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Ladies and gentlemen, E3 has come and gone and there were more then a few news bombs dropped. The biggest for me personally was the last one I would have expected, a new Metroid game. I saw the trailer for Other M and my mind was reeling from the sheer awesomeness but after the elation subsided which took countless hours I started re watching the trailer and began to pick up on details which has for the most part only led to more questions then answers. The first of these many questions is where in the time line does this sit? For anyone that knows their Metroid the immediate response would be that it takes placed before the original Metroid. This detail could bee gleaned from the fact fact that Adam Malcovich is shown as alive and giving orders to Samus. This would imply that Other M takes place while Samus was in fact still enlisted with the Galactic Federation. This premise is laden with potential to provide answers to an entire array of questions in regards to Samus' history including why she enlisted and why she left as well as what happened to Adam. Other M looks as though it may even delve into the relationship between Samus and Adam. In fact I would go so far as to say that I can guarantee the events leading up and including Adam's death will be revealed being that the trailer shows Samus standing over what appears to be a dead Adam.
The thought the Other M will be strictly a prequel falls apart as soon as the gameplay footage starts though because upon further inspection one will see a gorgeous rendition of the death of the metroid hatchling at the hands of Mother Brain from Super Metroid. Not only that but for the truly investigative such as myself you'll also notice the scene with several of, what appears to be Federation troopers, being targeted by the huntress herself as though she is being hunted which would imply that that scene is post Fusion being that the end of Fusion saw Samus being a fugitive from the Federation. Not only that but there is an additional scene that sees Samus seemingly snooping in a Galactic Federation lab and accessing a screen that says, "Living Body Arms Development," which would imply organic weaponry. Now if you'll recall that was a major story crux in Fusion that the Galactic Federation was in fact working on a program to mass produce and rapidly grow metroids for weapons use. That screen also reads, "Attestation Success," from which one could also infer that whatever the Federation has been working on has in fact been fruitful and if it is a metroid rapid growth program then what we saw could in fact be Samus trying to bring this program down from the inside.
The final couple of unanswered questions raised from this trailer include a federation trooper who asks Samus if she remembers him. Now a few things can be gleaned from this one snippet. The first is that this man is someone that she served with while enlisted in the Federation. Second, the question, "remember me," says that it's been some time since she has seen him which leads me to believe that this scene takes place post Fusion. This depiction also suggests that he may in fact be her inside contact that gets her into the Federations lab in order to shut down their bio weapons program. The other unanswered question is who is the woman in the lab coat seen throughout the entire trailer that Samus introduces herself to. She was seen both in the beginning of the trailer while Adam was alive and watches Samus as she stands over Adam's dead body which implies that she at the very least knew Adam or may have even been involved with Adam romantically. Seeing her catch Samus snooping in the Living Body Arms Development lab also suggests that she is also working on the rapid growth program as well or may have been responsible for the upload of Adam's consciousness after he passed away.
Last but most certainly not least is the gameplay. Everything I saw told me several things. First off, terrain traversal appears to happen on a 2d plane with some very dramatic camera angles. What I mean by this is that even though there are shots of Samus running either into or away from the camera she doesn't seem to shift left to right which tells me that the focus for terrain traversal remains about classic platforming. Where this appears to break from the norm in regards to Metroid style gameplay is in the combat. While there was what appeared to be some classic shooting things out of the sky gameplay there looks to be much more melee style combat. Case in point being the scene where Samus takes down a creature by the neck, keeps it in a headlock on the ground, and shoots it in the head point blank. This is where you can truly see Team Ninja's influence on the series bleeding in and somehow it doesn't seem wrong and that's a pretty tough feat to pull off. Retro Studios pulled it off and I still think that's only because a first person game always seems to make sense because everyone at least once has wanted to get behind the visor of the huntress at least once. This in fact appears to remain in Metroid Other M at least in a few instances.
In the end, as I stated at the beginning of this analysis, this trailer has simply provided more questions then answers. The upside to all of this is that we have until the game drops in 2010 to speculate all we want but at the end of it all we will finally have a Metroid game that delves into the untold history of the first lady of gaming. [Update] It has been brought to light via an interview with the director that Metroid Other M is set in the time line between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. This however does not shatter the theory that the Living Body Arms Development program is the Federations metroid rapid growth research. This may in fact be Samus getting a glimpse at what the Federation is working on and not knowing all the details. There is also the possibility that it is the Federation trying to duplicate Samus' power suit.
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Good writeup man, I believe that you share my enthusiasm for this game you observant motherfucker, you.
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