I keep hearing about how the Metroid fanbase despises this game so much it's become a running joke can someone articulate to me why?

I'm not the best guy to go into details about this, since I never even beat that game, but I can say that the characterization of Samus is laughable, if not downright insulting to the character, the writing is bad, or at the very least not befitting of a Metroid game, and the gameplay and progression is lackluster. Man, now I've worked myself up about it...make a good, new Metroid game, Nintendo!

People didnt liked Samus´ portrayal in the game and apparently the game retcons some of the story (lore) from previous games.

Samus was portrayed as weak and ineffectual, which completely contradicts the badass woman bounty hunter image of her pretty much everyone had in their minds. It was anti-character development. Also, having Adam give you "clearance" to use your weapons is complete BS.

This is definitely a huge part of it. Running through a lava filled room because some guy doesn't expressly give her permission to use the Varia Suit was total bunk.

You have to use the wiimote sideways like an NES controller. THERE'S LIKE A BILLION DIFFERENT CONTROLLER OPTIONS ON THE WII. WHY FORCE THIS?. There is no reason to not even allow use of the nunchuck. That is why I didn't like it.

This was my biggest complaint about the whole game. All they needed to do was get rid of the awful first-person parts, slap a Nunchuk on there and let the rest play out. Playing a 3D game with a D-pad is tough to pull off and Other M didn't pull it off.

It wasn't bad. In fact it was a ton of fun.

I sure didn't feel weak and ineffectual. Also I'd rather the Adam thing then the usual "lol you lost all your weapons again".

Everything I've heard about its story just sounds like the worst and I'm not too keen on what I've seen of its gameplay.

That said, I see unsold copies of this fucking game in seemingly every electronics store I visit so I should probably pick one up and play it for myself. Not a chore I look forward to but if the mention of this game that I've never played always makes me shake my head, I figure I should play it so I can have a solid reason why. At least a more solid reason than "Samus nearly shit herself after seeing Ridley in a game that takes place after Super Metroid? Fucking c'mon!"

EDIT: And before someone (whose username probably starts with an H) tells me I should give it a fair chance, I'll try!

Samus has 0 impact on the overall story. She shows up, does a lot of running around, finds stuff out that's not important at all, and then it ends with nothing accomplished. SEE YOU NEXT MISSION! YOUR RATE FOR COLLECTING ITEMS IS: BUGGER ALL!

I wanted more out of Samus in this, but she was just along for the ride. I never felt in control like I have with the previous Metroid games. No freedom to explore and find stuff out on my own. That's my main problem with this game. Also...

Awesomely dumb japanese rap/pop music?

They didn't write Samus in the way I think the audience has viewed her, but they actually got a few things right. She's quiet, and introspective. It makes sense, considering the solitary nature of her work. There was, however, a specific scene that pissed off a lot of people, with good reason. When a certain character sacrifices themselves, Samus is seen as weak and pathetic. If I remember right, she actually bursts into tears. I figured in that situation (the father figure in her life preparing to sacrifice himself) she would be a wreck, but it wouldn't have been written in that way. It would have been a more internal struggle. I could see her getting frustrated, but just losing it like that? No.

She isn't a rookie. She isn't a little girl. She would have seen the situation for what it was, understood what needed to be done, and steeled herself. She's a professional.

All of that being said, the gameplay was tremendous. If the story side of things had been done better, it would be my favorite Metroid; the game feels like what Metroid should have become when it went from 2D to 3D(and this is coming from someone who loves the Prime games).

I thought the pace and action was awful. It just wasn't fun.

I had a great time, maybe because I got it for free.

Before Other: M (OtherM... MOther... MOTHER! *groan*) got made, if you'd asked me what the last thing a new Metroid game needed was, I probably would have said cutscenes. Metroid was always great at telling its story through its atmosphere and environments. Other: M just fucking beats you in the face with terrible, terrible exposition and horribly ham-fisted symbology (M:Other, "bottle" ship, the baby, the baby, the MOTHERFUCKING BABY!) constantly. If this is what Samus was really like all along, I really hope she keeps her pie-hole shut for the entirety of the next one.

Well gameplay wise, too much of the difficulty was artificial because it turned off weapons (the reasons in the narrative for which is crap) but also the narrative and dialogue sucked the life out of you.

And Samus' CO is a complete Bastard, a stark contrast to what little we knew of in during Fusion (on of my fav games in the series)