Metroid: Other M (Prelaunch Discussion)

[Valigarmander]

My biggest complaint about that opening vid (aside from Samus's lolwut proportions) is Samus's voice acting. Ehhhh.

But everything else about it looks cool. Damn me to hell if I'm not psyched.

[Luigiman7]

I liked Samus's deep, sexy Brawl voice better. And lol mole

It's pronounced Zeb-ess? I always said it Zee-bes.

[Metal Mario]

^Ha! Don't feel bad. Until I heard the correct pronunciation in the original Super Smash Bros., I was calling Samus "SHAY-mus"!

[Marilink]

I always said "Zeebz."

[Deku Trii]

^Ditto.

[Cosmonautical]

Actually, the weirdest part about Samus's speech, to me, was the "BABY" thing. You know, being that baby is a dumb thing to call a giant face-eating jelly fish. Hatchling is much more appropriate, and up until now that's what they've always called it. Score one for crappy translations, I guess?

[1-up Salesman]

Looks awesome. Everyone agree?

[Jere]

Agree!

[Cosmonautical]

Originally Posted by 1-up salesman

Looks awesome. Everyone agree?

Looks.

[Speed]

Never trust a trailor, I'll believe it when I play it.

[Valigarmander]

New trailer.

GoNintendo - Metroid: Other M - brand-new trailer

[Cosmonautical]

Okay, that's a bit better. At least her hair isn't retarded, now.

[Valigarmander]

Has this been posted yet?

Metroid Other M Preview for the Wii from 1UP.com

Samus Aran, bounty hunter and heroine-at-large, is brought to the precipice of death by the destructive fury of her nemesis the Mother Brain -- only to be spared by the intervention of a baby Metroid whose life she spared at the end of her previous mission. The larva, mutated by the Space Pirates' experimentations and still imprinted on its "mother," sacrifices its life to empower Samus with the strength she needs to destroy Mother Brain once and for all.

The scene, of course, is the climactic finale to 1994's Super Metroid, which remains one of gaming's most memorable battles. It's also the prologue to the Nintendo/Team Ninja collaboration Metroid: Other M, rendered this time in crisp CG. It's a clever move on the creators' part, not only capitalizing on the most powerful moment of a true videogame classic, but also imitating that game's structure (as it began with a recap of Metroid II's finale). The message is clear: Other M is the true sequel to Super Metroid, and it's aspiring to a similar level of quality.

Other M isn't exactly wiping the other Super Metroid sequel (2002's Metroid Fusion) off the record books. On the contrary, it's clear from its opening moments that Other M is meant as a bridge between the two games. Responding to a distress signal from a seemingly abandoned starship, Samus quickly stumbles into a contingent of space marines under the command of her former boss, Adam Malkovich -- the same Adam whose personality served as a template for the AI companion that guided her actions throughout Fusion.

All of this ties into Other M's heavy emphasis on story, which plays out through a number of cutscenes, partially narrated by Samus in flashback style. This is also in keeping with previous games; both the intro to Super Metroid and the entirety of Fusion featured a similar narrative format. Unfortunately, the general consensus of everyone who had the chance to play Other M at today's Nintendo Media Summit is that the game's narrative is by far its weakest element. The script reads awkwardly, and Samus' voice actress sounds stilted and lifeless. Given the emphasis the game places on her musings, this seems to have generated a fair amount of trepidation.

The good news is that Metroid has never been a particularly story-focused series, and everything else about Other M makes it easy to overlook the wooden delivery of graceless dialogue. Team Ninja might seem an odd choice for co-developing a Metroid game; its challenging, action-driven catalog is practically the antithesis of Metroid's deliberate, exploratory pace. Yet based on the first 45 minutes of Other M, the two fit together with surprising ease.

The first thing you're likely to notice is how streamlined the interface is. Other M controls entirely with the Wii Remote, held sideways. Samus moves with the D-pad, fires with 1 and jumps with 2. The A button causes her to duck into a morph ball... and that's pretty much it. Everything is greatly simplified; her arm cannon auto-targets enemies directly ahead of her, and wall-jumping is practically automated so long as you press the jump button at the proper times. The developers are clearly aware of how much of a change these control revisions represent for the series, as the on-screen instructions for wall jumps specifically mention the fact that there's no need to press in any direction as you hit jump -- possibly the first time I've ever seen an on-screen cue tell you how not to play a game.

This doesn't mean Other M is some brain-dead, watered-down action game, though. Certainly the action is far more brisk than in previous Metroid titles. Enemies no longer appear one or two at a time, minding their business; rather, they attack in large numbers, and tend to rush after Samus. The controls are simplified out of necessity. It's difficult enough to face off against three Sidehoppers all at once without having to worry about pausing to aim. Still, the intensity of the action doesn't seem to have impacted the traditional structure of the Metroid style in the least.

Even within the limited setting of the game's opening hour, the demo we played offered a number of opportunities to go off the beaten path in a hunt for items and secrets. These tend to be obscured by the fixed 3D camera perspective -- tucked out of the way, but not impossible to find. Returning to one particular area, for example, caused the floor to drop suddenly away, revealing a pit full of the aforementioned Sidehoppers. But by running toward the camera's fixed point and performing a couple of deft wall jumps in seemingly innocuous corners, an extra missile tank slowly came into view to be added to Samus' arsenal. And it's not as though its location was totally oblique, either, as its hiding point was broadly hinted at by a glowing point on the on-screen minimap.

Missiles, by the way, throw an interesting wrinkle into Other M's mechanics. There's no button to toggle between missiles and the standard arm cannon as in previous Metroid titles. Instead, players use missiles by pointing the Wii Remote directly into the screen to activate a first-person perspective mode. The B trigger locks on to items of interest -- enemies, panels, or other points -- and the A button fires. Obviously, the change in modality of both the controller and the camera perspective forces Samus to stand stationary as she employs missiles, creating a delicate balance of risk and reward. Missiles are incredibly powerful, even more so than in previous Metroid games, but their use must be carefully timed to prevent Samus from leaving herself open to attack.

Happily, Nintendo's EAD group and Team Ninja consist of veteran developers with a strong sense of effective game design, so the awkwardness of the modal switch between third- and first-person cameras is accounted for by the nature of enemies. The first boss -- a living, collective mass of insects that combine to create a sort of evil, cyclopean version of Grimace -- is a great example of how combat flows in Other M. Here, Samus teams up with the marine contingent to take down the bug-beast, which is vulnerable only in its enormous eye. Standard shots from the perimeter of the battle only ricochet off the creature; to damage it, Samus has to get in close.

It's here that the Team Ninja influence truly asserts itself: By moving in close to the boss, Samus can run up its body to stand on its head and fire a devastating burst of fire into its eye. Proper timing for this action is imperative. Rush in too soon and the creature will simply fling Samus away, damaging her instead. Tackle it immediately after it lashes out at the marines, though, and its response will be slow enough to enable Samus to get in a clear shot. Eventually, the marines will manage to freeze the creature's limbs solid with their ice pistols, leaving Samus free to blast off that appendage. It's fast and fluid and a little bit brutal, yet it feels wholly in line with the classic Metroid spirit.

In fact, that seems to define the entire game: Not a typical Metroid adventure, but faithful to the series' spirit in the same way that Metroid Prime was. Once the boss is defeated, Samus is tasked with restoring power to the area and reporting back to Adam. The demo ended here, but Nintendo's reps encouraged us to kick the tires and poke around into corners to see how the world changes as players progress through the mission. With the power restored, locked doors open and various devices activate throughout areas that were previously in the dark.

Even the story has promise, despite its questionable delivery. It includes some great little details, like the fact that Samus' access to her arsenal is initially limited not because she lost her weapons in some freak accident (yet again), but rather because she's under direct military supervision and simply isn't authorized to use her weapons of mass destruction (No disintegrations!). And there's no denying that seeing the final showdown of Super Metroid presented in cinematic CG is a rush for fans. So, even if Other M isn't without a few potential shortcomings, it looks likely to be a worthy addition to one of gaming's most beloved classic franchises. And who knows, maybe by the end, Samus will bother to attempt emoting. Even if she sounds bored all the way through Other M's finale, though, it's hard to imagine gamers will share her lack of enthusiasm once they experience the game's brisk action for themselves.

[Cosmonautical]

That's a positive sounding report, it leaves me with the idea that the writer enjoyed the experience. It also sounds like they nerfed a lot of important gameplay elements (aiming?!) to make it more "accessible".

I remain pensive. (and yeah, the voice actress sounded pretty bland, but I'd rather she sounds wooden than ZANY AND FULL OF CHARACTER)

[Speed]

*misses the sexy brawl voice actress*

But anyway I'm hopeful but I shall hold off on judgement until I get my hands on it.

[1-up Salesman]

I think it'll turn out great gathering everything I've seen, but that's just my opinion. The second trailer at least lets you figure what's going on a bit better than the awesome first trailer. I would have liked to see a bit more than Samus just standing there, but it was good.

[Valigarmander]

1UP's Retro Gaming Blog : GDC 2010: Metroid Other M is a "Famicom Game Plus"

Yoshi Sakamoto doesn't think of himself as the father of Metroid.

"I feel resistance when people credit me for creating the series," he says. "Maybe you could say I'm the one who raised Samus. But the metroids were born by the Queen Metroid!"

The Queen Metroid, of course, refers to the final boss of Metroid II: Return of Samus, the only Nintendo-developed Metroid title in which Sakamoto didn't have a hand. Even so, its ending inspired the finest chapter of the series, Super Metroid -- the Super NES game in which Sakamoto made the jump from designer to director. And that game's finale now serves as the lead-in for Sakamoto's latest project, the Team Ninja collaboration Metroid Other M.

Sakamoto's speech at GDC 2010 was a rare glimpse into the reclusive designer's thought processes and inspirations. He touched frequently on his non-Metroid works ranging from Balloon Fight (which he co-created with current Nintendo president Satoru Iwata) to the upcoming WarioWare D.I.Y. Sakamoto's nearly 30-year tenure with the company has put him into contact with a wide range of games, and he spent much of his time musing over the wide range in the tone of his work. He mentally divides his creations into two categories -- "serious touch" projects like Metroid Other M and "comical touch" -- and stresses that the creation process for the two styles of game is largely the same. "As long as someone is open to new experiences and is willing to feel them differently, you can use the same tool set to move people in different ways," he says.

Like many old Nintendo veterans, it's easy to see Sakamoto's Famicom roots even in his current games. Though he didn't create the WarioWare franchise, having come aboard as producer of Touched! and Twisted!, the series demonstrates a fundamental 8-bit simplicity. His steady work to create the runaway Japanese hit Tomodachi Collection led to the invention of the Wii's Mii Channel. And his insistence that Other M play with NES-style controls -- no nunchuk allowed -- has resulted in a work that Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi refers to as a "Famicom Game Plus": A modern console action game with the flow and simplicity of an 8-bit title.

Even Other M's emphasis on narrative is an evolution of Sakamoto's 8-bit work, calling back to the Japan-only Famicom Tantei Club mystery series he wrote for the Famicom Disc System. Sakamoto claims that Other M's story has a strong element of mystery in the vein of the older games, which were in turn inspired by the films of Italian director Dario Argento. The movie Suspiria in particular increased Sakamoto's sensitivity to mood, timing, foreshadowing, and the effectiveness of precisely timed musical cues.

As a long-time Metroid fan, I admit to having some misgivings about Other M's emphasis on narrative. The dialogue (and monologues) in Metroid Fusion were that game's weakest moments. Sakamoto mentioned in passing that Super Metroid was developed under a self-imposed rule restricting dialogue, and that restriction helped forge one of gaming's most memorable ending sequences. Will Other M stand up to its classic predecessor? It'll be interesting to see. Sakamoto himself admits that he's carved a niche for himself filled with quirky, off-the-beaten-path games. Other M is possibly his first chance to helm a blockbuster-level title, and I'm eager to see how well he'll pull it off. That "Famicom Game Plus" descriptor suggests he's on the right path, at least.

[CaptHayfever]

"I feel resistance when people credit me for creating the series,"

A valid feeling, since he didn't create the series. (Sorry, I just spent an hour syncing together a 5-minute song; I'm sorta locked into nitpick mode right now.)

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Cosmonautical]

Unfortunately for the reviewer, Sakamoto was always second-fiddle in the production chain to Yokoi up through Super Metroid, and those are deep shoes to fill.

^ It's too bad the games are always accredited to their directors and producers, considering how uninvolved those figures can often be in the conception of a game.

[Kargath]

Yeah ... like how Miyamoto receives the credit for huge amounts of Nintendo's products even though he's like a wandering overseer that spouts poetry now.