Ten days to go until the release of Metroid: Other M and Nintendo is really putting the marketing machine into high gear. Sadly, I'm more afraid than ever that the game is going to fail. Every game in the Metroid series thus far has been fantastic. Can this new, highly experimental entry in the series still shine in the shadow of nearly perfect games like Super Metroid and Metroid Prime? Can it keep up with fantastic Metroid-inspired games that have been released in recent years, like Shadow Complex and Cave Story? Honestly, I don't think so. I'll be buying the game regardless, but I've already set my expectations from "It can't be worse than Metroid 2" to "Ah well, a sub-par new Metroid game is still better than no new Metroid game."
If these videos are any indication, the game will at least get the atmosphere right... sometimes. The video below with Samus running through the lava tunnel definitely feels right. Still, there's just so many things going on here; NES-style controls in a PS2-era 3D platforming, Duck Hunt-style stationary pointing and shooting in the middle of fierce firefights, God of War-style timed melee specials, and of course, tons of cut scenes. It reminds me of the "dream food" I invented when I was a kid; Coca Cola chicken nugget soup with M&Ms and pizza chunks. It may taste good in theory, but in practice, it might make you puke.
Trust me folks, I hope I wrong on this one, but that's how I see it as of right now. How about you? You feeling this Other M thing?
Jonathan Holmes is the most lovable Associate Editor on Destructoid. Catch him on videos, original editorials, and on back episodes of the Destructoid Show and MTV's Road Rules. Jonathan is a retro gamer's gamer.
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Yeah Holmes, I've got pretty much the same concerns... I preordered it from amazon since theyre giving a 20 dollar credit, and I don't usually buy alot of games, since renting and finishing them usually is good enough for me.....I kinda wish they had just "played it safe" and made it a "shadow complex clone" with a metroid environment and characters.....When I first played that game (SC) I Couldnt stop thinking how great those production values would transfer into the metroid universe.
-currently playing through all the DS castlevania titles and realy missing that formula on consoles...especially since H.o.D. dissapointed......the DS Metroid prime hunters sucked as well. Wish Nintendo would have made a metroid like the GB advanced games.
I rarely buy games new and this is one of the first that really has my eyebrows raised. Strangely, it’s the XLive Arcade and Wii first party titles that do this. My main bit of apprehension comes from the complexity the controls appear to have. Even watching those vids you posted, I wonder "how the hell do you do these things seamlessly especially with the switching between traditional and motion control swapping?" I thought the same thing in the Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, God of War types of games where you do all this bad ass shit and it’s just popping a couple of combo buttons. If it works (as it did with those aforementioned titles), this will be mind-blowing.
Oh shut up, everything they've shown looks bloody brilliant except for some awkwardly translated dialogue, but a shitty story never ruined a video game, otherwise we'd have played none considering there has yet to be one with a good story. The controls work as advertised, get over it and stop the lame hit baiting.
my main concern is the focus on story, something that never was important in any of the good metroid games. super metroid was extremely minimalistic with story and relied mostly on atmosphere. this game seems to throw that out completely in favor of badly voiced characters with cheesy superfluous story and dialogue.
It's going to be good. No doubt it. I have faith that this is going to be good I'ts jsut jitters tat it's the first game away from the FPS mode. I can't wait to play this one day. GOTY For the wii. FOr all systems ehh maybe but it's a hard climb. I have faith in this game.
I really can't understand the fear/worry that a lot of people have for Other M. This looks like a Metroid game to me, and that's all that matters in the end.
People were scared about Metroid Prime when it first came out. A series that had been about 2D exploration was becoming a 3D FPS... But that turned out great. The studio understood Metroid and kept the atmosphere and exploration intact.
While Other M does seem to have a lot of gameplay mechanics occurring at the same time, that doesn't worry me. It excites me. The Wii is capable of so many things, yet, few developers have ventured to use more than one or two mechanics at a time. The way I have seen the controller being used makes sense to me, and I'm glad that I won't be confined to another 2.5D Wii "adventure." It's good to see something new and different. I applaud it.
I have never played a bad Mario game, I have never played a bad Zelda game, and I have never played a bad Metroid game. Nintendo would never let one of their top three mascots have a terrible game released. It won't happen.
Will it be the best game over made? Maybe not? A new Ocarina of Time? Who knows? But at the very least it will be good, and probably even great.
I have hope. I wonder if any of the people that are complaining about Metroid having "story" are any of the same people that complain that Nintendo never does anything with "story".
Experimental? I'd say this is less "experimenal" than the Prime series. Other M is what I expected a 3D Metroid to always be. all the doubt in the world, all the people bitching, and guess what? I'm not scared one bit. Samus sounds like a normal and human female. Her voice isn't high pitch pedophile territory. Thank god.
GRiVEN, do you have any idea how many bad Mario games there are? Tons. If it happened to Mario (and it did), it could easily happen to Samus.
That being said, I think Other M looks pretty slick. I don't think it will be bad. At least.....I hope not. This is a system seller for me. If it turns out awesome, I'll be buying a Wii to play it. If not.....well......there's always Skyward Sword.
I'm talking about main-series Mario games. I'm not talking about some of the weird ass Mario games they were making in the mid-ninties. There's probably a Mario Does His Income Taxes floating out there somewhere. lol
Super Mario Bros 2 in North America is not the actual Super Mario Bros 2 game.
The actual Super Mario Bros 2 game looks like the original Super Mario Bros game only it is insanely difficult. In fact, it was so difficult that Nintendo of America decided not to release it in the US, but instead redesigned the sprites from a game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic and passed it off as Super Mario Bros 2.
I still enjoyed Super Mario Bros 2 though. And you can get the actual Super Mario Bros 2 at the Wii store.
Seriously? Do you still think it's 2007? That argument went out the door years ago, and in my opinion, the PS3 outclassed the 360 in terms of good games in 2009.
Ahem. On topic: Totally buying Metroid. I loves me some Samus.
Not to mention Amazon's $20 credit isn't a bad incentive either.
@ MRLN- No, I don't think Other M is going to suck. I'm worried that it's going to be disappointing. There's a big difference.
@ Nothankyou- Wait, are you talking to me? It's hard to tell, since nothing you said relates to my post in any way. Also, aren't you the guy from a while back that said I was crazy for thinking that Xenoblade may not come to the US?
E3 has come and gone, and the game still doesn't have a release date. Still think I'm crazy?
@ GRiVEN- I agree that Nintendo is yet to make a bad Metroid, Mario, or Zelda game, but that doesn't mean that it's not possible. Nintendo is prone to messing up when they don't know what to do with a franchise anymore. They have a track record for trying too many new things with a series, if they aren't that attached to it, and they feel it needs a reboot. Star Fox Assault is a prime example of that. It tried to be a traditional Star Fox game, and a free roam space dog fight game, and a free-roam on-foot 3rd person shooter. It wasn't awful, but it no where near as good as Star Fox 64. The series hasn't really been the same since.
That's what I'm worried Other M will be like. I'm worried that it's trying to hard to be different, instead of just sticking to what makes Metroid great. Nintendo's at its best when it takes on one or two gameplay techniques they understand very well and focuses on them. It's when they over-extend themselves into genres they aren't truly inspired by (usually in order to appeal to non-Nintendo fans) that things fall apart.
@ ArynThysis - Absolutely. I totally respect Sakamoto for wanting to do something new. However, I'm not too happy about the fact that members of his team wanted to give us the option to play Other M with the nunchuck and Wii remote if we wanted, but he shut them down.
That's the other thing Nintendo's doing lately that has me worried; they are making a point to give us fewer control options. It's a constant thing. Sin and Punishment 2 had plenty of control options, as did Smash Bros Brawl. But with the DS Zeldas, and now with Other M, they're not giving us the option to play how we want to.
@ Gol-D-Roger: Step one; find the shift key. Step two; find the comma key. Step three; use them, so your comments don't read like they were written in feces on a kindergarten bathroom wall.
@ Dante - you're entitled to your opinion, but I know which console gets turned on to play games several times a week, and which one sits gathering dust since . . . shit, since I picked up ratchet and clank CIT WAY after release. It's mostly a moot point, but if I had to pick one console, and only one, it would be the 360, mostly because it doesn't take two damned hours to update, and it doesn't mandate that I install my games. Sure, the libraries are so far overlapped that it's a moot point, but games or no games doesn't change the fact that the XMB interface is horrible, PSN is slow, buggy trash, and the only PSN games not made by pixeljunk worth downloading are available on XBL anyway.
I got a chance to play Other M a few weeks ago at a special pre-release thing Nintendo was holding (I work retail and our Nintendo rep gave us some passes for it).
The game plays damn well, no questions asked. A few awkward design choices (need to hold the b-trigger in order to look around while in first-person mode), and the analog stick on the nunchuk is missed, it's still plays damn well. Even those crazy-ass finishing moves are mostly automated, executed by hitting the attack button when you're in close proximity of the enemy, if I recall. Yes, the game's a bit of a departure, but I'll be picking this up day one, after playing about 5 minutes' worth of it. The only real issue I had was the first-person mode not always kicking in when aiming the remote at the screen, but considering the flashing lights and multitudes of other Wiis that were being played at the same time, I'll chalk it up to potential environmental interference (well... okay, I didn't have any real issues, though my buddies from work did).
Everything I've seen on the game has me more and more excited about it. I just hope the story is handled well and told well.
I think that that whole issue with Star Fox had more to do with Rare working on Star Fox, and the loss of Rare. Nintendo was left trying to keep with Rare direction for Star Fox, while trying to bring it the game back to its roots, and it didn't turn out so well.
I just think it doesn't do any good to worry about a game less than two weeks before its release. I'm sure that the game will be good at the very least. I feel fairly confident that Nintendo wouldn't release a bad Metroid game. While I know it sounds a bit harsh, I don't think that Nintendo cares as much about Star Fox as they do about Zelda, Mario, or Metroid.
Metroid 2 was a fun game, I remember playing tons of it on the road. I would say I prefer it over the first game.
Other M looks good and makes me want a Wii. I agree that Nintendo has allowed some crappy games for their properties, but for a while now they have been much more cautious in preserving the name of their big sellers. Knowledge that they are the most mentionable advantages to owning their console may have something to do with that. Also consider that on top of the fact that Nintendo's big lineup this year consists of nostalgic games that can appeal to the hardcore gamers who grew up with their systems, they are rolling in money from Wii and DS sales to put into perfecting these varied gameplay elements we're seeing in Other M.
Nintendo has locked in the casual market (sorry Microsoft), and these big nostalgia titles that can appeal to lifelong gamers are their way of bringing in the hardcore audience. They're not going to sabotage this by releasing a crappy game in the most revered hardcore series they have.
I feel like I'm the only metroid fan on planet earth who did not like shadow complex, but that's mainly because I don't like Orson Scott Card or Nolan North
If people like you weren't always expecting the worst every time any little thing changes, we'd have a lot more amazing experimental games. It's that attitude that's causing a lot of series to stagnate.
It's also ridiculous because they've been standing there the whole time telling you that they know that everyone loves the exploration aspect and that that's all still there and that there's zero reason to worry about that changing. And you still persist on expecting to to let you down.
If you think it'll let you down, it will. There's no way around it.
As a Metroid fan i'll enjoy the game regardless but to me it looks to be a great game. I think the focus on the story is a good thing i don't mind some story building cutscenes.
First off, I never expect another game, even a Metroid game, to be the perfect storm that was Super Metroid. The reason Metroid Prime is a strong #2 in the series for me is because it didn't dare to try and be Super Metroid, but a game similar in spirit with its own ideas and its own way of presenting a story.
For example, Prime just dug deeper into the idea of exploring a dead world, not just through nooks and crannies, but through loads of lore as well. It actually added to how haunted the worlds felt.
Super Metroid was the culmination of the two games before it, I see this as a culmination of the small things we learned in Fusion, Zero Mission and events prior to the Zero Mission (i.e KL-2, upbringing with the Chozo, life in the GF Marines). There's one thing Fusion players know is going to happen here and we're going to see why and that might be where the twist in this game lies.
Metroid has this tendency to let you have an idea and then take it from you later. Sometimes it even gets in close and decides to stab you.
Then there's the Alien references. There's always at least one, I have a feeling we have some disposible marines here, but something tells me Anthony Higgs is our Coporal Dwayne Hicks. He just seems to likable to die... yet.
I just hope we don't have a Hudson going all "Game over, man."
While we're on the subject, how could Metroid possibly translate into a first person shooter? Surely it will fail! What's that you say? That already happened and Metroid Prime was fantastic? Well then...
You forgot something Holmes, and that is the lack of music I've heard so far. Seriously, if I end up listening to the soundtrack on Youtube and all it is is that ambience and atmospheric bullshit I'm gonna puke.
@ Fuzunga- If this was Metroid making the just from one genre to another, I wouldn't be worried. It's the fact that they're trying to go for 3-4 genres at once. Like I said, I really hope they pull it off, but I'm not going to expect much.
@ The Silent Protagonist- I'm hearing that the story, with it's Alien references, is the best part of the game. So that at least is good news.
@ EggmaniMN- See, I'm not like that. If I expect a game to be amazing, and it's not, I get an exaggerated negative reaction. That's what I'm trying to avoid here. It happened with Resident Evil 5, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Street Fighter 4, and few other games that were technically the 5th entry in their series.
Come to think of it, Other M is the 5th "core" Metroid game. Maybe I'm spooked by the number 5?
@ Zcdrike- I actually didn't like Shadow Complex either. It's an extremely well made game, but the story, setting, and atmosphere just didn't do it for me. I blame Ben Affleck.
@ LiquidOctarine- Like I was saying the The Silent Protagonist, I hear the story is really good. It's that switching to first person mode, and other aspects of the controls, that I'm hearing bad things about. Only 9 days now until we find out for ourselves.
@ GRiVEN- Are you talking about Star Fox Advenutes? I totally forgot about that game. Good point though. That game was sort of like the Star Fox equivalent to Metroid Prime (though it wasn't quite as brilliant.
I guess I'm worried that as Rare/Namco is to Star Fox, Retro/Team Ninja is to Metroid. And like I was saying to EggmaniMN, low expectations help me in situations like this. I'm still buying the game day one, I'm just ready to not love it.
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Contest:
11:00 PM on 08.21.2010 | 
Day one. No doubt.
What? Metroid 2 was the strongest in the series, imo. >.>
Shadow Complex made a Metroid Style... So can we call the safe play "Old Metroid Style"?
I really can't understand the fear/worry that a lot of people have for Other M. This looks like a Metroid game to me, and that's all that matters in the end.
People were scared about Metroid Prime when it first came out. A series that had been about 2D exploration was becoming a 3D FPS... But that turned out great. The studio understood Metroid and kept the atmosphere and exploration intact.
While Other M does seem to have a lot of gameplay mechanics occurring at the same time, that doesn't worry me. It excites me. The Wii is capable of so many things, yet, few developers have ventured to use more than one or two mechanics at a time. The way I have seen the controller being used makes sense to me, and I'm glad that I won't be confined to another 2.5D Wii "adventure." It's good to see something new and different. I applaud it.
I have never played a bad Mario game, I have never played a bad Zelda game, and I have never played a bad Metroid game. Nintendo would never let one of their top three mascots have a terrible game released. It won't happen.
Will it be the best game over made? Maybe not? A new Ocarina of Time? Who knows? But at the very least it will be good, and probably even great.
That being said, I think Other M looks pretty slick. I don't think it will be bad. At least.....I hope not. This is a system seller for me. If it turns out awesome, I'll be buying a Wii to play it. If not.....well......there's always Skyward Sword.
Any of them.
Super Metroid felt like a chore, Metroid Prime felt like a gorgeous chore.
I have no idea what the Metroid fans in my life will think of this, but I guess I'm apprehensive for them.
I'm talking about main-series Mario games. I'm not talking about some of the weird ass Mario games they were making in the mid-ninties. There's probably a Mario Does His Income Taxes floating out there somewhere. lol
Mario 2. =P
Play Silent Hill 2 and then tell me that there has never been a good story in a video game.
Super Mario Bros 2 in North America is not the actual Super Mario Bros 2 game.
The actual Super Mario Bros 2 game looks like the original Super Mario Bros game only it is insanely difficult. In fact, it was so difficult that Nintendo of America decided not to release it in the US, but instead redesigned the sprites from a game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic and passed it off as Super Mario Bros 2.
I still enjoyed Super Mario Bros 2 though. And you can get the actual Super Mario Bros 2 at the Wii store.
Oh wait. . .
I know.
"...and a tiny library of good games?"
Seriously? Do you still think it's 2007? That argument went out the door years ago, and in my opinion, the PS3 outclassed the 360 in terms of good games in 2009.
Ahem. On topic: Totally buying Metroid. I loves me some Samus.
Not to mention Amazon's $20 credit isn't a bad incentive either.
@ Nothankyou- Wait, are you talking to me? It's hard to tell, since nothing you said relates to my post in any way. Also, aren't you the guy from a while back that said I was crazy for thinking that Xenoblade may not come to the US?
E3 has come and gone, and the game still doesn't have a release date. Still think I'm crazy?
@ GRiVEN- I agree that Nintendo is yet to make a bad Metroid, Mario, or Zelda game, but that doesn't mean that it's not possible. Nintendo is prone to messing up when they don't know what to do with a franchise anymore. They have a track record for trying too many new things with a series, if they aren't that attached to it, and they feel it needs a reboot. Star Fox Assault is a prime example of that. It tried to be a traditional Star Fox game, and a free roam space dog fight game, and a free-roam on-foot 3rd person shooter. It wasn't awful, but it no where near as good as Star Fox 64. The series hasn't really been the same since.
That's what I'm worried Other M will be like. I'm worried that it's trying to hard to be different, instead of just sticking to what makes Metroid great. Nintendo's at its best when it takes on one or two gameplay techniques they understand very well and focuses on them. It's when they over-extend themselves into genres they aren't truly inspired by (usually in order to appeal to non-Nintendo fans) that things fall apart.
@ ArynThysis - Absolutely. I totally respect Sakamoto for wanting to do something new. However, I'm not too happy about the fact that members of his team wanted to give us the option to play Other M with the nunchuck and Wii remote if we wanted, but he shut them down.
That's the other thing Nintendo's doing lately that has me worried; they are making a point to give us fewer control options. It's a constant thing. Sin and Punishment 2 had plenty of control options, as did Smash Bros Brawl. But with the DS Zeldas, and now with Other M, they're not giving us the option to play how we want to.
I can't see how that can be a good thing.
I know graphics don't count for everything, but graphically this game looks good. Shows what people can do on the Wii if they put EFFORT into it.
The game plays damn well, no questions asked. A few awkward design choices (need to hold the b-trigger in order to look around while in first-person mode), and the analog stick on the nunchuk is missed, it's still plays damn well. Even those crazy-ass finishing moves are mostly automated, executed by hitting the attack button when you're in close proximity of the enemy, if I recall. Yes, the game's a bit of a departure, but I'll be picking this up day one, after playing about 5 minutes' worth of it. The only real issue I had was the first-person mode not always kicking in when aiming the remote at the screen, but considering the flashing lights and multitudes of other Wiis that were being played at the same time, I'll chalk it up to potential environmental interference (well... okay, I didn't have any real issues, though my buddies from work did).
Everything I've seen on the game has me more and more excited about it. I just hope the story is handled well and told well.
I think that that whole issue with Star Fox had more to do with Rare working on Star Fox, and the loss of Rare. Nintendo was left trying to keep with Rare direction for Star Fox, while trying to bring it the game back to its roots, and it didn't turn out so well.
I just think it doesn't do any good to worry about a game less than two weeks before its release. I'm sure that the game will be good at the very least. I feel fairly confident that Nintendo wouldn't release a bad Metroid game. While I know it sounds a bit harsh, I don't think that Nintendo cares as much about Star Fox as they do about Zelda, Mario, or Metroid.
Other M looks good and makes me want a Wii. I agree that Nintendo has allowed some crappy games for their properties, but for a while now they have been much more cautious in preserving the name of their big sellers. Knowledge that they are the most mentionable advantages to owning their console may have something to do with that. Also consider that on top of the fact that Nintendo's big lineup this year consists of nostalgic games that can appeal to the hardcore gamers who grew up with their systems, they are rolling in money from Wii and DS sales to put into perfecting these varied gameplay elements we're seeing in Other M.
Nintendo has locked in the casual market (sorry Microsoft), and these big nostalgia titles that can appeal to lifelong gamers are their way of bringing in the hardcore audience. They're not going to sabotage this by releasing a crappy game in the most revered hardcore series they have.
It's also ridiculous because they've been standing there the whole time telling you that they know that everyone loves the exploration aspect and that that's all still there and that there's zero reason to worry about that changing. And you still persist on expecting to to let you down.
If you think it'll let you down, it will. There's no way around it.
I think the commercials are trying to point out something.
For example, Prime just dug deeper into the idea of exploring a dead world, not just through nooks and crannies, but through loads of lore as well. It actually added to how haunted the worlds felt.
Super Metroid was the culmination of the two games before it, I see this as a culmination of the small things we learned in Fusion, Zero Mission and events prior to the Zero Mission (i.e KL-2, upbringing with the Chozo, life in the GF Marines). There's one thing Fusion players know is going to happen here and we're going to see why and that might be where the twist in this game lies.
Metroid has this tendency to let you have an idea and then take it from you later. Sometimes it even gets in close and decides to stab you.
Then there's the Alien references. There's always at least one, I have a feeling we have some disposible marines here, but something tells me Anthony Higgs is our Coporal Dwayne Hicks. He just seems to likable to die... yet.
I just hope we don't have a Hudson going all "Game over, man."
@ The Silent Protagonist- I'm hearing that the story, with it's Alien references, is the best part of the game. So that at least is good news.
@ EggmaniMN- See, I'm not like that. If I expect a game to be amazing, and it's not, I get an exaggerated negative reaction. That's what I'm trying to avoid here. It happened with Resident Evil 5, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Street Fighter 4, and few other games that were technically the 5th entry in their series.
Come to think of it, Other M is the 5th "core" Metroid game. Maybe I'm spooked by the number 5?
@ Zcdrike- I actually didn't like Shadow Complex either. It's an extremely well made game, but the story, setting, and atmosphere just didn't do it for me. I blame Ben Affleck.
@ LiquidOctarine- Like I was saying the The Silent Protagonist, I hear the story is really good. It's that switching to first person mode, and other aspects of the controls, that I'm hearing bad things about. Only 9 days now until we find out for ourselves.
@ GRiVEN- Are you talking about Star Fox Advenutes? I totally forgot about that game. Good point though. That game was sort of like the Star Fox equivalent to Metroid Prime (though it wasn't quite as brilliant.
I guess I'm worried that as Rare/Namco is to Star Fox, Retro/Team Ninja is to Metroid. And like I was saying to EggmaniMN, low expectations help me in situations like this. I'm still buying the game day one, I'm just ready to not love it.