• Review: Metroid: Other M

    by
    Jason Arriola
    Published on 09-21-2010 04:45 PM
    0 Comments Comments


    Metroid: Other M
    “Samus returns for her most action-packed mission yet.”

    Developer: Nintendo/Team Ninja/D-Rockets
    Publisher: Nintendo
    Platform: Nintendo Wii
    Genre: Action, Adventure
    Rating: Teen
    Release Date: August 31st, 2010 (NA)

    From the developer best known for the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series comes a refreshing new tale to Nintendo’s well known Metroid franchise.

    Presentation

    The story of Metroid: Other M, picks up where the Super Nintendo’s Super Metroid left off, and before the events of the popular Gameboy Advance title Metroid Fusion. Other M begins with a beautiful opening cinematic that shows the final battle of Super Metroid between Mother Brain and Samus Aran recreated for the Wii’s engine, but remains true to the scene as depicted in Super Metroid. After delivering the final blow to Mother Brain, Samus narrowly escapes the exploding Planet Zebes (the planet that provided the setting for Super Metroid) and awakens aboard a Galactic Federation ship, thus beginning the events of Other M.

    After recovering from her recent showdown with Mother Brain, Samus regains her energy and sets off for her next bounty. She soon receives a distress signal from her ship, codenamed “Baby’s Cry”, and traces the message to a Bottle Ship floating in space. Deciding to investigate the causes of the distress signal, Samus sets a flight path to the Bottle Ship. After docking her ship in the main hangar, Samus encounters another Galactic Federation ship also docked in the same hangar. Samus immediately rushes into the main sector of the Bottle Ship and runs into a group of Galactic Federation soldiers. The soldiers make up the Galactic Federation 7th Platoon, whose leader, Anthony Higgs, is an old friend of Samus while she was serving on the Galactic Federation Army when she was younger. Among the other soldiers is Samus’ former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich, who also played a role in Metroid Fusion. Because Samus left Adam’s command to pursue a life as a lone bounty hunter, Adam reacts to Samus’ appearance coldly, obviously indicating that there was tension between them years ago. As the plot progresses, we are able to see Samus’s life before she became a bounty hunter, and the relationship she had with Adam and her former platoon through nicely animated cut-scenes.

    Samus asks the platoon what they are doing at the Bottle Ship, and that’s when Adam harshly intervenes, saying that the information is “not for an outsider”, which immediately opens old wounds for Samus. Just then, the platoon is attacked by a strange purple creature, and Samus of course lends a hand. After defeating the creature, Adam realizes that help from Samus can prove to be invaluable, and asks her to join them, on one condition: Samus must accept orders from Adam, including to abide to his command by using certain weapons and items only at his approval. Adam then splits up the platoon to investigate the creature infested Bottle Ship to learn what and why the Bottle Ship has become chaotic and sends soldiers to each of the ship’s Three Sectors. Samus’s new journey begins here.

    Samus must now travel throughout the abandoned Bottle Ship to uncover the meaning of the distress signal, and the meaning as to what has brought her to the ship in the first place. With the Bottle Ship overrun by vicious monsters, it’s up to Samus to exterminate these threats all while confronting her past, betrayal, new enemies, old enemies, and a new threat to the galaxy.

    Graphics

    The use of CGI cut-scenes to depict Samus’s past was nicely rendered and deserves to be recognized as some of the Wii’s best graphical offerings. The cut-scenes were eye candy despite the Wii being a non-high definition console.

    In-game graphics were also great. Borrowing from many other Metroid games, Other M has Samus exploring various kinds of environments. Although the game takes place within a ship, the ship itself is designed to make artificial computer powered environments (the original purpose of the Bottle Ship was to observe various creatures living in a “semi-artificial” habitat, which also explains why there are creatures running loose on the ship). Samus explores the ships mechanical interior, as well as tropical forests, boiling lakes of lava, freezing cold tundra’s, and deserted wastelands.

    Sound/Music

    Sound effects were very nice to hear, especially when using your weapons and items. Charging Samus’s beam weapon and firing it into a swarm of enemies with the resulting “boom” sound is quite satisfying. To the trained ear, even the sound effect used when charging your beam is the same sound effect to charge your beam in the Metroid Prime Trilogy, a bit of fun trivia. From insect-like creatures to towering beasts, each life form shown in the game had its own unique sound.

    Other M’s soundtrack is more atmospheric than any of the games that came before it. With the exception of a few of the classic themes, such as the main theme, some were welcome to hear. When starting up the game, you can hear Other M’s rendition of the Metroid theme. After loading a saved game file, you are also greeted with the classic Samus fanfare. There is also one fan favorite boss theme that plays later in the game’s story. But mostly the game’s soundtrack takes on atmospheric tones, capturing the mood, danger, and ambience of the Bottle Ship’s various artificial environments. The soundtrack does a good job when the gameplay takes on eerie themes. The soundtrack suits Other M’s gameplay, but it would have been nice to hear some memorable themes or even new and original musical themes as well.

    However, as good as the visual presentation was, the voice acting for the game was a little off, with Samus speaking frequently in monotone, with the exception of the moments within the game when Samus is facing a suspenseful and life-threatening situation. For a game in which the protagonist provides the commentary, Samus’s voice could have been a little livelier, but aside from that, the voice talent was put together nicely.

    Gameplay

    Metroid: Other M takes on a somewhat classic feel to the Metroid franchise by returning to its traditional third person gameplay. However, Other M borrows the first person perspective gameplay from its predecessor, the Metroid Prime Trilogy.

    Metroid: Other M mainly has the player holding the Wii Remote horizontally, with the game being played most of the time in third person perspective. In this perspective, players can experience the traditional run and gun formula by firing from Samus’s arm cannon, jumping, running, and entering into morph ball mode. By pointing the Wii remote at the screen, the player will enter first person perspective. Unfortunately, there are two problems with this mechanic. First, and most obvious, switching to first person perspective keeps Samus stuck in place and she can’t move forward-backward and side to side. Unlike the Metroid Prime games, Other M does not use the nunchuk. Second, the only way Samus can use her missiles is to enter first person perspective. This is a shame because some enemies you will encounter require that you fire a missile at their “weak spot”, and given that you are a sitting duck when in first person doesn’t help the situation. That isn’t to say that entering first person perspective isn’t bad, the transition from third person to first person is quite fast, but it could depend on how your Wii’s sensor bar is positioned. Additionally, there will be times when the player is required to search for a “clue” in order to progress with the game. Searching for this clue must be done in first person perspective. However, locating this clue is not always easy, in fact, the clue itself may be something small, something you might not be expecting. But once you get into the flow of these situations, they shouldn’t be time consuming as they are at first. I personally would have preferred that we be given a hint as to what we should be scanning for, to ease the situation.

    Team Ninja makes their mark on the Metroid franchise by incorporating a new melee combat system. Instead of blowing up some of the bigger enemies with Samus’s arm cannon, players have the opportunity to deliver nicely animated fatal blows to the enemy. Some enemies can be staggered and some can simply be approached. By having Samus’s arm cannon charged, players can run into or jump on an enemy and vaporize them. Although some of the enemies are fast, and can dodge Samus’s attack and answer with some of their own. This is where another new combat system comes in called Sense Move, and by pressing in any direction on the D-Pad just before being hit, Samus can quickly dodge incoming enemy attacks. Sense Move is an easy mechanic to use, but does take some practice at first. If you want to stand a chance with enemies that fight you in groups, your mastery of Sense Move is required.

    Veterans of past Metroid games should be aware that Other M’s weapon, missile, and health reserves are recharged much differently now. Instead of pick ups that refill your energy and missiles, players must now hold the Wii remote vertically to refill their energy and missiles. Refilling missiles is a quick process, lasting as fast as two seconds. On the other hand, refilling energy is actually a painful process. Only when Samus is critically low on health can she refill her energy as opposed to refilling at any point in time. This makes boss battles or battling a horde of enemies a pain. Refilling energy takes slightly longer to refill than missiles, plus the fact that Samus stands still when recharging, making her an easy target to her enemies. So if Samus gets hit while recharging, not only does she take additional damage, but the recharging process must start over and you’ll have to stagger your enemies and get far away from them if you hope to survive the fight. I would prefer that enemies drop the pick ups, so that Samus can either walk over them or lure them in by charging her arm cannon just as in the previous Metroid games.

    Weapon, suit, and item upgrades depart from traditional Metroid fashion, and now Samus actually has her main upgrades from the start, but due to Adam’s command, Samus can only use these items at his approval. Veterans of the franchise may find this alarming, but acquiring items at certain parts of a game has been in Metroid’s formula from day one. So this style of item acquisition actually works just fine when you think about it.
    If you hope to stand up to some of the harder boss fights, then a traditional Metroid gameplay mechanic: item collecting, is required. Spread throughout the Bottle Ship are numerous power-ups, such as missiles, energy tanks, energy parts, and axel charges. Each of them help Samus as she progresses. If you’re the kind of player who likes to get off the path to explore, or go item finding, this mechanic is great for you as some of the power-ups are cleverly hidden. If you also want to acquire some of the special features at the end of the game, then finding and obtaining 100% of the items is required. Items can easily be found on the map and are indicated as blinking blue dots, but not all are listed on the map, so be mindful in your search for those items.

    Some areas of the Bottle Ship won’t be accessible at first, so back-tracking is required in the gameplay, so for those who don’t know how to get back from where they just came from, fear not, as an objective indicator can be seen on the map. Some areas will require you to think how you will use Samus’s abilities in order to progress, some more difficult than others. Unfortunately, there is no hint system incorporated into the game, so figuring out how to move on to another area of the ship is up to you, unless you get help from another source of course.

    Lasting Appeal

    Your adventure with Samus will having you spending a good 10-12 hours of gameplay, not including that you went off the story’s path to go collecting items and power ups. Upon completion of the game, and without you having to find 100% of the power ups, you can unlock a special “Cinema Mode”, which allows you to watch any cut-scene from the game. You also have the option to watch each scene in the game from start to finish, just like a movie. Watching each scene straight through can take you over a good hour. You also can unlock artwork from the game, which includes hand-drawn sketches by the artists who brought some of the characters, creatures, bosses, and the Bottle Ship’s settings to life.

    Completing the game with every power up, giving you 100%, earns you the chance to play through the game again on “Hard Mode”. By starting a Hard Mode file, you’ll have to play through the game without finding power ups. This means no energy tanks, missile tanks, or axel charges. Nothing to pick up at all. If that weren’t enough, then the enemy AI has gotten smarter too, and will attempt to out-smart your attacks. Don’t worry, they still take the same damage and deal the same damage as well. Be careful how you want to carry out an attack, you might just get out-smarted and pay the price, not to mention have to go through the frustrating process of regaining your energy and ammo.

    Conclusion

    Metroid: Other M was a refreshing brand new experience to the Metroid franchise, one that I would highly recommend to any gamer who appreciates the series. You can interact with series protagonist, Samus Aran in a way like no other, now that she has been given a voice. You can experience Samus’s tragic past, see her time as a soldier of the Galactic Federation, and eventually her progression to the solitary bounty hunter she became. Players new to the series will fit right in since this is essentially the in-depth tale of Samus Aran. New players will also have the chance to experience classic Metroid gameplay on this next-generation title. The interaction between Samus and the platoon of Galactic Federation soldiers, especially Samus’s partnership with Adam, kept me interested in Samus’s back story and wanting to see how the characters progress from their past, to the current events of Other M.

    The game’s story is wonderfully detailed, and challenges you to think at certain times within the plot. The games highly detailed cut-scenes looks superior to any other Wii title do date, and really makes you think what the Wii can really handle in terms of graphical display. I could have been using the Wii’s component cables, but due to my current setup, and wanting the audio cables to reach my receiver for surround sound, I had to rely on composite cables. Still, those scenes looked outstanding. So if you’re using the Wii’s component cables, I’m sure it will look much better for you.

    The game has a solid control scheme, with some areas that need improvement. Switching from third person perspective to first person perspective is quite smooth, and it does not require the use of Wii Motion Plus. The ammo and health recharge issues did set me back every now and then, getting killed during a boss fight when I was trying to recover, but once you get into the swing of the control scheme, those boss fights will be really fun.

    I found myself going off the path many times to locate the hidden power-ups. So when it comes to the Metroid games, I have to locate every single one of them. This game is perfect for you if you’re the kind of player who likes to go exploring for items, and the way you acquire some of these power-ups really teases your brain. It’s a really fun technique to think how you can get to a power-up. A missile tank may look like it’s out of reach, but with the right suit and/or weapon upgrades; it’s a piece of cake.

    So for those who want an engaging and action-packed game on the Wii, and especially for those who are ready to join Samus Aran on a new suspenseful and danger-filled mission, then look no further than Metroid: Other M.

    Score
    8.5/10

  • Review Scale

    Score 10- Flawless Victory: A score not handed out to every game. Games earning this rare score sit at the very pinnacle of excellence. These games act as the examples for which all others should be measured with. They are instant classics from the beginning. These games not only deliver what was expected of it, but also exceed the player’s expectations. The game’s features are innovative and original. No game is without its absolute flaws, but the finished product you bring home surpasses the anticipation the game has formed. A day one buy is a must. The game you hold in your hands with this score is a video game jackpot.

    Score 9 - 9.5- Outstanding: Games earning scores such as these absolutely must be played. Games that achieve this high ranking do so because they define the genres that they are in. Flaws are few and barely noticeable. Features seen in the game have been renovated to provide something new and fresh. The story, gameplay, graphics, and lasting appeal are all fantastic and is reason enough to bring the game home and to enjoy with family and friends. Every penny you spend on the game is so worth it.

    Score 8 - 8.5- Great: Any flaw the game may possess is overshadowed by its fun factor. These games would be great for gamers to play. These great games appeal to gamers more and more outside its normal player base because of what it brings to the table.

    Score 7 - 7.5- Good: Flaws do exist in these games, but the positive features of the game can counterbalance the flaws. Additionally, players who are predisposed to liking a game of a particular series or genre with this score should enjoy the game. These are in no way bad games, and much fun can be had with them. An overall good game is worth taking a look at, whether you are willing to buy the game or rent it first. That or you can also wait for the game to reach a good price.

    Score 6 - 6.5- Decent: Games falling into this category may suffer from numerous flaws (for example, graphics or gameplay), but are still worth playing. Granted, the player should be aware that a game with these scores may not guarantee them full satisfaction.

    Score 5 - 5.5- Average: An average game is one in which a game’s features are neither good nor completely terrible. Instead, the finished product is manageable. Little has been done to hold the player’s interest. If anything, rent this game before you consider buying it so that you can at least get a feel for the game’s overall experience.

    Score 4 - 4.5- Poor: Games falling into this category may only keep gamers entertained for a short while. While the game may seem enjoyable for moments at a time, it can quickly grow old and may never be revisited again. The game’s overall function is lacking in quality and may not hold the player’s attention for long. The game leaves little or nothing else to return back to.

    Score 3 - 3.5- Bad: If any positive qualities about a game in this category exist, it is not enough to redeem the game for its shortcomings. Sure you may find yourself playing it, but for how long? You will wind up not giving the game a second glance.

    Score 2 - 2.5- Horrible: Games such as these may not be totally unplayable, they nearly are. Additionally, they may lack, or greatly suffer in, the fundamental functionality of the software as a whole. The game simply does not come close to meeting industry standards at the time of its release.

    Score 1 - 1.5- Appalling: Gamers should avoid this game at all costs. The game was clearly not ready to make its way to store shelves in its status. Save your money and find something else. See it in the bargain bin? No! Stay away! Keep moving and look for something else.