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Nintendo Offering To Fix Broken Metroid: Other M Saves

Who's ready for a trip to Japan?!

Depending on which message board or review you read, Nintendo and Team Ninja's Metroid: Other M is either the worst or the best game ever made. And while we could quarrel over its quality until the end of time, there's at least one thing about Other M that cannot be called into dispute: the presence of its game-breaking bug. Once you grab the Ice Beam, do not go backwards and kill the spiked enemy rather than proceeding forward through the nearest door. If you do, your save will be broken and you'll be unable to keep going in the story.
 
Nintendo has acknowledged this bug and is now offering a fix, according to MTV. Just don't expect that fix to be convenient.
 

No Caption Provided

== TEASER ==For the price of free, Nintendo is offering to fix all glitched save game files in the most ridiculous way possible: by asking you to send your SD card to Japan. Yeah, that Japan, and specifically this address:


Nintendo Service Center "Metroid Other M" Dept
56 Kaguraden Ogura-cho
Uji, Kyoto 611-0042
Japan  



Now, I know what you're thinking. "They can't be serious," you say. Trust me, I thought this was an April Fools joke at first, but then I looked at my calendar and realized that it's nearly October. (I also need to take my cat to the vet at 4pm.) This, unfortunately, is an actual solution for a bug on a console that does not support traditional means of fixes via fancy things like "patches" and "title updates."  
 
It goes almost without saying, but if you're stuck with a borked save, think real long and hard about how much that lost time means to you, because, and I'm guessing here, you're not going to see that SD card for a while. I suppose, though, that you could pass that extra time writing angry messages about Other M on the Internet. I heard that's all the rage these days.

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BradNicholson

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Edited By BradNicholson

Depending on which message board or review you read, Nintendo and Team Ninja's Metroid: Other M is either the worst or the best game ever made. And while we could quarrel over its quality until the end of time, there's at least one thing about Other M that cannot be called into dispute: the presence of its game-breaking bug. Once you grab the Ice Beam, do not go backwards and kill the spiked enemy rather than proceeding forward through the nearest door. If you do, your save will be broken and you'll be unable to keep going in the story.
 
Nintendo has acknowledged this bug and is now offering a fix, according to MTV. Just don't expect that fix to be convenient.
 

No Caption Provided

== TEASER ==For the price of free, Nintendo is offering to fix all glitched save game files in the most ridiculous way possible: by asking you to send your SD card to Japan. Yeah, that Japan, and specifically this address:


Nintendo Service Center "Metroid Other M" Dept
56 Kaguraden Ogura-cho
Uji, Kyoto 611-0042
Japan  



Now, I know what you're thinking. "They can't be serious," you say. Trust me, I thought this was an April Fools joke at first, but then I looked at my calendar and realized that it's nearly October. (I also need to take my cat to the vet at 4pm.) This, unfortunately, is an actual solution for a bug on a console that does not support traditional means of fixes via fancy things like "patches" and "title updates."  
 
It goes almost without saying, but if you're stuck with a borked save, think real long and hard about how much that lost time means to you, because, and I'm guessing here, you're not going to see that SD card for a while. I suppose, though, that you could pass that extra time writing angry messages about Other M on the Internet. I heard that's all the rage these days.
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Floppypants

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Edited By Floppypants

I'm just going to venture a guess that not a lot of people are going to take Nintendo up on that offer.

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deactivated-629e6affc23b3

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I just ended up starting over, sigh Nintendo..

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scarace360

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Edited By scarace360
@Floppypants: well said good sir.
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Digi7alS3lf

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Edited By Digi7alS3lf

Way to go Nintendo. 
So console patches don't sound so bad now...

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RE_Player1

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Edited By RE_Player1
@Digi7alS3lf said:
" Way to go Nintendo. So console patches don't sound so bad now... "
My thoughts exactly. 
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louiedog

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Edited By louiedog

It's 2010 and people have to physical mail a few kilobytes of data half-way around the world so that Nintendo can give them a fix. I just don't know what to say.

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takua108

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Edited By takua108

Well maaaaaaaybe if their console had a little bit better support for online connectivity and patching and so forth just like every other major gaming platform out there then maaaaaaaaaaaaybe this wouldn't''ve been an issue.

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DerekDanahy

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Edited By DerekDanahy

Hahahaha pathetic.

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Raymayne

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Edited By Raymayne

Wow...

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Grissefar

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Edited By Grissefar

It's the perfect solution to that problem. I wish I could have come up with that. Clever, Nintendo.

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raciend

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Edited By raciend

This just so that nintendo can say "we did give people a solution to fix the save, so now you can no longer give us shit" (even tho this solution is out of the question for 99% of the people getting the problem)

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DukeTogo

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Edited By DukeTogo

Will they fix the broken gameplay as well?

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garyoldman

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Edited By garyoldman

Nintendo is ALWAYS late to the tech party. They  have to be the most stubborn video game company EVER. They never commit to relevant modern technology. Example, while car is a HUGE success and has been for 10 years, the car company Nintendo is still using Dog Sleds and a Motion controlled commands. 

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xyzygy

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Edited By xyzygy

i'd rather just read a guide and figure out how to avoid it. In my first playthrough I managed to avoid it, hopefully I won't run into it on my second one.

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halberdierv2

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Edited By halberdierv2

didnt realize about that bug. cmon, nintendo, why are you so scared of giving us proper consoles withe actual Hard Drives!

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SCOOTMAN

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Edited By SCOOTMAN

Someone needs to do this. Just for my amusement and too see how long that SD card will be gone.

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warchief

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Edited By warchief

haha holy shit nintendo needs to get with the times. 

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MegaGoat

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Edited By MegaGoat

The only winning move is not to play

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eduardo

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Edited By eduardo

I once had a similar issue with Twilight Princess. It's in that cave area with the archeologist, I got stuck there. Thankfully I had a save a couple of hours back. It was annoying but at least it was not completely borked like this case.

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Branthog

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Edited By Branthog

Of all the sites that reported this yesterday (and it was also discussed in the Giant Bomb forums), the credit for the source is given to MTV?! Really?! Not even 1Up or something?
 
Also, it's not just the SD Card. People can choose to send an SD card with a copy of their save or their actual console. That's nuts. Imagine if you had to ship your PS3 back to get a save game issue with Warhawk or whatever fixed?

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MegaGoat

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Edited By MegaGoat
@Branthog said:
" Of all the sites that reported this yesterday (and it was also discussed in the Giant Bomb forums), the credit for the source is given to MTV?! Really?! Not even 1Up or something?
 
Also, it's not just the SD Card. People can choose to send an SD card with a copy of their save or their actual console. That's nuts. Imagine if you had to ship your PS3 back to get a save game issue with Warhawk or whatever fixed? "
GB are MTV's butt buddies
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wrathofconn

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Edited By wrathofconn
@garyoldman
Nintendo is ALWAYS late to the tech party. They  have to be the most stubborn video game company EVER. They never commit to relevant modern technology. Example, while car is a HUGE success and has been for 10 years, the car company Nintendo is still using Dog Sleds and a Motion controlled commands. 
Yeah, Nintendo was SO late to the motion control party. Are you trying to be serious?
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koobz

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Edited By koobz

I want a corrupted save just to send it in and see what happens.  I bet they send it back with hella free stickers!

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deactivated-5b65b74e68e3e

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Why don't they just make a save file available for download? Have it include all the items up to that point that a player could/should have, even if they weren't found by the player. I know this opens up an exploit. But, we didn't screw up the game either.

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Branthog

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Edited By Branthog
@MegaGoat said:
" @Branthog said:
" Of all the sites that reported this yesterday (and it was also discussed in the Giant Bomb forums), the credit for the source is given to MTV?! Really?! Not even 1Up or something?
 
Also, it's not just the SD Card. People can choose to send an SD card with a copy of their save or their actual console. That's nuts. Imagine if you had to ship your PS3 back to get a save game issue with Warhawk or whatever fixed? "
GB are MTV's butt buddies "
It may just be me, but when people quote or refer to MTV for video games, it strikes me the same way as when people say "but the geeks quad guy at best buy told me that...".
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artisan88

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Edited By artisan88

Can I send Nintendo back the game itself and have them fix the gawdawful story?

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digital_sin

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Edited By digital_sin

LOL, couldn't they just put up a Windows and Mac supported app that can patch your SD card save for you? 
 
I <3 Japan.

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Vinny_Says

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Edited By Vinny_Says

is it 1985 again?

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Rxanadu

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Edited By Rxanadu
@wrathofconn said:
" @garyoldman
Nintendo is ALWAYS late to the tech party. They  have to be the most stubborn video game company EVER. They never commit to relevant modern technology. Example, while car is a HUGE success and has been for 10 years, the car company Nintendo is still using Dog Sleds and a Motion controlled commands. 
Yeah, Nintendo was SO late to the motion control party. Are you trying to be serious? "

They actually were:    
  
 
Yeah, that Sega.
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noe

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Edited By noe

Didn't the Power Glove come out before the Activator?

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Benjo

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Edited By Benjo
@Rxanadu said:

" @wrathofconn said:

" @garyoldman

Nintendo is ALWAYS late to the tech party. They  have to be the most stubborn video game company EVER. They never commit to relevant modern technology. Example, while car is a HUGE success and has been for 10 years, the car company Nintendo is still using Dog Sleds and a Motion controlled commands. 
Yeah, Nintendo was SO late to the motion control party. Are you trying to be serious? "

They actually were:    
  
 
Yeah, that Sega. "
My favorite part is the 90's sweater.
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Ravenlock

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Edited By Ravenlock

Are they paying for the shipping? If they are, hell, I'll break a save intentionally just to make them actually do it. 
 
If they're not [paying shipping], they certainly should be. It certainly shouldn't be the customer's responsibility to pay for their mistake.

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BooDoug187

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Edited By BooDoug187
@Digi7alS3lf:  Reggie right now is saying "Patches... only nerds and losers care about that!"
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big_jon

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Edited By big_jon

This game was good, this glitch is lame.
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Sedasys

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Edited By Sedasys

I have a feeling Nintendo only did this because they knew that nobody with a brain would bother sending something all the way to Japan just because they lost a few hours of game time. It means less time spent fixing saves on their part, and they all get to laugh about it in the office. Oh, Nintendo, you so sneaky.

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Vaancor

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Edited By Vaancor

Just gotta Love how Nintendo treats there fans, Love it!

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Eribuster

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Edited By Eribuster
@Vaancor said:
" Just gotta Love how Nintendo treats there fans, Love it! "
It could be worse. There could be no fix offered. 
 
I haven't run in to the bug and I think there isn't any particular need to backtrack after getting the Ice Beam. At least, I'm pretty sure there was no expansion tank that could be opened up with the Ice Beam. Still, it sucks that a bug got through and sucks even more that Nintendo refuses to save themselves the trouble and offer an online solution to the problem. There is storage in the Wii and I can't imagine the fix is some super megabyte behemoth.
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Kjellm87

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Edited By Kjellm87

Game breaking bug?
Guess I was lucky then.

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nick_verissimo

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Edited By nick_verissimo

Jeez, even my iPhone games have title updates. Get with the times Nintendo.

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Brackynews

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Edited By Brackynews
Rage has been all the rage for a lot longer than there has been an internet. :)
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rNilla

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Edited By rNilla

I remember back in the mid to late 90s I had an issue with a PC save game (Sam & Max, maybe?). Even then I was able to get help by emailing the save game to a support person who promptly replied back to me with a fixed save file.
 
I guess it's better than nothing but this an archaic solution to say the least.

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Junpei

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Edited By Junpei

really seems like a problem that'd be non-existent if the system had some capable online interactions. Oh how we have become jaded by patches. Sure starting a game to fins it needs to download an update can be irritating, but situations like this are why they are done.

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raikoh05

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Edited By raikoh05

so many better ways of handling this. how about patching the game? how about asking users to upload the save file to a server? how about just hosting the fixed file? what the fuck is this shit?

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Moonshadow101

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Edited By Moonshadow101

Wonderful. If it had been anyone but Nintendo, they'd have the patch out by now and this'd be a non-issue. But Nintendo doesn't need to live in the modern age, right? Right?

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Pop

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Edited By Pop
@CannibalFerox said:
" Why don't they just make a save file available for download? Have it include all the items up to that point that a player could/should have, even if they weren't found by the player. I know this opens up an exploit. But, we didn't screw up the game either. "
but that would be too easy, it should be like this, to download the file you have to send a letter to japan with your user name and password and include a picture of your saved game with a clock next to it and the wii.
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apathylad

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Edited By apathylad

Someone should upload and distribute the patched save file on a website. 

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jonnyboy

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Edited By jonnyboy

Somebody needs to send Japan the Haynes guide for the internet.

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dougbrit2

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Edited By dougbrit2

Agreed, just offer the save file up on your website, may not be a great solution but sending your sd card off to japan?

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lasafrog

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Edited By lasafrog


I realized as I read about this glitch a couple days ago that I had just saved my game right after getting the ice beam.... and not going through the referenced door. 
 
Sure enough the "rare" bug is exactly where I left off, and I can't fathom listening to Samus whine like a 5 year old throughout the first few hours again. 
 
I am horrified that I just wrote that about a Metroid game. Thanks for really fucking up my Metroid, Team Ninja; shame on you Nintendo for not paying the needed attention to this game, bug and all.

For what little I can impact this fiasco, I will not be including "other M" in my personal list of proper Metroid games. Maybe as a gaming community we can banish this thing from existance.