround for requiring the abilities, but it's one that just makes no sense. Why the hell would Samus not turn on the Varia suit the second she reaches hot weather? I really don't think her precious Adam is going to have a problem with her saving her god damn skin. Oh, and the voice actress that they choice for this icon of gaming is one of the worst that has ever been in a game. She could put me to sleep.

 

[Amasov]

^ I agree with what you're saying about Samus's character. I noticed that myself.

Though one thing I did not like was how you acquired power-ups. Unlike the original Metroid, you didn't find them, you were "authorized" to use them. So, you always had them, you just weren't allowed to use them until the situation called for it. A decision made based on the game's storyline, I'm sure. After all, it would have been strange to find a Chozo statue with the power-up in the game's setting.

it's like Eternal Darkness, supposedly one of the greatest games ever for the Gamecube, but my friends and I think it's unplayable garbage because it's made so poorly.

Where's that 'like' button? I loathed that game. I found it unplayable too. That game came out in the summer of 2002; the absolute worst year in video gaming for me.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

I'm a Metroid fan and I felt this was really bringing the series back to its roots while also introducing a lot of new gameplay elements. I really didn't want a full on first person shooter ala Metroid: Prime.

Metroid Prime may have been first person, but its three times the adventure game that Other M could have ever hoped to be. Despite a differing visual perspective, I found it closer to the series's roots. I didn't get the same sense of exploration and isolation in Other M.

Other M's gameplay is jerky, exploration is downplayed, and I'm not the first person to admit I found the visual direction and story to be ill-concieved.

I wanted to enjoy Other M, but the constant perspective shifting was just too clunky for me to accept it as part of the game's core gameplay.

It just doesn't feel like a Metroid game to me. The emphasis on exploration and the feeling of reward when you acquire a new power up are jettisoned for simplistic, uninteresting combat. They tried to shoehorn all of the controls onto the wiimote and the result just feels clunky.

The biggest problem though, is the horrible way in which the plot is handled. Samus was one of the first female protagonists in gaming. She is an icon and a milestone. In previous games, she was the ultimate bad ass. In this game, she's just completely subservient to a male character. She won't use measures that would save her freaking life just because Adam "didn't approve them!" I know that supposed to be the workaround for requiring the abilities, but it's one that just makes no sense. Why the hell would Samus not turn on the Varia suit the second she reaches hot weather? I really don't think her precious Adam is going to have a problem with her saving her god damn skin. Oh, and the voice actress that they choice for this icon of gaming is one of the worst that has ever been in a game. She could put me to sleep.

You know what really burned my goat?

How Samus lost her shit when Ridley showed up. She's killed the bastard like, what 6 times at this point? Also, where the eff did the random uselessness of her armor come from, aside from Team Ninja's inane need for juvenile objectification of the female form?

If Samus hadn't been put in blue spandex for Zero Mission, I guarantee that Team Ninja wouldn't have jumped at the chance to develop a Metroid game.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

If Samus hadn't been put in blue spandex for Zero Mission, I guarantee that Team Ninja wouldn't have jumped at the chance to develop a Metroid game.

Agreed. The Zero suit was the worst thing that ever happened to Samus. Ever since then, she's been changed from "game protagonist that just happens to be female" to "sex object."

 

[Sephiroth]

^ what about Justin Bailey?

 

[brian577]

^ what about Justin Bailey?

Easter egg, doesn't count.

 

[Sephiroth]

it's still Samus in a Bikini

 

[firehawk12]

I did read an interesting counter argument - Samus was already a very shallow heroine that we were projecting a lot onto. The fact that people feel she was "ruined" essentially proves that she didn't really have any definition at all.

 

[Arrqh]

I did read an interesting counter argument - Samus was already a very shallow heroine that we were projecting a lot onto. The fact that people feel she was "ruined" essentially proves that she didn't really have any definition at all.

There's a difference between "shallow" and "silent protagonist." Samus was in the same category as Gordon Freeman; the very fact that there was no definition was a strength precisely because it allowed people to project what they wanted. That's what made her interesting and what made people feel connected to her as a protagonist that they were controlling. In which case, giving her any sort of definition was the mistake. Even if Team Ninja had managed to make her the most interesting, well written game character of all time it still would have "ruined" her because her main defining characteristic was the lack of definition.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Yahtzee's Take

I haven't personally played the game, so I really have little business posting my own thoughts. I'll say that, from what I've heard, the creative choices regarding Samus' personality seem disappointing (to say the least) and definitely something that should have required significantly more forethought before undertaking.