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Metroid: Other M (Nintendo Wii) discussion [game]
 
  Matthew T  
Metroid: Other M on the Wii
8.18/10 from 55 user ratings

Welcome to the official discussion thread for Metroid: Other M on the Wii!

To start, please add this game to your log, add it to your collection (if applicable), and (when you are ready) rate it using the link above!

...seeing as you're the group of gamers whose opinions I trust the most.

Picking up Other M today was a bit of a strange experience--the guy at Play-N-Trade revealed that one of his coworkers mistakenly told everyone that the game released today, so the store had preorder folks coming in all day to try to get it. However, this particular employee was pretty upset about the whole ordeal and decided to sell it to me anyway...then promptly called his manager and quit. I told him I didn't want to cause a fuss and would come back Tuesday for it, but he took a devil-may-care attitude and let me buy the game regardless (he was actually quite friendly to me, just upset about the mistake the coworker made).

So that interesting story of acquisition aside, I now have the game and have played roughly 40 minutes or so (just beat the first boss). It's quite early so my previews aren't going to be very in-depth, so I'll make this quick for now:

-Controls are better than expected, feels fun and pleasantly quick like Samus should
-Voice acting better than expected; the ancillary soldiers and such sound pretty good
-Samus herself seems to be directed to sound fairly cold and emotionless, which usually works, but sometimes her delivery is stilted (so far)
-I'm kind of missing Retro's attention to environmental detail, but the areas still look decent enough
-Killing classic Metroid enemies like Geemers and Rios in 3rd-person is somewhat cathartic. They made a 3rd-person Metroid feel work rather well, and I like the Wiimote so far
-You can't seem to wall-jump off every wall, just select surfaces
-Not sure what to make of the story yet, I kinda like a lot of it and some of it is sort of overbearing; we'll see. The direction and transitions are pretty nice though
-Pretty cool first boss
-Casper's right, it needs more music during gameplay

That's all for now. I mainly made this thread for everyone else to post their impressions too, but I wanted to give a few of my own first.

URL to share (right click and copy)
08/30/10, 01:20    Edited: 08/30/10, 01:31
 
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  cirej2000  
jon-e3 said:
I didnt have one problem with the 2D/3D switching. It was so natural... very smooth. I think the folks having issues have either faulty setups or hooks for hands. Do you have hooks for hands? Maybe that's your problem.

I do have hooks for hands...claws actually. And faulty setups. This stupid Wii won't work correctly with my Kinect setup no matter what blu-ray disc I put in to the danged system.
09/21/10, 20:14   
  GameDadGrant  
Yeah, the GameInformer review of one of the higher-profile Wii games was terrible. What else is new?

Actually... from what I've heard, the guys over at Nintendo World Report weren't too hot on the game, either. Kinda surprised by that, actually. I don't expect them to glorify a Wii game just because it's a Nintendo game, but I thought those guys at least had their heads screwed on right and weren't HD fanboys like the GI staff can often times comes across as.

Also, can't remember if this has been posted already, but here's another (video) "review" of the game. For many people, this "review" hits the nail on the head.

09/21/10, 20:17   
Edited: 09/21/10, 20:18
  Pandareus  
@cirej2000

I had to turn down the pointer sensitivity on my Wii for this game. I never, ever had a problem with the way my Wii was setup before, and right before Other M I played the pointer-intensive Trauma Team game without a hitch, but very rapidly while playing Other M, I noticed all sorts of problems. The first-person view would pop up all the time when I was holding the controller NES-style, because apparently the sensor could see a bit of my window and it threw it off, even when it wasn't sunny outside.

Er, so, in short, turn down the sensitivity.

GameDadGrant said:
Actually... from what I've heard, the guys over at Nintendo World Report weren't too hot on the game, either. Kinda surprised by that, actually. I don't expect them to glorify a Wii game just because it's a Nintendo game, but I thought those guys at least had their heads screwed on right and weren't HD fanboys like the GI staff can often times comes across as.
Eh? Did you listen to the whole podcast episode talking about it? They liked it enough.
09/21/10, 20:56   
Edited: 09/21/10, 20:58
  GameDadGrant  
@Pandareus

I listened to *this* week's podcast (the one from the 19th, I think?) and they didn't exactly praise the game. Maybe I should go and listen to the previous week's podcast. It's possible I got the wrong impression from them when they (quickly) talked about it in the latest episode.
09/21/10, 21:26   
  cirej2000  
@Pandareus

Got it! I'll give that a try, Pandareus. Makes sense. Are sensitivity settings adjusted on the Wii or the Wiimote? It's been so long since...AHHHHHH! New Wii. That might explain why this is happening, now. Other M is the first game I've played since getting the new Wii.
09/21/10, 21:59   
Edited: 09/21/10, 22:11
  Kal-El814  
Crap, sorry about the spoilers, guys. I don't know why I did it so inconsistently. Brain fart. Really sorry.
09/21/10, 22:17   
Edited: 09/21/10, 22:20
  Pandareus  
@cirej2000

It's in your system settings. Lower the sensitivity until you see only two dots on the screen when pointing at the sensor bar. Then wave your pointer around to see if it's picking up other IR sources.

@Simbabbad

Makes sense.
09/21/10, 22:26   
Edited: 09/21/10, 22:27
  cirej2000  
@Pandareus

Okay, so it is most likely due to the new system. I know I didn't go through sensitivity settings when I first booted the thing up.
09/21/10, 22:29   
  GameDadGrant  
@Pandareus

Alright, I listened to the other podcast, and yeah. The Radio Free Nintendo guys were more positive about the game in that episode.

In other news... I played a couple hours of the game last night, and fought Ridley's feathered-lizard-form, in the "outside" area. It was hardly a boss fight, but... eh. Whatever. It was over quickly enough. I'll admit I'm really not digging these "pixel hunts" the game makes you go on to advance the story. Finding the trigger to move forward after that fight was pretty annoying.

Also, I experienced a couple of moments in the game where I began to wonder WTF people are complaining about in terms of Samus' character. There was a point when these Zebosians (or... whatever... they look like Space Pirates) show up, and Samus tells the GF soldiers to back off so she can handle them herself. And people still complain that she's this weak-willed girl? I dunno, that seemed pretty heroic and... ugh... "badass" I guess. I suppose people were really only concerned about Samus being weak-willed at one point in the game (you know the one) but I haven't gotten there yet so maybe it's worse than I'm imagining. Not counting on it, though.

Next, I got to the "fire" area. And yes, I can understand why people may question why the heat-resistance function of the Power Suit wasn't activated right away. But on the other hand? It seriously felt that like, five minutes later, the Varia suit was activated. Sure, it may have made more sense to turn it on right away, but... gah. Whatever. The boss in that area was pretty awesome at least. I really liked fighting that thing.

Finally, one last thing: WTF ... is Ridley a Pokémon now? He's got three forms, which he evolves from. He starts off small and cute, then grows uglier and more powerful later on. He's totally a Pokémon, lol.
09/23/10, 17:14   
  Smerd  
@GameDadGrant

That TGO episode was great - it really did hit the nail on the head in so many ways...

And I really don't see why people complain about the length.... I beat it in about 12hrs or so taking my time exploring..but crap.. Super Metroid can be beaten in under 3hrs and I think my first time beating it was maybe about 6hrs.

S
09/23/10, 18:03   
Edited: 09/23/10, 18:05
  GameDadGrant  
@Smerd

People may be complaining about the length because they've become accustomed to the Prime series. Those games take a good 15 to 20 hours, even if you know exactly what you're doing and know where to go.
09/23/10, 19:05   
  Zero  
I was listening to the podcast where they brought up the "pixel hunts" and the one guy said he went on a forum and some people were saying they actually got stuck on some of them for upwards of a half an hour!

I never had it that bad, but man... some of those took me at least 10 minutes, and it is SO GOD DAMNED FRUSTRATING. WTF were they thinking?

But then, thinking about it from a design perspective, the "hide and seek" gameplay is always difficult to design because, as the designer, you of course know exactly where it is. So it is tough to get a feel for how difficult it is to find. On the other hand, that is what you have testers for, and I can't imagine they could have thrown testers into this blindly and not have had a bunch get stuck at those parts.

So again... WTF were they thinking?
09/23/10, 19:07   
  GameDadGrant  
@Zero

Agreed. It was even more frustrating because after the boss fight with feathered-lizard-Ridley, you have to pixel-hunt for a slop of green blood, which is hidden along the ground. Which naturally, is covered in grass. Which is green. So yeah, looking for a patch of shapeless green blood across a mass of grass texture (which is mostly, by and large, just a bunch of of shapeless green patches) wasn't exactly my idea of fun. Especially in a Metroid game. I might let that fly in an Ace Attorney game, but not this!

And even though it's "kinda" cheating, at least there's always gamefaqs.com if one were to ever get hopelessly stuck at one of those parts.
09/23/10, 19:18   
Edited: 09/23/10, 19:20
  rebonack  
@GameDadGrant That was actually the easiest one for me. I found it almost immediately. I had a lot more trouble on the wasp hive one before it.

I can see that it's kind of an interesting idea, but it was very badly executed.
09/23/10, 19:30   
  GameDadGrant  
@rebonack

It took me forever on that one, too. I'm not good at pixel-hunts, apparently.
09/23/10, 19:31   
  roykoopa64  
@GameDadGrant

Great video, well said!
09/23/10, 20:36   
  jon-e3  
I went into Other M right after finishing Super Metroid (for the first time) and I thought the transition was fantastic.

After reading multiple previews/reviews panning Other M, I wasnt sure what to expect. After playing and beating the game, I really dont understand the complaints AT ALL. The gameplay is brilliant. The narrative is servicable. The exploration is fun. The graphics are the natural evolution of Super's look/feel. What's not to like?

Samus DOES NOT come off as a weakling. They gave her dimension, quirk, an actual persona that in no way clashes with her simple characterization from the 2D missions. She was a shell before... they chose to fill that shell with something interesting.
09/23/10, 22:06   
  carlosrox  
The two hardest ones were the ones in Ridley's Room (where you have to look for the furnace or vent or whatever) and the Green Blood. I'm sorry but I have to call "idiots" on people who took HALF an hour to do it. Victor Lucas from EP claimed he spent 45mins-1hr on one of them. Fuckin' ridiculous. The longest it ever took me was like 2 minutes even for the hardest ones. Those 2 I mentioned were bad too since they don't even point you in the right direction, but at least the Ridley one gives you a clue by mentioning exhaust vent or something like that. Green blood was bad since you have to do a 180 to find it, I think.

Either way they're really not that hard, if you're taking more than 5 minutes I dunno what to say. I'm......smarter than everybody?

@jon-e3
Lucky bastard. Sometimes I envy people who play really great games really late. And being able to play Other M right after it only sweetens the deal.
09/24/10, 03:31   
Edited: 09/24/10, 03:35
  Smerd  
jon-e3 said:

"I went into Other M right after finishing Super Metroid (for the first time) and I thought the transition was fantastic."

Now THIS is what the problem is.. ... or rather, what most critics problem is. The game is very similar to Super Metroid - just with more story elements. Yes it has it's issues as I have voiced them as much as some of us here..but I believe if you (and the critics) forget the Prime Games, as the developers clearly did (easy as they didn't do them), you would enjoy Other M a lot more.

16 years is a big gap between these two games and people (myself included) have become adapted to what Metroid Games should be like all the time. Other M was far from being all roses..but it was still a great game. If Other M came out in 1998 (graphics to par to what 1998 tech would be), then this game would get a near perfect score across the board.

S
09/24/10, 04:03   
Edited: 09/24/10, 04:04
  Secret_Tunnel  
@carlosrox

I just didn't know what I was looking for. With the green blood one I saw it there, I just didn't know I was supposed to scan it.
09/24/10, 04:03   
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