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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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  Shadowlink  
GameDadGrant said:


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.

lol Pokemon.That's hilariously funny.
09/24/10, 11:57   
  TriforceBun  
I'm not really positive of how reliable VGChartz is, but here's their report on the first few weeks of Other M sales:

link

Kinda disappointing. The drop-off is pretty big, so I'm wondering if word of mouth is hurting the game. If the sales get worse, I wonder how Nintendo will end up handling the series.
09/24/10, 18:10   
Edited: 09/24/10, 18:11
  Zero  
@carlosrox Smarter? I don't know that these things have anything to do with intelligence though. You mostly just have to move around pointing at everything until you get lucky.

@TriforceBun Those numbers seem super low for Europe. Hmm. No idea how accurate they are. I wonder if this game will even make it into September NPDs.
09/24/10, 18:29   
Edited: 09/24/10, 18:31
  Anand  
It'll make NPD. What else came out? (Besides Halo, I mean.) These days, the heavy hitters have been absolutely eating everyone else's lunch. Maybe New Carnival Games will eat Other M's, though. The old rivalry is back again. And this time, it's personal. With a peripheral.

For me, the detective bits were a problem because of the dark environments (wtf, Nintendo) and my shitty vision.
09/24/10, 18:57   
Edited: 09/24/10, 19:53
  GameDadGrant  
@TriforceBun

I know some of the reviews are hurting sales for sure. When I was picking up my copy of Etrain Odyssey III at Gamestop, I heard some kids talking about Other M. One of them seemed interested in it, but his buddy told him the game was "supposed to suck." Why did he think that, one might ask? He said he saw a review for the game on TV, and they said it was terrible.

I can only assume he saw it on G4. Thanks for your insight, X-Play!
09/24/10, 19:02   
  jon-e3  
Nintendo should sue G4 for slander.
09/24/10, 20:53   
  carlosrox  
This is why I hate humanity.
09/24/10, 22:41   
  anon_mastermind  
I just finished the game, and I really liked it. I thought the story was pretty standard fare, but there were a few plot holes. Who exactly is the deleter (btw, until I read this thread I thought it was "de-leader")? Is it the asian soldier? He's the only one who's unaccounted for at the end... I very much enjoyed the "post-game" with that insane boss with the eye, and the zero suit section.
And the cutscenes were great, and seamless with gameplay. I LOVE THIS! It takes me out of the game when cinematics and gameplay are segregated, and in Other M, everything flows so well. My only complaint would be that the monologue sections were a little over-done and melodramatic.

The gameplay was awesome. I loved using the wiimote on its side, and pointing at the screen for missiles. There were a few frustrating moments, but I really felt my skills improve as I progressed. Didn't mind the over-the-shoulder sections, as I felt they were few and far between, and mostly used only to set the mood, where it wouldn't make sense if Samus were running at top speed. The "where's waldo" sections were ok, except for the green blood on green grass one. Still, they make less sense than over-the-shoulder and they can ditch them for the next game as far as I'm concerned. Did not have problems with authorization, yeah the varia suit bit was kind of stupid, but in general it made sense, and when you think about it, it makes more sense because of Samus' relationship with Adam - she respects him so much as to limit her arsenal until authorized.

Overall, a great game. I finished with 54% items, in 10 hours. I'll be coming back for more.
09/27/10, 01:08   
  TriforceBun  
Deleter: Lyle and Maurice both bit the dust. KG and James were left. We see a soldier get thrown into the lava in a cutscene, unbeknownst to Samus. Later on, we see James has been killed by MB. That leaves KG as the guy who got thrown into the lava, and James as the one doing the throwing. Also, James is the one who Samus followed to the bio labs, and who approached MB, casting even more suspicion. So yeah, it was James Pierce.

I don't see it as a plot hole though--the main purpose of that story is to set up the shiftiness of the GF, which comes into play later in the game as well.
09/27/10, 01:28   
Edited: 09/27/10, 01:29
  GelatinousEncore  
The deleter thing is not a plot hole, it's left for the player to figure out.
09/27/10, 01:31   
  anon_mastermind  
Yeah, I guess plot hole was a poor choice of words. It's more like...a sub-plot that wasn't fleshed out, I guess? I suppose it is left for the player to figure out, but I was expecting them to flesh it out more with a big reveal, so it kind of let me down. Ah well.
09/27/10, 04:34   
  Brick  
Well I've finally gotten into the game at long last, and so far I'm a bit mixed on it. I really don't like the music, or should I say lack of music, though I do like the return of the fast paced feel to the gameplay. So far though I think it's safe to say it's not as good as the Primes. As for the music though, I get that it's going for a more ambient, atmospheric vibe, but I'm just not feeling it, at least not these compositions. Not only that, but the boss battle music is not too good either, and there's not enough classic remixes, nor are the actual remixes any good IMO. Like the battle with Ridley, the remix just falls flat, and lacks a lot of that oomph, and actually sounds more like a fan remix, like when some school's band takes a crack at classic Nintendo themes, like Zelda for instance when you can hear some fan orchestral pieces, we've all wondered how Zelda would sound with an actual orchestra, but because it's not actual Nintendo doing it, it just sounds off, and even the battle with The Nightmare, why didn't they remix its theme from Fusion? I like how ever since Prime and Fusion each boss had their own theme, but that's missing here. Heck what happened to the remix of the Mother Brain music during the opening cutscene? In the Metroid and Me video we heard it so why not remix it with the orchestra they're using? The lack of Kenji Yamamoto is really felt here.

Right now I'm at the battle with the Queen Metroid, and I can't beat it. I get to the part where you grapple into its mouth, but then I don't know what to do. I try bombing the Hell out of it, but that doesn't work. I try Power Bombing, but can't since that's still locked. Try changing out of Morph Ball but can't. No matter what I try nothing works, and I die so quickly. I could really use a hint at least as that game gives you no clue as to what to do.
09/27/10, 08:28   
  TriforceBun  
You're on the right path with that line of thinking. Try again, and keep in mind that this is a pretty desperate situation for Samus...
09/27/10, 08:46   
  Brick  
Yeah someone told me what to do, but I just don't get why it hasn't been working whenever I try to do it, I mean I don't even see anything changing indicating that it's even working. I knew it must have been that, but was so confused when I didn't see anything happening.
09/27/10, 10:39   
  achhibbar  
Took me a few tries to work it out. I thought I might need a power bomb, so when I was in his tummy I checked to see what suit upgrades I could use in the Menu, and the power bomb was listed. Thought it was a good puzzle that maybe needed another mild hint.
09/27/10, 23:13   
  jon-e3  
I thought it was immediately apparent.

When you see a chair, you know to sit.
When you're swallowed by a giant Metroid Queen, you should know to plant a Power Bomb.
09/27/10, 23:58   
Edited: 09/28/10, 00:57
  carlosrox  
I thought the game direction made it pretty obvious.
09/28/10, 01:45   
  Zero  
I wonder how quickly I would have figured this out on my own had I not read about it in advance. Hmm.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm coming up on the end of the game now. Just saw the dead body of Ridley.

BTW I'm a bit confused... is Ridley the real one or just some kind of clone they grew?
09/28/10, 02:43   
  achhibbar  
@Zero It's a clone from the fragments of Ridley left on Samus's suit. Just like the Metroids.

My 2 cents on the game

+ The story was decent overall, and I didn't feel it was sexist. But I didn't like her freezing when she realized Ridley was back. Her relationship with Adam was done fairly well.
+ Samus is once again nimble and ferocious, rather than ponderous and clumsy.
+ Great combat.
+ The game is super addictive in a way the Prime games never were.
+ Very good boss battles.
+ The second half and the post game stuff are simply great.
+ 3rd person and D-pad controls allowed some very precise jumping/platforming/running which 1st person and analogue would have struggled to emulate.
+ Enemy attack patterns were well designed to show off the pointer mode and health recharge tactic. Both were implemented very well.
+ The parts where the gravity was messed up wer great. A great twist that messed you around. Metroid needs more ideas like this that mess with your expectations.

- The game has a weak first half. Too simple and hand-holdy.
- Sector Zero tease and lack of Metroids in general was very sad.
- The way suit upgrades are handled - simply crap and nonsensical.
- Anthony's face and expressions. He looked retarded,
- Needed a better illusion of non-linearity and more exploration earlier on.

Other M feels like the start of something great - but where Prime came out fully formed, Other M is underdone in some areas. But where Prime was the pinnacle that Retro struggled to better, Other M's successor has a clear path to grow and improve. There's a 10/10 sequel just waiting to be made, and if announced would instantly become my most wanted game.

Overall 8/10. (With Prime being a 10 and Corruption an 8)

What occurred to me recently was that Sakamoto should make the next Metroid game with Retro and not Team Ninja. Now that Retro are back on their feet, and Sakamoto has gotten his feet wet collaborating with another studio, it would be ideal. A fusion of both branches of the series - they should call it Metroid Fusion...
09/28/10, 02:46   
Edited: 09/28/10, 03:43
  Zero  
That's... was that in the game somewhere? That's sort of preposterous. Well, I guess not considering it would only take a bit of DNA, in theory, but still. Plus I'd think that at some point between the battle and her returning to the Federation she would have taken the suit off... which in her case is just what, the suit disappears? Does the DNA disappear with it, and remain on the suit in never-neverland?!
09/28/10, 03:00   
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