I played Metroid: Other M recently, and despite some minor issues, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It felt like classic Metroid in all the areas that count, regardless of any stilted dialogue our heroine might utter or any minor difficulties the limited control scheme may present. Now that I mention Samus' dialogue, I may as well start there.
The voice actress for Samus Aran is woeful. I can understand the developers wanting the character to sound like devoid of all emotion -- After all, she is a galactic bounty hunter that works alone, and has been through some serious business to boot -- but that doesn't excuse the actresses wooden performance. In fact, actress is a bit generous, line reader is a more adequate job title, she is given lines and she reads them out loud. Okay I'm being a little bit nasty, it's most likely the voice over director's fault or maybe she delivered the exact performance the team was after, It's hard to say. All I know is that it made a poor first impression on me for the story and character side of things. Fortunately I did feel like the story did a reasonable job, and I found Samus' voice tolerable after playing for a couple of hours. I wasn't bothered as much by the portrayal of the Samus as some people were, but I did find one particular moment kind of moronic.
Alright, now that I have filled my bitching quota I can continue.
Wait hold on, theres more.
Being 'metroided' has become a common game mechanic ever since the early Metroid and Castlevania games. Typically the cause isn't terribly creative and may even feel a little arbitrary in the overarching story, but its rarely, entirely inexplicable. Metroid: Other M seemed determined to change that, providing the most profoundly ridiculous reason for losing your characters abilities from a previous game that I have ever encountered. She doesn't want to use them. She wants Adam to say when shes allowed to. Fuck that.
The game tries to justify it through the story and it's almost convincing, but there are moments -- where an ability isn't enabled when it should be -- that just defy all logic and reason. The clearest example of this I can recall is a moment early on where I had to run Samus through an unstable, lava-filled environment, that was emanating enough heat to start burning through her suit. Where after making my way through most of the sector Adam finally decides to authorise the use of the Varia Suit -- an upgrade that would have prevented all that unpleasant burning alive business. It's also worth noting that having Adam say "You can use this now!" isn't quite as satisfying as traversing hostile environments to procure the upgrades yourself. The knowledge that you have them in your suit, laying dormant, is actually quite frustrating and it put a bit of a damper on my experience.
Enough of this negativity though, what did I actually like about the game? Well it might be slothful of me to say that pretty much everything I haven't dumped shit on I enjoyed, but It seems a fairly accurate statement. I found myself quite content with the control scheme after getting used to it, and the automated dodge and aim functions during combat felt appropriate and reasonably well implemented. The combat was largely enjoyable, minus a couple of enemies that feel as though they require a touch more punishment then they should. Bosses were appropriately big and nasty looking, as well as providing welcome doses of fan service throughout the game's duration. Finally, the most important aspect for Metroid fans, collecting stuff is still cool and backtracking to use unlocked abilities to see where you get to go next is still as exciting and addictive as ever.
So, it took about five paragraphs to talk about what was bad about the game, but only one to explain why it is ultimately a good game. I think I might need to work on balancing out my negative and positive opinions.
Anyway, writing all this has left me with a couple of questions:
1. Should there be another story driven Metroid game ?
or
2. Should Nintendo stick with what it does best and just continuously remake the games you love with some shiny new extras?
I feel like the story worked out alright in Metroid: Other M, there were some genuinely interesting developments for the Metroid lore and it's characters. However I don't know if it really needed a more prominent story. It would have been interesting to see how a new 2D metroid game would have done critically rather then them trying to shake it up a bit. I am glad they didn't just make another Prime though, that trilogy feels just right as it is.
Anyway, I should really get to bed. I have made this post long enough already. I might consider writing some proper reviews soon, since this pretty much is one. I will see how I go.
Ciao.
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