Simbabbad said:

So maybe gamers just need to be a bit more open minded.

Yeah..I think it really depends on the game/series for each individual gamer. I can see how my logic can be a lose/lose situation for the developers - like I said, it's a balancing act. Personally, if M:OM didn't have those negatives, I think I would have rated it as one of the best Metroid games ever... The(negative) changes were a neat idea, but they pulled them off wrong - but of course, that's my opinion - and I know others here share the same views. This game, though, is still great - When are you going to put S&P2 down and play this one?

Thanks for fixing my post by the way..I had no idea what was going on..the page was locking up and my message ended up being blanked out..I couldn't even edit it...weird.

****

I can see the change debate maybe bleeding into 4 other games:

NBA JAM
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Goldeneye
Donkey Kong Country Returns..

Will the games feel like clones? Will they be 'different' enough to feel unique yet still feel like the series/genre should? My money is on Epic Yarn to accomplish this...

S

SmoothiusMaximus said:

However, my main gripe with the game stems from the controls. Going sideways wiimote for this was a mistake. The amount of automation in the game is somewhat startling. The game plays itself mostly - you're just there to interact with the invisible quicktime events.

That said - the controls WORK. The game is perfectly playable, but that doesn't make the controls good. I can't count the number of times the game sabotaged me when I was simply trying to move my character, but the game decided to dodge for me instead... right into another attack. Not being able to aim at what you want to aim causes unexpected results in packs of stronger enemies.

Luckily the bulk of the game is designed around the limited controls. However, I feel the game could have been considerably better if the player were given better control over Samus.

To be honest, I never had any of these problems with the controls. Biggest gripe I had was probably not being able to fire missiles normally, but that was a design choice to increase the difficulty and I adapted pretty quickly.

Otherwise I thought the controls were all spot on and probably the best part about the game. I want every Metroid to play like it now (but with missiles!)....

Also the more I think about it, the less I can see this game not being played with the NES style. I mean, how would you use the Speed Booster? You need the D-pad to run in a straight line...

Finally completed the game. That was sweet. Did not recognize that final boss until he started firing those damn blue orbs/eyes. Then the Super Metroid memories came

Also, in classic Metroid fashion, it's nice that after beating it, the game starts me off when I first come back to the Ship, so that I can 100% the items should I ever desire to.

I played it for about 3 hours straight last night, which is a true testament to how much I was enjoying it. For whatever reason, I like that they've essentially reduced the pointing and shooting to the 2D equivalent of 8-way directional controls. It let me focus more on the fluid animations and the slick presentation. Seriously, I could see me playing this one more than once. Best Metroid ever? I don't really care.

Well, my game finally arrived, although I have night class tonight so I might not get to it until tomorrow.

Question - (minor spoilers for those who haven't completed the game)

Have you seen the "Play All cutscenes" option in the theater yet? Is it true it has recorded gameplay thrown in to make it more like a movie? I'm gonna watch it tonight, hopefully it's awesome

About 5 hours into it, and I'd give it a solid 7/10 so far. But if it didn't have the Metroid name, I might give it an 8.

+ Combat is great. Boss battles are solid, but not quite as memorable as past Metroids.

+ I feel compelled to keep playing more than any other Metroid game I've played before, perhaps because I don't find it as tense?

+ D-pad and pointer controls work very well.

- I haven't played fusion, but Other M almost goes out of its way to show you how linear the experience is. Past Metroids have hidden the fact that there is rarely more than one way to go at any one time, but Other M makes no attempts to disguise this. Each save station reveals the next 4 or 5 rooms and next save station. Where's the wondering around without a map in a new region? Where's the tension in not knowing where the next save point is?

- Close up 3rd person sections are slow and ponderous. Invisible walls again break the illusion of Samus wondering on a space ship.

- Barring a couple of exceptions, the environmental puzzles are not on par with the Prime games.

At the moment I feel this is a good game, but more of a Metroid side quest than a true sequel. I feel the designer's hand too frequently and too heavily on my shoulder, pointing me where to go and drip feeding me story/weapons/experiences. The whole thing just doesn't feel very subtle. In wanting to make sure the gamer never has any down time, you're never given a chance to breathe and experience the game on your own terms.

Guys, I think...

Ridley actually has THREE forms. First is that little fuzzy thing. Then it's that lizard thing that you fight in first person by firing missiles at its tail. Then, the Ridley we know. See, when you fight the lizard, you see the "shell" of the fuzzy thing open. And right before fighting the real Ridley, you see the shell of the lizard open in the same way.

Maybe I'm slow, but I just caught this now.

Finally finished it, about 12 hours, 84%. Good game. I'm sad to see that indeed all the power ups are shown on the map all of a sudden.

GelatinousEncore said:

Guys, I think...

Ridley actually has THREE forms. First is that little fuzzy thing. Then it's that lizard thing that you fight in first person by firing missiles at its tail. Then, the Ridley we know. See, when you fight the lizard, you see the "shell" of the fuzzy thing open. And right before fighting the real Ridley, you see the shell of the lizard open in the same way.

Maybe I'm slow, but I just caught this now.

Yeah, I think you're slow. It was pretty obvious when you see the husk of the lizard broken open, just like the husk of the fuzzy thing, right above the door leading to Ridley's boss fight.

I didn't catch that when I first played lol

I'm about an hour or so in. I'm enjoying it. I think I'm enjoying it "despite" though.

One thing that surprised me a bit having not been following the game super closely is how 3D it is. What with the control scheme and a lot of the videos showing side views, I thought this was basically like 85% a 2D game and then you switch into 1st person mode sometimes. But it's not really 2D at all, even the tight corridors have 3D controls, and then there are big open areas a lot too. Which leads me to a question... why on earth is there no analog control? I know Sakamoto wanted to make a game that is simple to control and "anyone" could play, and he insisted on making it work with just the Wii remote, but to me this is a case of making a decision that makes no logical sense just to fit a preconceived idea. The only other 3D game I have played with digital controls was Shenmue, and I disliked those controls too.

And I thought the cringe inducing cutscenes would bother me less in context, but they manage to bother me even more. The music (and lack of) is pretty meh. Auto-aim... eh. Adam telling me where to go and when to use stuff... eh.

To be honest there is a part of me that is thinking "is this really the man behind Super Metroid's vision for the franchise?" Because it is fun for what it is, and it is nice to have a unique title, but it doesn't feel very "Metroid" and it has way too many "generic HD game" qualities. I hope this isn't the new face of Metroid.

It sounds like I'm being super critical but it is more that I'm such a huge Metroid fan and want only the best for the franchise. I do like some things though. There is something kind of cool about a 3D game that feels very 2D-esque. And although I did love love love what Retro did with the series, this game feels a lot more fast-paced, which is pretty neat. And well, I hear it gets more and more interesting as more powers open up, so that should be cool.

Just 100%'d the game a few minutes ago. My third favorite game in the series, after Prime 1 and Super. My second favorite Wii game this year (so far) after Galaxy 2. And easily one of my favorite games of this generation, that I've played.

I went from being completely "meh" on this game to falling in love. That's pretty awesome.

I've got the 'extra' ending after going back to the Bottle Ship and am going for 100% item completion. I really loved this game!

Zero--

I agree with most of your complaints (although the D-pad didn't bug me--I think it keeps things a little more streamlined, personally), but I have to ask why the auto-aim is a problem...? To me, the auto-aim feels very much like Metroid; you just point in the direction of the enemy and shoot, which is generally how combat (against small enemies) worked after you got the Spazer (etc) in past games. With a 3-D world, lacking auto-aim would make small encounters with flimsy enemies rather obnoxious, especially given the D-pad-only controls. It'd just be too finicky to be enjoyable, and less immediately-gratifying than combat in the past games.

I have my issues with Other M, but I will say that they nailed the controls, IMO. Took some big risks and most of them paid off in terms of actually controlling Samus in a (mostly) 3-D environment. The linearity is harder to excuse for me, but regardless, I'm interested in hearing your impressions later on down the line.

Finally got the game, about an hour in. Makes me appreciate more what the Metroid Prime series achieved. I'm a sucker for beautiful cutscenes tho and this game has plenty of those.

After digesting the game a bit, here's some final thoughts, in a quick manner:

+ The controls WORK. A lot of people said this and it's true. I feared when I first heard you couldn't use the nunchuck. But it works, this game is designed around moving in 8 directions, and it doesn't feel dumbed down because of this decision.

+ Samus is AGILE. Man, does she make the Retro Samus look like a tank. Love how she runs quickly, the dodge maneuver, the finishers, everything. It's fluid.

+ The powerups are cool. The way you get them isn't, but overall, it's a strong assortment of weapons. It's nice to see some 2D classics make a return.

+ Graphics are very good. They're worse than Prime, but not in a technical level. It's like, Prime's engine was used better, there was a lot more attention to detail which I miss, but what's there in Other M, looks just as good if not better.

+ Actually loved the story. Loved the monologues, the cutscenes, all of it. I fell in love with Samus throughout, pretty much. Who didn't love it when she hugged Adam's helmet with that dramatic music playing? Or when she was like ADAM WAIIIIT. And everything about that Ridley cutscene in the magma place. Good stuff.

+ Coming off from that, I loved Samus' voice too. They nailed it making it softer, in my opinion. And there's a clear distinction in the way she speaks when she's doing one of her monologues from when she's actually talking to other people.

- The ending, though, felt anti-climactic. A lot of the stuff they built up wasn't given its proper shake.

- The game is a bit too linear. I don't mind the waypoints you're given, it's everything about Adam Malcovich that sucks. He tells you where to go? Come on. Which brings me to...

- The way you get upgrades is awful. It's just stupid that you start off with everything and you only activate it when Adam says so. Which brings me to easily my biggest complain...

- The game completely lacks a sense of DISCOVERY, and that's huge. First, there's the upgrades. You don't get them by exploring or by defeating amazing bosses. Nope. Only when Adam says it's ok ... what the hell. And also, the fact that the whole game takes place on a ship. I really, really miss the interesting alien worlds we could explore in the past. I'm not saying there should be scanning, though I loved it, but come on ... this isn't Halo. Explain me a bit better what exactly it is I'm fighting. If I hadn't played previous games, I would have no idea what many of the enemies were called or what they did. Let me interact with the world a bit more. Let me take it at my own pace instead of always showing me the way.

But, overall, very good game. Excellent action game, pretty damn good Metroid game.

my 2 cents

Well Samus does say "screw it" at one point and activated the Screw Attack on her own. I thought that was a cool moment, and I absolutely love how the Power Bomb is also activated on her own (not to mention the Gravity suit) when she needs it most, after so much warning about it. I thought it was masterful direction.

I feel a lot of people weren't expecting that thing to be Ridley, I know I wasn't. If you did, sucks to be you, cuz I was very surprised. Usually surprises like this aren't surprises cuz they're tricky but just because I tend to immerse myself and take things for granted. As I was playing one of my brothers pointed out to me the whole deal with Melissa Bregman and Mother Brain. I was totally going with it until he told me that and then I said to myself "wow, that's rather obvious isn't it?". I even forgot there would be a traitor in the game after guessing there would be one based on trailers.

@ People complaining about weapons being unlocked/authorized ONLY, that's not exactly true...
I don't mind Adam authorizing the use of your weapons. I felt it rewarding to unlock something just as you really needed it instead of receiving it AFTER a boss fight or something. Plus, there's some serious false advertising. You get 2 items in the game from actual enemies, and you unlock 3 abilities on your own. So I kinda think that's an important thing to point out.

Well, I finally got it and played for about 2 hours.

Honestly? I don't even know what to make of it yet... it is a strange, strange game.

Where the hell is the music, though? I mean, not even the classic noises when you start the mission or pick up items?

Hinph said:

Where the hell is the music, though? I mean, not even the classic noises when you start the mission or pick up items?

The pick-up items were the only sound effect that I missed. But now that I think about it (I think) that sound effect only ever played when you got a major upgrade, and all the major upgrades are unlocked.